Hi all! I have a short question that I am looking for opinions on, and a long story leading up to it. I am a relatively new bowhunter. While I have rifle hunted for a number of years, it wasn’t until 2008 that I decided to purchase a high-end bow and get into archery with a fair degree of seriousness. This past week, I had a heartbreaking experience. I was on stand when a gorgeous 10-point whitetail walked out. I waited patiently until he gave me a perfect broadside shot at 20 yards. I snugged the pin right where his front shoulder met the chest cavity, and let it fly. I hit him hard, not missing my mark by more than two inches. The buck barreled into the swamp with the arrow sticking out of his side. I was thrilled. I wanted to go after him that evening, but it was already very dark in the swamp, so I decided to wait until morning before beginning the track job. That next morning three of us went in pursuit. I was confident he was dead within 200 yards of where I had last seen him. That’s when things got bad quickly. We had a very tough time finding even a speck of blood. After making some random circles, we managed to locate the broken off arrow. About 16 inches were missing, and there was a chunk of meat on the broken end. This confirmed good penetration. We finally discovered some tiny blood droplets, and followed them speck by speck trough the swamp. 5 hours and a quarter-mile later, we were still following it speck by speck. Eventually, the buck made some goofy triangular move, and we couldn’t figure out what way he went after that. We made some more random circles hoping to stumble across something, but came up empty. We failed to recover my buck. I felt terrible. Since purchasing my bow, I have shot 5 deer, and recovered 3 of them. I am at 60%, and I am getting discouraged quickly. This buck was especially discouraging because I couldn’t figure out what on Earth went wrong. The shot looked good! Anyway, watching the videos and hunting shows has led me to believe that bows should be near 100% effective on whitetails. My own experience has me doubting that this is possible. That is where my question comes in: what do some of you think is realistic as far as a harvest/shot success rate? More specifically, if you were to shoot at 10 different deer, in a variety of situations, with a bow, how many of those 10 would you expect to recover?
Nothing is prefect. Unless ur using grenades (dont use grenades), there is always a chance they will get away. They are strong animals. I had post a thread back in May I think it was. I responded to a car vs doe accident. both her back legs with broken badly. we decided to put her down. The dnr came out to do it. He slit her throat n windpipe. She sadly lasted a long time. Minute after minute rolled by n she just would not give up. Heart breaking, but I saw first hand how strong these animals are.
When you bowhunt you step into the wild. What I mean by this is things happen, just like a coyote may injure a deer but for some reason is unable to kill the animal. Things happen when bowhunting. Of course this isn't to say we should try to make every shot an ethical and fatal one. Keep practicing and keep hunting. I don't believe you have shot enough animals to give yourself a true percentage rate. Newer to the game with less experience and practice means more lost deer. As you continue to hunt I believe your percentages will go up. Understanding when to take a shot on a relaxed animal or to let a shot pass. I am not trying to point at anything your doing wrong, rather just drawing from my own experiences. Keep up the hunting and don't be discouraged.
ive lost one doe, gut shot her and pushed her never found her (im 17) and ive killed 4. do thats 80% for me
8 kills 1 lost here(3-400 lb bear). Still sick to my stomach over the lost one almost a year later now. No one but you knows why you lost an animal. Lack of preparation? Stretching your limits on range? Not looking long enough? Simply make a bad shot? Mistakes happen, just be sure to put forth the effort in eliminating the preventable mistakes.
2 for 3 recovered. The doe I didn't recover I clipped the doe's stomach last year and tracked blood for 3 hours until the trail ran dry.
That’s what is so agonizing with this buck. I don’t have the slightest idea as to what went wrong. Good penetration, well within my range, looked for over 5 hours . . . it pretty much leaves "bad shot" as the only possible conclusion, but the shot looked to be nearly perfect. The only thing I can think of is that maybe he jumped the string and I didn’t hit him where I could swear I did. Moreover, he was totally oblivious to me being there, which makes jumping the string unlikely. Thanks for the input. Thanks also to everybody else. This is making me feel somewhat better about matters.
Likewise, the other deer I lost was the first one I shot at with my bow. It was a doe. I misjudged the distance and hit her high -- high enough to miss the lungs but not high enough to get the spine. 11/12, that's impressive from what I'm hearing. I wish I could say my percentage is the same. Part of my issue now is going to be confidence. I'm afraid to shoot anything else with my bow for fear of losing another one.
1/2 here. I know what I did wrong though. I judged my yardage incorrectly then over thought it way to much. You say within your range. What is your range? What range was the deer at? What range do you practice at? How do you judge your accuracy when practicing? What is your set up? Where exactly did you hit? How long is your arrow? How well do you know deer anatomy? If you don't know exactly what went wrong, are you sure you know for fact all the other factors you mentioned were correct? You say 2" how in the world do you know for sure it was 2" off without a recovered deer? That deer had to have been at 10yd or less to tell you hit 2" off right?
I don't claim to be a great shot. I can hold a 3 inch pattern at 30 yards, and that is my maximum range for shooting a deer. My setup is a Mathew's DXT/biscuit/HHA. If you are aiming for the top of the heart, I hit two inches above that, and two inches forward of that plus or minus 0.5 inches in either component. Arrow length is irrelevant. I got 16 inches penetration. I know deer anatomy extremely well. I can say with reasonable certainty that all of this is correct. The deer was at 19 yards. I have very good eyesight. This is not adding up in your mind, right? I feel exactly the same way. I am totally dumbfounded.
Killed about 35- 40 whitetail and lost two, one turned up only wounded and was killed a couple weeks later by a gun hunter. The second buck I am fairly sure I only got one lung and I never recovered him.
I've shot 30 couple, lost about 6 I think. So around 80%. It happens, even to the best of us. Most of the deer I lost were due to either inexperience (poor tracking skills, or doing the wrong thing after the shot) or the dreaded shoulder bone. I stay back from that now any time I can...even if you get through far enough, finding a 1 lung shot deer can be very tough. Keep an eye out for buzzards, your deer may actually be dead somewhere.
That's good advice... When I 1st started bow hunting I would always go for the heart shot but it's easier to get into trouble in that area - IMO... My target is now a good double lung shot - more wiggle room ... BH's should be razor sharp too - I think there are a lot of hunters carrying BH's in their quiver that don't realize that they have maybe dulled some over the season or were just never that sharp to begin with...
