We have all seen the numerous topics about lost and wounded deer on here, and heard many negative things about bowhunting and injured animals and what not.....Well before i get started, lets go back a little. I spent most of my time over the summer practicing shooting my bow in my back yard, usually about an hour a day. Ive practiced in a tree stand, on the ground, sitting, kneeling, you name it. anyways...we have all heard plenty of griping about yahoo' s out in the woods that dont know what they are doing and wounding animals. Well i never thought i was a yahoo but i guess you have one less one to worry about. This season, since oct. 1, i have shot and killed one deer, a doe. As i was comming up to shoot i accidently hit the trigger, hit it in the spine above the front shoulder......LUCKY...Aimed at another doe last weekend only to see it run off with my arrow lightly tucked into its shoulder. Looked for hours and hours and found zero blood. I could even see where the leaves were turned up from it running through the packed leaves of the trail. Lets not forget opening day when i missed, so i think, a doe, couldnt find an arrow or blood, but i think i missed. Then this morning, i had a doe come out, about 7 yards, shot, hit right below the spine, watched it run about 1/2 mile across the feild with my arrow hanging out of its side. 10 seconds later a young buck walks up to 10 yards, i shoot high again. We tracked both of these animals for hours, only to find the wee amounts of blood lessen and lessen to nothing. I know this is 100% my fault and im not saying anything AGAINST bowhunting. Mainly i just need to vent. But im taking a break, at least till after gun season is over, maybe even for the rest of bowseason. I practice and practice and practice and practice and im patient in the tree waiting for the perfect broadside shot. I just dont know what to do except quit. My bow is sighted in. i can hit a 3-D target perfect, but when it comes to a live animal, all i can seem to do is torture them. Maybe this is how a lot of people starts out, or maybe bowhunting just isnt for me, i dont know. Ive been bowhuntin...well...ive been sitting in a tree with a bow for the past 2 seasons and hadnt shot at a deer until this year. Did anyone else have problems like these starting out cause im about to go irate and throw my bow in the lake......its so frustrating. anyways....youve got one less hillbilly in the woods wounding animals, for now. sorry if this is a pointless waste of you time, i just need to tell someone about this, thats the only thing i really can do........

Don' t quit..just learn! Experience is the best way to learn.

By the way......the first year I started shooting a bow I was 22 yrs. old. I shot a lot, but didn' t feel I was ready to hunt that season. I waited until the next season to hunt, best thing I did. I am not suggesting to you to do that. But patience and controlling your emotions while bowhunting is as important as shooting. Actually its a very important part of shooting at game.

i agree cougar mag, ive gone the past 2, maybe three seasons without attempting to take an animal. I drew on one doe, but didnt think i was good enough and i wasnt real confident with my bow. So i got a new bow, and practice practice practice....and...well, you read it lol

Mossy, don' t be too hard on yourself. Animals are wounded by bowhunters, period. Especially when you first begin and you haven' t got your emotions fully under control. I' ve lost several deer myself, some were bad shots, others I thought were good and just ran out of blood. Most of my losses were early in my career. You learn from mistakes, you learn to control your body during that moment of truth. If you can truly shoot as good as you say, it will happen for you. Bowhunting is about up and downs. About 5 yrs ago I shot the biggest buck I' ve ever seen in the woods. He was 20 yds quartering away and I hit two far back and only got one lung. I bumped him from his bed which was about 70yds from the shot and never saw hide or hair of him. I had an airplane fly over looking, I got a trained dog, and I searched for 3 straight days and nothing. I honestly thought about that deer EVERY day for 2 yrs, I felt horrible, and I may never see another deer that big again. But, I kept at it and have killed many deer since and haven' t lost another since. DON' T GIVE UP. PRACTICE MORE. GET SOME SHOTS UNDER YOUR BELT. You may never lose another one, sometimes luck can go against you in unbelievable ways. One thing though, you mentioned that you shot high several times.... Is your bow loud, are the deer ducking your shot? Try only taking shots where the deer is not looking in your direction. A deer that sees you release will ALWAYS drop a considerable amount by the time the arrow arrives, even at 15 yds. Stick with it buddy. And don' t give up easily on blood trails, give 100% every time. Good luck.

Mossy Oak,

Don' t give up just yet!!! Take a break?......Maybe. Sounds like to me that you' re just havin a run of REALLY bad luck. I' ve been bowhunting for more than 10 years and have harvested my fair share of deer, elk, antelope, pig, etc. etc. etc..........even so, once I make the decision that I' m going to take the shot, whether it be buck or doe, my heart starts raising, my knees start knocking and the adrenaline kicks in. That is partly, what bowhunting is all about!!!!

Continue practicing and continue hunting. For that matter, keep reading and building your knowledge of hunting. I remember reading a few months back in one of my bowhunting magazines (not sure which one) about a gentlemen that got BUCK FEVER so bad, he too, contemplated quitting. In fact, he did quit for awhile until he found another bowhunter/friend that was able to help him correct his problem.

Whatever you decide.......the best of luck to you and welcome to the wonderful world of bowhunting.

If your hitting a 3-d target as good as you say you are, but you' re missing the vitals when shooting at game, then it sounds like your not relaxing when you shoot at live game. Talk yourself through the shot just as you would when shooting at 3-d targets. Have you shot your bow since these outings at 3-d targets? Could you have knocked your sights out of whack?

Now, in my opinion, I would have tried to find the doe before shooting at the buck.
You' ll probably get a few follow-ups to this,(about shooting a deer after wounding one w/o finding it) but try to learn from this experience. No matter how well you shoot at a 3-d target, it just isn' t the same when the rush hits you and your trying to hit a live deer.

Mossy Oak, listen to Cougar, he' s da man.
I can feel your frustration, don' t quit, short break is a good idea, keep practising,
re-gain your confidence, re-group, re-charge, unload the weight from your heart and shoulders, forget the past and go back to your woods and start fresh, you' re not a yahoo with the bow just a victim of circumstances which with time would be able to control.
Good Luck

im going to get up early tomorrow and check my sites and see if they are outa whack.
Wear, 99% of the time i wouldnt have taken that second shot, but i saw the doe run a long way and knew exactly where it went...so i thought...Either way, poor decisions on top of bad luck can take the fire right outa you.
Thanks guys, i spent the whole day at school ticked off, failed an english test..well, i cant blame that on this morning, i didnt know the crap anyway, but i prolly would have tried instead of turning it in blank oh well, ive got to work in the evenings so i think im going to start gettin up at the butt crack of dawn and start shooting. I guess i just got in a hurry this morning, i was hunting a trail so they were just passing by and i didnt have a lot of time to settle down, or get too excited for that matter. Either way, thanks a lot guys.

Dude, I am not gonna kick you while you' re down but there are some glaring problems with your setup that you need to address. It sounds like you are getting bad penetration on every shot you take. What kind of broadheads are you shooting and did they group really well in practice?? Good arrow flight?? Sharp blades?

Second of all If you have already lost a wounded animal (possibly 2) and then stick a doe with a questionable shot at best and watch her run a half mile with your arrow in her............What in god' s name made you think sticking another arrow in the young buck 10 seconds later was a good idea is beyond me.

What if the buck ran the opposite direction?? How did you expect to pull off 2 major tracking jobs at one time?

[X(]

I don' t know what to say............except that if you are not gonna change anything about your setup or gameplan on what to do after a shot then you probably should call it a season.

I hope you don' t. Bowhunting is so much fun I don' t want to see anyone get so discouraged that they give up.

Fix your setup and learn what to do before and after a shot........if you already know then just focus and have the self control to do it.

like i said, bad decisions...just got a little buck fever i guess, i dont know, im an idiot. I just thought i could find the doe, it ran straight to my house....anyways... I was shooting a Steel Force Stainless Sabertooth 100gr with carbon arrows. Practice with them some and they didnt seem to fly much different than feild points. Probably should have practiced more but its too late for that. I dunno if this has anything to do with it, but i enjoy putting the blame on others, lol, but the 3 deer i lost were the 3 Steelforce broadheads. Even if it doesnt have anything to do with it, im going back to Thunderheads.