It's human nature to tell everyone about what we accomplish. I believe that there is as much if not more to learn, when we share our mistakes and failures with each other. The photos attached below are from a shot opportunity this past season, that occurred thirty minutes into the waiting period for the first doe that harvested/arrowed this year. I realize in posting these photos that many will not take shots at animals that are quartering to you. I do, and the point of this post is not to discuss or debate taking or not taking a shot at this angle on an animal. What I want to discuss is that I did not pick up on the doe going from relaxed to full alert while I was at full draw. The result was a deer that ducked just before the arrow got to her and a non lethal wound, but a wound nevertheless. Just for reference, this was a ten to twelve yard shot. The third photo has my arrow circled in red before the doe had moved. Before I reviewed the video these still shots are taken from, I was really down on myself for making such a bad shot. After reviewing the video, I realized my shot execution wasn't the problem. The fact that the doe went on alert and I released an arrow at her was the issue. The photos below show how much an alert animal can/will move in a very short period of time.
They are fast.
Most people don't share failures because they are embarrassed and sick about it. But they are opportunities to learn.
There will always be a few who will treat you like a tied up, ugly, redheaded stepchild for missing or wounding but you gotta ignore them.
Most hunters who tell you they've never missed or wounded an animal either are lying or haven't shot at many.
I've lost 4 pigs this past season. Fortunately no deer lost yet but it has happened in the past. Lethal and nonlethal wounds. Just trying to pick the right shot often leads to me passing up opportunities. Because I fear making a bad shot on a deer.
All you can do is learn from it and push forward.
I've learned way more from my mistakes than from any thing that went right. Many years ago I shot a big bodied spike buck straight down from my stand. I was shooting a 65# bow and heavy arrows at the time with a 2 blade Magnus head. Long story is I never found that deer with ne exit wound. I've had opportunities but never took that shot again. That's what you learn from.
I had a young six point buck at approximately 8 yards, totally switch ends and instead of a behind the shoulder hit, take the arrow in the rear ham. Luck smiled on me that day and he only made it 30 yards. That was with a Browning Tracker compound. It turned out well, but could have been very ugly. I feel for you.
:campfire: :coffee: :archer2: [size=78%] [/size]
My most important failure, is the reason why I switched 100% to traditional archery tackle. It was the early 2000's and I was hunting with my compound. I had a nice 8 point about 20 yards from me, broadside, in an open field. I drew, looked through the peep and lined up my pin. Released the arrow, and watch it bury into the ground directly in front of him. Needless to say, that he took off. When I looked at my bow, my sight was way out of position, as I must've hit it on the way in while waling in the dark. I never checked, and this was the turning point for me.
From that moment on, I have never hunted or shot any compound bow ever again. If I miss, it is all on me, not an equipment failure. Just me, the stick, and the string, and that's how I like it.
As was mentioned above, we can always learn from our mistakes, and I learned a valuable lesson that December day.
I know this is a serious thread, and thanks to those who are sharing.
I once shot over a carp, so I aimed lower next time. :dunno:
Seriously, one afternoon hunt in Missouri I nicked both a deer and a turkey (low) on the same hunt. Long term (progressively worsened over 10 year period) target panic had finally got the best of me. I switched to left hand shooting after that hunt.
It took me about 8 months to conquer the LH, but it has been my answer since 1995. Now I know what causes it and I focus on the process instead of the result and it has never reared its ugly head again.
I think that if you hunt with the stick and string passionately, these things either have happened or will happen, with enough time in the woods..... regardless of how experienced you are. People with decades under their belts...... the stories they can tell.... of fortune AND misfortune......success and mistakes. I would raise an eyebrow in suspicion to any seasoned individual who claimed that they NEVER experienced a situation that went other than perfect and resulted in either clean misses or that pinch or wounded animal we all strive to avoid happening. What you take away from it is a gift..... or at least should be recognized as such. These occurrences contribute to experience every bit as much as the times we get the meat to the table. I have certainly made mistakes and thought I would hope for not, I could never say it would never happen again. Crazy things happen in the woods too. I try to learn from my experiences to make myself a better hunter and that's the best I can do.
In my early years of bow hunting, I was a pretty decent shot. I string walked and shot decent scores indoors and at field targets.
However I had never taken a deer yet with a bow. So I'm hiding inside a huge hollowed out oak tree and would peak out around every minute or so. Well here comes a spike buck up behind me. I step backwards outside of the tree cavity and come to full draw on him and he stops at 5 yards, maybe even 4 yards, LOL.
Shot right under his chest, he runs 5 yards and stops broadside at 9 yards, shot another arrow right under his chest, he runs maybe 5 yards and stops broadside again at about 14 yards. Yup shot right under his chest...
He took 2 steps and stood there broadside looking at me. I yelled at him, "You win now get the hell out of here..." LMAO
So that day taught me to concentrate on a small spot on the deer....
I laughed for a good while after he finally left..
We all make mistakes, or use bad judgement, hopefully we learn from them to avoid a possible wound/lost animal.
Yes guys we all make mistakes- goal is to never make the same mistake twice especially if it resulted in a bad hit. Good stuff on the camera we can all learn from being able to go back and look. I've thought about filming but I'm probably too old and I do try every year to travel lighter not heavier. I've got a LONG list of what not to do or when not to shoot. I've had 50 years to perfect that lol we can cover later
Be safe guys - dodging ice today
Eating onion soup and hot chocolate
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QuoteEating onion soup and hot chocolate
Oh Boy, LOL
I have made soo many mistakes my mind went on overload when I read this. But thankfully not as many as Roy! :biglaugh:
If you pick a certain animal I could zero it down.
Ok, a bull elephant.
LOL
Namibia. 05. Had pink eye so stayed at camp . Could hardly see. I heard some elephant watered nearby so i took a walk to the water hole. Really dumb on my part :knothead:. Big bull elephant came to water . I hid in the rocks but he cought my wind and pointed his trunk right at me. About 15 yards away .Thought I was a gonner but he didn't charge.
Hadn't thought of that in years. Thanks Roy!
I had a very disappointing DIY hunt, call it a failure on mule deer and Coues I just got back from in the southwest desert. It's big wide open country. The only thing funneling them is water and unfortunately it rained 3 inches the week before we got there so there was water everywhere.
I've hunted this ranch enough to know some patterns. This year the patterns changed. Spot and stalking in rough open country is possible with a compound but very difficult with a stickbow to get inside that extra 20-30yds I needed for a solid shot.
I had multiple 3 to 4 hour stalks blown. Im 6'3", 240 and old.... I May need to take up yoga or something as I'm not as limber and stealthy as I used to be. Grin
It only takes one rock grinding against another and those Coues are out of there. Frustrating.
I tried ground blinds on water for a few days thinking they might still use these habitually as a hub. Nope.
I studied topography trying to apply what I already know about those deer, I came up empty. Maybe if I had 2 weeks....
Same thing happened to me on a sheep hunt in an open unit in Alaska. I spent 5 days trying to get inside 200 yds on the only legal Dall sheep we found in rain, sleet and snow.
Bottom line, we are using a short range weapon and sometimes the conditions make it tough.
.
I've not had good luck stopping deer... maybe I'm too loud with my "Meh",I don't know??? They are picking me off every time. All I do know is I will NOT try to stop them until the very last moment, if at all.
LOL Doug, could have been very interesting.
Was it mating season?
:laughing:
IMO, the successes lose a lot of their importance if a guy is not honest enough to share the mess ups too!
Bisch
Pretty sure it was for me. Him apparently not :scared:
:biglaugh:
It's this kind of thread that makes me look forward to checking Tradgang...
Several seasons ago I was sitting on the ground in a brush blind in northern Illinois, watching a doe come right into my shooting lane. She walked right in at me and started to turn broadside, and I started to draw. The moment I got to full draw she was about 8-10 yards away, and she turned and looked me right in the eye. We both released at the same time... I released the arrow and she released a whole lot of adrenaline into her legs! She jumped and spun like lightning and disappeared into the brush. I jumped up to try to lay eyes on her, and saw about 6 deer running in various directions. I never found her, nor a single drop of blood. I think I hit her in the shoulder blade. Even though I hunted deer for 3-4 more seasons, I've never taken another shot at a deer, partially because I didn't like that and I didn't want it to happen again. I live in Alaska again now and so my deer hunting has ended for the time being.
My first season shooting trad, I was 16 or 17, I walked up on a fawn standing in a field. When I drew to take a shot I couldn't help but think about how it was looking right at me, when I released I was looking at the deer's eyes. Being an instinctive shot my arrow of course went directly where I was looking. That red feathered shaft went right between the ears of that deer and off through the field.the deer hadn't moved so I pulled another arrow out of the quiver I had made with poplar bark and drew again, looking at the deer's side this time I released again, and missed again, over the back this time. The deer trotted off to the left and stopped, repeating the process, I drew, aimed and let fly with my last arrow, over the back once more. The deer had moved only a few feet and was gawking at the Fred bear wannabe but having no arrows left I had to laugh and scold the deer until it took off into the woods. I could hit targets with that bow but I had to miss more deer that entire season until I learned that deer tend to move at the sound of the shot (especially with the loud bow and light arrow combo I had at the time) I'm glad I missed those deer that season instead of making marginal hits on them. By the next year I had made string silencers from wool and made my arrows heavier to quiet down my bow, thanks to advice I had largely picked up here and those deer stopped turning inside out when i shot at them
James thanks for sharing your experience with a less than desirable outcome.I became IBEP Bowhunter Education Instructor in 1990.I have hunted exclusively with a bow for over 50 plus years.Over those years I have learned more from my failures than my sucesses.I am passionate about shot placement,when and where to shoot.You made it clear in your post your choice to take quartering toward shots and that it was not the point for debate.I respect that.By our nature traditional bow hunters are fiercely independent and I haved always strived to be a teacher not a preacher.Respectfully I would like to offer the observation that if perhaps you let that deer walk a bit further past its direct line of sight it may not have alerted to your presence and the outcome turned out differently.
Hello Jacob,
Thank you for the advice. Letting the deer walk further may have worked out differently in the situation. I do know I was already at full draw and holding when she looked up. I don't remember that. That's just what the video replay of the encounter shows. I don't remember her looking up at me at all. I'm not even certain from video review that she looked up because of me, or if it was just her normal habit of looking for danger before proceeding forward. Either way, it wired her up to move. I am frustrated that I did not read her body language the way that I should have, and as a result I hit her in a less than desirable location. One positive outcome has been the knowledge gained from videoing most of the shots I took at animals this year. Without a video of this encounter, I would not have been aware that the deer had looked up. Until I reviewed the video, all I could think about was how did I shoot that poorly. I would have gone back to the target and worked on form, versus knowing, that I have to pay closer attention to each animal's demeanor during the shot process. I also learned this season, maybe re-learned to pay more attention to possible shot scenarios (before an animal shows up) and when I can and can't draw back. I have another video showing me get busted by a mature buck that is quartering away at 5-6 yards, and not getting a shot opportunity two weeks after this encounter.
This is what getting busted drawing back by an old deer looks like.
Jon, I don't feel so bad now about my 3 misses.
LOL :thumbsup:
Trust me James anyone who has bow hunted for any length of time has been in your shoes.I can tell by your response that you are truly dedicated to doing it right.It is refreshing to see that it concerns you enough to go back analyze the shot and take measures to insure a successful result.The most difficult aspect of shooting deer at close range is getting to draw without being detected by movement, sound or smell.An alert deer can dodge the fastest of bows,including compounds.
Thanks Jacob. This past fall was my thirty-fourth season bow hunting whitetails, the past twelve of them with traditional gear. I'm probably the most frustrated that I repeated some of my past mistakes. I'm not complaining. Most of all, I wanted to share a mistake that I made, so others would have the opportunity to learn from it. I had a green horn mistake last year (Fall 2020) as well. I knew better while I was making it. I want to share it as well, hoping that someone will benefit from it. I had a broadside shot on a doe at 17 yards. I hit her a little back. I couldn't tell for certain at impact, since the arrow blew through her and was sticking in the ground on the other side. I knew I hit her because she flinched on impact, she stopped at 60 yards and licked the wound, and I could see evidence of the hit on my arrow through binoculars. After she licked the wound for awhile, she walked away, abandoning the twin fawns that were with her. I waited the thirty to forty-five minutes until shooting light expired, took down my hang on stand and climbing sticks, packed my gear up for the hike back, and then walked to where I last saw her. The arrow had dark red blood on it, no guts, but a gut smell to it. There was a good blood trail for about eighty yards which took me to the property line of my Uncle's 200 acres. Using my flashlight (1600 lumens in a pocket light), I saw her fawns who would not leave at 100 - 150 yards in the neighbor's pasture, which was wide open, other than native plum bushes that are common to southwestern Oklahoma. I then saw the reflection of her eyes bedded in one of those plum bushes at about the same distance. I did not pay enough attention to realize she was still alive. I crossed the fence, and immediately she bolted leaving her fawns again. I backed out, but it was too late. The next morning my uncle and I grid searched the adjacent 200 - 300 acres. No sign of where she went. I blew her fawns out of a bed within 50 yards of where she was when she bolted, as well as almost stepped on a 2 1/2 - 3 1/2 year old buck who had bedded down nearby over night or early morning. I never found her. She was somewhere dead. Her two fawns came by every single setup I had while I was on stand for the next six weeks to remind me I should have just come back in the morning based on how the deer had reacted to the shot. She would have been an easy recovery the next day if I had not taken up the trail too early.