Finding your lost buck after time .......

I agree with this and it is how I feel about my hunting.

 

I hope this thread isn't heading the way I think it is.

Be respectful of others opinions and keep in clean.

 

So if you would have found the big 10 ... would you have tagged it? Displayed it? And you would think the same of that rack found months later, as the one you hot this year?

 

PT...Honestly, I'll admit, I just skimmed over the original post, at first. Then I read your first response to the thread and really replied to that.

I shot a buck and recovered it "days later", so I shared a summary of my story and that I DO consider it a success. My bad if it was an off-topic response.

 

I woud display a buck I killed regardless of when I killed it.

Would I be pissed I couldn't find it at first? Yep.
Would I be upset that the meat went to waste? You Betcha.
Would I be happy to have closure on what happened? Yep.

If you find a buck after the meat is ruined/gone, all that is left is the antlers. If you don't do anything with those either, THEN the entire kill truly went for nothing. The meat is gone, and can't be brought back for proper consumption, might as well make the best of what is left of the animal.

I'd be proud of the animal in that I won on that hunt...I outsmarted the buck and killed him, point of this whole game. I'd have a bad taste in my mouth over how i screwed up either the shot or recovery but would still be proud of the animal and the hunt.

Just my opinions.

 

Well sure I would, if I knew it was the one I killed.
Your not drawing some make belive line, of how far or how long someone is to look for an animal are you?

 

No Sir...


Do you hold your tag when you hit a deer you cant find for months in case you find him?

If not, and you cant tag him cuz you are out, does he go as # whatever buck for the year?

Again...just curious......

 

I've had to soul search with the question. I'll base my response on experiences.

To me, a [underline]successful hunt[/underline] concludes when you acquire the thing you're looking for. Sometimes that "thing" in nothing other than horns/antlers/ teeth/trophy parts/experiences/friendships.

I killed a moose in Alaska once. I was in the bush for 17 days; I killed the moose on the very first day I could legally hunt. I watched as bears, moisture, and time ravaged my meat-100%. Our air service was grounded due to weather conditions and thus unable to fly. They were to check on us daily and fly meat out in the event it was acquired. If I were to use Bobby's definition of success, then this would have been an unsuccessful hunt. That was not the case!

The very first deer I killed with archery tackle happened on August 13th, 1985. The temps hit 103 degrees that day. I shot the deer early and did not recover it until 7pm that evening. Sadly, the meat was totally soured by the time I found the deer. Was it a successful hunt? You beat! I love the mount to this day! In this case, a day might as well have been a month.

I shot an impala in Africa...the friggin PH wouldn't let me look for it..I was pissed! The blacks brought me to the carass four days later. The buck died exactly where I thought he was going to be. In this case, I experienced a chain of events which kept me from finding that which I had killed. It was a serious case of, "I told you so". Believe me, I let the PH know he messed up when it was found. I have the horns and the mount...and I'm happy I do.

For me, as far as celebrating, "hunting" is about the outdoor experience and coming face-to-face with everything wild. I can have that party today, tomorrow, next week, next month.......I hunt with my heart.

 

It'd be bittersweet to me also. Obviously it'd be nicer to have some closure to it.

 

If I looked for it for days or a week and then found it... never giving up on the search... I would probably only display it as a rack mount if up to a week or more and the cape is shot. I would tag it !!!! I know the story behind it. If someone asked I would tell them them. It's what happened.

If the cape is wrecked within a day or so... I wouldn't go out and buy a cape for it to be mounted so a head mount is out of the question. The same as putting another person's deer's cape on any of my deer. I wouldn't mount sheds or dead heads I found either just for displaying. Other people do and I have no problem with it at all. I just won't do it and it has nothing to do with right or wrong. It just me.

To be honest about finding a rack that someone else has shot... I have let a few people know where they were when I found them if I know they lost a buck. If the hunter is a slob or a jerk... forget it. I ain't saying anything unless it is the guy's kid who lost the buck. Got a weak spot for kid's nor matter who there parents are. I just don't have it in my heart to reward slob's or jerks themselves.

Tim

 

I 100% agree with this ...

 

Tags are for when you take possession, can't tag what you don't possess.

Would I use my Tag if I found it after the meat had spoiled, you bet!

I'd call the Game Warden, he would issue me a permit for the Rack if I didn't have another tag.

 

Ok John ... so you have 3 bucks down that year ... 2 of which you found the same day you shot them ... the 3rd was found 2 months later ... do they all share an equal place on your wall?

 

I have been lucky enough to harvest quite a few deer with my bow...I have also been lucky enough to only put one arrow in a deer that was not found. I looked for a week straight on vacation during the rut. I found his shed 4 months later, did he still die from my arrow, not at that point but maybe later who knows. Had I found that buck a week later, a month later etc...I would have been elated, I think the same as if I found him that November morning.

I do not personally have a time frame for the elation to go away, so many questions were unanswered until I sat on that shed chasing a gobbler in the spring, and that opened up so many more questions. I honestly wish i would have sat on his dead head, and not his shed. Now I just wonder where he went...no closure just more questions.

I personally think you have to add up all the excitement of the shot, supposed kill, anticipation of looking for him just ahead of the blood trail, frustration as the trail continues and peters out, and finally the emotions associated with loosing said animal. Add all that up and then I would assume it all should come rushing back when you stumble upon him, or get the call saying someone else found him. When I sat on that shed, I forgot about the gobbler blowing me up less than 100 yards away and started looking for a carcass. I knew it was a shed, but I just had to look some more.

 

I don't think I feel the same as you .. if I recovered the animal upon searching for him and the yotes got him ... yes, I would feel just as successful as if I found him the same day or watched him go down ...but a week or weeks later .... it doesn't compute to me as nearly the same thing ... but that is me ... I find these responses interesting ...

 

I didn't find this buck until 2 days later. I was in a tree stand on a hill side and the buck was down hill from me. I was shooting almost straight down and didn't get a exit hole. I watched the deer run down the hill and out of sight.

This was in West Virginia. There was no blood and I saw a good bit of arrow sticking out as I watched it run. I backed out and waited til morning. Temps were warm and I had hoped to find it early the next morning.

It had started raining about mid morning and I still didn't find the deer. I searched the rest of the day without finding a trace of it.
It rained all that day.


The next day, still raining, I saw a dog eating something in some high weeds. Sure enough it was the buck. I realized I had walked by it several times in my search. It was situated in a way that I would have to be on top of it to see it.

I kicked myself for being so close but not seeing it.

Yes, I tagged it!

 

Hear. Hear.

Did I feel compelled to get another cape and have a shoulder mount done? No (Although he's my highest scoring buck). Did I think it would be totally disrespectful to just throw the antlers in my bldg? Yes.

I have a euro of the buck in my man cave. Honestly, I don't care what anyone else thinks (said with no disrespect or malice). I don't hunt for anyone else.

 

Since I crawled on my belly for over an hour to get in bowrange of the bedded buck, even more so.

 

Again, none taken .... do you feel as good about that buck as you did the ones you recovered right away? Again ... just curious ...

 

I'm not sure how to even answer that, PT. It just is what it is.

I will say, I don't ever tell the story of that buck without telling about how/when it was recovered. But, I don't care what anyone else does. To me, the late recovery is just part of the story. I'm neither proud nor ashamed of how it went down.

I don't typically get into what I (and my neighbor....and Buckmaster/Aaron.....and the tracking dog/handler I employed from 1.5hrs away.......and the permission I had to glean from the neighboring lease) went through to try to recover him, expeditiously.

In my experiences with the internet and situations like these....some people wanna get hung up on the late recovery, and not give credit for the measures taken to recover the animal in a timely fashion.

It is what it is. I'm not proud nor ashamed of anything that transpired.