feel terrible
 

All,

Not much anyone can do, but had to vent a bit.
I shot a doe last night, just before sunset. She was at most at 40ft and I had a perfect shot. I found the arrow full of blood. After she was hit, she darted off to the woods where I was expecting to find her very quickly.

After 7h of searching we have found nothing. At one point there were 5 of us looking. Bad thing it was raining so no blood trail.

This is my 1st shot ever at a live animal so feel kind of blue. Does this happen often? I have replayed the scene a thousand times and know my shot was good and hit the vitals (if not it was a narrow miss which I now have to think is what happened); I was stable and have taken many practice shots with my Excalibur.

That is all!

M.

Don't beat yourself up. It can happen.

Even the best shots can make a bad hit at times and not recover.

sorry to hear that. the coyotes will be eating good tonight

All you can do is, pick your head up and keep hunting. Shooting at game is always different than shooting at targets. If you took a high probability shot, feel you did everthing correctly and something went wrong, then just try move on. NONE of us like to wound a deer and not recover it. In the excitement, it is easy to make mistakes. Believe me, I have shot and not seen the small tree right in front of me. It happens to everyone. Good luck and safe hunting.

You did all that you could to recover that deer, so don't be too hard on yourself. Anyone that has bow hunted very long, more than likely has had that happen at least once. Good luck the rest of the year and I hope that you get one soon.

I personally won't bow hunt in the rain for this very reason. Others do, I decided I won't. When you make a picture perfect shot, the deer is down quick, but that doesn't always happen.

I have had the same thing happen more than I would like to admit. Don't beat yourself up, it happens sometimes, learn from the experience.

It's all part of hunting, and just another lesson to be learned in life...........that is, if you hunt.


So, consider yourself lucky - non hunters never get to experience the close "relationship" we were originally intended to play in the balance of nature.

It's how you conducted yourself after the shot that really counts..............

I think you can sleep well my friend.

Enjoy your time in the great outdoors.......................it's what life is really all about !

I hit my first buck last year with a perfect shot. He was hit right thru the heart and it was a clean pass thru. Now, that deer ran off 150 yards and maybe more. We followed the trail and deer had no ounce of blood in him. So just because its a perfect shot doesn't mean a deer goes down quick. Their adrenalin is a crazy thing.

My main question is how soon after did you go look for her? If you moved in quickly she could have jumped up an ran off.

I've had it happen once (first time bow hunting), and that's all it took to for me to learn that it's not worth the risk. I'll hunt if it's a brief shower, but I'll never hunt if it's a steady rain for this very reason. If something happens with the shot, you're immediately reduced to a body search rather than a tracking exercise.

Question for the OP: How long did you wait before searching for the deer? It's possible that you didn't wait long enough and bumped it. See the bow hunting forum for a sticky-thread on tracking (what to do after the shot)...some great advice in that thread.

As others have said, this does happen occasionally, but you owe it to yourself - and the animal - to learn as much from this incident so that it doesn't happen again if at all possible. Tough luck...best of luck to you the next time you get a shot.

That is what I am thinking.

You should have let the deer lay for a couple of hours before you started chasing it. A more experienced hunter would have been more able to determine where you hit the deer by the blood on the arrow and on the ground. Just because you have some drops of red blood does not always mean that you had a perfect shot.

If you were up in a tree stand and you practiced all year - standing on the ground, there is a very good chance that you hit it low or in the front leg and it bled but did not die.

Well it happens. Especially if you follow too quickly. Don't know how soon after the shot it until you started trailing. But even with a perfect shot you should give it at least 30 mins to an hour. They won't get any deader!.
But it happens to all of us.

You did what you could! Just get back out there and keep hunting. In a few days if the weather is warm, you oughta be able to smell her, and find her. Just for your own sake and know where she is and what happened. Maybe learn a few things too.
Deer are amazing animals and I've seen them do alot even after solid hits. Next time, wait 20 or 30 minutes before even walking over to look at the arrow, give the deer time to lay down and die. Good luck!
-Jake

I disagree with the give them 30 minutes after the shot to die..... ESPECIALLY in the rain! Which is what the OP said it was doing at the time of the shot. If you wait 30 minutes while it's raining you might as well kiss your blood trail goodbye. I NEVER I repeat NEVER wait after the shot and have only lost 1 deer in 40 years because it got too dark and the blood trail was very thin about 1 drop every 50 yards. Although I did recover the deer the next morning mostly eaten by coyotes. I am not afraid of pushing a wounded deer, but I am afraid of losing a deer because I did not start to track soon enough. Within minutes after the shot I am starting the tracking and recovery. This is what works for me and I will NEVER wait to track a deer that I have shot especially if I can't see the deer after the shot. No matter what the weapon.
Live it up! Doug

Don't think the deer went to waste, you just fed all the critters in the woods last nite. It's just part of huntin, most of us have had the same experience. The first year I started bowhunting, I had a doe walk directly under my stand and I leaned over and shot. I was thinking to myself, if I shoot her between the shoulder blades, it will either break her back or hit the vitals on the way through. Boy was I wrong. I hit her shoulder blade and she took off running with my arrow sticking out of her back, like a flag pole. Fortunately, later that year I was able to harvest her with my rifle. She had a slight limp, and my broadhead was still in her shoulder. That was the last time I ever used a fixed blade broadhead. That was also the last time I took a shot like that. Now, I won't shoot unless the deer is broadside or quartering away. Good luck and keep trying.