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

Jesus? Is that you?

 

Did you or your buddy learn something with these 2 wounded deer that were not recovered?

 

I can tell you right now, I don't know one person that hunts Big deer that would drop a string on a buck and then just walk off and" leave it to rot", for one to just assume they are a better tracker or to think they are the only one that has bad feelings over the loss of an animal is lame at best.

 

And for the life of me, I cannot imagine a person participating in a marathon when he/she fears taking last place. Why not run the race solo (mitigate the risk)? Why throw a pass when you know it can be intercepted? Why swing at a ball loaded with the potential of a slice? Why launch an arrow when the chance of a non-recovery exists? Why beat yourself up when you know misfortunes are/could be part of the game? Why fish with light tackle and then say, “Damn I suck” when a fish gets away?

Sorry guys, I cannot get my head around people setting themselves up to fail. Are they ignoring the risks? Are they expecting more? What gives?

Bruce,

"I just don't understand why, if I just like to hunt for meat and don't mind killing a spike because his antlers don't make the meat taste any worse, that it bothers the **** out of some of you."

I completely understand, and I'm not at all bothered by it. My father was just like you. He trained me well, and I have not forgotten that foundation. I would never question your exclusive quest for meat. I think it's great!

I hunt for a wide variety of reason myself, one of them being the procurement of food. However, I accept the fact some animals are not going to be found (nobody ever asks them if they want to die-most don't). It happens, despite my professionism. I do not beat myself up nor do I consider that a failure. Why does that leave me open for incredulous ridicule? If I want the horns, or the ivories off a cow elk, or the claws off a yote, or the any other part, then why is that laughable? I assume there are going to be risks when I take to the field. As I've said, "I expect nothing". When I get something, I celebrate. Again, why does that leave me open for incredulous ridicule?

Atlas,

I'm not sure anyone of us has left something to rot intentionally. Circumstances have been such that animals were never recovered. Trying and not recovering verses intentionally leaving something to rot are two different things. Leaving something to suffer would take away from the experience for me as well. Who has done that?

I've been there with the sleepless night too. I response as professionally as possible...I give it my best effort and then some! I also assumed that risk the moment I released the arrow. I started it and I'll do my best to finish it as quickly as possible. I'm jubilant when I reach journey's end. 'I put my hands on him and snap a quick pic and then move on...'

SCI has done nothing to cloud my opinion. I am still first and foremost a "meat hunter". If anything, SCI has heightened by sense of conservation and hunting for all the right reasons.

And that’s a failure? Which one of you didn’t assess the risks?

This could be debated…it’s done all the time around the world. Bucket loads of carrots are dumped from helicopter in New Zealand, for example. Those carrots are laced with 1080 poison and the intention is to kill every non-indigenous animal. Again, I’m not sure any of us has intentionally left an animal in the woods.

There’s a huge amount of assumption here. A knucklehead? I do not think Christine is a knucklehead, nor is Rob Swanson. Both are skilled competent hunters. Both, to my knowledge have not recovered animals. When Christine finds her deer, I hope the hell she holds it high! She earned it! I will be the first to cheer her!

What about all the kids Mark? Shall we tell them they’re failures too? As a hunter education instructor, I hear stories and see the photos all the time. The kids are extremely jubilant months later. Should we take that away from them? Dang knuckleheads anyway!

I'm happy they were there. I'm happy I was there. I'm not going to diminish that fact or my accomplishments in any way

 

I love bowhunting.

 

I would consider it successful.

I've lost deer, as many of you have, and i've also had other hunters tag my deer and steal them

Both leave you feeling empty inside. So if I came across a deer that i shot a few days prior, yeah, i'd consider it successful

 

I too am trying to wrap my head around the other side of this thing.

"Why launch an arrow when the chance of a non-recovery exists? Why beat yourself up when you know misfortunes are/could be part of the game?"

I can only ask:

Why celebrate it? Why not beat yourself up about it?

I will concede that sometimes circumstances prevent recovery(coyotes, property issues, deer in river, etc) but more often than not it is hunter error, and I am speaking of myself here and while I don't have many unrecovered animals of the ones that I didn't recover all but 1 I lay the blame on myself. You should beat yourself up, you should strive to improve, to make better decisions, you should analyze the hunt/situation and identify mistakes so you can keep from doing the same thing in the future. That doesn't mean I will quit hunting and curl up in the fetal position or I won't wound another deer, but I am much less likely to make many of those mistakes again.

I love the hunt in general, and myslef and family have many great memories of hunting and camp that don't involve killing deer or "success" in that sense. But I can assure you if/when one of my kids makes a bad decision while hunting, a bad shot that leads to an unrecovered deer...while I would not be as hard on them as I myself I will certainly try to get them to think about it and see if there was anything they could have done differently that could have changed the outcome. That would include all of the good things about their hunt, "hey you had a good set up, you sat still, you did the right things after the shot, etc"....but it's not helping them if you just say "well it was a great hunt too bad we didn't find the deer". Or you find it weeks later and say "yay we found it, what a sense of closure we have now". Years later your talking about that hunt and your all like "Remember that great hunt we had that morning with the light snow, ah man it was a beautiful day and that deer did just what we thought he would do. Remember when you gut shot him and we never found him til Christmas? That's the good stuff right there!"

I'm sure I'm oversimplifying it and I have no doubt that if someone finds a deer(buck) they shot later there is some sense of relief there, I just can't see myself being thrilled about the situation as a whole.

The way I'm hunting this season I really don't have to worry about any of this, I suck.

 

Why did you specify "big deer"??


Are you saying it would be OK to do it to a "small deer"..........or that you know people who do it with "small deer".


Just curious.

 

Have you ever been in this situation? I have and it is certainly nothing to be proud of but it does bring about much needed closure. When I found my buck, I was ecstatic. I made a euro mount of him but am always ashamed to tell the story anytime someone asks.

 

Why? I can see not being proud......but, being "ashamed"? I don't get that.

Listen, every time we don't go to the store and buy our meat we consume, we're assuming a level of risk (in the unsuccessful recovery of the animals we hunt). Choose a bow (compound/trad. not even computed) over a rifle/shotgun/ML...and you've assumed a higher risk than many. What level of risk you're willing to shoulder is highly personal.

There are no bowhunting Jesus's. You've either: 1. Lost an animal; 2. Haven't been hunting long enough or 3. You;re a liar.

We do every reasonable thing within our power to ensure those times (above) are mitigated. The rest - we live with.

I didn't "celebrate" my late recovery. But "ashamed"? Hell no, I'm not ashamed.

 

I didn't, you did! And No, I din't say it was OK, only a third grader could come up with that assumption from what I said. Read it again, then ask me an adult size question.

 

I don't think anyone questioned attempting something when failure was possible as much as they are the celebration of said failure.

Honestly??.........you blow an arrow through a deer's guts and it limps off to suffer and die a horrible death because of your incompetence and you wouldn't feel bad at all or consider what you did a failure??


That's cold.

I didn't think anyone said they had.

You said above you wouldn't beat yourself up over a wounded or lost animal........what did you lose sleep over then?

Your statement that you couldn't imagine someone hunting for meat was the only reason I said your deep roots in SCI may cloud that viewpoint as surely your SCI pals are not the best example of the "meat first" crowd.

I don't know who Rob is but if I remember correctly Christine was not exactly happy with herself for bumbling the shot.

Should we not care at all Will???............just walk away and say "Who cares??......at least I tried."

What exactly would you be cheering about?

When they fail???.................YES!!!

I'm not a big fan of the everybody gets a trophy just for trying mentality.

Why not be honest with them and tell them what they did is nothing worthy of celebration...........and then get to work doing what is needed to hopefully avoid it becoming a habit. Celebrating failure will make them better hunters how again?

I just don't view a lost or wounded animal as an accomplishment I guess.

 

Really??? Show me where.

I never said you did.

Read it again and answer it like an adult..........they're your words, you specified "big deer".........I asked why.

 

Here is the answer to your last question, but the ones that did this are brown and downers, you know freezer fillers, not trophy hunters. And these were taged!

For the record, this is not to say that anyone on this site would do such a thing.

 

I'm not answering for Will here but failure Isn't always a bad thing. Mistakes and not so good hunting experiences can be ones best teacher.

 

Ha Haaa.. I know you are, but what am I. Come on Pe wee you can do better

I tell you what, If ruttnutt and Christine find their big bucks and we have party, your not invited, hows that, and nether is anyone else that would be ashamed.

I love this stuff.

 

If you associate yourself with people that do thing like the photo I posted, then "SHAME ON YOU" If not it has nothing to do with you, even put this in there so you could understand,