"I took my time and put the arrow right behind the front shoulder," Heine said. "I'm glad it happened as fast as it did because I would've probably been too nervous to shoot if the buck came walking up to me."Heine displays the multiple-tined buck's impressive rack.
He knew right away it was a good shot from where the arrow hit the animal.
"I watched it run for about 75 yards and he took one huge leap into the cattails," Heine said.
He found his arrow about 10 yards from where he hit the buck and, because there was a minimal amount of blood on the ground, decided to wait until morning to pursue the animal.
I'd question the decision to wait till morning over what appears to be a kill shot, and temperatures weren't favorable, but the meat isn't necessariy useless, particularly if his wait till morning judgement was correct.
Then, at 6:45 a.m. the next day, Heine found the dead buck lying about five yards into the cattails.
Chances are very good that this buck took his leap in to the cattails laid down and died with in a few minutes.
That means that the buck was in full rigor mortis by 9 PM that night and by the time he found the buck I the morning the buck had exited rigor mortis (as can be seen from the pictures as the young man holds up the buck’s head)
The meat is spoiled. I wouldn’t eat it.