How does not finding one you hit effect you?

[Bowhunter57]

I had practiced with my recurve bow throughout the summer months, went to several 3D shoots and felt confident in my shooting skills for hunting. As the season started, one day I had a 4 point buck come in, turn broadside at 15 yards and a drew the bow. I settled in on the shot, like so many times during the summer months and released the string. I watched in horror as my arrow struck the buck in the rear hams. As he bolted off, the broadhead had hit his femur and stopped at the skin level. The arrow dropped out after the buck took several strides and he stopped around 55 yards to look back to see what had happened.

I hung up my recurve and sold it a few weeks later. This wounding loss bothered me more than any other animal that I hunt. I didn't want to blow it off with "it happens" or "he'll be fine. it's just a flesh wound"....and I did see him 3 weeks later. He seemed no worse for wear, but just the same I felt very unsettled about the entire incident.

How do you "deal" with something like this, when it happens to you?
How does this make you feel?

Respectfully, Bowhunter57

 

[giles]

I had a season not so long ago that I did this 3 times in a row. I was all sorts of twisted and ready to give up hunting all together. TOO talked me past it all and I learned from it. I take every advantage I can now to make a clean and ethical kill. My equipment is 100% different today. I feel like I owe it to the animal to be my best with the best. Even the one I killed last night bothered me because it wasn't my normal slam dunk double lung.

"Time" I guess would be my final answer to your question.

 

[xbowguy]

Fall off a bicycle, you get back on...
I'm not saying "no big deal" but we are human as well.

 

[dante322]

Depends....

If its a poor shot on my part, I get pretty twisted up. Especially if its a shot I know will eventually kill it. But a couple weeks ago I shot a doe, everything seemed to point to a positive outcome. The reaction to the shot, the location of the entry wound, the great blood trail. I was 100% confident I would find a dead doe at the end of a short trail. 720 yards and 4 hours later, she bolted out of a standing corn field 15 yards in front of us. We couldn't see which way she went, and couldn't find anymore blood before a rain shower set in. That one felt different, I felt that the only mistake I made was shooting a really tough old nanny. The point is, we all have lost deer. It sucks, but you've only really got 2 choices... shake it off and get back out there, or give it up entirely.

 

[Cogz]

Pretty bad, especially when it’s avoidable. This is why I will never hunt with trad gear. I made a big miscalculation this year and hit a good one high. I’m convinced he is dead somewhere which pains be because I know he suffered and he deserved better from me. This has happened to me twice in my hunting career and I’ve wanted to quit hunting both times. Every sit since then this year I’ve had to talk myself into staying. I’m blessed to work from home and hunt at home. Cannot take that for granted, it could change soon on both fronts. Whoever said time is right. And giles is right that you have to learn and not make the same mistake twice, which I think you did the right things selling the recurve, no offense, I’m sure you were proficient. I’m not really over either of them and it has taken some of the happiness out of it for me. I think the next clean kill will do a lot for closure, which is selfish, but that is what happened the first time. But I’m still depressed about the one from October and I find it hard to hunt, especially in warm conditions and bumping deer the way I have this year.

 

[jagermeister]

It never feels good. I always hate it. That being said, I hate it worse when I know it was a result of my own mistake or poor decision making. If it was an outcome beyond my control, I tend to get over it fairly quickly. Still sucks, but you have to get back on the horse and try again. It’s an unfortunate part of deer hunting.

With the choice to hunt with a trad bow comes the choice to deal with a higher probability of failure. It’s the nature of the beast. The only way to mitigate this potential of failure is sheer preparation, to a degree that puts other methods of preparation to shame. And I honestly believe that shooting truly instinctively will yield better results than folks who gap-shoot and/or string walk. The latter is essentially aiming the shot, and opens you up for more failure with the additional thought and action leading to the release. Shooting instinctively, that shot is nothing more than muscle memory and subconscious actions... Less thought, slightly less to go wrong. This could be an entirely different thread in its own right. The bottom line though is that confidence rules all. If you need a shot under 10 yards to be confident, that’s your limit. If it’s 15 or 20 yards, so be it. If wounding and losing a deer is more than you can get over, maybe shooting a stickbow is the wrong approach. Hell, maybe bowhunting in general is the wrong approach. It sucks... no way around it... but we do the best we truly can, with good intentions in our hearts... and if it doesn’t work out, well we still have to find a way to sleep at night. Bourbon helps.

 

[Snyder10]

My first time Bowhunting I wounded a nice buck. It went from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows never finding that deer. You have two options, hang it up and dwell on it, or learn from your mistakes, replay the situation in your head (like you most likely already have done a thousand times) and hunt on. I highly recommend the 2nd choice

 

[hickslawns]

I've had some bad shots. Snag on sleeve. Hit a limb. Lose focus. I've been extremely fortunate. My bad shots ended up in recovered deer or were clean misses. It isn't a joking matter but I jokingly say "I make up for bad shots with amazing recoveries." It really isn't funny because eventually I'm going to not find one. The one that got me was my 44mag kill. It came in super close and as I was pulling the trigger the scope went black from a slight movement. I found the deer the next day but it was chewed up by coyotes. That one had me pretty low. I haven't hunted with the 44mag pistol since.

 

[Wildlife]

It just plain sucks, but I give it my all to try recover the deer as best as I can and then some. If I come up short in the recovery, then so be it. I know that the coyotes will have a good free meal on my behalf to fill their belly and hopefully not chase down an actually living young one for at least a few days. Yes, it makes me sick and it does take time to get over like a bad nightmare that repeats itself for days, weeks and perhaps months, but I know it happens and I will learn from it and then move on. I never thought about quitting the sport of hunting though.

It happened on my best NY buck as a kid and then again last season on a doe. As a kid, it was a 20 gauge slug gun, then last season on a doe in a control hunt with my compound. I still have nightmares about them from time to time to this day, or at least I remember those hunts very vividly still. Hard lessons for sure, but like I said, I learned from them and I know I gave it my all to recover each. In both cases, the deer ended up going someplace that I could not.

Those two incidences I believe has made me a more patient and perhaps, a better hunter.

 

["J"]

You make it up too the previous one but not doing it too the next one.

We’ve ALL been there and handle it differently. You make every effort too retrieve it but in the end it’ll happen and on occasion more then once.
It’s all part of the process of hunting. It’s happens with gun hunting, archery with both vertical wheel bows and horizontal bows. Where the accuracy is much easier too maintain then stick bows. So if you’ve done your due diligence (which I believe you have) you feel bad, grieve for it or how ever you cope with it. Then move on to the next. Or just call it quits and walk away from a passion that you have for the outdoors and enjoying the bounty of your efforts.

 

[bowhunter1023]

I'm glad @jagermeister weighed in because I knew he'd have a great perspective to share.

It's happened to me twice in 20 years of hunting and both taught me valuable lessons. The first was broadhead sharpness. I lost both to a G5 Montec and both were high lung hits. Which was the second lesson and that's reminding myself, and reeducating myself of a deer vitals. I was allowing myself to drift higher on the body, which resulted in less than lethal hits on both. Both bothered me in terms of dealing with failure and also in feeling "bad" for the deer. I work hard to be proficient with my equipment and when I fail, that hurts, but not as bad as it hurts the deer, which I equally hate. But... as old Ted would say, there's always a but and for me that's being willing to get back on the horse and working hard to not make the same mistake again.

 

[Big_Holla]

It only affects me if I believe it is dead. Shoulder shot or grazed I feel bad for the deer but don't really lose sleep over. My droptine buck I knew was going to die based on arrow placement. Not finding him wore me out and I contemplated quitting bowhunting. When he was found by a family member several days later it was a relief but I still had that rotten feeling in my gut on not finding him and utilizing him as intended.

 

[Hortontoter]

I hate not recovering a deer I hit as much as the rest of us do. But, if I feel that I had done my best to be totally prepared. By this I mean, checking my equipment and sighting in correctly, I've done all I can do before getting on stand. If something goes awry and my arrow doesn't hit where I thought it should I know that it wasn't my lack of doing my due diligence before the hunt.

And the next step is trying to recover the animal. Like most, I give it my best attempt, but sometimes the outcome is a lost animal.

I try to figure out what I did wrong, because I know whatever caused a bad hit, was because of something I did wrong. The shooting distance is never a question, because I always wait for very close shots.

The buck I lost in late October I feel was every bit my own fault. Taking the shot in the last few minutes of legal shooting time was my choice. Little did I know that I went to far to the left and shot through a bit of cover I had left in front of my stand on the left side. I did this because most deer come to my position from my left and I wanted a little screening from that side. Yet, this very minor bit of cover deflected my arrow because I shot further to the left than I should have. In good light I would have seen this brush in my scope, but in the near darkness it didn't show in the scope. Lesson learned at the cost of wounded deer. I'm quite confident this buck will live but it still hurts to know I did this.