Have You Lost Game You've Shot?

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Have You Lost An Animal You've Shot

  • Yes

    Votes: 18 85.7%
  • No

    Votes: 3 14.3%

  • Total voters
    21
  • Poll closed .
03mossy said:
Chillypepper- one thing that has worked for me in the thick woods of northen MN that is loaded with wolves where any deer left over night is wolf food plus tracking in those woods in the dark is pointless. From morning till about 3 in the afternoon I take the traditional boiler room behind the shoulder shot. Anything getting towards dark I take a high shoulder shot to break them down on the spot. Yes it does waste a bit of meat but if they run off at dark and you cant find them they'll be eaten by morning before you can resume the search. This has been my game plan for years and works.

Thank you, for the shot placement advice mossy. I kept in my mind the possibility she wound up as fox/ buzzard food as we don't have wolves. The fox/buzzard food thought was my one consolation.
 
I was shooting a .284 Winchester model 88, saw a nice Mule Deer buck at about 250 yards and watched him walk in to about 175 yards and shot...he jumped and went down and then got up and trotted off around the side of the hill, My brother and I went to the spot where he had been shot and found blood and hair and started to follow him when we heard a shot. We went around the hill and saw the buck on the ground with another hunter standing over him. We looked at the buck and he had been shot only once that we could find. I looked to me like he went around the hill and dropped dead. The other hunter made a case that I had missed and that he is the one who shot the buck. There was an exit wound and no bullet to recover...I argued that I had hair and blood and that the buck had gone down at my shot...he started getting mad and yelling...we were on my brother's in-laws property with permission, but their neighbor also had permission to hunt there and that is who this guy was...at my brothers request I walked away from that deer and let the guy have it to keep peace...but I also have never hunted that property again...and I didn't get another shot at a deer that year.

Other than that one I have never lost a big game animal, knock on wood. I had a buddy this year that used a Power Belt against my advise and he lost the doe he shot...after 4 hours of looking he couldn't find any more sign of her.
 
Scott, I am sorry to hear you lost the elk. You did the right thing and will certainly be richer for it despite the immediate loss.
From your scenario, I see a couple possible things that could have happened. First, you shot and killed the elk that got away and that other hunter thinks he shot him but missed. 2nd, you shot an elk and got hair etc. and somehow lost that elk thinking the dead one you found was him, and the one the other hunter shot was a different elk?

Hope you get another chance real soon.
 
03mossy said:
Chillypepper- one thing that has worked for me in the thick woods of northen MN that is loaded with wolves where any deer left over night is wolf food plus tracking in those woods in the dark is pointless. From morning till about 3 in the afternoon I take the traditional boiler room behind the shoulder shot. Anything getting towards dark I take a high shoulder shot to break them down on the spot. Yes it does waste a bit of meat but if they run off at dark and you cant find them they'll be eaten by morning before you can resume the search. This has been my game plan for years and works.

Great advice! My own plan has always been something similar. Early morning to mid afternoon I like a double lung, behind the shoulders shot. I've been lucky in that any animal I've ever shot this way hasn't gone much more than 30-40 yards, but I know if for some reason I don't get both lungs, or just happen to shoot a deer that doesn't know when to lay down and expire, I have enough daylight to track and find the deer. Dressing and recovery I can do in the dark, but finding is hard enough in daylight.

My one "lost" game experience is also why I cut my bowhunting day short around 3ish. One of my first times out bowhunting a guy I know a little asked me to out to his property for a hunt. He didn't like being out in the woods up a stand alone, and his usual partner wasn't available. He set me up in a good area that had a lot of recent traffic, and sure enough in the last of the evening light here comes a nice buck. I wait until he's within 20 yards, and let my arrow fly. He ups and runs away at high speed, covering the 200 yards between my stand and the other fellow, and then continues running past him out of sight. I had assumed a complete miss, but when I was on the ground I found my arrow was very bloody, with good red blood and no indication of gut. We searched and searched until well past nightfall and we were never able to find any sort of a blood trail.

My host searched again the next morning, and he was never able to find any sign of blood, so it may not have been a fatal hit. Possibly it was a high hit in a meaty area and I missed the lungs, but I still did not like the feeling of darkness coming down and having no idea where my deer had gone.

So nowadays, pretty much only morning to early afternoon archery hunts for me. I'm lucky in this regard that my area of Virginia has an early, antlerless bow season that starts the beginning of September. With sunset still coming at near summer lateness, I can fit in a lot of hunting in a long September day.

Just like 03mossy says, I'll hunt until last light with a rifle or ML, but if I have a shot in the late hours I'm going for the shoulder.
 
Losr a pig I shot 2 weeks ago. Shot low hit the leg he left me a pice of his shin to let me know I made a poort shot. I hate it even with swine. Most of my wounded have came from over confidence with my bows. Those days are over :yeah:
 
Quite a few years ago..a late season bowhunt on the Oregon coast gave us some fresh snow to hunt in...it doesnt happpen often there as most is rain as you might think...anyways my two brothers and I are out in the morning driving the snow covered roads looking for critters...behold a doe just crossed from the open left side to the right side logged unit...brother gets out of the truck sneaks around a bush and arrows that doe perfectly behind the shoulder...as we watched the shot from the seat of the truck and watched the deer run through the 10" of fresh snow she ran to a huge rootball in the middle of the logged unit...watching for another 15-20 minutes that deer must have died right there....so we hiked the long 100 yards to the rootball following the gushing blood from the pass through shot...as we got to the rootball the blood was all over the place like a leaky bucket...the deer went under the rootball blood tracks and all...so we circled around this 15' circumference and not a drop of blood or track leaving the rootball...now remember that there is 10" of fresh snow in the middle of a fresh logged unit...so we started looking under the rootball..hair blood tracks......but no deer....I quite often tell people this story and dont know how many believe it....but that deer disappeared....no tracks, blood, nothing leaving that spot......believe it or not....
 
I forgot I posted this. Good to see you guys kept it going.


Lessons can be learned from lost game.
 
Lost a doe with a round ball one time. I know for sure it had to have died. MAde me sick.
 
Lost a doe with a round ball one time. I know for sure it had to have died. MAde me sick.
 
Sadly yes 1 doe with a cf rifle, tore me up for a week disgusted with myself. Buddy recovered her a week latter when he shot her again. Hit was in the leg.
 
Yes, a real nice 8 point whitetail with a compound bow, a dog drug the skull and part of the hide into a neighbor's yard aways down the road. Everybody knew I was looking for a 8 point, they brought it down to me. Broke my heart so bad I quit bowhunting.

Sent from my RCT6773W22B using Tapatalk
 
Show me a bloke who's never lost an animal and I'll show you a liar

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JPHunting said:
Show me a bloke who's never lost an animal and I'll show you a liar

....if they've hunted a long time or alot, and/or have actually shot alot of game. I know guys that have hunted 30yrs and killed less than 10 deer and never lost one. I've shot that many in one season some years.

It happens, unfortunately. Best thing is to learn from what happened, and work hard not to let it happen again. Knowing your capabilities and taking high percentage shots is a big key to not losing game. I passed an iffy shot on a really nice buck w ML a few weeks back. I might have got him had I shot, but again...I could easily have wounded him. I opted to pass hoping to see him another day. I probably won't :lol:

The one thing I know...game animals are TOUGH and RESILIENT! I have seen some that I knew had to be dead, show up alive later. One year my buddy shot one with a bow... he said it appeared to be a high double lung hit. We had good blood a good ways, but never found her. She got killed by my cousin 2 mos later with a ML, had a nice "X" scar on both sides, that most everyone would think should have been lethal.
 
wjspratley1 said:
Yes, a real nice 8 point whitetail with a compound bow, a dog drug the skull and part of the hide into a neighbor's yard aways down the road. Everybody knew I was looking for a 8 point, they brought it down to me. Broke my heart so bad I quit bowhunting.

It sucks, yes. But man, no way I'd let that make me quit. Get back out there. :yeah:
 
JPHunting said:
Show me a bloke who's never lost an animal and I'll show you a liar

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Because you haven't done it? Once you live long enough you learn to never say never.
 
Haven't lost one yet. Guy at work crips/loses 3 or more a year to hear him tell. Makes me want to kneecap him. Jerk.
It is absolutely possible to not lose a deer AND it's equally possible to make a lethal shot and find no hair or blood. My first bow kill was exactly that. Double lunged her with a Muzzy HBX and not a drop for the 30 yards she ran before giving up the ghost. Absolute statements are rather dangerous in many cases...
Perhaps a better question is , what did you do with the tag for that lethally hit, but unfound critter? Tag entitles you to kill ONE.
 

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