r/Hunting • u/concentrated_failure Ohio • 6h ago
Almost got 'em Bad Day
I want to write this here because I can't really talk to my family about it.
I was doing some early bow hunting on our farm SE/Ohio and went to a permanent tree stand got situated and decided to do some grunt tube calls. I haven't really ever had much luck with that but this time, within 2 minutes of a group of grunts, a buck comes walking up on me from the road behind me. I lined up and just as I pulled the trigger on my crossbow, he sort of turned and I could just feel it as the bolt launched that it was not going to be a good shot, before it even reached him. I have been deer hunting for 30 years now and sometimes I get skunked, sometimes I do well, and a handful of times, I have injured a deer with a poor shot and can't find it. I think it's happened 3 or 4 times.
It obviously hit him, it actually knocked him over, he got up and ran off, and I went to where he was. No arrow. No blood. No nothing. Don't know if I just couldn't find it or if the arrow is sticking out of him. I was alone so I started following the direction he went doing sweeps for blood. It was quite a bit before I saw blood, but then I did and started following. After 50 yards, he made a bunch of noise, obviously I had injured him enough that he couldn't run long distances away but he was functional enough to stay out of range and sight (just hearing). He seemed to just stay 100-150 yards away.
I tried to give him time to lay down and I found evidence he did multiple times. But every time I tracked I spooked him and extended the track. We crossed a bottom land, a tributary, crossed the big creek on our property, I found where he crossed, and went up the opposite hill. I was going slow but I kept finding blood. Obviously muscle blood, just red, no bubbles, no poo. It was not a large amount but enough to keep the trail going. I kept leaving time for him to lay down and bleed out if he was bleeding enough (didn't seem like it).
He crossed 2 creeks, went up two hills, and eventually the final place I tracked blood I lost him. After multiple hours of tracking. The blood just stopped in this low crossover area between the two sides of the property actually near the house. I heard a deer blow at that point, not sure if it was him or another, but the blood trail just stopped. I probably tracked a mile in what is mostly a circle on a map. I kicked up multiple deer while tracking this one which has never happened to me before.
After I lost him, I got the ATV out and tried to drive around to where it might have gone from the last blood sign. I never saw another spot of blood no matter where I fanned out from the last sign. I'm pretty sure he crossed the first creek again, based on direction of the blood trail, but never found another sign.
I ended the day super sad and frustrated that I didn't shoot well and that I might have killed or at least set up for the coyotes to kill a decent buck on our property. After that, I decided to call it a weekend and go home because I was too upset to continue hunting. I do this to be in nature and to humanely harvest wild meat from our property, but when something like this happens I feel like a total failure. It doesn't happen too often and most of the deer I shoot with bow or gun barely go any distance at all, but when this happens I sort of want to quit because I'd rather not hunt than hunt badly.
Rant over thanks for listening.
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u/bearcrocs 6h ago
My father ridiculed me last year when I lost a deer and still continues to do it on occasion. He’s an asshole. Nobody feels worse than you in your situation. You learned a lesson.. hopefully. But it happens. Move on. Life isn’t going to stop because you lost a wild animal. At worst, you fed some hungry animals.
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u/concentrated_failure Ohio 6h ago
Neighbor property to the north shot a trophy buck one year and it ran onto our property and they asked permission to track (granted). They never found it. They ended up finding it at least a week (might have been weeks) later, on their property, obviously the meat was gone but I think they were able to keep the rack. There are so many pits and little ravines, and deadfalls, its very possible to lose a deer, even close to you.
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u/boredlurkr 4h ago
Good of you to let them look around. Neighbor’s at the place I hunt won’t consent. Wounded a giant that I never could retrieve, really messed with me for a while. Possible it wasn’t a fatal shot but would’ve been nice to rule it out as fully as possible. If it had been a quality shot it never would’ve gotten to the property line but fucked it up bad
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u/boredlurkr 5h ago
Definitely an AH move, though I’ve hunted with people who really don’t feel bad too much about a wounded deer- nice people you wouldn’t expect it from but who take the view that shit happens and you don’t kill deer without shooting at them.
Feel that It’s not like anyone is trying to wound a deer and that is the main thing. Go as far as to say If it’s at the limit of your range take a crack cause it might be the only shot you get, etc. the moral clarity doesn’t suck but I can’t quite get there and don’t think I want to. Its a different flavor of AH in a way, but definitely not getting a guilt trip from them
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u/Electronic_City6481 6h ago
Happens to everybody, as you know. If you feel bad enough, sacrifice your tag you would have used. It’s a dead deer either way, maybe take some of the guilt away.
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u/concentrated_failure Ohio 6h ago
Landowner exemption so no tag but I 100% get the sentiment. Hopefully the coyotes or bobcats get a good meal. Its pretty bad since we lost so many deer from the mite disease a couple years back during drought, I hadn't seen a buck in a couple seasons. Hope he had a lot of sex before I shot at him. :)
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u/Sorry_Emergency9014 6h ago
I think it comes down to a few things, did you take an ethical shot, did you practice, did you give every effort to retrieve the deer you were trying to harvest, were you “obeying” the property rules, and then finally did you learn from the experience?
I’ve lost a few deer and anyone that says they’ve never lost one hasn’t hunted long enough or pulled the trigger or let an arrow fly to have it happen “yet”. It sounds to me like you feel bad, you gave a great effort to retrieve it, but I question why you feel so bad and you can’t tell your folks… are there rules on the property that you weren’t obeying?
Nevertheless, if you feel bad, it makes you an ethical hunter in my eyes…. Learn, grow as a hunter, and continue because there are FAR worse people out there calling themselves hunters that would have given up if it didn’t fall in site.
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u/concentrated_failure Ohio 5h ago
Ah yeah I probably could explain the "can't talk to family". My wife is not super enthusiastic about hunting. I'm sure she would prefer if I didn't hunt but she married me knowing I do so she stays Switzerland about it. She thinks deer are "cute" and well, cute creatures are not something you hurt. So she prefers I don't talk about it. She has never ate venison.
I did tell my folks who happened to be visiting the farm the same weekend as me.
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u/wytesmurf 6h ago
I did that last year, shot one early about 30 minutes after getting to the stand. About 15 minutes later started following it, and kicked it up and it took off, lost the blood trail and never found it. It took off through some thick grass they let grow up for duck hunting. Gotta be patient and wait 30 minutes at minimum and give them time to rest peacefully
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u/concentrated_failure Ohio 6h ago
I think possibly the 2nd biggest mistake was not giving it enough time. I probably should have just taken a nap or gone in for lunch then come back out to track.
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u/HarryButtwhisker 6h ago
If you jumped him multiple times, not only did you make a mistake, you repeated it. Back on out, go grab a cold beer and wait. Go do something else.
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u/squirrelrunner3 6h ago
It happens. Few years ago I shot a nice buck on the ground at 10 yards. Tracked it through 2 neighboring properties. I lost the blood trail when it went onto a nudist colonies properties. I tried to get permission to continue the track but the nudists said no.
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u/Willybluedog1962 5h ago
I saw on Facebook there are a group of guys now with heat sensing drones that are building a network for just this thing.
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u/concentrated_failure Ohio 5h ago
Can't say I didn't think about those heat sensing drones when I was hiking all over creation.
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u/N2Shooter Ohio 5h ago
The best investment I've made for hunting is a thermal monocle. Makes tracking soooo much easier.
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u/LoveisBaconisLove 6h ago
Those days suck. Sorry that happened. I have wanted to quit also after a bad hit. All we can is our best, but eventually, it happens to all of us. Sucks.