cself
Senior Member
Honest question not fishing for drama!
So like a lot of other guys on here I have shot and lost deer over the years I even gave up on bow hunting in my early 20s out of frustration. Back then I didn't know anyone with a tracking dog or know of resources like this forum to find them. I spent hours and sometimes days looking, anything from crawling on my knees to grid searching alone and with help. I still ask for help I've been humbled enough to not be arrogant that being said I feel like I have pretty good instincts for when a deer is mortally wounded or is not. This year I shot a really nice seven point probably be my biggest framed bow buck not sure what he would score but who cares right I was thrilled with the opportunity. I initially thought I shot over his back I shot him at 23 yards with my 30-yd pin and thanks to a little added noise from a loose quiver he did duck hard, no excuses just the facts a bad shot is a bad shot. when I went to retrieve the arrow I realized there was some blood on the fletchings as well as a little bit of hair tucked up under one of them my heart sank knowing that what I thought was a shot that clearly went over his back had hit the deer somewhere and I now had a wounded deer. I was self filming and unfortunately did not get the impact on camera but did video the buck running away. A friend and I reviewed the video and could not see on the deer where the arrow might have exited but from the video we could tell which trail he ran down We could also see his tracks running and kicking up leaves. We found very little blood finally (after a couple of hours) both of us agreed that I'd hit him in no man's land and that he was still alive. As this is a hunting community my initial thought was I'm going to share this with my fellow bowhunters for venting and community support reasons but I didn't because I knew the first page of comments would all be, "did you call a dog?", "dog didn't find it?", "I would get a dog!" And honestly I was not in the mood to hear or respond to any of that. Now that time has passed my honest question is do you call a dog for every single deer you draw blood from? The positive to this whole thing is that my dad spotted the buck about 3 weeks later and watched him walk across the neighbors field through his binoculars and could not find any sign of an injury.
I know that's a long paragraph to get to my question but I appreciate you reading and joining in the conversation.
So like a lot of other guys on here I have shot and lost deer over the years I even gave up on bow hunting in my early 20s out of frustration. Back then I didn't know anyone with a tracking dog or know of resources like this forum to find them. I spent hours and sometimes days looking, anything from crawling on my knees to grid searching alone and with help. I still ask for help I've been humbled enough to not be arrogant that being said I feel like I have pretty good instincts for when a deer is mortally wounded or is not. This year I shot a really nice seven point probably be my biggest framed bow buck not sure what he would score but who cares right I was thrilled with the opportunity. I initially thought I shot over his back I shot him at 23 yards with my 30-yd pin and thanks to a little added noise from a loose quiver he did duck hard, no excuses just the facts a bad shot is a bad shot. when I went to retrieve the arrow I realized there was some blood on the fletchings as well as a little bit of hair tucked up under one of them my heart sank knowing that what I thought was a shot that clearly went over his back had hit the deer somewhere and I now had a wounded deer. I was self filming and unfortunately did not get the impact on camera but did video the buck running away. A friend and I reviewed the video and could not see on the deer where the arrow might have exited but from the video we could tell which trail he ran down We could also see his tracks running and kicking up leaves. We found very little blood finally (after a couple of hours) both of us agreed that I'd hit him in no man's land and that he was still alive. As this is a hunting community my initial thought was I'm going to share this with my fellow bowhunters for venting and community support reasons but I didn't because I knew the first page of comments would all be, "did you call a dog?", "dog didn't find it?", "I would get a dog!" And honestly I was not in the mood to hear or respond to any of that. Now that time has passed my honest question is do you call a dog for every single deer you draw blood from? The positive to this whole thing is that my dad spotted the buck about 3 weeks later and watched him walk across the neighbors field through his binoculars and could not find any sign of an injury.
I know that's a long paragraph to get to my question but I appreciate you reading and joining in the conversation.
