I have shot a few that never bled but I was lucky enough to track them down. Just a trickle from the wound when I found them
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I missed ****ing twice! Argggh!
- Thread starter NWSharpshooter
- Start date
Well how was it tonight?
I didn't get out there until almost sunset so I only had about 45 minutes in the stand. I listened to one of the nearby houses make a bunch of racket more than anything. One thing I did notice though. Last night I kept looking next to this log that I knew she was standing next to when I shot her. Today in the stand when I looked over my right shoulder I immediately saw the error of my ways. The log she was standing next to was 20 feet closer to me and 40 feet further up the hill. Last night I kept going back to the wrong spot over and over and not finding any blood.
I got down tonight and checked the area where she in fact was, and I could see where she disturbed the ground when she fell, but I still didn't find any blood.
Lessons learned.
1. If you go shooting the day before hunting, don't wrap up your range session with a different ammo that requires a different hold than you plan on hunting with. My two shots in the morning would have been dead on if I was shooting subs. Only thing I can figure is my brain automatically adjusted for the subs since I just naturally held over both shots. I didn't consciously think about it, but I am sure that is what I was doing.
2. When you shoot a deer pay close attention to where it was standing and make at least two landmarks. I remembered the down tree, but lets get real. This is Georgia, that hill is covered with down trees. I was destined to fail from the start when I started at the wrong place.
3. After shooting a deer don't get excited, jump out of the stand and run after it. I am sure this is common sense to most people, but honestly I didn't even think about it. In my mind I watched her fall and she was out of my view. I needed to get to her. Looking back I now see that all I did was chase her off to somebody else's property.
I heard lots of shots while I was looking for her, so my hope is somebody else got her. I didn't notice buzzards today. I will keep my eye out for the next couple of days. All in all even with all the failures, I had a blast in the woods and I think I learned some valuable lessons that I will not soon forget (or maybe I will, I did have a brain aneurysm after all.
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2 and 3 are very important. Brother glad you are coming into the fold! I have been hunting for 20 years and have lost my share as well, it happens. Lucky for me everything I shot at this year has been found with no problem. I have been bow hunting only except one weekend. This addiction will end up costing plenty of money and a ton of time but in my eyes there aint nothing better. Time in the woods and failure will be your best teachers. I hope you the best and can't wait to see the pictures when you get one down! I love seeing new people get into hunting, don't let this discourage you. I'll give you a little hell when you miss but at the end of the day I'm on your side. Happy hunting brother!!!!I didn't get out there until almost sunset so I only had about 45 minutes in the stand. I listened to one of the nearby houses make a bunch of racket more than anything. One thing I did notice though. Last night I kept looking next to this log that I knew she was standing next to when I shot her. Today in the stand when I looked over my right shoulder I immediately saw the error of my ways. The log she was standing next to was 20 feet closer to me and 40 feet further up the hill. Last night I kept going back to the wrong spot over and over and not finding any blood.
I got down tonight and checked the area where she in fact was, and I could see where she disturbed the ground when she fell, but I still didn't find any blood.
Lessons learned.
1. If you go shooting the day before hunting, don't wrap up your range session with a different ammo that requires a different hold than you plan on hunting with. My two shots in the morning would have been dead on if I was shooting subs. Only thing I can figure is my brain automatically adjusted for the subs since I just naturally held over both shots. I didn't consciously think about it, but I am sure that is what I was doing.
2. When you shoot a deer pay close attention to where it was standing and make at least two landmarks. I remembered the down tree, but lets get real. This is Georgia, that hill is covered with down trees. I was destined to fail from the start when I started at the wrong place.
3. After shooting a deer don't get excited, jump out of the stand and run after it. I am sure this is common sense to most people, but honestly I didn't even think about it. In my mind I watched her fall and she was out of my view. I needed to get to her. Looking back I now see that all I did was chase her off to somebody else's property.
I heard lots of shots while I was looking for her, so my hope is somebody else got her. I didn't notice buzzards today. I will keep my eye out for the next couple of days. All in all even with all the failures, I had a blast in the woods and I think I learned some valuable lessons that I will not soon forget (or maybe I will, I did have a brain aneurysm after all.
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That old saying about "Some lessons are best learned by yourself". If someone had told you 2 & 3 and you are like most people (myself included) you'd have 'heard' it, but not listened to it. You'll probably never forget those two lessons now. As far as #1, I'm too stupid to try and adjust for different loads. My hunting guns are sighted in for ONE load and one load only.
When I was a teenager hunting for the first time, I shot a big doe, right in the heart/lung area with a 12 ga slug and knocked her down. This was up north in Ohio with 2 feet of snow on the ground. I got really excited and immediately went running after her. As soon as I got near, she jumped up and took off and somebody else got her. I could see the wound coming up on her and there was blood everywhere. It was definitely a devastating shot and if I would have waited even 30 seconds, she would have been out for the count. Lesson learned.
I wasn't exactly trying to adjust for different loads. I basically just wanted to see where the subs hit at 50 and 100 after I got dialed in for the supers. I shot 5 shots at both 50 and 100 just to see how low they would be in case for some reason I later wanted to shoot with a sub. As it turns out, it was not a smart thing to do.
Been chasing deers for 40+ years what they do NEVER surprises me.They can disappear fo sho.Wait til that happens to you S.
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I hear you. I got VERY lucky the only time I violated my one load/one gun rule.
I had sightend in my .25-06 with 100 grain bullets. I had two really bad experiences on back to back hunts (evening and morning) with deer running off and no blood trail (though I did thankfully find them both fairly close). I was about to park the rifle but in a last ditch effort I bought some 115 grain bonded ultras at the end of the season and for whatever reason had a brain cramp and never sighted them in. Next season took it hunting with the new rounds. To make matters worse I was hunting a pasture. Judging distance isn't as easy as people think... I ranged a few points (too many to keep track of in retrospect) and there was one lone oak in a particular part of the field that I THOUGHT I had ranged at 225. I saw a doe walk out and I THOUGHT she was about 25 yards in FRONT of the tree when I shot her. 200 yards? No problem, good rest easy shot. She reared up on her back legs hit the ground then jumped up and took off. I thought, "What the heck?!?!" I couldn't find any blood which I thought very odd given how hard she hit the ground and the fact she took off running on her chin. A buddy had tracking dogs and came over. As we were walking across the pasture towards the tree the dogs veered right to the FAR side instead of the near side. He asked me "You SURE she was on the other side of the tree?" Needless to say I was wrong. About 35 yards on the OTHER side of the tree there was a blood trail starting from where she was standing that looked like it had been poured out of a 5 gallon bucket. We found her piled up downhill maybe 50-75 yards away (with an exit wound you put your fist in). But get this, the tree was actually 275 yards from the stand, not 225. So that shot was over 300 yards (I wouldn't have taken it had I known) and the impact was only about 3-4" low from where I was aiming. Granted it was PURE luck as I've seen MAJOR differences in POI from much smaller variances in loads but that just solidified my love of "fast and flat". Anyway, there's an almost completely UNrelated story for you.
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You are probably used to that hold over on SUB ammoâ¦.NOT super sonicâ¦.that would be my guess..
