Today my brother and I had a very difficult experience. My brother, 12, shot a squirrel with his compound bow. The arrow went through the spine and out near his penis. I, 17, witnessed the arrow run up a nearby tree were he sat for 2 hours. While in the tree, he made heart deafening sounds that tor apart my insides. Then, about twenty minutes ago, he fell about 35 feet from the tree and continued to hop about around the tree, shrieking as if he were being burned or something. We finally grabbed him and twisted his neck so he would die. I feel like s*** right now, likeI never want to hunt again. I feel like I disgraced this animal and I can't get over this. Do you all have any advice. Have you experienced this?

-Pj

Advice? Make a better shot next time?

heres an idea use a .22 instead of a bow

no squirrel hunting with a bow?

X2

If there is any lesson learned, it would be to make a better shot. Kill as quickly and humanely as possible. Was the squirell still on the arrow? If he wasnt, if you had pulled it out, hemay not have died. Squirrels are tough little jokers.

people are going to make bad shots no matter how much you practice man and machine is fallible. If it helps think about this man has destroyed most of the natural order of predator vs prey. If someone does not cull the herbivores and other forager type critters they will over populate and eat themselves into starvation. Also how many animals get hit by cars poisoned or otherwise harmed by unwitting uneducated people. Sometimes the natural or in our case unnatural order (humans replacing natural predators) is very raw and cold. Just do the best ya can make sure you do everything in your power to locate the injured animal and end its suffering.

shoot the squirrel with another arrow. i have had to shoot a few animals twice. i think you wouldnt be human if u were not sad at all. and i think most of us on this forum would be lying if we havent had some sort of thing happen to us when we were out doing whatever kind of hunting. so dont feel too bad. life is life. thankfully it was only a squirrel and not a damn doe.

I certainly wouldn't watch it suffer for two hours! Bad shots happen! Practice, and make the best shot you can. It's what you do after that, that counts!

Part of being a hunter is taking life. Death isn't always an easy thing to see. First you must take good shots and do your best to kill cleanly. If its not a clean kill then do you best to put it down as quickly as you can. If an animal suffering is something you can't stand then it's time to take up a different sport. I still hate to see an animal suffer but I know it happens from time to time and I'm ready to deal with it.

It also shows we are not blood thirsty killers like some non hunters think. We still care alot for the animals we hunt but killing and death is still part of it. You just have to decide if you can do it and still live with yourself.