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

Bingo.

 

I shot the buck below back in early November of 2007. I looked for a week straight with no luck. Actually, I even looked for him while "hunting" when I normally would have been perched in a tree; I was walking around looking for him. I finally gave up and decided to really search during shed season. I found him 4 months later in early March. I was the happiest hunter around but sad that I couldn't have found him sooner. It did give me some much needed closure though. I did call the warden and got a tag for him b/c at the time I thought about having him mounted. If it was still hunting season and I found him...I probably would have still had him tagged.

 

How could yotes make you feel different than just not finding him...If you are gonna walk that slope you still failed to make use of the deer, you just have an out in blaming the yotes as opposed to your self. In most cases yotes do not get involved unless something goes wrong, wether that be the hunter or the animal throwing a wrench in the situation.

3 situations for yall....

My best friend shot a doe in S Alabama a couple years back and heard her crash. I called as I was just getting off the expressway heading down. it took me 20 min or so to get there and about 15 to walk to her...yotes had completly inhaled her except for a hind quarter and the rib meat on that side...lost deer

My uncle laid down a slob of a buck that ran straight to the chattahoochie river and fell in never to be see again, double lung, massive blood trail and the only wrench was the deer ran to the river approx 60 yards from the tree.

Rutt Nutts deer...and the story that followed.

What I am getting at, as in most hunting situations is that each scenario is different. If my uncle found his buck, washed up on shore a month later (and believe me we looked) I would not see him as feeling any different as the day he shot it. My friend was pissed that a doe was wasted and yotes were fed, but (flame away) had that deer had 135" of antler on it we would have felt alot less pain, that is just the way it is.

I just believe you cannot say exactly how you feel because every situation is different, with different circumstances.


Here is a 3-2 curveball for you...Andrew shoots his first buck, but you cannot find it for a few weeks for any number of reasons, do you go crazy when you finally get the call from a neighboring land owner saying he located it about 3 yards from where you walked several times but just missed it? Or do you just throw it in the corner for the dogs to chew on because it was not found in a timely manner.

Please do not think this is personal, because it is a good thread and good conversation...I just wanted to put you in a postion I was around one time by a gentleman feeling about the same as you on this topic...Just so you know, he cried like a baby when they found his boys buck....and paid for a cape and for a full shoulder mount on 40 ish inches of a East Georgia 5pt.

All situations are very different.

 

Great post, Michael.

I guess I really don't know how I'd feel, tho even with the Andrew scenario, it would be way more exciting and way more fun to talk about if we saw him fall ... so in saying that, I THINK it would be way more successful feeling ... if that makes sense ... but truth is.. I just don't know...

 

You could always replace "buck" with "doe" and re-ask the question, PT.

Once the meat's spoiled, what's the difference when you find it?

 

I guess that's part of my point ..... would anyone hear about "her" ...

 

I don't know. Would anyone look?

 

first off thanks for understanding I was not being personal, just stating what I have witnessed.
Second I agree with your post and again good thread.

 

Exactly the way I feel.

 

I hope he got what he deserved!!

 

HA!!! I omitted "it" The day I shot "it!"

 

This is a great thread. A rare moment where we actually get to hear personal feelings about ones OWN wins and losses regarding recovery.

Here is how personally felt about my situation.

I was hunting the ML season in Delaware a few years ago. Fired and missed a very large buck. Reloaded and fired at him again. The first shot I know I missed because I found the bullet had struck a sapling right where he was standing. The second shot, I thought was perfect however, no sign of hair or blood trail.

I looked for a while and had my buddy who was hunting with me look. Not a sign of a hit. I followed some tracks that looked like the direction he would have ran and still nothing. Did some semi circles and nothing. I left the woods due to time constraints with the family and the thought that I missed.

Felt uneasy the rest of the day. The next day I woke up and went to the range to see if the gun was shooting right. Dead on... I went right over to the woods and with a clear head and basic scanning, I found the buck within 15 minutes. He was about 20- 30 more yards in the direction we looked the least because I thought he would not have ran that way.

Instead of jumping up and down, I felt mixed emotions. Happy to have my deer and yet, disappointed in myself because I did not think clear enough at the time to do a PROPER scan of the land. I let the signs fool me into thinking that I actually missed the buck on the second shot as well and that no blood and hair was a good thing (something that I will never do again).

I mounted that buck and even had the meat processes as the night was on the boarder line of ok. Animals had taken some out of the back half but, no too much. The meat end up not tasting like any of the other deer I have shot. We did not eat much of it however, did try different pieces.

I still celebrated this buck as a successful hunt in the sense that I shot, killed and recovered the animal however, this one had an "*" by it. I am proud of the hunt, not proud of the track job. Not ashamed as I have learned from it.


Overall, it was not the same "high" to me from the buck shot and recovered the same day when comparing it to my other hunts. I blame this mainly on the adrenalin, excitement and situation of not finding it on day 1 because of myself and proper searching.

This experience tells me that I would feel very different about any deer I shot and recovered weeks later. It would not be the same to me.

 

It bothers me the few guys who say that a later recovered buck doesn't mean the same to them. I will say buck because if you find a doe later there is nothing left of her that is usefull to you. This may ruffle some feathers, but lets face it. 98% of us here shot a buck because it is a deer we want. Something we are "satisfied" with. So if we don't recover a "fresh" kill to show off then it becomes useless to us? I haven't shot too many bucks in my life, but I do have a few P&Y's to my credit and I have lost one due to not finding it in a timely manner. Guess what? He hangs next to my other 3 and I have no problem with it. I remember Jeff's story. Jeff looked harder than 99% of us here would have for that buck and outsmarted a dog in the process of finding that deer. The dog couldn't find it, but Jeff did. That is determination if you ask me. Here is a pic of a 140" gross 8 I shot. I hit him bad and I knew I did. It was warm and in the 70's that evening. When I found him the next day it was in the 80's. He was foul. I even lost the cape, but he hangs on my wall.

Yeah, yeah... I know I'm ugly, but I didn't sleep the whole night before and the sun was in my eyes. lol....

 

A doe killed and lost to rot in the woods is a complete failure and loss so why on earth anyone would feel finding a buck in the same way is a "success" on any level is laughable considering killing for antlers only is pretty much universally condemed.

Poachers kill animals and cut off their racks, ivory, hands, fins, you name it and leave the rest of the animal to rot...........not exactly the model for "success" I would want to emulate. (Not comparing anyone to a poacher).

My honest opinion of first sight of the pic Christine posted of the dude she gave the rack back to was pure embarrassment for him.........to have a picture of yourself smiling from ear to ear after someone else returned a rotted out skull and rack to you that you "think" is the one you lost??..............yikes. He certainly seemed proud..........of what, I have no idea.

 

I don't think your hunt was unsuccessful .... it was the next day and you were looking for him .....

but to feel like a hunt was successful after finding a deer weeks or even months later when your shed hunting ..or hunting ... or someone else finds it ... .... I cant compute it in my mind as being a successful hunt ,,,

 

Hmmm.....I didn't answer the question.

Successful? No.

Answer a LOT of questions? Sure.

Learning experience? You bet.

Something I'm proud of? Nope.

Something I'm ashamed of? No way.

 

Jeff...you have always been honest about that .. and I 100% agree with the above

 

First off, I've never personally dealt with this - as the only deer I've lost over the years were a good while ago, and I never found them. I feel like if you ARE looking for it....and find it (even if its several days later) then it would be a success, though not quite as good as finding it right away. If you happened to stumble on it days, weeks, or months later (or someone else did)....well I feel like it would be nice to have closure, but I wouldn't consider it a "success" really.

I agree with Jeff on this one.

 

Atlas,

It's the coming face to face with those things wild! You started sometime and you finished it. If the only goal was to put meat in your freezer, then a lost deer, by all means translates into an unsuccessful hunt. I hope there's more to hunting, for everyone, than simply meat in the freezer (by the way, I would save a ton of money by buying my freezer meat from the store). What about the friendships (failing and learning together in this case), the conservation efforts, and the ritualistic rejuvenenation (something dies so something can live)? I think people hunt for a multitude of reasons....I think it laughable when folks try to lump all hunters under a single roof.


There's a huge difference between a poacher and a legitimate hunter-the cost of the tag (conservation efforts) first and foremost-law abiding secondly.