If you hunt long enough, you’ll eventually make a bad shot on a deer.  It’s just a part of hunting that everyone goes through.  From rifles and bows, to primitive weapons and shotguns, they all are subject to “user error”, but it’s what you do after the shot, that can make all the difference in the world when trying to find your deer.  Jordan Morris of Rayville, La was raised never to give up on a wounded animal and on October 1, 2010, that persistence led him to a 170″ double main beamed Louisiana hoss.

“I’ve been getting pictures of this deer for a few years, but didn’t really want to take him until his horns got right.  Well, last year we didn’t get a picture of him at all and I started to get a little nervous.  We named him “Double B” because he has a double main beam on his left side, and I was very relieved to see Double B back again this year,” laughed Morris.

Jordan is a recent inductee into fascinating, yet sometimes frustrating, world of bowhunting.  Haven taken three does last season with his bow, Jordan set his sights on Double B for the 2010 season, but on the first day he just wanted to get a deer.  “I had seen a few does coming out into a field we have in the same spot just about every day, so five days before opening day I went in and hung a hang on stand in that area.  I’d never hunted that spot before, but I just felt like it was my best shot at a deer for the first day,” explained Morris.

This picture of Double B gave Jordan Morris hope that he'd finally meet this monster.

After easing into his new spot, he settled in, and was ready for a long opening morning hunt, but he wouldn’t have to wait long at all for the deer to start moving.  “It had just gotten light enough to see and here he comes right on in with some more deer.  Honestly, this deer had no business being there.  Of all the spots I have pictures of him, this area wasn’t one of them, so you can imagine my shock of Double B being the first deer I drew down on for this year,” Morris said.  As Double B came in, Morris readied for a shot, but the massive deer got by him before he got into position.  As fast as he left, Double B returned and this time, gave Morris the 15 yard shot he was looking for.  He slowly drew his PSE Scorpion and concentrated on the spot that he wanted his 100 grain Thunderhead to penetrate.  “As soon as I let it go, I knew it wasn’t good.  I just had that feeing,” Morris said.  He watched as the arrow went into the deer, and his heart sank.  As the deer ran off, Jordan immediately started planning in order to make a recovery more effective.  ”I waited for a little while, then I got down and found a little blood and I thought ‘OK, so he’s hit good enough to bleed pretty quick, that’s a good sign’, so I went to my truck and waited for my brothers,” explained Morris.  After Jordan told the group about what happened, they decided to give the deer 2 ½ hours before resuming the search.  Soon Jordan, his brothers Logan, Clayton, and Brennan, along with family friend John got back on the trail.  “We were finding blood, but it started to be dried and hard to follow.  We broke for lunch and after that we called in some friends who had deer dogs to help us look,” said Morris.  The dry Louisiana ground, combined with an abundance of deer sign didn’t help the hounds any and they never got on the trail of the double main beam buck.  Jordan’s younger brother Brennan started to question whether his brother had even shot the buck that he said he did and after a while, Jordan had doubts himself.  “He kept on and on so much about it, heck I was even starting to wonder if I had shot the right buck,” laughed Morris.   After the hounds left, the search party decided to go back to square one and start fresh.  They soon found something they failed to notice before.  “We found where after a while, the deer made a circle back towards the stand.  We didn’t see that before.  It was at this point that Logan decided to go look in the river,” explained Morris.  Soon, Logan was calling out that he had found the deer hung in a brush top in the Beouf River.  “When I walked up, all I could see was my arrow sticking up out of the water.  I immediately started to strip down, right there on the river bank.  I wanted my deer!” laughed Morris.  “I got to him, and he was hung up in a tree top under the water.  I fished around and finally got his rack free from the debris.  I eased his head up to where only I could see.  It was him!  It was Double B!  Man, I was pumped!”

Morris shows why persistence pays off when searching for a wounded deer.

The bucks rack was an impressive one with a double main beam and 14 official points; six on the right side, five on the inside beam on the left side, and three on the outside beam, also on the left side.  The score given to him was an impressive 170 6/8″.

Poor shot placement goes along with the territory when hunting, and a lot of the time the animal will make a full recovery, but we as hunters owe that animal the respect of exhausting ourselves to make sure that a full recovery will be made if possible.  BayouBucks.com sends out a big congratulations to Jordan Morris, and hopefully his story will inspire other hunters not to give up on their wounded game.