Worst part of hunting??
Whitetail Deer
Last night, I shot a doe and thought I made a good hit. Watched her burn out and at 50 yards slow down and walk away. This is the first year using a lighted nock and I saw it disappear but never found the arrow or nock. My wife was with and sitting 25 yards away and did a great job marking the last spot she saw the deer. After regrouping, I went to the last sighting and found blood. After 150-200 yards of solid blood, we found the deer. I hit her low and the arrow went just above the sternum and slashed the heart.
One thing that I learned again, was how much I hate the not knowing game. I was almost physically ill not knowing if I got her or not. Am I the only one that gets this way?
On a side note, I found the nock wedged in the sternum but I did not find the arrow. I will have to go back and look again for it. Have you ever had an nock slide off the arrow as it passed through a deer?
Unless I physically see an animal go down, I am concerned till the animal is hopefully recovered and sometimes they are never found.
Case in point- I shot 2 baboons this summer in Africa. From the blood trails one could be sure the animals would be recovered. The blood trail stopped and the animals were never found. I sure they died, but I never found them.
This type of experience gives me a very "empty/incomplete/unfulfilled" feeling that I really cannot really properly describe in words. That feeling also has a "residue" on it too. I also realize that as long as I hunt this feeling will probably happen again. No hunter has a 100% recovery score.
I am apprehensive until I make the recovery. In those rare instances where I know the animal died I have that same feeling you talk about, and I lose sleep over it.
That said, the silver lining is that nature wastes NOTHING. Had a friend that never found a nice axis buck he shot, but I found it a month later. All that was left were the bones and antlers. In another year, you won't even find much of those left. He left the antlers lay in the woods because he didn't feel like he earned them.
Chuck Adams once wrote that he had never, ever lost an animal.
I feel bad but don't let it get me that down. Deer aren't endangered animals and it is part of hunting. Do it long enough it's going to happen to most hunters.
Hey Lou,
In an interview years ago in Bowhunter Chuck admitted to hitting and losing a deer.
You asked about ever having the nock come off the arrow. A few years ago I helped a buddy track a doe. He was confident in the shot, mainly wanted help dragging. We found the front half of the arrow where she entered the timber and broke it on a tree. Blood was great. Found back half of arrow with no nock. Walked right to the deer. We both commented on the fact that the nock must of broke or we would have seen it. When we opened her up the nock was stuck in the side of her heart and still glowing. Was pretty wild seeing a light inside the chest cavity!
Never had an nock come off.
Have had nocks come off, have had broadheads unscrew off the arrow shaft while the deer ran with arrow hanging out. Crazy stuff happens.
Buck I shot in IA a few years ago had my arrow stuck in his chest with lighted nock when he ran away. I watched him lay down with my arrow in him. He wound up dying about 10 yards away from there, and I never did find my arrow. Looked for a while.
I have had some crazy things happen as well. I think if you don't feel the roller coaster ride of emotions then maybe your not hunting for the right reasons. If I ever get where I don't feel anything, then I will quit hunting. Glad you found it.
I think the best thing to have when you enter the woods with any weapon is "confidence"... That comes with experience and practice and they are not mutually exclusive. This is the reason that although I was "so close" to hunting with my recurve this year, I never felt that.... I took my doe and nice buck with my compound and most likely will not hunt with recurve this year although it's still a goal. So many trad guys tell me I will never get that "precision feeling" I have with the compound, I should just work through it...... Well yeah - they are probably right. I will get over that hump. I can certainly relate to what you are saying but #1 killer is "confidence".
I agree Jack. Confidence is the key in any weapon. but, if you keep trying, you will get that in the trad bows. It's repetition is all. Get that and the rest is like tying your shoes. God Bless
Hunt often enough and a less than optimal hit will occur. You may find the critter, a predator might or the critter might recover. Practice, know your range and accept that perfection is not in the cards for anyone that attempts something dozens of times. Surgeons make errors. Pilots make errors. Coaches make errors. Mountain climbers make errors. Hunters make errors, too. Feeling upset upon making an error is what makes us human. Learn from the error, take actions to reduce likelihood that same error happens again and move on as best as you can.
I haven’t lost one yet, unless you count one where I just nicked the back-line - right after I reminded myself to not shoot over!
But I haven’t killed a bunch, either - mostly because I don’t ever want to lose one, so I’m damn picky about my shots.
I guess for me, I don’t want to lose one a lot more than I do want to kill one. Crazy thing is that the closest I ever came to losing one was at about 10-12 yards with a scoped 7-08...
Don’t ask!
I've never lost a buck, but I've lost two does, two javelinas, and a few pigs, but I don't break my neck looking for the pigs. I feel like I've wasted good meat when I lose a deer. Thank God it hasn't happened much.
Greg, your baboons are my javelinas !
I heard Pigs taste much better than deer, a few people told me if they could they would only hunt pigs if it was for food only?
I've never lost a nock, but I once had my whole set of fletching peel off on impact as the arrow passed completely through the deer. That was pretty neat to see in slow motion in my mind as I replayed the shot over and over again. And it made a great mark for a starting point to begin my tracking job.
Another cool thing I saw with a lighted nock on TV once, when Michael Waddell stuck a buck in the heart and didn't get a complete pass through. I think it was in Ohio if my memory serves correctly. The buck ran off through the woods and stopped about 50 yards out and the lighted nock was moving in unison to the bucks heart beat. It was pretty cool to watch!
I definitely prefer Pig over deer, any day of the week and twice on Sunday! I haven't lost a nock or broad head, but I have lost a ton of arrows. Only one animal lost, a nice deer that died in a little hole surrounded by brush. no real blood trail. Me and my buddy probably walked by him 20 times while searching. we found him the next day after the coyote and birds ate him all up:/
I don't know, maybe it is because I have shot so many. I don't get apprehensive. I assume the deer is dead and I will find it. I catch a lot of flack because I don't wait to start blood trailing, haven't in years. I will back out if it is getting dark and it is cold. Other than that, I keep going. I can't recall the last deer I failed to recover. I know there have been some. It is part of hunting. And I sure have missed some; missed one yesterday morning. Scored this morning and checked the time. I was out of the stand and recovered the arrow, three minutes after the shot. He went less than 50-yards but it was thick, so, I did not see him fall. But I knew he was dead. Just my way of doing things and looking at things. I hate to lose one. But it doesn't make me sick, just more patient.
Shot a doe October 1st. while field dressing her I found half of my vanes stuck in her lungs. I use the quick fletch vanes. Bizarre.
I do all I can to only take shots that I'm 100% sure of, but as said, if you hunt long enough you'll flub one. At that point I do all I can to find the animal and to LEARN all I can about what happened and why, so it'll redcue the chances of this even happening again. But it IS part of the hunt.
Other than this, the worst part of a hunt for me is driving home when the hunt's over, especially when it's the last hunt of the year!
I shoot carbons with a 3 grain per inch insert on my compound. Sometimes the nock pops off and if it hits bone the tube will also slide out.
When I was still using aluminums swaged and fitted with a Zwickey head had an arrow fill with blood (in the bleeder blade hole??), clots. Was weird when I pulled the shaft and an arrow full of blood drained out of the shaft.
