I will not fully take his side but I cant stand how others are treating him also. Come on, were all working people here. Are you telling me if you have limited time to hunt and have work or family obligations the next day you just wont hunt? I have a hard time believing that. If I read things right he even took off work to go look. I agree, 3 hours is weak. Sun comes up a little after 6 and he posted at noon, so should have been able to get 6 hours at least. And Id think he could have stayed later as well, but Im not in his shoes so I don't know. I also agree that taking the kids to go look would have been a good idea. But maybe he couldn't, I don't know the whole story. I can say, I have gone hunting plenty of times knowing I had work or something the next day. My time in the woods is limited and Im not missing a day expecting the worse. If the worse happens Ill do everything I can to recover the animal, but Im sure there would have been times I would have been in a pinch if I made a mistake. Running the guy down for this wont help a thing. I understand trying to help, but remember you arnt there and don't know what hes going through. Maybe he could have done more...probably, but we don't know honestly.
My youngest is 2. My wife is working and wont be home till 9ish. I spent the time I had available covering as much ground as I could. My next oppurtunity to go out is Sunday, a non hunting day in our state. Its not that I dont want to take the time. I just dont have it available. And to those that say I wont be back, your probably right. Its not bad enough that I am completely disgusted with my self for not knowing what went wrong, but your attitudes are totally uncalled for. Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk
Justin if he would have shot that deer went back in and gave a good effort looking for that deer the comments would have been totally different. I doubt there are many here that havent lost a deer or made a poor shot but I dont think very many would have said I looked for a while good enough. You have two young kids like him and hunt a ways from your house are you saying you would do the same?
Couple things the guy said the hunting spot was an hour away, that is 2 hours round trip plus 3 hours looking. Not once did the OP say he had to babysit his kids, I admire that pisses me off when some dads consider looking after their kids as babysitting. It is an unfortunate situation, I am sure it is eating at him. Sometimes life happens and things get in the way.
You can't compare my situation to someone else's. I'm fortunate enough to have some family and friends close by that could help watch my kids in the event I needed to stay an extra day or be out late. Maybe he doesn't have that. As he said his wife works until 9 and he has to pick them up. If I was in his situation there is no choice to make. You pick up your kids and do the right thing. By no means am I saying what he did was 100% appropriate. I agree some additional time and effort to recover that animal is warranted here. But if he simply doesn't have it, he doesn't have it. Life doesn't stop when you shoot a deer.
While I think you could have looked longer the guys here are being very hard on you. Over all family is the number one commitment and should be in your life. Go back out when you can and look some more to hopefully recover the rack at least. Seem a bunch here would rather see you in divorce court than to be responsible to your family. You may not be able to recover it no matter how much time you send out there. It's a tough reality . Not many can say they have never lost a deer even though they spent tremendous amounts of time looking.
Look dude. We were hard on you. Sorry for that. Justin is right in that we should offer ideas to help. Like looking more! Or using dogs! Or anything. As a clarification I wasn't saying you personally don't deserve to hunt. I was saying you don't deserve to hunt an animal you don't show respect. Time to show the animal respect. Life isn't perfect. As Justin said we make mistakes. I have made far worse mistakes hunting than this. It is our actions after these mistakes that define us as hunters.
Man Justin, I'm glad you finally chimed in. I was really starting to feel bad for this guy and I know he already had to feel bad enough for himself and the animal. Nobody wants this to happen. Being new to the forum, I was really starting to wonder if I wanted anything to do with it again myself! I hesitate to even post this comment because I'm sure it will be chastised. You restored my faith.
You shouldn't get chastised. Yeah, OP could have done some things differently but that is no reason for people to tee off on him with a holier than thou attitude. Last time I checked, it was God>Family>Hunting. Not God>Hunting>Family. Priorities are what's wrong with this country. Should OP have spent some more time looking? Heck yeah. Should that deer take priority over family obligations/duties? Never. Hunting is something we do to put food on the table or because we enjoy it. Our families are what we live for.
I will have to say this site and some of the people surprise me from time to time. Pretty sure there was just a thread not long ago where someone said their new wife was letting him hunt on their honeymoon. That guy all but got blasted for not spending family time when he should of been to go hunt. Now we have a guy that is doin the family first thing and still gets blasted. Now I understand this is different because we're talking about a potentially wounded or dead animal but he already did more than I would of done meaning taking off work. If I called my boss tonight and said hey I can't come in tomorrow because I have to look for a deer he'd probably tell me not to worry about coming in the next day either. Yet here I sit in a tree stand. But I'm not goin to take a shot that will put me into a situation where the deer isn't recovered by with in a couple hours. Perhaps that's a lesson that should be emphasized upon this guy instead of blasting him and telling him to give up hunting. Yes I agree 3 hours might not have been enough time to say well forget it, but I don't know anything about where he hunts or anything else. From what I gather that's a hour from home so right there we're talking 5 hour round trip, if everything goes right. How many of you would risk your kids being left at school or wherever. Sure maybe there's a neighbor or family member but for some people there's not. Not to mention depending on property how many times should you go over it before saying that's it? I can cover the entire property I hunt in 3 hours and it's 400 acres. But it's open farm ground with draws here and there that can be walked in no time. It's kind of a bad situation all around but instead of hammering someone for decisions that are theirs and theirs alone this could be a very good time for something to be learned. It doesn't sound like he's too happy how it played out so I'm sure attacks in his integrity or motivation are not helping.
Thank god Justin came in here and was respectful and not a tool... To you other guys. Seriously?!?!?! Do you guys always take the last 2 days off of a hunt "just in case" you wound an animal? Especially you guys that hunt out of state... Say your tag Isn't punched on the last day. Are you just going to sit there and not hunt that final day? Doubt it....
I’ll probably get flamed for this but here goes. This statement is more about the attitude in general and not this specific OP’s situation. I don’t get this find the deer at all cost attitude that I see on this site on a regular basis. Like there is some moral victory when you find the deer 3 days later half eaten by coyotes. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t put in a reasonable effort, but most people hunt to get meat for their families. Once the time has passed where the meat will no longer be salvageable, there is no reason to keep searching in my opinion. In hot weather/early season this could be a fairly short period of time relatively speaking. For one, the odds of finding the deer after that length of time are slim, and two, the end result is the same. The deer is left for the scavengers to consume. Whether you found the deer or not, that end result is exactly the same. How is it better to find a spoiled deer and leave it to the coyotes vs not finding it and leaving it to the coyotes? Other than “closure” or whatever other feel good emotion you want to assign to it, there is absolutely no difference. A couple of years ago, I hit a deer too far back about 2 hours before dark. I gave it an hour and looked for blood. I couldn’t find blood. I spent about 4 hours looking that night and then came back the next morning. I searched for another 8 hours that day with no sign to follow at all. The temperatures that day got pretty warm (I was actually searching in shorts) and I knew by the next morning (second morning since the hit) that the meat would no longer be any good so I did not take off work and continue to search. What was the point? I wasn’t going to be able to eat the meat at that point. I did find the doe the next weekend and learned a valuable lesson about not shooting at alert deer and learned that the escape path she took was one that was totally unexpected. If I could have just found a drop or two of blood to point me in the right direction I could have found her in time but I didn’t. I felt bad about it. But had I taken that second morning off work and found her vs finding her the following weekend, the end result would have been the same. I would not have taken her out of the woods after she was already unfit for human consumption. For the record, I would have done the same thing if it were a 150 class buck instead of a doe. That shouldn’t change your actions. Even if it were a 150 class buck, I don’t think I could display the rack and tell everyone I “got” the deer. If the deer evaded me long enough for the meat to spoil then he essentially “won” if you want to put it in those terms and I could not feel good displaying the rack as if I had made a perfect double lung shot and watched him go down before he got out of sight. Recovering his rack would not make me feel any better and would not be a moral victory in any way for me. To each his own I guess.
I completely agree with this. Everyone puts the deer on a pedestal, when the majority of us hunt for the meat.... If the meats spoiled, what's the point?
This thread has been great I think what got everybody's panties in a bunch was the 3 hour search. That sounded really weak. How can you take the day off work and only spend 3 hours looking? Whatever, I hope the OP finds his deer.
“A man should never be ashamed to own that he has been in the wrong, which is but saying in other words that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.” ― Alexander Pope All you can hope for in life is to live and learn,....
I guess everyone has their own opinion and thoughts after shooting a decent buck. I made my comments because I do not have a family... By no means am I judging anyone, and understand that situations differ, but if I were in his shoes I would be out looking for at least the antlers. That's just me. I guess I put deer on a pedestal. Nothing wrong with that. I still have an opinion and like to voice it. This is a forum... People will be *******s and people will act as saints. In my opinion a forum is a place to discuss ones opinion weather the others like it or not... Weather you're being told what you do/don't want to hear. Take it in stride and take what you want and treat it as a learning experience. I hope OP finds his deer. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
This turned into a sack rider convention! Lol Unless everyone in our group agrees to the possibility of staying an extra day to retrieve game, we don't hunt the last afternoon of any trip. Seems like remedial ethics to me.
The only thing that is more sad that the OP thinks three hours was enough time to look for a deer he shot is the people defending him.
