Some recent threads accompanied by off season fever got my wheels to turning...every year we hear guys blame equipment all the time, but the shooter seams to avoid the blame 99% of the time. You all heard it before, double lunged my 170 and the (insert any mech name hear) failed to open, opened early etc...I never found the arrow because it was still in the deer, but I just know it failed Now the deer below was shot with a rage 2 blade at a farily hard quartering to angle and obviously hit the nuckle and bounced out. I posted the pic a year or 2 ago in a similar thread but had no story, only this picture from a guy down the road from us. Sitting at the bow shop yesterday and a gentleman who hunts near us strolls in. After awhile he begins telling me of a big NT he shot with a rage and the blades opened early, broke off and gave him zero penetration, costed him the deer of a lifetime he says. When he explains the deer he mentioned a huge ball shaped growth one side but could not remember. It clicked in my head about this deer, so later when he begins to leave I pull up photo bucket on the shop PC and show him. I did this quietly and only to him (would never try and embarass anyone) under the guise of some new growth pics I wanted to show him and ask him was this the deer. un expectedly he says yes, and begins to tell me how this would have been his biggest deer with a bow and he could not stand it any longer, he had to "just get one in him" and that was it... I would be willing to believe that a great deal of broadhead errors are the shooter, almost all of them if you ask me. I will become QUICKSILVER for a brief second and say the reason broadheads are constanly blamed is because marketing is so great for rage, Nap etc that the average joe buys them up, looking for a crutch, because he is not that good of a shot to begin with and when they loose/miss deer they point fingers instead of accepting the fact they are not a very good shot in general and no matter what they use, they will b unsuccessful most of the time. A mans ego gets in the way, and the next thing you know a guy who cannot shoot for nothing saw a broadhead open in flight and dive left...all at 300 fps inside 20 yards.......What say ye???
Sounds pretty spot on to me Ego is a funny thing. I'm constantly tripping over mine even though I take care to watch for and avoid it... Unfortunately, there are many who stumble unaware. ... wait, does that sound egotistical? :D
I would willing to say that with todays Bows, a mechanical that has prematurly opened would still penetrate and likely pass through given the shot was placed where its supposed to be. Lack of patience and poor judgement on shots is usually the cause and as you said, equipment takes the blame most of the time! good thread.
Well said.....You can never practice too much. We owe it not only to ourselves but to the game we hunt........
Things will malfunction once in awhile but it is mostly the shooter, But alot of people think it's easier to blame something or someone else for their mistakes in life.
This not only happens in bowhunting but, in all hunting. I have seen guys go from closing day to opening day and not take a single shot and head out into the woods without sighting in their scopes on their rifles or sights on their bows. Next thing you know they are telling a story about That da** deer moved at the same time I pulled my trigger or the arrow hit a branch or the deer jumped that arrow. Truth be old even if their weapon of choice was dead on they probably wouldn't hit the animal anyways due to not practicing. It is very rare you here a prepared hunter that practices year round say something like that. Their story usually consist of a phrase similar to "man, I can't believe I missed" They can also tell you exactly what they did wrong. I flinched or torqued or something. That is why I practice every scenario I can imagine happening and practice as much as I can. If I miss I will know why so I try not to do it the next time. Nice post michealp.
This is funny and hits the nail right on the head! I hear more equipment failure stories than successful kill stories it seems. I for one have never had an equipment failure (knock on wood)
Agree 100% that's why I take everything I read with a grain of salt. I love testing new products and I test a lot and its really not that common for me to find a product that I think won't perform well if used properly.
Todays day and age is not due to faulty equipment... it is due to lack of experience, knowledge, and mostly practice. Practicing with a field tip all summer while tweeking and tuning your bow is fun, but come archery season.... Learn how your BH's shoot and take the time to study the animals anatomy your hunting. Ive been archery hunting for 10 years and I still learn something new every day.... This sport requires people to become sponges to info and tune out all the marketing BS..... Just my 2 cents
I agree 100% with this, I will also take it a step further and say anything Men do in life has a ready made excuse built in...bowhunting/hunting just happens to be alone, unless you film so you can say anyhing you want.
Accurate shot here. I know guys who don't even think about a bow until Sept. 29th, then they go out, take 5 shots, hit the target and are all set.
Sticksnstringsarchery Not one for bashing so I'll inform you that I shoot 3 times a week and am in the bush once a week year round scouting . Have bow hunted for 20 years now and have taken some great deer. Just to let you know,deer do jump the string,I had one duck my shot 6 years ago at 17 yards and ended up hitting him just below the spine. He lived and was taken 2 years later from the same stand. I also had a deer that was walking and was at 20 yards in the last light of the day. He was a deer I call High Top whom I've been hunting for the last 5 years. He would have gone 190 then and is over 210 now. I ended up hitting him a bit far back and he's made it to this day. I'll admit I should not have taken the shot. So for you to say hunters don't admit to things is a bit far fetched. I'm a schooled hunter and have the respect from others online here. I don't say a whole lot on line but when I do it's for a reason. When verbally bashing a fellow hunter take into account to whom you are pointing fingers at,that actually should be done via Private messaging. PS. from a hunter who actually cares Rocky
youngfart, I don't think sticks is saying all hunters do this all the time. It sounded to me like he was just venting about the guys that don't get prepared for the season and then blame equipment or wound animals. Considering what you do to prepare yourself, I think you and him and probably on the same page. I worked at a sporting goods store for a bit, and got to witness some of the stuff that SNS was talking about. When a guy pulls up in a truck with a deer that has five holes in it and only one was a kill shot you get a sinking feeling in your gut. When you hear that the animal had a couple legs blown off, was shot through the mouth, spined and then the kill was made, it becomes a lot harder to congratulate no matter what the rack size. When I bought my first set of broadheads, I asked a very knowledgeable bowhunter which ones he thought were the best. His answer was the most truthful one I've heard to date: Most all broadheads on the market today, will kill a deer if you shoot them in the vitals, they're going to die.
Well, I am new to this board here, and new to bowhunting. But have been rifle hunting, upland game, waterfowl, and fishing pretty much my whole life. First, I will go on the record and say it is nearly always the hunter and rarely the equipment. I want to take a slightly different angle on this though and ask if there isn't an evironment that just can't allow a hunter to miss due to their own skill. What I mean is, there is a prevailing sentiment right now that deer hunting is "easy" and if you miss, or don't get a deer, you are just darn near worthless. Look at what the public, both hunting and non-hunting sees. On TV, you see the pro hunters passing on fields with dozens of deer in them. They show these guys talking, deer passing by within feet of a blind so on. Whether people realize it or not, they also show those taking taking a ton of crappy shots. Either that or a good number just can't aim. I had this a few years ago in a sense. I was talking with a non-hunting friend of mine about 2 deer I took on opening day within 30 minutes of each other, before about 9:00 in the morning. Without getting into specifics, I was kind of proud of this. His response was simply "yeah, there's a lot of deer out there right now," which I could tell meant in his mind that deer hunting was about as easy as it gets. Admittedly, I haven't spent as much time prowling around this board yet, but been on plenty of others. What I see is that when someone has a miss, they are met with lots of ridicule and teasing, most of it playful, but teasing nonetheless. Now, in fairness, my experience on this board so far has been beyond exeptional, so don't take this as me pointing fingers here. Sometimes they are met with outright scorn. I had that in the 2009 season where I took a closing day, last light dhost at a doe and she ran from me. I know she was hit, and spent nearly 3 hours in 20 degree weather looking for her. I felt terrible. I did find her the next day and posted a question on a board about whether or not I could still harvest her. Sure enough, I had two people come on and start chastizing me about how I never shold have taken the shot if I could get a clean kill, etc. Again, I know there are plenty of guys in the field that shouldn't be. Guys like what have been mentioned that never take a shot before season, don't site their rifles and so on. They fit my definition of slob hunters (although a slob hunter can also be much more than that). On the other hand though, do we really "allow" people to legitimatly miss a shot? Pretty much in all types of hunting, and I would also say fishing - the answer is that we don't.
plain and simple. hunting is all a game. you must practice and pick the right play. you practice shooting and you make the right shot you are going to win the game.
Things happen in the deer woods. If someone prepares themselves as best as they can, they are good in my book.
Couldnt agree more!! Archery equipment has advanced so much in the last decade its hardly an excuse to blame equipment on a poor shot.
