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Which way did he go??which way did he go??

missed my first archery deer last year also, had a nice doe walking towards me at slight angle, the shot was an easy first pin shot, released the arrow and drilled just behind the shoulder, not a complete pass thru, waited about an hour or so before tracking, started off with an extremely light blood trail, then to spot where i could tell it was a def lung shot to spots where it looked like someone had found her and gutted her. about a half mile thru the woods i found my arrow, and the blood trail thinned out, then came to a stop. we searched a 40yrd radius from the last blood drop and found nothing. next morning i shot at doe but plumb missed cause i used the wrong pin misjudged my distance
 
OMO I know you are newer to bowhunting so I guess the best advice I can give on the subject is....let'em lay. It is going to kill you not to get on the trail. But if you push/bump them then your asking for more trouble.

No matter how good the shot.....give it an hour unless you watch it die. Another thing to get into your head is to pay attention to where you see the deer take off after the shot.

I am surprised about how many hunters I have a taken out that can't recall where the deer was when shot. Adrenalin screws with you...ask any detective.

Beentown
 
havent lost one yet. but then again I've only shot 2.
I get a sick feeling when i think about it. All I can do is keep practicing and hope my shot placement is good and they go down quickly. I keep in the back of my mind that chances are it is going to happen sooner or later.

I did shoot a squirrel once and saw it fall from the tree but when i walked over it was gone.
 
To carry on what Beentown mentioned above, and with the assumption that you're about to track a deer that you did not see drop.... never, ever, ever take up a blood trail without your bow (or gun) in hand. Even after giving a deer time, sometimes they don't die as quickly as the tv shows would like us to beleive.

A few years back one of the guys at deer camp shot a really nice buck. We all returned to camp, listened to the story, ate dinner, then headed out to get the buck out of the woods. With lanterns & flash lights in hand about 5 of us were on the blood trail. Tracking was no problem, we had good blood to follow, and came upon the deer within short order. Only problem was that the deer picked his head up and looked directly at us.... OK, get over here and put another arrow in him... "Oh crap, my bow is back in the truck!" says the guy. He and another turn to walk back and get his bow while the rest of us move back and wait. Well, the deer had one last burst in him, and in an instant he gathered his legs up and bolted. We backed out of the woods after that, and waited till morning to go back and pick up the search. Later that morning the deer was finally recovered, but we all made it a lot harder than it should've been by not taking a bow in with us.

Another time, I got a call from a buddy to come help him drag out a big doe. He felt that he put a good shot on her, and heard her crach down in the bottom behind his stand. I finished dinner, grabbed my light, and headed out the door. About 30 minutes later I was at the farm where he was hunting, and we drove back through the field to the woods. We were just about to head into the woods, and I reminded him to grab his bow, thinking back to the time at camp a few seasons earlier. We had good blood again, and tracking wasn't too tough. Then all of the sudden, I shined my light in the direction that the blood trail was heading, only to see a bedded deer pick her head up and look back at us. We backed out and let her lay, knowing she was hit hard but just needed more time. We came back the next morning after giving her overnight, and recovered her in the same spot.
 
Jackalope said:
Huh... Call me a fool. Lol. I missed this one by a mile.... TOO never ceases to amaze me. Maybe its because people don't have to worry about some ass ripping them over some bs.... First time for everything I guess.
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That makes the biggest difference right there. TOO stands out from other sites for many reasons. The fact we can talk to like minded individuals and tell stories you won't find on other sites because they are taboo and teach others from our mistakes without ridicule is a huge bonus to the members of TOO. The way TOO makes people feel more comfortable it opens people up for discussion (myself included) when they know they won't be jumped all over for something is HUGE. With my story it is more of a DON'T do that and a learning tool and if it stops just one person from making the same mistake, then it makes it all worth while to me. I know I learned from it lol.
 
Jackalope said:
Huh... Call me a fool. Lol. I missed this one by a mile.... TOO never ceases to amaze me. Maybe its because people don't have to worry about some ass ripping them over some bs.... First time for everything I guess.
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Joe i like ya bud..But your eating a bit of crow on this one(jk).:smiley_blackeye:.After your initial responses I honesty figured it was a dead in the water thread..


I want to thank everyone for participating.An for all the info an advice..
My 1st year I thought i could walk around the woods with a bow in my hand an kill deer:smiley_crocodile:..Well I wasnt to good at that:smiley_confused_vra...So the next year I i got a bit more patient..It was late oct or early Nov an I had nailed down the pattern a few does was using in the evening.How i found the trail was funny i was sitting in a 2man ladder..An they came out 65yrds behind me:smiley_blackeye:..So i decided to make a brush blind along the trail.Almost got a shot at a fox TOO.So here come the doe's well they DONT come in front of me where i anticipated..They swing to my right n stop behind a couple tree's.Which lets me draw without getting busted..Im at full draw 10yrd chip shot an the lead doe(bign)steps clear of the tree..Not anticipating the deer taking this route..There was multiple saplings that i knew i could thread the arrow through..But once at full draw an low light..I could not tell where the sapling was an was not through my peep...So that was a bust..I decided i needed to set up for a shot with more daylight an less obstructions..I find a spot that is 30yrds away clear shot an perfect for my ground blind.I decide it in an hunt it a few weeks later...The day i hunt it..It plays out just like it did in my head..WELL ALMOST!!A does steps out of the thick stuff an slowly my mind turns to mush..She looks up at the blind an freeze then she put here mouth back to the ground..I draw back..She looks up 1/2draw an i freeze..Back down here mouth goes..I come to full draw an rush the shot..I used my 20pin on a 30yrd shot with a 375grain arrow flying 234fps gave me just over 8inches of drop between 20 an 30..I most likely hammer the trigger home as well.She did a 180 an headed for the thick stuff..Which isnt a very large patch or briar an locust trees etc..I waited 10 or 15min..But i didnt want to have to look for my arrow in the dark..Well once i get to the arrow..I hear her take off again FUGG..At the sight of impact there is a bunch of white hair an i have blood on the arrow..I decide to back out for a hour or so an comeback an start over..Looking at my arrow..I notice only 2 of the vanes an about 2/3 of the arrow diameter wise has blood..Im pissed at this point..I waited about an hour an 1/2 an headed back out..There was some blood at the spot where i found the arrow..But within but it got light fast an after 20ft or so..There was nothing..I started a grid search..I grid searched a couple acres twice an did not find another spot of blood..After examining the arrow more..I come to the hopeful conclusion that i grazed here ..It bothered me for months afterwards.For one i fugged up my 1st ever GOOD shot at a deer..Sorry for the long winded post
 
Sounds to me also that you just grazed her, OMO. Be thankful for that. I know it sucks, but when you can't find one that you KNOW is dead or dying it's an entirely different feeling. It sucks bad... deep down in the pit of your stomach.

Like Beener said, the biggest mistake that inexperienced hunters make is to not replay the shot in their heads. Too many times I hear of guys rushing to get out of the tree to look for blood, to look for their arrow... But in the adrenaline-induced fog, they completely forget which way the deer ran... which tree it ran past... what it was doing after the shot. If you shoot at a deer and even if you know you make the perfect shot, the best thing you can do is just sit their and replay the shot over and over and over in your head. Burn that event into your memory. This does a couple things... It helps you pass the time as you're waiting for the deer to expire, and it also ensures that once you get on the ground, you know EXACTLY what you're looking for and where to look for it.
 
First time in 14 years last season and it happened twice in three days. Talk about getting your confidence deflated real quick like. :smiley_depressive:
 
I will confess to my mistake so no one else ever makes it. I lost the first nine, yes I said nine, deer that I hit with my crossbow. Anyone on this forum that knows me will know that I am very ethical and do my best to do things right. But, my start to this archery game was a very trying process. I actually sat in front of my wife on a November night with tears in my eyes over the frustration of losing a deer I had hit that evening. I had just about decided to give up hunting with my crossbow that evening. The only reason I started hunting with a crossbow was because my dad, 77 years old at that time, asked if I would deer hunt with him if he bought a crossbow. How could I say no.

I picked up a used Horton SuperMag, the one I still use today. Bought a Horton EZ Winder to cock the crossbow with and a half dozen aluminum arrows and some 125 grain Thunderheads. I had to have the EZ Winder due to the fact that I can't use my right arm due to having polio as a kid. So to the backyard I go with my SuperMag to sight it in. I had a 3-9 Bushnell Banner scope on it for sights. It took a few shots to get her zeroed in with field tips. I then switched to the Thunderheads and a whole new ball came. I learned real fast that broadheads don't fly like field tips. Also not every arrow hits the same place either. So I numbered my vanes and learned to shoot only the arrow that I sighted in with. By the end of the day I had the SuperMag sighted in with my #1 arrow and could easily stay in a 2" circle every shot at 20 yards. I felt very confident that I could kill a deer.

Fast forward a couple of weeks to opening day of deer season. My dad had aquired a great farm to hunt on and he also had land of his own that had a few deer on it. We decided to hunt the new farm. I had picked a spot that looked promising and had a big tree that had fallen that I could both hide behind of and use as a shooting rest. Low and behold about a half hour before quitting time that evening two does stepped out into the field I was watching. They were about fifty yards to my right. They were working right towards me. Before long they were right in front of me at around 18 yards. I took careful aim and took the shot. I knew I had hit the deer. The rush was unbelievable and the reality that followed was terrible. We trailed that deer for a ways with a speck of blood here and there but never found her.

Now fast forward to the next season. I had lost seven deer the last season and had yet to recover a deer I had hit. I had shot untold numbers of arrows that summer, changed to a different broadhead and felt this was going to be a season that would be much different. Well, things started out just as bad as the year before. I lost a doe the first week of the season. I just couldn't understand what was going wrong. I knew I was shooting well and always took shots at 20 yards or less. I only shot at deer that were broadside and not moving. On Halloween evening I was sitting in a spot I had picked from a Google Earth map at Ohio Power in Noble County. I was there hunting with my stepson. We had decided to hunt this spot after a little looking at the area that morning. We pulled off the road that afternoon and gathered our gear, he cocked my crossbow and we headed for our stands. In the last five minutes of shooting time I catch antlers in the skyline heading down a logging trail that leads right in front of me. The buck is in front of me at about 9 yards in less than 30 seconds. He gives me a perfect shot I aim a little low, which I knew I had to at that range, and let the arrow fly. It sounded like a .22 shot when the arrow hit that buck. I could see that the arrow had hit right where the bucks front leg met its body. I knew instantly that this beautiful animal was not going to be recovered and would be wounded for life.

We came back the next morning to try our best to find this deer. I did manage to find my arrow about 100 yards from the hit. The boadhead and insert were gone and still imbedded in that buck. I was just sick and had made up my mind that I was done. Never again would I wound another deer with my crossbow. We headed back to camp and my stepson said maybe I should shoot at a target. I argued the point and told him that I knew the scope was dead on at twenty yards. Just to satisfy his curiosity we set up a target. I got a good steady rest and took a shot. Exactly 8" to the right and 5" low of my point of aim. I couldn't believe my eyes. We got the arrow and took the second shot. Right in the exact same hole. How could my scope be off that far, when I had shot it a couple days ago in my backyard and it was perfect. My stepson says to me the words that changed my entire crossbow hunting carreer. "I wonder if you use your EZ Winder to cock your crossbow it will make any difference"? I took my winder out of my pack and cocked the bow and took a shot. Dead center in the bullseye. I took a second shot, again dead center. Unbelieveable that my problem all along stemmed from me using my EZ Winder for target practice at home and every time I hunted some one always cocked my bow for me instead of me using the EZ Winder. My dad, brother, brother in law, stepson and nephew had all cocked my bow at one time or another when I hunted. It was clear instantly what my problem was. Every time some one cocked my bow for me it hit in a different place than when I used my winder at home in the backyard.

No one has cocked my bow for me since that day at Ohio Power. And, the greatest part is that I never lost a single deer in six seasons since I discovered what my problem was. It still haunts me that I wounded those nine deer and don't like to admit it. But, I hope, writing this helps one person to learn from my mistakes.
 
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Curran said:
To carry on what Beentown mentioned above, and with the assumption that you're about to track a deer that you did not see drop.... never, ever, ever take up a blood trail without your bow (or gun) in hand. Even after giving a deer time, sometimes they don't die as quickly as the tv shows would like us to beleive.

A few years back one of the guys at deer camp shot a really nice buck. We all returned to camp, listened to the story, ate dinner, then headed out to get the buck out of the woods. With lanterns & flash lights in hand about 5 of us were on the blood trail. Tracking was no problem, we had good blood to follow, and came upon the deer within short order. Only problem was that the deer picked his head up and looked directly at us.... OK, get over here and put another arrow in him... "Oh crap, my bow is back in the truck!" says the guy. He and another turn to walk back and get his bow while the rest of us move back and wait. Well, the deer had one last burst in him, and in an instant he gathered his legs up and bolted. We backed out of the woods after that, and waited till morning to go back and pick up the search. Later that morning the deer was finally recovered, but we all made it a lot harder than it should've been by not taking a bow in with us.

Another time, I got a call from a buddy to come help him drag out a big doe. He felt that he put a good shot on her, and heard her crach down in the bottom behind his stand. I finished dinner, grabbed my light, and headed out the door. About 30 minutes later I was at the farm where he was hunting, and we drove back through the field to the woods. We were just about to head into the woods, and I reminded him to grab his bow, thinking back to the time at camp a few seasons earlier. We had good blood again, and tracking wasn't too tough. Then all of the sudden, I shined my light in the direction that the blood trail was heading, only to see a bedded deer pick her head up and look back at us. We backed out and let her lay, knowing she was hit hard but just needed more time. We came back the next morning after giving her overnight, and recovered her in the same spot.
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Sean, I could be wrong, but I'm not sure what you are suggesting is legal. Even if you are tracking a wounded animal, I don't believe you can have a hunting instument in hand after legal shooting time.
 
After hunting with a bow and arrow for 20 years and in 4 different states, I have had a few mishaps occur. Most of them were early on in my career. The biggest problem that I have had to learn to overcome and control is following through on the shot....By this I mean not taking my eye off the pin until after the shot is released. I occasionally had a bad habit of releasing the bowstring and "peeking" to see where the arrow was going to hit......this lead to a few poorly hit deer.....and that was when I was shooting fingers before the use of a release. The release has been the single biggest factor in improving accuracy and killing deer.

Also, never underestimate how quick an alert buck can dodge and arrow.... I hit a few deer too high as a result of shooting at a deer that was wired up and not completely calm....even though the shot might have been otherwise a good one, the buck dropped and the arrow hit high as a result. If shooting at a very alert animal, make sure you aim a little lower than you normally would to compensate.
 
Schu72 said:
Sean, I could be wrong, but I'm not sure what you are suggesting is legal. Even if you are tracking a wounded animal, I don't believe you can have a hunting instument in hand after legal shooting time.
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So is cutting their throat to finish them off. Even during legal hours it's technically it's an illegal hunting implement... Lets not argue semantics to the point of irrelevancy. On one hand there's what the book says, and on the other, the way things get done considering the circumstance.. The two sometimes overlap.. While it's a technicality, I think it's more of a grey area. Technically you could be ticketed. To be safe you could wait until daylight and let the meat spoil or the yotes get it... Which is a bigger sin?
 
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Jackalope said:
So is cutting their throat to finish them off. Even during legal hours it's technically it's an illegal hunting implement... Lets not argue semantics to the point of irrelevancy. On one hand there's what the book says, and on the other, the way things get done considering the circumstance.. The two sometimes overlap.. While it's a technicality, I think it's more of a grey area. Technically you could be ticketed. To be safe you could wait until daylight and let the meat spoil or the yotes get it... Which is a bigger sin?
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I've done many things in the past that I wouldn't necessarily do at this stage of the game.

Sometimes doing the ethical thing isn't the legal thing, but you have to know your situation and be prepared to accept the consequences. Whether we are talking about carrying a gun in the dark while tracking a wounded deer or crossing onto property you don't have permission to be on to recover the deer. We all face tough decisions in the field.

Sorry for the hijack...
 
Schu72 said:
Sean, I could be wrong, but I'm not sure what you are suggesting is legal. Even if you are tracking a wounded animal, I don't believe you can have a hunting instument in hand after legal shooting time.
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I dont think you worded that correctly...The way you worded it implies if i am in my stand or in the woods with my bow or gun before or after legal shooting times..I am breaking the law...I aint am I???
 
ohio mossy oak said:
I dont think you worded that correctly...The way you worded it implies if i am in my stand or in the woods with my bow or gun before or after legal shooting times..I am breaking the law...I aint am I???
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I'm not exactly sure how it would be interpreted, but what would be the point of tracking a deer in the dark with a gun/bow if you weren't going to use it?

In the circumstance where you are in you treestand before dark... who knows? I generally do not walk into the woods in the morning with a loaded gun or nocked arrow, but I do get loaded once I'm in my tree, eventhough it is before legal shooting. I just know that I can't shoot until its legal. In the early season that's not even a temptation due to the tree canopies still being intact. I usually can't see until after leagal shooting time anyway. On the way out from an evening sit, my weaon is always unloaded. I sit until legal shooting is over so there is no point in being loaded on the way out.

Please note ....I said I'm not sure and I could be wrong in the post. :smiley_blackeye:
 
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