lesson learned the hard way.....Booner down.

Well guys I had the opportunity I've been waiting for all season and I pulled a hack shot on a mega giant of a whitetail.
I went out the other day at 1:00 and climbed into a lone wolf which i had just hung the day before to get closer to the edge of the bedding where I had seen the big buck the previous night with a doe. At about 1:40 I see a buck fawn come out and he works by me, shortly after a doe fawn comes off the same hillside she keeps looking back. She works down the hill and I hear that loud step coming, I look and see a wall of tines headed my way down the thick ditch my previous buck took. He's either gonna go left or right and I'm hoping like hell he comes right. Low and behold he goes left and I look ahead to the logging road and range a tree it's 46yds. I quickly adjust my dial and wait for him to step out. He comes into the road and I get him to stop and launch one right over his back and he bounds back into the ditch. I didn't know it at the time but he stepped out of frame when I shot. I then quickly turn camera and he's coming back to the same spot. I adjust the dial to 43yds and he walks out and I never stop him.....arrow in flight he steps forward and wammooo gut city on a brute. He turns and bounds 35yds and stands there in the brush for 17 minutes like statue. He then Twitches his tail about 12 times super fast and starts to walk slowly towards a thicket . I waited 30 minutes climbed down and got out of there. Went back the next day at 7:30 after waiting 20 hours and instantly find the arrow covered in blood and a good blood trail right away. It's great for 75yds and then drops. I find a bed with a couple drops then some more good spots and another bed with more drops 20yds later. Then I come to a Y in the trail and I'm looking at the ground and hear a commotion in front of me. He stands up 25 yds away in the brush blows at me takes two bounds and walks away for about 80-100yds . I instantly turned around and got out of there again. I gave him another full 24 hours and went back with a friend to help me grid search the area and we could not find blood or the deer past the pat bed we searched and searched thru some pretty thick stuff. Decided to call it a day after day 3 with no luck of locating the animal at this point I had searched and was pretty sure I was gonna need a blood hound to find this animal. So I finally called in the professional and on day 4 we met at the farm and the dog took up the trail and it didn't take long for the dog to recover the animal he had doubled back on me from the last bed and was actually less than 100yds from that bed when recovererd in some thick nasty brush.
The end result is this, no deer is ever worth a rushed shot if it's not right let it walk, I've lived this hell first hand now and know what I did was not the right thing to do by shooting a walking animal, I accept that and realized I needed to do everything in my power to recover this animal I owed it to him to say the least. I'm so happy this whole ordeal is over he's recovered and I can move on and learn from this experience.

 

Great buck! Pics, not so much. Congrats either way.

 

You're having a hell of a year. Live and learn, glad it turned out alright for you.

 

Hope you did learn from it and others do as well. These are the types of decisions that get made with the big buck at all costs mentality that comes along with deer videos.

It is a tremendous buck, way to go putting yourself in position to take the animal.

Why is there a brow tine in some photos but missing in others?

 

I think that last photo is the pic of the 1st buck he killed this year.....

 

Thanks. Hard to really see any detail with them being attached photos viewing on my phone.

 

Nice buck! Glad you found him.

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Congrats on a nice buck glad you were able to recover him

 

The last photo is both bucks of 2016

 

IMO it's not just a "videos" related problem, it's a "kill at all costs" mentality that runs rampant throughout the deer hunting community. The thing is most of the time you never see the shot because the majority of people aren't filming their hunts. You simply see a photo of a deer show up on social media or a forum and everyone starts with the congrats and pats on the back, which is what the hunter is looking for. We're actually enabling people to make these poor decisions when we like or share their posts and talk about what great hunters they are.

Taking a pot shot at a moving, spooked animal at 40+ yards is a prime example of the "I just want to get an arrow into him" mentality that results in untold lost animals every year. This footage won't be used on Bowhunt or Die because we don't feel it's an accurate representation of what we stand for.

It was a poor decision that hopefully results in not just Richie, but anyone reading this, learning a lesson. Have patience, wait for the animal to get close and for an ethical shot opportunity before releasing an arrow. If the animal gets away, that's okay. He won that battle. Maybe you'll get him next time.

 

As a relatively new bow hunter (3 years) and an avid BHOD fan, I'm a little disappointed with that decision. I recognize that you and the crew must weigh the value of airing video content and, obviously, some hunts have to be left on the proverbial cutting room floor.

However, one of the things I really like about your show is that hunts are not sugarcoated--you guys do a good job of discussing the good and bad about a hunt. I think this hunt could prove to be very educational as there are several good and bad aspects to discuss. On a positive side, I think Richie recognizes that he shouldn't have rushed the shot or, for that matter, even taken a 40 yard shot on a moving/spooked animal. I also give him a lot of credit for trying to do the right thing to recover the animal--backing out after the shot, coming back for a multi-day recovery and also bringing in a tracking dog when things got really tough. On the other hand, there are clearly shot decisions and strategies that need to be carefully analyzed and weighed in this situation.

I would really like to see the video and hear the discussion on this hunt--especially from Richie himself, and from you and Todd. One of your best episodes was Alford's double buck hunt with his (admittedly) poor decision to take his shot on the second buck. That discussion was very valuable to me as a new bow hunter.

Either way, however, I appreciate your candor on the other hunts you show. I've learned a lot about ethical archery shots from your show (what to do and what not to do)--in fact, a week ago I passed on a 17 yard shot of a huge buck whose body was fully obscured by corn (he was broadside by his direction of travel, but I had no view of his chest). My hunting partner shot him later that day from another stand (175" green, 14 pointer). I'm proud of my decision not to shoot and I owe that to hunters that are willing to remove the bravado and talk candidly about how we hunt and when not to release the arrow.

 

I agree. I believe it doesn't have to be all negative. The way you guys try not to sugarcoat things is a big part of why I watch the show. It's another learning experience and should be used to teach others in our sport what not to do when it comes to shot decisions. Why be like the other shows and cut it out? That's what makes your show different.

 

I learned the same lesson the hard way too.
The first buck I ever put an arrow in, I didn't wait for him to full stop before letting the arrow fly, too use to gun hunting where at 20 yards it didn't really make a huge difference if the deer was slowing walking.

We tracked that deer for hours following good blood, no blood, some blood, etc.
Finally had to call it quits, 2 days later my neighbor also a bow hunter took up the trail for me from where we last marked the trail. He then was able to try to track for another couple hours into his property

Never found that deer, and I'm sure some guys here know that feeling, that horrible horrible down in your gut feeling is just terrible.

 

I appreciate that and we've struggled with which hunts/shots to show and which not to show over the years. We're still going to show as much real world bowhunting as we can but like many things in life there's a point of diminishing returns. Things go wrong from time to time and we're going to show that. Someone clips a branch or the deer drops/ducks at the shot. Things happen. However there's a large difference between taking a poor shot and making a poor shot.

I used to share this same belief, however I believe we teach more through leading by example rather than doing something and then telling others not to do it. He would have been much better served to pass the shot on that animal, get some great video of it, and tell everyone "Man, I would've loved to have shot that buck but he was just too far and I didn't feel comfortable with the shot."

Let's say we want to teach our kids not to smoke cigarettes or chew tobacco. Do we smoke cigarettes knowing that we shouldn't, then tell them not to do it after we get sick from it?

Quite simply because it's the right thing to do. Using it on the show, even if we jump on his case about it, promotes the fact that there are no consequences for our team members when they choose to make poor decisions. Take a shot that's too far? Too dark? Through brush? Terrible angle? Doesn't matter! We'll still use it! Just kill the deer at all costs and you can have your face on the front of our website, or a magazine, or a social media post, etc. Once again it furthers the incentive for people to make poor choices, which is not what we're about.

This isn't the first hunt we've elected not to use on the show, it's just the first one that's been brought into the public light.

 

I can respect that answer

 

I pray this mentality and thought guides EVERYTHING you guys do. Perfectly put Justin, PERFECTLY. Right decision on not showing, right decision on calling it what it is, right decision on Richie full admittance.

 

Justin I think you wrote a couple of the best posts on here in A LONG TIME! It almost seams to be getting crazy with the stories and pictures about guys taking whatever shot they have just to try and kill an animal. The stories usually start out with I have the up most respect for these animals and most of the time you can tell that is BS! They want to get patted on the back and told they are a great hunter, they worked hard for the animal and get as many "likes" and congrats as they can. If you take a bad shot and were actually ashamed or embarrassed you took the shot would you take a modeling photo shoot amount of pictures and plaster them as many places as you can...I think not. I was told recently by a guy that all he had was a quartering too shot so he aimed back and let it fly. He said he knew before he shot that he was going to leave the buck sit over night...let that sink in for a minute...if you know before you even shoot that you need to leave the animal lay over night you don't give a **** about anything but killing a big buck. You hope that some people would learn from this but a lot of the times you know that person would take the same shot again the next time a big buck steps out.

 

Cudos for not airing it. That isn't an easy call to make, but you guys made the decision and stuck with it.

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I respect this answers also, but I do think these things do need to be talked about. How about something on the show about bad shots and what shots are worth taking and what are not. Im not saying to show the shots but shot placement and examples hitting targets from a stand...?? Sometimes people need to be re-educated or reminded that risky shots are in everyones mind and never a good idea. Actually more teaching in the show period would be great. Just a thought..

 

I think that deciding not to air the footage is the overall in best interest of all sides the correct decision. Kudos to the BHOD crew to not air the footage.

As far as taking poor shots or unethical shots, I think that every hunter will have some experience or story to tell sooner or later. It doesn't make it right, but everyone goes through it. When a hunter sees the largest buck he has ever laid eyes on (could be a world class whitetail, or just a the biggest buck they have seen to that point), a lot goes on in their head very quickly. It's very hard to process. We think things like: That'll look so nice on my wall, man is my family going to be excited, my friends are finally going to think I am a great hunter, I have to put an arrow in that deer, OMG he's a monster, I can see the pictures and Facebook likes already, this memory is going to last forever, etc. Unfortunately thoughts like these drive us to take shots we know are poor or unethical. We do things we normally wouldn't do on a doe or small buck. In situations like these we need to take a step back and learn from them. BHOD is taking this as an opportunity to teach others so they don't have to learn the same lesson that Richie learned.

I myself personally have learned this when I was 16. I had passed up a smaller buck a couple weeks earlier due to no shot. I was criticized by my friends and family about not taking the shot. The thought of failure was on my shoulders and I wanted to shoot a buck so bad. It was the last day of the bow season before the start of gun. Early in the afternoon I decided to do some rattling. I never had any success with rattling but thought I had nothing to lose. I rattled in the biggest buck I'd had seen to that point. Boy can I remember how my heart was jumping out of my chest! Anyway I thought, I have to take a shot at this buck no matter what. As he was coming through he stopped with his vitals behind some brush. At that moment it was now or never so I aimed for his guts and put an arrow in him. At 16 I knew this was wrong and a poor shot but didn't want to have failed like before. At that moment I had failed anyway regardless of what would happen. The buck ran with an arrow in his side. We couldn't find him that night so looked in the morning. We luckily recovered the buck but that didn't make it right. I felt so relieved that we found him, however I always think back to that and how it was the wrong decision. I urge others to learn from mistakes like myself and Richie.

Thanks for reading,

Tim