[quote]ORIGINAL: atlasman

Hindsight is always 20/20??

Is that your excuse for knowing nothing about what to do or knowing what to do and not having the willpower to do it because it was a good buck??

You made a terrible shot.......

Lighten up Frances!!!

The guy admits his wrong doing and is asking for advise. His tone suggests that he is more worries about the animal than his trophy. Let's all try and focus on the positives and not dwell on the negative. The guy was out, legally hunting, with a tag, and a big buck surprised him. Adrienne kicked in and time started coming to a crawl. Maybe he rushed the shot, but in his moment of hypertension, he was doing everything right.



CMSCAT50,

You should be looking for that animal the very next morning if this was a sunset shoot. Other than that, all I can do is share my experience on lost animals.

Last year, in S.D., I lost a nice Mule Buck. Sunset hunt, I was set up in a turkey blind along the trees that bordered a harvested corn field. The Buck came from my left a 50 yards in front. We had a shooter (this was muzzle loader season, by I was with the bow) another 100 yards in front of that buck. He either caught the shooters scent or what ever and got spooked. I didn't expect this buck would be mine! I ran, at an angle toward me! He got to the tree line to my left and slowed down to a trot, still coming right by me. I drew the arrow, but did not expect anything, but I figured that maybe I can give him a bleep and stop him. In the worst case, I would spook and already spooked deer and he would continue running.

He Stopped!!!! Dead in front of me at 10 yards! No Bleep! No Nothing! Just stopped, Broad Side, Looking back toward the gunner!

THWACK!!!

I hit him, dead on in the side! Clean Entry, Clean Exit! He fell dead in his tracks and already bleeding from the mouth!

I sat there in total disbelief. It was still early! There were already about a dozen deer in the field and four does were making there way toward me before I spotted this deer. After he fell, they looked up, but continued feeding. They were still feeding in my direction. I still had 1 more tag left and thought that this might be my lucky night!!!!

The does were within 30 yards and the buck was lying 10 yards in front of me. I was hoping that the does would not catch the bucks scent, but I and the buck was down wind. Nonetheless, I nocked an arrow and was preparing for a 20 yard shot.

30 Minutes has gone by now and the does are taking a LONG time to feed 30 yards out. Sunset was 20 minutes ago, shooting time is almost over and the light is getting pretty dim. There was a nice mature doe, 2 yearlings, and another somewhere in between. I had my eye on the big doe, but I would have taken a smaller one, or just wait until tomorrow. One of the yearlings trotted 5 yards closer looking for more food. Then another 5 yards. She is within 20, but she was the smallest one. I figure I'll wait to see what the others do. Sure enough, the small doe starts feeding and the others follow her to her newly found food. 20 yards, 4 does, and a dead buck. None of them notice the buck! I am waiting for the other yearling to pass by the mature doe, she does. I slowly get up on my knees, aching from being in a crouched kneeling position for the last 15 minutes, stretch out my left arm....

What the F*$&?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Out of nowhere, and for no reason at all, the buck jump to life, gets on his feet, runs 10 yards to the left, then make a 90 degree turn to the trees behind me!!!!!!!!! Spooks the 4 does, I have no idea where they went because my eyes and ears were on the buck!!!! I no longer saw him, but I heard hooves, rustling leaves, and fallen branches breaking. Then nothing!!!!

No buck, no doe!

Just then I heard a shot. My partner got his!

I didn't know what to do now.

I went out to where the buck first fell. There were two nice pools of blood. One from teh exit wound, and another small one from the mouth. But that was it! I found a few drops about 5 yards away, then a nice long trail into the tall grass. It was really dark now, so I figured this buck is spending the night out here, but I just wanted to get an idea wehre he went and mark my trail. I couldn't find anything through the tall grass, so I figured that mark where he entered the grass and woods with a couple of sticks and head for camp.

I go to where my buddy was staked out. He's gone. Probably field dressing, I'll go warm up the truck so we can pick it up later. On the way back, I see him. He is out of breath and tells me that he shot a white tail doe and it hauled but. He said it was a clean shot, but cant find her. It's too dark. He said he heard her fall, but cant find anything. I tell him my story, and he can't believe it! We get back to camp where we meet the other guys. One of which is my uncle. A VERY experienced hunter and has more animal heads and skins in his house than the San Diego Zoo! He believes it and spends most of the next couple of hours telling us similar stories. He said the best thing to do is do our hunt in the morning, but each of us should reserve our tags for these two escapees and we'll find them when the sun is up (If the Coyotes don’t get them first!)

The morning up turned up nothing for anybody, so we split into two groups, each of us had experienced hunters. My uncle had a hard time tracking mine. He believes that is bled out while laying there and didn't have much left to give. He still found the blood trail literally one drop every 5 or 10 yards. Foot prints were hard to see and the forest floor was drenched in pine needles. He tracked this thing for 3 miles before discovering that it had jumped the fence into Sioux Territory. Bad News, he is gone!

My partner found his within 10 minutes. Is fell in some cover about 40 yards away from him. He walked past it about 10 times the previous night!

Well that's it, I guess even under perfect conditions and scenarios, they still get away from you sometimes!!!!

I agree alasman! Those of you who feel sorry for a guy that comes to this forum admitting he did everything wrong when he knew what to do in the first place is crazy! Plus he wants advise but says he doesn't come to these forums to get advise because he is an experience bow hunter and already knows what to do??????????? What. Anyone who wants to pat this guy on the back and say "thats ok you'll get him next time" isalso crazy.He must have still been in the heat of the moment whenhe wrote hisposts,because hispostsare makingno sense either! Take the criticism because from whatI have read you diserve it!

hope u find him and best of luck. ull find him.. jus keep lookin

Maybe you take wounding animals and leaving them to suffer a pointless death all because of ignorance lightly................I don't.


If you mean advice........then he could have gotten here any day of the year BEFORE he screwed up. He doesn't want advice.......he wants everyone here to fix his mess. This board and all it's members provide advice and information all day every day.......he had all the information he could ever ask for. He just decided not to use it and run after a poorly shot deer. I'm just telling it like it is.

There are no positives in this story.........even if he finds the deer it will be spoiled. Please point out all the positives you speak of.

What does that even mean???

No one cares that he made a bad shot.........no one is even talking about his bad shot. Bad shots happen. His choice to ignore all common sense and what he KNEW was right and wrong is what lead to the disaster he is now in. People make bad shots all the time........the ones who not only KNOW what to do next but also have the brains and willpower to DO it are the ones that end up finding their deer even if the odds are against it. The rest just take off like wild eyed fools and run after the deer only to chase it into the next county..........then they come home and post a thread saying they feel bad and need help..........Well I am sick of seeing it EVERY year.

Atlasman - we get the point. In fact, we got it way back on Page 1. We know he messed up and now he is paying the consequences for it. Beating him up over the matter for 4 pages isn't helping the situation so please do us all a favor and lay off.

I do agree with atlasman about knowing the right thing to do and not doing it. If we should feel sorry for anyone/anything, it should be the wounded animal. But however the damage has already been done so there is no sense in beating a dead horse. My advice is to get out there and look. Like other theads, search the shoulder high areas of brush/leaves looking for blood, and check near water if any is near. Good Luck in your search and just learn from you mistakes.

Bottom line the way I see it is if one can sit here and tell me you've done nothing wrong or even flat out stupid in the woods then I'd be inclined to call you a liar. Maybe some of you have perfected hunting to where it's no longer even hunting. I certainly have not. Now granted, setting trail on a deer only 30 minutes after a known bad shot is rather doltish for even a rookie, but for a hunter with some experience is just flat out mind blowing to do such a thing. (I'm sure you have picked up on that by now.)

This is my 25th season in the woods and have taken 20+ deer over the years. Some of those were easy, some weren't so easy. I found a deer the next morning by going to the crows. I've found deer with dogs. I found a deer by crawling on my hands and knees through the snow following only tracks and no blood (among thousands of other deer tracks). I've made bad shots and worse, bad decisions. I've also lost deer and it's a feeling that makes me sick and haunts me the entire season. Being a bow hunter comes at a price - the price of putting in time to be a proficient shot, putting in time to learn everything you can about the game you hunt, putting in the time to learn deer behavior and their habitat to figure out where they're going after being hit, and being a good bow hunter in most cases certainly comes at the price of sacrificing time to look for your game.

It's hard to say either way if this deer is alive or not but you have no choice but to go look for him.

wow that's a cool word (whatever the heck it means). Mind if I use it?

I'm trying not to pile on but I agree with atlas. Nobody is perfect and we all make mistakes but expecting our fellow hunters to know some basics is not asking too much. Bad shots happen but knowing what to do whether its a good shot or not should be basic knowledge. Sometimes a good lashing sticks in the memory bank better than a "you'll do better next time". I doubt there is hardly anything a bowhunter who was trying to learn could not find on this site alone. The standard I use for myself is if I don't know the basics I will learn them before I do something. Good luck and hope you recover him.

Wow, I wish I was like atlasman and had never made a mistake in my life, then I could get on here and rip everyone else a new arse. You make mistakes in life and learn. If you make the same mistake over and over and don't learn, then you need some serious butt chewing. However, if you learned from your mistake that's what counts.

Now, deer like to circle around to get down wind when being chased. There's a good chance that buck is still around. Go back to the last place you saw him and start a circular search pattern working your way out from the center. If he was mortally wounded, you should find him.