How many times?
 

how many times did you guys miss before you killed your first deer with your bow? Im wondering if its just me or if yall were nervous enough to miss 2 of your first shots on a deer.. thanks guys

RE: How many times?
 

Kevin,

Fear not, although there may be few, most everybody here as miss his/her share of deer with a bow. I started bowhunting hard when I was 16 years old, I took my first doe when I was about 20 and my first buck 5 years later. Since that time, I' ve taken deer respectively every year. The difference came for me when I finally got a newer bow, shot 3D religiously and started competing on a competitive level and winning. The practice surely does pay off.....as well as the patience. Good luck, you' ll do fine.

RE: How many times?
 

took me 4 years before i got my first deer with a bow. it will happen, just don' t get discouraged. hopefully you learn something new with each time you miss. it is a whole lot different shooting at a real deer than shooting at a target.

RE: How many times?
 

I aint telling

RE: How many times?
 

I shot a big doe my first time in the woods with a bow. Since then I have taken deer every year for the past ten years. I have missed my share of deer as well. I hate to admit this but two years ago I missed a P&Y 10 pointer at 10 and 15 yards, and did it within 5 minutes:(:(. Not to many folks can say that.

RE: How many times?
 

I missed a few before the first one, and some more afterwards. You learn from missing and they become less and less as time goes on.

RE: How many times?
 

I missed my first deer my second bow season. The doe jumped the string, and I was pretty disappointed. However, the next season, when I was 16, I shot my first deer with a bow. I don' t think there is anyone who has not missed a deer and has hunted for very long.

RE: How many times?
 

I actually connected on my first shot at a deer. The deer was walking fast at 35 yards. I ended up hitting a little far back and caught the liver with one single blade out of three. So, it wasn' t a geat hit. We waited six hours and found the deer dead. Looking back, I wouldn' t have shot if I knew better. definitely wouldn' t shot if I had the same opportunity today.

RE: How many times?
 

Well so far with a bow I am batting 500, I missed my first one clean and killed my second opportunity. It took me 3 years to get my first bowkill and that was after 35+ years of successful gun hunting. Do not get discouraged, just make sure that with every miss and every time you get busted to try and learn from the experience, your percentages will go up. Practice is key, last year was the first year that when I drew on a deer everything felt " natural" , I practice my rear off, the more you practice the better you will do.

RE: How many times?
 

Kevin, Don' t think about the shot ,easier said then done I know. I go through a mental checklist before the shot it really helps.

Something alot of people do at first is lift your head to see where the arrow hit. Usually this results in a missed deer.

If your hunting from a treestand practice from a treestand.

If you can take a couple shots before you go hunting.

In your other thread it seemed like your confidence is lacking right now. That' s a reall bad thing to have happen. Tough thing to get over, but you have to or it will get worse.

Don' t worry about how many missews thge other guy has made. Figure out what went wrong and work on it.

RE: How many times?
 

Kevin, I just went back and there was someone else that posted about missing twice this weekend. That is who is was referring to when I said ' in your other thread" .

RE: How many times?
 

3 years and nothing to show for it here other than 3 clean misses and a ton of great memories. Been busted a few times passed on a few opportunities. Missed 2 shots on does I made hundreds of times in 3-d and the other miss was plain old buck fever and a bit long by my range. (30 yards)

I say this as much as advice to you as it is preaching it to myself. Patience, patience, patience. I lost patience and blew the it on a great deer (buck fever miss) I watched him travel over 150 yards to within 30 of my stand, That was the closest he was going to get to me on the route was travelling. Had I came back a week later and repositioned my stand I might have him hanging on my wall. After shooting and missing I didn' t see him the rest of the year. In retrospect it was a shot I praticed and knew was the outermost shot of my ability and confidnce. But had I been patient I might have been able to harvest him. In my defense it was a clean miss and would never take a shot that I couldn' t realistically make. I did pass on many does before him within 10 yards so it isn' t a complete lack of patience. my other 2 misses were because of nerves.

While ground hunting I had one come up 10 yards in front of me then realized another had snuck in 5 yards in back of me. After seeing which one was bigger I missed because of looking at wrong pin. The ability to remain calm and patient would have given me the reward.

Patience and remain calm!!!

RE: How many times?
 

I got the first two I shot at. It took three shots at my third before I got him. I missed my next time and killed forth one.

RE: How many times?
 

Actually I hit my first deer in the foot. It jumped straight up about 3 ft in the air.
After that i probally missed 3 or so per year for the next 3 years until it finally dawned on me to be more patient and wait for the best shot. After that I averaged
killing 3 deer per season and missing 1.

RE: How many times?
 

First two years ended with two shots and two deer. I really thought I had it all figured out. First was a nice doe, second a little buck. Then it began the big 10 point that grunted all the way in, missed him cleanly twice at under 15 yards. We were both on the ground so I cant even use that as an excuse. Got it figured out again, bought new bow (it had to be the bows fault) shot another doe, another buck, then had a decent buck (nothing to be real excited about) walk right under the stand and bam clean miss again. It happens to everyone, practice is the key the more confidence you have in your equipment and shot placement the easier it is to remain calm and pick a hair.

RE: How many times?
 

Bowhunting is a different world than gun hunting.......I think I missed 2 deer before I connected. And just like Rob, it was 5 years before it happened. There was a survey once, and it concluded that the average bowhunter had to spend 5 seasons bowhunting before scoring on a deer. It was right for me........after than it gets better.:D

RE: How many times?
 

I' ve been actively bow hunting for about 10 years now. I can honestly state I cleanly missed a few deer my first few years thru my own errors. You feel pissed at first, but take those mistakes back home with you and practice, practice, practice. After making maybe 1-2 clean misses, I returned home to re-inact the hunt and tried to figure out what went wrong...making sure not to make the next mistake on my next hunt.

I then graduated clean misses and moved right up to shots that were not clean kills. But, this is yet another learning experience on how to track game and when and how to perform that tracking. I am happy to say I have only not recovered a deer once. This was disappointing, but again a good learning experience. Now, the past 5-7 years I make sure of my shot and my shot placement and have a 100% success rate.

Lesson to be learned: don' t get depressed, just learn from your mistakes and work on fixing those mistakes. Don' t also be embarrassed to consult other hunters or some pros at your local sporting shop for advice.