Any guesses where this deer was hit?

[Texas Grown]

Not meaning to shoot a deer in the ham doesn't excuse a hunter from his/her duty to make a clean, ethical, humane kill and to not let the harvest go to waste.

I'll be the first to admit making a bad shot. I hung up my bow for the remainder of the season that year. I pondered why I should even continue bowhunting if wounding a deer was more likely to happen with archery equipment versus a rifle. A "good" bowhunter can/will lose a deer/make a bad shot. Even a responsible, mediocre gun hunter can hit the shoulder of a deer with a decent rest inside of 100 yards and go a lifetime without losing a deer taking that shot.

I keep my shots 20 yards and in. Won't shoot an alert deer or one staring at my setup. Broadside to slightly quartering away only. Broadhead tuned bow. Fixed blades only. Haven't lost a deer since implementing these rules for myself.

Maybe all children under the age of 18 should not hunt then. Because they are more likely to wound even with a gun? And some folks can shoot a bow better than a rifle, or a handgun. Especially children.

Please, chill out. We are human. Humans make mistakes. And sometimes it's beyond our control. Most folks do try to limit the possibility and probability of a bad hit to a minimum. Maybe that year you sat out after your wounding/lost shot, you spent to much time beating your self up over it. Looks like it did you some good as far as your caution to taking a shot now. But doesn't mean everybody has to go through what you did. Or should quit if they have a bad shot happen. Or take up the rules you set upon your self. People most often learn through their mistakes just like you did. I would highly suggest you reevaluate your self. And what your saying about others who this happens to. And what happens to them. Or what they do. Just like you loosing your deer, when it happens to others, most take more caution from then on.

Want to make friends with folks here? Be a people person. Learn how to help others. Not persecute them. Or hold "them" to "your" standards. The life given to each of us, is different for each of us. There's a lot of good folks here. Hope you can be one of them.

Sorry for the side track Courtney. Carry on please.

[BrokenJ]

Congrats on the track! Rowdys on fire

[gonehuntin68]

It just seems that these types of threads are too common. someone needing a tracking dog or a thread about a deer "ducking the string", someone taking an unethical shot, but it being okay because the deer had a huge set of antlers, etc.

So I guess my question is why do we do it? If it's just about getting close to the animal, why don't we settle for open sight magnum pistol calibers?

Glad the deer was recovered, but don't we owe it to the animals to make a better shot?

Yeah, I'm anti needless suffering of animals. When someone makes a bad shot, maybe we should, as bowhunters, beat ourselves up over it a little bit and not just say "oh well" or "better luck next time", or "get back out there and try again" without first reflecting a great deal on why the bad shot was made, whether we should continue to bowhunt, and how we can make sure that it doesn't happen again. Is the method of kill something to be proud of if it wasn't done ethically? If the meat wasn't harvested by the hunter?

Not meaning to shoot a deer in the ham doesn't excuse a hunter from his/her duty to make a clean, ethical, humane kill and to not let the harvest go to waste.

I'll be the first to admit making a bad shot. I hung up my bow for the remainder of the season that year. I pondered why I should even continue bowhunting if wounding a deer was more likely to happen with archery equipment versus a rifle. A "good" bowhunter can/will lose a deer/make a bad shot. Even a responsible, mediocre gun hunter can hit the shoulder of a deer with a decent rest inside of 100 yards and go a lifetime without losing a deer taking that shot.

I keep my shots 20 yards and in. Won't shoot an alert deer or one staring at my setup. Broadside to slightly quartering away only. Broadhead tuned bow. Fixed blades only. Haven't lost a deer since implementing these rules for myself. If you get so antsy/buck fever/whatever that you can't hold steady enough to make a good shot, don't take the shot. Nothing about bow hunting should be rushed.

Man that's going to be a long fall off that extremely high horse your riding.

Great thread other then TxHuntFish posts. I'm amazed that deer went that far with that artery hit. I've hit a couple animals there and seen a few more hit there and none made it over 250 yards with a blood trail anyone could follow. I would have to assume that the artery some how clogged up and that's why the blood ended and the deer was able to make it so far.

[cphillips]

Great recovery, we hit a deer earlier in the year in the same spot. Was definitely not on purpose but stuff happens. We were lucky enough to recover ours as well.

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

[solocam_aggie]

Educational. I learned a little about tracking, and learned that a perfect world does exist for some hunters. Interesting

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

[careybirdwell]

In he woods, looks like a hill country deer

[AntlerCollector]

Congrats on the long tracking job. Did you get any story as to why it was a bad shot? Most of us have made a bad shot before or had a deer jump the string. I was just curious if you knew what happened in this case.

[Deer Tracks]

Congrats on the long tracking job. Did you get any story as to why it was a bad shot? Most of us have made a bad shot before or had a deer jump the string. I was just curious if you knew what happened in this case.

It just happens! Deer might have spun at the shot. Arrow could have clipped the pop up blind. Maybe the deer was walking when he shot it. Maybe he torqued the bow.

This morning we trailed up a big old buck shot by a kid in almost the same spot. Maybe he didn't have a solid rifle rest or maybe just a bad case of buck fever. I don't know and I don't judge.

We trail more deer for gun hunters than bow hunters and we get calls to trail deer for everyone from very young kids to very seasoned hunters.

[Crazy Horse]

Not meaning to shoot a deer in the ham doesn't excuse a hunter from his/her duty to make a clean, ethical, humane kill and to not let the harvest go to waste.

I'll be the first to admit making a bad shot. I hung up my bow for the remainder of the season that year. I pondered why I should even continue bowhunting if wounding a deer was more likely to happen with archery equipment versus a rifle. A "good" bowhunter can/will lose a deer/make a bad shot. Even a responsible, mediocre gun hunter can hit the shoulder of a deer with a decent rest inside of 100 yards and go a lifetime without losing a deer taking that shot.

I keep my shots 20 yards and in. Won't shoot an alert deer or one staring at my setup. Broadside to slightly quartering away only. Broadhead tuned bow. Fixed blades only. Haven't lost a deer since implementing these rules for myself. If you get so antsy/buck fever/whatever that you can't hold steady enough to make a good shot, don't take the shot. Nothing about bow hunting should be rushed.

The day I stop getting ansty/buck fever/whatever is the day I stop hunting.

The day I get this high on my horse about hunting, will someone please knock me off said horse? Thank you in advance.

[Pedernal]

Quote:
Great job tracking the buck down. I am curious as to how much if any blood was the buck leaving??

Massive blood trail the first 100 yards. Pretty much a continuous line of stuff like the picture shows.
The deer was jumped as they attempted to trail him and there was no more sign after that. I never saw another drop of blood after he left his first bed.


^^^Thanks for the response. What do the tracking dogs key in on and follow once the blood trail expires? Do they associate the actual deer trail to the blood and follow that or are they possibly trailing/tracking blood that might just not be visible to people??

[TXBuck74]

Thanks for posting OP - very interesting read on blood found etc.

[Deer Tracks]

Quote:
Great job tracking the buck down. I am curious as to how much if any blood was the buck leaving??

Massive blood trail the first 100 yards. Pretty much a continuous line of stuff like the picture shows.
The deer was jumped as they attempted to trail him and there was no more sign after that. I never saw another drop of blood after he left his first bed.


^^^Thanks for the response. What do the tracking dogs key in on and follow once the blood trail expires? Do they associate the actual deer trail to the blood and follow that or are they possibly trailing/tracking blood that might just not be visible to people??

I think mostly they are scenting blood that we can't see. A good dog can find a drop of blood in the dirt very easily. Also, a deer with a brisket or leg wound or a deer that has bedded down usually has blood on one or more legs. Every step he takes through brush and tall grass is transferring that odor to the vegetation and ground, even if he's not leaving a visible blood trail behind him.

Airborne scent, which consists of body odor and blood is pretty easy to detect by the dog when it's fresh...but dissipates quickly...within a couple hours... unless conditions are favorable for keeping it fresh longer.

After airborne odor is gone, all that's left is the track scent...the interdigital gland odor and blood that touched the ground or surrounding vegetation. Interdigital odor alone isn't very reliable because you have other deer crossing the trail so the dog is really having to discriminate between the track of a wounded deer and a healthy one. That's why it's important that there's enough of a wound the dog can smell it.

Yesterday we trailed one up going off of what the hunter described as a "swath of white hair" that was left under the feeder. We never found a drop of blood. To make it worse, a good steady rain moved in before I got there. It rained enough to wash away the buck's wheel marks. I just walked Rowdy in the direction they last saw the buck running. It took her awhile to line him out but she picked up his trail in the tall grass, went straight to him and bayed him. I guess once he got to the safety of the brush he slowed to a walk and left enough odor for her to follow. He was shot low in the gut and it exited through the ham on the opposite side. We've also trailed up a lot of gut shot deer that left only a drop of blood or no blood at all. I can't explain it. I assume as they travel through the brush, that wound on their side occasionally makes contact with vegetation.
The toughest stuff for us to track on is just bare rocky ground.

[zztex]

I think mostly they are scenting blood that we can't see. A good dog can find a drop of blood in the dirt very easily. Also, a deer with a brisket or leg wound or a deer that has bedded down usually has blood on one or more legs. Every step he takes through brush and tall grass is transferring that odor to the vegetation and ground, even if he's not leaving a visible blood trail behind him.

Airborne scent, which consists of body odor and blood is pretty easy to detect by the dog when it's fresh...but dissipates quickly...within a couple hours... unless conditions are favorable for keeping it fresh longer.

After airborne odor is gone, all that's left is the track scent...the interdigital gland odor and blood that touched the ground or surrounding vegetation. Interdigital odor alone isn't very reliable because you have other deer crossing the trail so the dog is really having to discriminate between the track of a wounded deer and a healthy one. That's why it's important that there's enough of a wound the dog can smell it.

Yesterday we trailed one up going off of what the hunter described as a "swath of white hair" that was left under the feeder. We never found a drop of blood. To make it worse, a good steady rain moved in before I got there. It rained enough to wash away the buck's wheel marks. I just walked Rowdy in the direction they last saw the buck running. It took her awhile to line him out but she picked up his trail in the tall grass, went straight to him and bayed him. I guess once he got to the safety of the brush he slowed to a walk and left enough odor for her to follow. He was shot low in the gut and it exited through the ham on the opposite side. We've also trailed up a lot of gut shot deer that left only a drop of blood or no blood at all. I can't explain it. I assume as they travel through the brush, that wound on their side occasionally makes contact with vegetation.
The toughest stuff for us to track on is just bare rocky ground.

Fascinating Courtney. Thanks

[Skinny]

I was gunna say he got shot straight in the pooper.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Mudslinger]

Thanks for posting that Courtney. Good read on how a dog tracks. Awesome info.

I will hold my thoughts to myself on some of the comments made. No need to argue.