RE: THE PRO'S AND LOST ANIMALS...
 

I have seen them use a dog to find thier deer after the trail peetered out.

RE: THE PRO'S AND LOST ANIMALS...
 

Nothing wrong with that either...in fact I feel it's the ethical thing to do.

And as far as PRO's on TV....nah..nope most of them are not at all PRO's....they are simply TV Personalities...nothing more.

RE: THE PRO'S AND LOST ANIMALS...
 

Rob
I seem to remember reading that in another thread:)

As for the question at hand I bet there are a lot more missed or bad placed shots and lost animals than we will ever know.

RE: THE PRO'S AND LOST ANIMALS...
 

If anyone has ever watched Bill Jordan try to shoot a deer than I would say YES, there are probably a ton of animals either gut shot or mamed severly by so called pro's. I'm not just picking on him but mainly him for his poor shot selection and his boasting after a bad or inhumane shot. Knight & Hale or two of the most informative hunters to ever have a video production and they even show poor shot selection over and over again. Tom Miranda some 10 years ago was the gut shot king in those older videos.

I have in upwards up 200 diffrent hunting films and there are many that should not have the previlegde to harvest animalsin my oppinion and these are the peoplethat get paid to do the greatest job in the world. I understand mother nature doesnt always present the perfect shot and I'm also not saying that I am a perfect hunter either but, if a man is going to kill a animal he should at least try to do it quickly and effectively. The Drury's and Primos family of videos are the only ones that have filmed the shot and told about the loss of a great buck that couldnt be found and they did it as honestly as they could.

When i was just getting into hunting 10 years ago I probably lost 7 or 8 deer, yes I felt terrible about not recovering that animal but now that I look back at it, thats what made me a better archer, tracker and all around hunter. Mistakes happen, but its how you learn from them that changes you into a real sportsman. Now, a after a bad shot I just go home and replay everything that happened up to the time I released the arrow and I wait and then I go back and try to find the animal unlike when I was a kid and just rush in. I never had anyone to teach me the rights and wrongs of hunting and maybe thats why I get so pissed off when a movie star still consistently makes bad decisions. They are the ones alot of us hunters wish we could grow up to be. Who wouldnt want to hunt for a livin?

RE: THE PRO'S AND LOST ANIMALS...
 

I still disagree about leaving them overnight. If you leave a deer in the woods here overnight you don't have anything but spoiled meat the next morning if the coyotes didn't get it. I have seen deer shot on the shows where it looked like a pretty good shot, but they left it to lay overnight. The next morning they would find the deer a few yards past where they saw it last. I think they are more interested in filming in the daylight.

RE: THE PRO'S AND LOST ANIMALS...
 

Great Minds Russel, great minds. :)

RE: THE PRO'S AND LOST ANIMALS...
 

Boy, you guys sure are apt to make someone look like an arse. I asked spoke with a very popular hunting personality and asked him if it ever became more of a job than a past time. He said there were YEARS when he went on hunts, bought the hamburger, but couldn't afford the fries or coke that went with it and drank water. He is now the CEO of Primos. Most of these guys may miss, but geeze look at the caliber deer they miss! They take probably 20x as many shots per year on animals as we do, lo and behold they miss! Freakin crap crucify them. For Christ's sake, does anyone on here think they have contributed as much to HUNTING as Bill Jordan or Jackie Bushman have? Do I agree w/ all the shots they take? No! But do I sit on here and pick them apart like a monday morning quarterback? No, I don't do that either. I bet most of these guys did without a LOT to get what they have now, and maybe no one here is taking away from that but it sure seems like it. Are they perfect? No. But alas, neither am I. No, most of the pro's on tv may not be pro's. In fact, another big time hunter said all of his guysLOVE bowhunting the most b/c it's the hardest. They also all admit that they are no better than the average hunter, just lucky enough to score a big time job. Evidently, you have to be a salesman, a hunter, and have a good personality. So they aren't perfect, didn't Carlos Hathcock miss a time or two???

RE: THE PRO'S AND LOST ANIMALS...
 

I don't think anyone is saying that they are perfect, just that the "pro's" need to admit more often that they are not, instead of protraying that they are.

RE: THE PRO'S AND LOST ANIMALS...
 

I think this is an excellent question. However, I shall present you with another situation. I was hunting in West Point, MS this past Janurary and took a shot at an 8 point after about 30 minutes on stand. It was fairly light but I missed a twig. The shot sounded good but something didnt look right the last time I saw the knock. 25 yards broadside and I drilled a twig the arrow was covered with lots of blood but also lots of gut.I looked for the rest of that day for that deer. He just stopped bleeding. It wasnt a marginal shot from my point of view at the time of the shot because I couldnt see the limb that deflected to the right my arrow. Now Im sure thats not the case in every TV hunters adventures but it might have happened to one or two decent guys before that still regret it. Im one of them (but Im not on TV). The people that you are describing are absolutely horrible. Its just another slap in the face of hunters every where. Hopefully PETA will not get wind of any of it.

RE: THE PRO'S AND LOST ANIMALS...
 

The problem with the TV shows is that they are there to film deer being killed, sometimes they take what I consider marginal shots...

Back in the early 70s, I shot a 6 pointer through the lungs, didn't wait long enough and jumped the deer, found where he had bedded down and a lot of blood, I didn't recover the animal...It literally made me sick, but I learned my lesson...

I now pass on many shots that others would make...If you have deer duck the arrow, either they are on alert and a shot should not be taken or your bow is too noisy and should be quietened...Just because a bow is fast, doesn't mean a deer cant' duck the arrow...

Look for reasons not to take the shot, kill does as it gives you good practice, this is one reason I have problems with "trophy hunters" they actually don't have a lot of experience killing deer, so they don't have the experience needed when a good buck presents itself....

Don't let your ego get the best of you, if the shot isn't there, pass on it...
We were killing deer with recurves and slow compounds in the 70s, the proper setup is needed to be successful.