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anyone wounded a deer?

hsracer201hsracer201 Member Posts: 966 ✭✭✭✭
edited October 2005 in Bow Hunting and Target Archery
its not a subject that most hunters like talking about, but have you ever wounded a deer and not found it? if so, how often has it happened to you?

***____________________________________________
39 and counting.... deer that is.......***
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Comments

  • fishermanbenfishermanben Member Posts: 15,370
    edited November -1
    Two times.

    One was a doe that I hit through the brisket. It bothered me a little, but I'm sure that she was okay.

    The other was a small buck. I hit him square in the front sholder, and left about 4 inches of arrow in him. It's been 3 or 4 years, and it still bothers me.[V][:(]

    Ben

    00tinybuck.gif
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  • Slash0311Slash0311 Member Posts: 1,676 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Last year. I hit a good buck (biggest that I had ever shot an arrow at) and hit too far back. Couldn't find it and it's haunted me ever since. That's part of the reason that I wouldn't chance hunting this weekend if I'm not hitting as well as I should be.

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    When in doubt, unload the clip, Semper Fi
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  • bang250bang250 Member Posts: 8,021
    edited November -1
    yes, once never found her. my clear shooting lane was not as clear as I thought, tipped a limb put it straight in her neck, very little blood to follow and eventually stopped. [:(][V][xx(]



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  • buckeyboybuckeyboy Member Posts: 5,833
    edited November -1
    More than I would like to admit when I was getting started[:(] havent lost one in some years now.[^] I learned to be more patitent and let the deer expire if the shot is iffy. if you jump a wounded deer kiss him or her goodbye.
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  • shoff14shoff14 Member Posts: 11,994 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    yes once, when I was 14, first day I ever went bow hunting, 30 minutes into hunting. 15 yard shot, I guess I shot to low but it hit right behind the shoulder but to low. We tracked the deer for a long while, good blood trail. Went to FFA meeting, came back tracked it till 10:30 that night, still had good blood, somewhat. I shot it at about 4:30. Finally it went across a plowed field, bean field, and then across the road into a corn field. My dad went out the next morning while I was at school and looked in the cornfield, but never found it. It was the biggest 6 pointer I had seen at that time. Needless to say, 6 years later I still don't have a deer, due to not getting close enough, only wanting a buck, and not hunting much the last two years.

    The amazement and happiness of shooting my first deer and then not finding it killed me. [V] I drove a tractor to were I was hunting at the time, I ran, full sprint all the way back to it, about half mile away, bow in hand of course.
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  • fishermanbenfishermanben Member Posts: 15,370
    edited November -1
    The thing is, no matter how much you practice, Sh** Happens!!! Invisible limbs have deflected my arrows in the wildest directions, completely missing the deer. I learned on one of my bad shots, that trying to shoot behind you can cause string slap on your arm that will make your arrow fly wildly. Shooting straight down? Watch where that cam is so it doesn't hit the rail on your climber!!!

    Oh, I just remembered one more. I grazed a buck that was quartering away from me. I left a cut down his left side about 15-20 inches long. He's marked for life. I'm sure he wasn't hurt bad, but boy, I did leave a mark on him.

    Ben

    00tinybuck.gif
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  • hsracer201hsracer201 Member Posts: 966 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    interesting replies. unfortunately i have wounded a few myself. actually, it seems like i wound one every year. it seems like it is always the little things that get you. the little twig in the way you didn't see, the bow string clips your sleeve a little bit, i've even had the bow limbs smack my treestand and throw the arrow off.

    do most of you believe the deer you couldn't find were just not hurt enough to die, or they died and you just couldn't find them?

    EDIT: i wrote all that while ben was writing and we almost said the same exact things. wierd.

    ***____________________________________________
    39 and counting.... deer that is.......***
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  • buckeyboybuckeyboy Member Posts: 5,833
    edited November -1
    Gut shot will always die.[xx(] Just let the deer go overnight[;)] a shot can even be a pass through if you dont hit any vitals there is a good chance the deer will live if it dosent get infected.[;)]
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  • Islander1989Islander1989 Member Posts: 183 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I've wounded one myslef. I hit low in the brisket. No blood or anything to track and it just looked like fat on my arrow. I'm pretty sure it lived, but I still spent ~4 hours looking for her by just doing expanding grids in the direction she ran. I think I just misjudged my distance on the shot. Not a pleasant feeling to think about. That is why I practice so much now.
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  • FANNINFANNIN Member Posts: 177 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Unfortunately, I shot a Cow Elk this August and hit it a little back. I got the liver but those things are so tough, we let it go over night and tracked it for a little over a 1/4 mile before we lost the blood trail....makes me sick. I took too long of a shot (Just got excited) Very sickining.
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  • headzilla97headzilla97 Member Posts: 6,445
    edited November -1
    I have had 2 bad shots with my bow but luck would have it that that expired the deer. one shot went high and i spine shot a doe missed the spine somehow but got her lungs after the autopsy i still dont understand how this deer didnt run forever but she ran 40 yards and piled up. the other was a gut shot and it ran 50 yards bedded down in front of me. I watched it for 20 minutes before it fell over. the thing had the nerve to die on a steep hill and roll to the bottom not a fun drag out. but it was cool because it was dark during a lunar eclipse and the moon was just gettinf full when i pulled out of the woods

    Messenger Boy: The Thesselonian you're fighting... he's the biggest man i've ever seen. I wouldn't want to fight him.
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  • hsracer201hsracer201 Member Posts: 966 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    well since i started this i will throw in my unwilling contributions. the first mature buck i ever got a chance to shoot at was a real nice 8 pointer. i shot a little bit too far forward and nailed him in the shoulder. i found all of my arrow except for about an inch of it, and the broadhead. ever since that day i have had a mental block about shooting them too far forward. now i have a tendency to shoot too far back in order to avoid the shoulder. in 03 i shot an 11 pointer that was HUGE. my arrow found the direct center of his body both side to side and top to bottom. he kicked and ran off. i gave him 2 hours before we started tracking and we tracked him almost a mile before we lost blood. i spent almost a month looking for him. i never found anything. no skeleton, no sheds, no nothing. that memory haunts me to this day. honest, i doubt there is a day that goes by that i dont' think of that deer. i almost gave up bowhunting because of it. i guess i have come to realize that part of bowhunting is losing deer. no matter how hard you try you can't be perfect all the time. and seeing that this happens to other people makes me feel just a little bit better because i guess i'm not the only one.

    ***____________________________________________
    39 and counting.... deer that is.......***
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  • Wild OkieWild Okie Member Posts: 1,280 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Once.I look for on three days solid.It was cold,below freezing.I found a torn up hide in the area about three weeks later,about three to four hundred yards from where I shot it.I don't know if it was mine. I onse track one for over eight hundred yards.I don' like to lose them.Most of them have gone less than a hundred yards.I have had several drop within feet of where I shot them.

    MLMorgan
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  • mussmuss Member Posts: 1,311 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I shot a big doe a few years ago with a broadhead sticking out the front of its head. The broad head was stuck just above the eye and the aluminum arrow was broken off about two or three inches outside the skin. Someone had shot it in bow season and it lived. I killed it in gun season. Unfortunately, it had alot of gangreen (sp) and half its head was green. I did not eat that dear.

    It is better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6.
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