mobow

Well, it's that time of year again. We're all headed to the woods after 8 months or so off, and we are all teeming w/ excitement! We've all been there. We make what we think is a great shot, only to have trouble recovering our game. It's bowhunting, if it were easy, everyone would do it!

Here's the thing. Anti hunters are everywhere and will stop at nothing to take away our rights to hunt. The last thing we need is to give them the ammunition they need. With this in mind, I thought I would take it upon myself to answer the most commonly asked question on the HNI forums in the fall. We've all read them. "I hit one, but can't find it. What do I do?"

Rob will post his annual game recovery thread, so I'm not going to go into that. I don't want to steal his thunder, I want to specifically address the "I can't find it" syndrome.

The answer really is very, very simple. If there is blood on the arrow, you've obviously hit the animal. If you can't find blood on the ground, it doesn't matter, you've still hit the animal. Not every shot is fatal, but I'm not getting into all of that either.

Here's the answer. You don't stop looking until you've either found the animal, have become convinced it's a non fatal hit, or you've absolutely exhausted every option available. In short, DON'T GIVE UP!!!

Let's try hard this year to avoid those posts here this year. Thanks for all your hard work, and let's kick butt this year!!!

edit to change thread title.

Greg / MO

I read somewhere once that you're not through looking until you've been on your hands and knees for at least two hours... I couldn't agree more.

I'll also add this to mobow's excellent post: Often times, outside of the mechanical things a person can do in regards to recovery (i.e., proper wait time before taking up the trail, etc...), a successful recovery can boil down to pure attitude. Expect to find the deer.

I say that because the one time I took a guy to my stomping grounds, he arrowed a solid 150-class (I know because I saw the deer come past me moments after the shot, though I didn't know it until after I was having him walk me through the events of the shot sequence). We started looking too soon because he exaggerated the shot placement to me (remember the first golden rule: thy shall not fooleth thyself), so that was one big problem. But... within 15 minutes of looking -- and at the first sign of the blood petering out -- the dude just goes totally pessimistic on me; I'm talking plain negative. I was like, "Man, we've just begun!!"

We never found the deer, even though the next day I talked a friend of mine who owns a plane into taking me up and circling the CRP field he went into about ten times while I looked down with binoculars as he banked the plane on its side.

I'm convinced though that I'll find twenty times as many deer with the exact same shot placement as he can because I expect to. He doesn't, and that makes all the difference in the world.

Washington Hunter

Mobow, I couldn't disagree more. It also really irritates me that people would go so far as to request people not post questions about game recovery.

This is a hunting forum, if you don't want to add fuel to the anti's fire, you may as well tell everybody to keep the pictures of the animals they kill to themselves as well. I mean, we don't want the antis to see that we're actually killing animals, do we?

Animals can be tricky and can pull off some weird stuff that people may have questions about.

A perfect example is a doe my dad shot last december. It was what looked like a perfectly placed shot, ample blood trail, everything pointed towards a dead deer. Six hours and two miles later, we had yet to find her.

There were spots where the blood was litterally pooled in the snow/ice. She would lay down every 200 yards and spew blood, freeze the wound, and then continue on. After she would lay down the blood trail would thin to almost nothing because the wound would freeze. Eventually it would unthaw and the trail would pick up, then the same thing, a pool of blood followed by a thin trail.

Neither one of us had ever seen anything like it. I really wish I had had my digital camera then as I would have loved to have taken pictures of the blood trail when it started. It looked like someone had tossed a water balloon in the air full of blood and it exploded.

We never found her.

Sometimes questions need to be asked and answered, and what better place than HuntingNet.com?

If you don't like to see them, don't read them. Simple as that.Let those of us who are wiling to lend our thoughts take care of it while you ignore them and feel better about yourself because you aren't contributing to the anti's cause.

Greg / MO

Wash Hunter, I agree totally with you... and not to sound like I'm speaking out of both sides of my mouth, because I'm not. I didn't take his thread as not feeling free to come on here and ask for help (maybe I skimmed it too fast?), but as a "let's try to do as much as we can before we post a 'I lost another one' thread"... Hence -- as the way I took it (again, could be wrong...) -- that's why I posted the way I did up above.

I agree completely: Let's not discourage people from seeking help, but let's encourage them to do all they can do while they're out in the field before they give up and come back here.

Greg / MO

Aaah... Now I see the "other" thread which may have precipitated this...

mobow

Wahington Hunter, I agree. But the point I was trying to make is this. How many times do we see that question in the fall? I mean, there are sometimes extenuating circumstances, and even strange, outside of the normal things that sometimes need discussed.

BUT, the point of this thread were to eliminate the repetitive question we seem to ALWAYS get here. "I shot one, looked for a little while, can't find it, now what?"

And I'm sorry, actually, no I'm not, the answer will ALWAYS be the same....KEEP LOOKING! Too many times folks spend a half hour or so looking, then start asking questions. Sometimes it just takes diligence and persistance. Keep at it.

Washington Hunter

Yeah Mobow, I can understand that and you're right for the most part.

We're never going to eliminate them though. We have too many noobs who don't care, honestly. I just think its a battle we'll never win.

mobow

I'm glad Rosa Parks didn't have the "I think it's a battle we will never win" attitude.....

WhitBri

Most of us hunters if we've been at it long enough have put a bad shot on an animal. The difference between the real hunters and the others is how much effort you put into finding it.I've done it too made a bad shot and not recovered the animal and that still makes me sick today and for 2 days after I shot that deer I was in the woods for atleast 6 hours each day looking even after I had lost any sign just doing the needle in a haystack search. But that's why I shoot all summer to practice because I respect my game enough to give it my all not to repeat that mistake, and I know there are a ton of people in this forum that do the same and I applaude all of you, and if don't do everything you can to keep from making those mistakes don't call yourself a real hunter

bawanajim

The biggest thing that causes lost deer iseager bowhunters.If you are not 100% sure your shot went through the heart or lunges or you seen the deer fall wait till morning or if you shot it in the morning give the deer time.Your chances of finding a deer after you jump it from a bed are real slim.
one thing I always do is to shoot an arrow in to the ground where the deer was standing when I shot it.It always looks differant from the ground.Or in the morning.
After the shot slip out of the area andthink things through.

If in dought wait it out!!!!!!!!!