Finally pegged one

[Joe15]

I am 16 and this is my second year deer hunting and my first year bowhunting. No one in my family hunt so i have had to teach myself almost everything I know (which isn't too much) Anyways last night I got into the stand at 3:30 and at about 4 a group of about 9 does ran in and I'm assuming something scared them in. One walked by and a drew back and missed high so they all ran down into the river bottom. Then not 10 minutes later a buck and a doe walked in. The buck was a decent 4 pt and I laid the thwap on him about 4 inches below the back and a weird angle. I tracked him for about an hour before sunsent and went about a mile and a quarter so tomorrow the hunt is on hopefully he dies in his sleep or I can sneek up on him and pull the final thread of life out of him.

[LOTWSvirgin]

Well good luck. Wish you the best hopefully it all is well for you in da morning. Bet you dont sleep well tonight though T least have never been able to when I have left a deer in the field overnight.

[picksbigwagon]

congrats and hope you find it today. Ask your questions here, there are a lot of people with a lot of knowledge that they will share with you. Your job will be to figure out what works best for you. I started deer hunting in my late 20's, no one in my family hunts either. They all enjoy the venison and pheasant I provide at family functions though.....

don't forget your camera either........

[Muskie456]

Well did you find him?

[Joe15]

That is a negative...we followed a blood trail for 3 1/2 miles before he went down into iowa. He couldn't lay down because a coyote was hot in pursuit of him. So I lost my first deer and my arrow. But I still have a tonight and tomorrow. So wish me luck

[picksbigwagon]

Oh that sucks.......

[Muskie456]

Stick with it Joe. You always hate to loose em but learn from it and move on.

[Powerstroke]

I've done it once before. My thought is you hit it too high and probably went through the dead zone up there.

Try to aim for the bottom of the chest. It seems like your shots are going high because you're shooting out of a stand. Aim a little lower and you will get your deer.

Good luck.

[Joe15]

Yes I know...hopefully i can stick one tomorrow on the last day

[dogs]

Welcome to bow huntin, it aint for the weak of heart. Dont let the loss get to ya, learn from it and keep shooting. The worse is the reliving the loss the next time you draw back on one. You can't have that or you will cripple that one too.

[harvey lee]

Well said dogs.

[snoozebutton]

Try to aim for the bottom of the chest. It seems like your shots are going high because you're shooting out of a stand. Aim a little lower and you will get your deer.

Good luck.

I was shooting high on a lot of the deer I took and couldn't figure out why. I can shoot off my deck which is higher than the tree stand I was shooting from so height wasn't the problem. I ended up talking to an archery instructor and he figured I was crowding the string. If you purposely try to do that, you'll see that you can push your arrow high.

The solution? Always bend at the waist when shooting. Easier said than done but the more you practice it, the more it becomes second nature.

[BLACKJACK]

Nothing like a missed or wounded deer that gets away to drive you back to the practice butt!! Its a long season, make sure you keep practicing during the season. I try to allow for some extra time on my afternoon hunts so I can shoot a few practice arrows.

[dogs]

Practice is one thing, but practice in the garb your going to wear at this time of year. A layered outfit is a whole different critter to shot fron; your string maybe dragging or catching on your release. The shoot low or shoot this way or that is not a philosophy I agree with. If he is at 10 yards and you got a ten yard pin put it on him. Im not saying if you shoot 1 pin dont use it as reference, Im saying if you got to 2nd guess were the arrow is going dont let it go. And for christ sakes don't ever go the route a deer will do this or that upon release. Back to your loss, not to belittle the crippling, dont sweat it, the worst and the best lie ahead.You will come to love/appreciate the sight of them going down in sight.

Also I like to keep the crippling stories a little tighter to my vest you never know who you are talking too.

[Eskimoman]

I've done it once before. My thought is you hit it too high and probably went through the dead zone up there.

Try to aim for the bottom of the chest. It seems like your shots are going high because you're shooting out of a stand. Aim a little lower and you will get your deer.

Good luck.

NIce try, but there is no "dead zone" in the front part of the deer. As long as you are heart up it will kill the deer, assuming good broadheads, pass through and don' track to early.

Where could an arrou hit there that would be a deadzone? Its either lungs or spine.

[DonBo]

Originally Posted By: Powerstroke

I've done it once before. My thought is you hit it too high and probably went through the dead zone up there.

Try to aim for the bottom of the chest. It seems like your shots are going high because you're shooting out of a stand. Aim a little lower and you will get your deer.

Good luck.

NIce try, but there is no "dead zone" in the front part of the deer. As long as you are heart up it will kill the deer, assuming good broadheads, pass through and don' track to early.

Where could an arrou hit there that would be a deadzone? Its either lungs or spine.

I believe there is a spot between the lungs and spine, we call it the "black hole". I've bowhunted for over 35 years and have seen several deer hit here that were never seen again.

[LOTWSvirgin]

[

I believe there is a spot between the lungs and spine, we call it the "black hole". I've bowhunted for over 35 years and have seen several deer hit here that were never seen again.

I believe this is true to.

[Wanderer]

Originally Posted By: DonBo

[

I believe there is a spot between the lungs and spine, we call it the "black hole". I've bowhunted for over 35 years and have seen several deer hit here that were never seen again.

I believe this is true to.

I'm one to believe this also. And I've helped track deer hit in this area for hours and hours never to find them.

[late night]

I believe with my whole heart there is and area above the lungs and below the spin that is a non kill hit. I also think alot of guys hit high because the deer can duck your arrow. I know its true for me. I have killed several deer with my 15 yard pin when they were 25 yard out and I have missed high on deer at 30 yards with my 30 yard pin. I guess I do shoot an older bow that does not fling and arrow 315 fps either.

Practice shooting at several different targets at different distances is the best but nothing can fully prepare a hunter for shooting at a live animal out in the elements. They dont stand still when they hear the twang!

On a lighter note, today I finally through in the towel and tossed out two Minnesota bow tags and one South Dakota bow tag. O for 3 yippe for me.

[sticknstring]

Quote:

NIce try, but there is no "dead zone"

I'll disagree as well. There's plenty of room for an arrow to pass-through above the spine & lungs. I know, I hit one there this fall. Very little blood and a relatively clean arrow. Eight days later, a guy from camp shot him with the rifle chasing does.

[snapcrackpop]

There is no "void" between the spine and the lungs! Period. There is space above the spine and the skin that you can hit. It's called backstraps.

[woody1975]

I have seen it done - We tracked a deer my buddy shot for 8 hours one night and 4 hours the next day after a complete pass through a week before slug season and never found it. When slug season started, it was shot about 2 miles from where he hit it and we had a chance to see where the broad head went - Right above the lungs and below the spine. They even said that the lungs were never touched!

DL

[Musky Buck]

Several deer hit there and tracked lots of them and never found them etc. What's the low and high end of deer wounded by bow hunters ? I know we are a small pool of hunters and I'm not bashing the bow guys knowing rifles,muskets,cars, wound many as well, but in recent years we have skinned out 4 deer that had a broadhead in them and usually a yucky greenish sore area, and I know all the practice in the world can't make a deer stop jumping that string, so roughly what is the going rate, I know some guys none and some guys lots, but if I become a good shot with a bow, how many can I expect to wound ? Is it 1 every 5 years or more or less, maybe there is no certain answer.

[DonBo]

Here are the results from a study done at Camp Ripley several years ago that will help answer the question on wounding rates. Anyone who has ever been to Ripley will probably tell you the rate is a bit higher here than your normal back 40 hunt.

Camp Ripley - Study documents bowhunter's effectiveness

An exhaustive study shows a much lower loss rate for bowhunters than previously guessed.

CAMP RIPLEY, Minn. "Aspects of Wounding of White-tailed Deer by Bowhunters," may not sound like a page-turner to most readers. But the conclusion that participants in an annual hunt recover 87 percent of the deer they shoot could hardly be more interesting to those who hunt deer with bow and arrow. It's also encouraging to those who have hopes for bowhunting as a safe, effective tool for controlling deer populations around urban areas.

The study, conducted in 1992 and 1993, found that 87 percent of deer hit by bowhunters were recovered. This recovery rate is significantly higher than previous estimates, many of which were made without the benefit of data gathered by rigorous scientific methods.

Wendy J. Krueger, the author of the report, is a wildlife biologist with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. The study consisted of three parts.

The first part consisted of interviews with more than 6,000 hunters who took part in two-day archery deer hunts in 1992 and 1993 at the 53,000-acre Camp Ripley Military Reservation along the Mississippi River near Brainerd, Minn. Those hunts lent themselves to the project, since participating hunters were required to check in at the start and end of each day.

Hunters were interviewed as they left Camp Ripley after each day's hunt, so memories were still fresh in their minds. They were asked where they had hunted, whether they had shot deer, if they had hit but not recovered deer, how many wounded deer they had seen and other questions.

The second part of the study involved using a helicopter equipped with an infrared-sensitive video camera to locate any downed deer immediately after the hunts. In the third and final part of the study, crews conducted ground searches immediately after each hunt and the following year to locate unrecovered deer and determine how they died.

Krueger found that 72.3 percent of hunters who reported shooting deer retrieved their kills and brought them to check stations. The remaining 27.7 percent of deer reported shot fell into the following categories:

--Substantiated deer hits, in which the hunter found direct evidence of a hit, such as blood or hair on the arrow or ground or saw a wound or arrow in the deer. These accounted for 19.3 percent of total deer hits.

--Claimed deer hits, in which the hunter reported shooting a deer that was retrieved by another hunter. These accounted for 7.5 percent of total deer hits. Interestingly, examination of deer brought to check stations showed a number of deer equal to 8.5 percent of the total number of deer reported hit were "prior hits," meaning they actually had been shot by more than one hunter. Post-hunt follow-up confirmed that 45 to 50 percent of deer reported shot but not retrieved were soon retrieved by other hunters.

--Presumed deer hits, in which the hunter could cite no physical or visual evidence to support the belief that the deer was hit 1 percent.

Researchers checked on as many wounded deer as possible. When they were finished, only 13 percent of the deer reported shot remained unaccounted for. Some of those deer probably died from severe arrow wounds, while others undoubtedly recovered from superficial wounds. Other deer included in the 13-percent loss rate may represent deer that were missed cleanly or reported shot by more than one hunter.

This figure contrasts sharply with anti-hunting groups' claims of much higher bowhunting losses. Some of these groups have calculated "wounding" figures by assuming that every arrow fired by an archer wounds a deer. Krueger said that even if she had used this assumption in her study, the loss rate would have been only 30 to 40 percent. She said she finds it difficult to understand the basis for claims of 50- to 80-percent "wounding" rates claimed by some anti-hunting groups. She said she hopes the careful definition of terms and detailed data in her study will provide a rational basis for discussion of the subject.

However, she is quick to note that every hunting situation is different, and bowhunting loss rates could differ significantly under different circumstances. Studies conducted in areas with different deer populations, hunting pressure and hunting regulations over a longer period will continue to shed light on bowhunters' effectiveness compared to firearms hunters and the usefulness of bowhunting as a tool for managing deer populations in areas where firearms hunting is impractical.

Krueger conducted the study as part of her work toward a master of science degree from West Virginia University at Morgantown, W.V. Funding for the study came from the Archery Manufacturers Organization and other pro-bowhunting groups and individuals. Krueger sought funding for her peer-reviewed study from anti-hunting groups to ensure balance and credibility, but found those groups declined to participate.

[Musky Buck]

Pretty cool study, I wish they'd do another follow up one since this one was 16 years ago, but very interesting and with the new technology out there it should be less wounded animals. So roughly 3 out of every 10 shot are wounded and not recovered by the hunter. That's not to bad. Thanks again, that was a good read.