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

I don't see where Will Is saying that he's patting a kid on the back. What I would say and what I believe Will would say Is congratulation's, there ya go. What did you learn from this hunt? If Indeed the hunter screwed up I'd say take this expierence and make yourself a better hunter. One nasty bad expierence as a young hunter can screw a kid forever In his/her Identity as a hunter. Make the best of a situation I guess. By no means am I condoning the fact wounding animals Isn't a bad thing. I've wounded 2 In 25 years of bowhunting only. I take pride In what I do. What I've saw from others (wounded animals) has made me a better bowhunter. Something good can come out of bad things.

 

[QUOTE Relax, brother.... relax. I was just pinging on the way you worded what you said. The way it reads, all of us who hunt to put the venison in our freezers can be lumped into the "if it's brown it's down" category. QUOTE]
I was just going to PM you to explain, when you replied. We get it!

 

Sorry Chief, gotch ya.

 

Because you don't do any of those things planning on a bad outcome. Potential for them to happen? Sure. But I've never stepped up to a tee shot planning on it slicing. And if it did I sure the hell wouldn't be rejoicing in it. Even if I did find the ball in the woods OB.

Not ignoring the risks. In fact being well aware of them. You can only do everything in your power to avoid them. But when/if they happen I dont' see how you can be happy about them. I'm sure Peyton Manning isn't rejoicing over his 11 interceptions in the last 3 games. He prepared the best he could (i'm sure) but still threw them. He didnt' look overly excited about it in his press conference (even though ultimately he threw for 360 yards during the rest of the game)

 

We can get into an argument about the definition of 'bumbled' shots now.

In my heart, I don't feel I really 'bumbled' this shot. (tho' I certainly have bumbled shots..)

I didn't want to stop the buck because I felt an alert deer was worse than a walking deer. This is public land with high hunting pressure on the surrounding properties as well. Some of these deer are the epitome of 'high strung'. When I hit him... I knew it was farther back than I wanted.. and then I started beating myself up for not stopping him... -but- Last year I shot at an alert, stopped buck and he wheeled around before the arrow hit him and that hit really sucked. Damned if you do.. damned if you don't.

So.. Yeah the shot was not what I wanted.. but wishing it was different will get me nowhere.. and to further my frustration.... I've shot two other deer in about the same anatomical spot in the past five years and one went 40 yards and the other went 60 yards. Also, this buck could have fallen into most sections of that river and I'd have recovered him easily... but no...

 

Reading that... it looks like I'm trying to make myself feel better by rationalizing it..


But trust me... I don't feel any better at all.

 

Not for me. I can't hit the broadside of a barn with a gun.

 

So you know people that do it to "small deer"..........that's all I asked. Not sure why that ruffled your feathers so much.


The one who did this was a "trophy hunter" so I guess how someone hunts has nothing to do with it.

 

From the guy telling others to act like an adult.


LOL

 

Look up the differnce between Poachers and Trophy hunters.
Teach yourself something, your not to old.

 

A license and tags?

 

Gentlemen.. let's be sure to keep this thread clean.

 

At least I'm not trying to tell them they are a failure or to be ashamed because a deer took a step when they shot or it jumped in the river. Get real. If you are ashamed, it's because you did something to be ashamed of, not something thats out of your control

 

Hey Silver...curious, that pic of the deer, what is that? Looks to me like they took the backstraps and quarters off of them, and scrapped the rest. (except the shoulders are on the smallest one still)
Maybe I can't see the pic clearly enough.

That is typically what I do....I take all 4 quarters, the inner loins, and backstraps...and the neck if its not a pencil. Our deer don't have any meat on the ribs, they are small mountain deer.

 

I think we can all agree on a few things:
A.) We all do as much as we can to prevent wounding critters we hunt. (The goal is to "harvest" animals afterall, not lose them.)
B.) We all do everything in our means to recover the animals we hit. (Some people's means are greater or lesser than others but I believe we all put in an honest and serious effort.)
C.) We all feel like crap for losing an animal when it happens for whatever reason.
D.) We all learn from the experience and eventually move on to hunt another day.

So what's all the childish bickering about here? Accept that we all have individual experiences that are different from one another and that we are all individuals. I know how crappy I feel for wounding an animal and I know how I deal with and learn from it. How you deal with it, learn from it and move on is up to you to decide for yourself. I respect that for everyone. Stuff happens. Let's get over it.

 

Spot on Rob

 

I'm not saying be ashamed(not sure anyone is saying that) I just aint celebrating it either, ecspecially if I screwed up. And therein lies part of the problem, a lot of times(not all) the mistakes are within our control and generally come down to maybe I should have waited or just dealt with not getting a shot that day. I WANT to be my harshest critic and analyze what I could have done differently because most of the time there is something, even if it's something small. Me personally and this is JUST ME, I don't want the it happens to all of us speech.

I think it was Schultzy who said earlier he has wounded 2 deer in 25 years(I find that very impressive), I bet an equally important number is how many deer Schultzy has let walk because something, no matter how small, wasn't quite right. I wound less deer now than when I was younger, I also take less shots. Coincidence, I think not.