I haven't shot enough animals to lose one. A perfect shot it never always a perfect shot though, something about murphy's law. All I can say to anyone who hasn't lost a deer, you have a shamrock taped to your rear, cause if murphy's law hasn't found you, then you are one lucky person. I personally think, no matter how much you prepare, even with a giant amount of experience, you can control your destiny mostly, but some deer jump, some deer drop some deer turn 90's and 180's before your arrow even gets there, you can't control deer, they aren't cattle, or sheep.
Good shooting.
Dylan

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i agree with what davidmill said. yes i have lost a ton of deer over the years. every excuse that you could think of went wrong. but there is one thing that i can tell you is every deer i shot i tracked for countless hours trying to find. anyone that say's they have'nt lost a deer have'nt shot at many!!!!

Sadly i lost a 6pt this year...it would have been my first buck.

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A few weeks ago, I made a marginal hit on an 8pt Buck. Waited the obligatory 30 minutes or so, started to follow the bloodtrial and then figured I should come back the next AM.

I picked up the trail and about ¼ mile later started to find patches of hide. About 30 yds more I found him ate up by a pack of coyotes I guess, he was skinned back and picked clean up to his ears. I swear it looked like he was dipped into a pool of piranha's. :-(

hey h2k, you should take up cyote hunting in the off season.

Edited by - beretta390 on 01/23/2002 22:07:44

I think wounding and not recovering my first shot at a buck has deffinately made a better hunter out of me. The feeling inside one gets when they dont recover an animal especially when you know it wont live is a hard but good lesson. In my opinion if you wound a deer and you dont feel the emotions that most of us here have at one time or another , then you dont belong in the woods.

"Nocked,cocked & ready to rock"

Hunt long enough and something bad will happen. I am sorry to say this but it is true. Personally I hunted for 18 years without a loss. That deer ran into a river and never came out.<img src=icon_smile_sad.gif border=0 align=middle> I was the one who said it would never happen to me, I choose my shots carefully. One of the worst feeling in the world.

beretta390, You're right,probably a good idea. I got a redfox with a bow on opening day last year,hopefully coyotes will be somewhat easier. Apparently their are plenty of them around here.

The two deer I have lost with my bow still haunts me. I hate the feeling I get when I wait for the proper shots and something happens. I try to learn from mine and not to let it happen again. This year, I had to track a deer for 4 1/2 hours with 3 other buddies. I was ready to give up after about 150 yards of no blood, but then we happened to find where he crossed a fence into thew worked field and we were able to track him by his prints into some thick bruch. We were within 5 yards of him in shoulder high weeds and cat tails before he tried to leave. He was sick enough when he stood up, all he could do is stand there wobbling. I hate those harvests but we all learn from them.
I agree about the road kills suffering for who knows how long before dying. Or the diseased deer suffering for weeks before succumbing to the illness.