Grating

[eyedr]

I am posting this not on a soap box but more as a rant or reminder. I'm new to bow hunting but have been huning deer all my life.  This year more than ever I have been hearing stories about people taking a cavalier attitude toward wounding deer. I get that it happens, I know it's a part of hunting. It seems like this year has been worse for people just flinging arrows and hoping for the best, then trying to track for a half hour and calling it good. I know a lot of planning and prep goes into deer hunting but it shouldn't stop us from taking shots well within our skill levels.  I'm speaking more to the ones I have heard wounding multiple deer and then so easily convincing themselves that "if I didn't find it it must be doing just fine".  Sorry for the disdain. I'm not calling anyone out on this page or saying it won't ever happen to me. I know if you hunt long enough eventually it will. I'm not lumping all wounding of deer into this post. If it happens in good conditions and something just goes wrong I get it. I just hate hearing of the ones taking such a cavalier attitude towards it or taking multiple Ill advised shots, which honestly I have been guilty of in the past as well. This post was spurred on from stories I hear off the internet from clients, acquaintances, and even some friends. As a reminder to allow us including myself, let's make sure as hunters we are doing everything we can to control everything on our end. It's a great sport, let's keep the image and tradition going strong! Good luck in the rut and remember, aim small miss small. 

[fire29]

AMEN!!!

[O.T.C.]

Gave this some thought and I think all you can do is educate the best you can your friends, acquaintances, internet posters the best you can. You admit to taking ill advised shots in your past, these people are at that same stage of their bowhunting career you were once in. Because you graduated to it's more about the hunt, the high % shot, maybe explain your situation and how you transformed into the bowhunter you are today. I agree in the last decade or so we're skinning out more broadheads in our deer then we ever did before during rifle season. I think in a lot of fishing and hunting scenarios we wish everyone was taking our resources seriously but we know that is fallacy, each individual needs to look in the mirror and ask is it worth shooting 15 minutes before legal light ? Is it worth taking that 50 yard bow shot just aim a little high right ? Is it worth just leaving that baitpile there now that things r wet and muddy knowing the removal date is tomorrow if you plan on hunting that ground it's on opening day. Wounding a deer can happen to anyone, the hope is I think that those that maybe have learned a life lesson in 1 experience and learn from it and what happened that it will benefit that person and the ones he/she shares that experience with as life moves along. I've been the guy that says a leashed dog on your own ground should be allowed for tracking a potentially wounded deer. Who would want a 100 pound black lab lifting it's leg all over your ground or leaving any dog scent at all ? But I'd rather have it recovered and tagged/registered vs. that same scenario maybe playing out on the next hunt. and maybe the next. Educate is all we can try to do in our free sorta society.    

[TylerS]

This train of thought is not relegated to archery. There is a huge population of hunters, in general, who don't know or don't care much about their effective kill range. I've seen it practically every year during the rifle season in North Dakota since I started in 2002. Wounded deer are commonplace. Folks cracking shots at running game at absurd ranges...flinging lead until something drops, or doesn't. I'm convinced a vast majority of deer hunters don't consider a deer mortally wounded until it visibly falls.

Two years ago I shot one of my better bucks on opening day around 2 p.m. It worked slowly through the woods and I dropped it at 50 yards. The thing was exhausted and wounded (front right leg was blown off above the elbow and dangling by some skin) it hobbled on three legs and was repeatedly dropping to catch it's breath. It was borderline mercy killing.

A few years earlier, I stumbled upon a fawn with three holes in it, one of which was right through the vitals. Obviously the hunter experienced some ground shrinkage and decided not to tag it, as there were boot tracks all around the carcass. G&F got a call, but I'm sure nothing came of it. 

The amount of wounded deer I've witnessed is probably mind-numbing to some, but the fact is the rate hasn't wavered. I know that, during any given year, I'll personally see at least two or three wounded-walking deer in the woods. It's the way it is.

And yes, I've wounded deer. One with a bow last year (It was the second deer I'd hit with a bow, explained ad nauseam in a different thread) and one with a rifle out of 20+ deer. Nobody is perfect.

Eduction is good, and it's always smart to make mental reminders about shot placement, angle of approach, distance, etc. However, when it comes to the hunting crowd as a whole, there will always be wounded deer....a lot more than you think. It's not something to take lightly, but it happens as a law of averages. Sucks that some folks don't take the woundings to heart, but there are bad apples everywhere. The best thing you can do is take care of yourself and lead by example. Enough people do that, and maybe good things will happen.