Bad hit no luck!! :(
 

I hunted the deer shotgun youth season here in illinois this past weekend. hunted saturday mornin and missed, saturday evenin didnt see a thing, then sunday mornin :(
sitting there and right at light a doe and i fawn came out of the woods in front of me and my dad(had to take aparent with me since its youth season) but anyways they came out about 40 yards in front of us in a thik bean field and the was downwind of us and they tok off back into the woods so as they were tkaing off i took a shoot and clearly missed. about 30 minutes later they just took off runnin across this field and i took a shot and hit the doe and she dropped her back end and rolled over. so i turned to my dad to give him a high five and he said "SHOOOT HER" because she took off runnin again so i shot again , missed, then she went into the woods. so we got down to see how it looked and there was good bright red blood and a lot of it. so being smart we left to give her time. came back about 30 minutes later and tracked her and about 40 yards later the blood starting getting to nothing. a drop here and there. so we went home. came back about 2 hours later with 2 of my naighbors and my dad and after tracking the few drops for about 15 minutes we saw her laying ahead with the fawn right next to her but the doe was still alive. so i raised the gun to shoot her in the head and they took off. so we sat there watchign them and the doe was barely going(they were far away now) so we kept going and we jumped her right ahead and i couldnt get a shot. so we kept going and jumped her about 20 yards ahead couldnt get a shot and then she crossed a creek. So we found out she was beddign down every 20-50 yards so we left her . came back 3 hours later and we saw one drop of blood where she crossed the creek and then nothing on the otherside of the creek. NOTHING!!!! what happened????

RE: Bad hit no luck!! :(
 

After a deer has been shot, whether a good shot or not, the adrenaline keeps them going and they will stop at nothing to get away. Also, you said that she went across a creek and then you saw no more blood, something might have clogged up the gunshot wound like mud or something if she fell in the creek and that might have been why you couldn't find the bloodtrail again.

RE: Bad hit no luck!! :(
 

Personally, I would have gave her more time to expire before pushing her.

RE: Bad hit no luck!! :(
 

your deer is dead, you have to find her. Once you visibly seen her laboring and only going 20-50 yds at a pop you should have been able to run her down for a follow up shot.

Some things are true whether you believe them or not.

RE: Bad hit no luck!! :(
 

"what happened????"

In short...you started "flinging lead" at running deer, cripled one, and didn't finish her off. Please, excercise better shot selection in the future.

We were all young and starting off some time. Best of luck in the future.

JRW

RE: Bad hit no luck!! :(
 

very true JRW, but most of us didnt have the ole man sitting over our shoulders either watching our every move!

Not gonna point out the shot selection, but shooting a doe with a fawn?

Best of luck tracking her.

http://www.geocities.com/tradbow007/...dventures.html

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RE: Bad hit no luck!! :(
 

The young lad did not say the doe was running with its blower fully open. Under certain circumstances, and in accordance with the yardage, the shooter's skill, and capability of weapon, a shot on a moving deer can be righteous.

As for the "fawn" bit, at this time of the year most likely the deer was near the yearling stage. Research has shown that yearlings separated from their mother appear to have a better survival rate.

Can anyone guarantee that the lone doe you are about shoot does not have a fawn or yearling back in the brush? I have had unobserved yearlings catch up to their mother 10-15 minutes after the doe passed.

jrw

You need to decide when a shot is a &quot;Hail Mary&quot; and when it is not.<img src=icon_smile_wink.gif border=0 align=middle> Wink-wink!

RE: Bad hit no luck!! :(
 

As bad as it sounds everybody is probably gonna have this happen to em at least once in their lifetime, its better to have it happen earlier in your career so you can exercise better patience, control, and practice more in the future. Its a Tough thing to go through and i figure you are probably feeling sick over it, but its a lesson learned.
As for the fawn thing, if it cannot survive by now on its own its probably not gonna survive, the &quot;yearling/fawns&quot; i have seen with their mothers recently have been growing more and more independent and i have seen some that are completely on their own
I hope you find it, and if you dont you will still have learned a good lesson in hunting.

&quot;She said if I hit that fishin hole today, she's be packin all her things and she'd, be gone by noon....I'm gonna miss her, when I get home.&quot;

RE: Bad hit no luck!! :(
 

c903,

You need to reread what I posted on the other thread. Never said his 110 yard shot was anything but a &quot;hail mary&quot;. Rather, that the fact that he was trying to get a second arrow into what he thought was a marginally wounded deer was the correct action to take. Had the young lad here clipped the deer with slug #1, I'd say rack-n-jack the next two slugs to try to put her down (3 slug limit in IL).

Apples & oranges....wink wink. <img src=icon_smile_wink.gif border=0 align=middle>

Tim,

There's a difference between wounding an animal as a result of things not within our control, and what he describes here.

What was described here was, &quot;...and they tok off back into the woods so as they were tkaing off i took a shoot and clearly missed. about 30 minutes later they just took off runnin across this field and i took a shot and hit the doe and she dropped her back end and rolled over.&quot;

Missed with the first moving shot. Later, as they &quot;took off runnin across this field&quot;, he lets slug #2 fly?

This was a youth hunt, so I'm guessing he's new to this. I made a bunch of dumb mistakes when I first started out too...and my father & grandfather kicked my narrow butt every time. Experience is the best teacher, and I'm sure he learned a valuable lesson from this.

Oh, and for the record, this place has turned into the &quot;wounding forum&quot;. I'm used to seeing guys ask for help with bad hits (which is good), but this place is starting to look more like &quot;Hey y'all, lookey here...I stuck me one!&quot;. It's almost like folks are proud of wounding critters, and just can't wait to &quot;tell all&quot;. Half the time, they're not looking for help. They just want to tell the world that they clipped something and didn't find it.

JRW