This may be long so please bare with me. After the 2012-13 season of hunting with a bow all season and not getting anything I told my friends that I would not hunt with firearms until I got a deer with my bow.@013-14 season roll's around and opening day finds me in the stand with my bow. Not long after sunup a good size hog walks and I shot him at twenty yards. He only goes about 75 yards before he dies. That season I see deer but have no shot. But that's o.k. because the first animal I draw on I kill with a good shot. Fast forward to 2014-15 opening day once again I am in the stand as sun is rising a few minutes later I hear what sounds like a herd of elephants breaking thru the brush coming towards my stand. A group of 20-25 hogs come in front of my stand. So this time I pick out a smaller pig to shot.After about 45-50 yards I recover it. See deer all season but none give me an opportunity to shoot. Still though it's a good season seconded animal I draw on I kill with a short recovery. Now we are up to 2015-16. Can't make it out on opening day or the next due to some bad luck. Well Monday rolls around and my brother Pat and I are heading out to my friends Randy's lease where he lets us hunt every year. Those two pig I took was on his place. Uneventful morning hunt all I see are squirrel's and crow but I am still glad to be in the woods.Go out for the afternoon about 3:30. Come about 5:30 I see movement it is a doe and a button buck. As I watch the button comes right in front of me about 20 yards. The doe is hanging back but she starts walking in. I can see where she will step out from behind a tree so I get ready. Hart is pumpingI just might get my first deer with a bow. I am thinking to myself when she steps out stop her with a soft call and then shoot. Instead I make a dumb mistake when she steps out I panic and shoot. Damn if it was'nt a gut shoot .As soon as I shoot I know I missed up. I am sick as I see her hunch and run off. However she goes about 40-45 yards and I see her go down. As I watch her for the next 10 minutes I see her go into death throws and die. Now I'm not sure if I saw wrong or not.I have to get the button to leave am able to do that after another 10 minutes. I get down to recover the arrow and it so covered in dirt that I cant really smell anything so I am hopping that she was'nt gut shot. I walk over to her and I see that I did make a horrible shot on her. Now my question is she went 40-45 yards died within 10 minutes can a bad shot be a good kill?
Absolutely, but never reccomended This one died within 30 seconds. Same impact opposite side. Hit the femoral artery. Heart sank and he went about 20yds maybe and i had thought he bedded, but he never moved again
People get lung shots and the deer runs off farther than your doe did. The main thing is that you were able to recover the doe.
Bad shots can be lucky kills. I wouldn't go so far as to call them good. And, I have had my share. But, congrats on your first bowkill deer.
I too have made bad shots that turned into good kills. Most notably one similar to cls74's shot where I hit the femoral artery. Deer ran 20 yards and stopped, I thought I gut shot him so I nocked another arrow. About the time I was going to draw back he fell over dead. Pure dumb luck but hey, dead is dead. Congrats on your first bow kill! Hopefully the first of many to come.
The kidneys also make them bleed out rapidly. I have seen liver hits on small to normal size Does bleed them out pretty quick.
first deer I shot was hit in the neck, normally a bad shot, but I am pretty sure my broadhead sliced both the jugular and carotid artery before sticking into the bone, but it did not break her neck. Long story short my deer fell down and bled out within 12 yards of where I shot her. She was stone dead in about a minute and a half. bad shot? yes, quickest kill ever? yes
Bad shots happen and with that you can have a dead deer right away, a deer that may take a while to eventually die or even a deer that will heal over time and be just fine. As hunters the most important thing we can do is to practice our sport as much as we can before we put ourselves in that situation. Can it still happen and will it happen from time to time? Of course it can. You can have what you thought was a perfect shot take you for miles on a track where you eventually lose the deer completely. Any kill you recover was successful no matter where you hit it. Hopefully we learn from that though and try our best to make sure we do everything possible to make the most ethical shot possible and exhaust every avenue to try to recover the game.
A couple years ago I shot a nice buck. My arrow hit a branch and deflected, it went right through his neck. The thing dropped and never moved again. Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk 2
I agree with you, luck plays a lot into bad shots and recovered deer any which way you look at it. But a bad shot can result in a good clean kill just the same as a well placed shot can result in a long track or old fashioned bad luck.
Listen, you recovered that animal, you did your best and the outcome was good. Its a good kill! We would all love to have double lung/heart shots and see/hear the animal crash on every single shot. Thats what happens on TV right? The reality of it is, not all of them will be like that. Things happen, you will screw up and sometimes you will just plain do something stupid. If you learn from it, and don't make the same mistake twice, it will make you a better bowhunter. My best friend and I were just talking about something similar the other day. Me personally, I've been on somewhat of a streak as the last 8 deer I pulled the bow back on have been good shots and clean recoveries. But I know full well that the 9th deer may not go like that. It can and does happen to us all and eventually, my "luck" will run out. I just make sure its not for lack of preparation or focus, etc. As I've said on here a million times before. You show me someone who has never wounded an animal or not made good shots on an animal and I'll show you a person who's either not hunted long enough and shot at enough deer or a liar.
If it rides in the truck it's a good shot Killed my buck on the third day here in NC with a spine shot not what I wanted but I killed him quick and there was no track job
