Poor shots and long tracking episodes

[Silvio]

First of all I like to say I love this saddle hunter plateform. This bow season I've heard some unfortunate stories of guys either wounding or missing a great opportunity on a mature buck. First point, "Everyone" Understand, you never planned on wounding or missing a really good buck. The fact is "it happens to the best of us" maybe more than once during our hunting experiences. The question is, how do you recover from that opportunity and not let it drain your thought process of getting back out there and finding another good buck. Realize many good bucks will die without you ever knowing a out it, and your out there chasing a ghost that doesn't exist anymore. Where I live I've counted 11 bucks being hit by cars on I-75 in the last 10 days. Several of them pretty nice deer. The point is try to understand what happened for making such a poor shot placement. Then make the correction. When this happens sneak out of your stand set up and give it a rest until the following day to recover him. Just three years ago I shot a 130 class buck at 7 yds from the base of my tree, poor shot placement hit his shoulder square. I looked for two days only to realize he probably made it thru. That's a positive in it self. I've also missed a couple along my bow hunting journey that drove me crazy...I said to myself theres no Way I could have missed that 15yrd shot...its a chip shot. Well it happens. I'll say that hopefully you learn from these types of mistakes like I have...its called hunting and having fun. Theres always going to be another hunt and another buck...and hopefully you can say got a buck in the bed of my truck...Good Luck
May The Magic of The Whitetail Forever Enrich Your Life

 

[Kowi Anukasha]

Good post @Silvio. I could write a book on my failures over the years of hunting in general let alone hunting deer with a bow exclusively for the past 20 years. Every time I see one of the post you mentioned I am flooded with these memories of the ones that got away and share in the feeling of disgust and disappointment with the hunter. I realize though that without these failures early on I would not have been prepared to handle the many adversities bow-hunting or life in general would throw at me in the years that followed. I've responded to the posts of "hit but not found" with what I've learned through this process. The most important tool we have is not our weapon of choice but the confidence in witch we wield that weapon. Confidence alone can make or break a hunter especially with a bow where we in a lot of cases we intentionally handicap our selves within the confines of stick and string and having that confidence in our equipment and self will encourage us to take the shot when it's presented. The second most important thing in my mind is determination. Hunting and killing mature bucks is not as easy as they make it look on TV and if your gonna pull it off consistently you better have a heap of determination. Not every hunt I go on is an episode of Monster Bucks in fact most are quite uneventful and I am happy to see any four legged critter (except for the dang cows that plague my every move.) This makes shots at a mature buck that much more intense and nerve wrecking. This is where the determination comes in. Determination or drive as its sometimes referred to can not be thought or gained as confidence can, but is a decision that we make. So when that bad hit on the one you have been waiting for comes your way you can continue to kick your self or you can be determined to get your mind back in the game. You can't get that arrow back no matter how bad you wish you could but you can set that shot up and practice on a target. As prevention of failure my advice is to be determined to gain the confidence through testing of not only your equipment but your self (practice the shots you will be taking while hunting until you cant get it wrong.) Second, don't be afraid to fail. Know full well that failure will come to us all at some point but you have the choice to let the fear of failure interrupt the execution of your next shot. Instead allow all that practice, testing and training you put in to take over and when that moment arrives, have confidence, be determined and focus hard on that spot you want to hit, settle your pin and execute.

 

[Silvio]

Good post @Silvio. I could write a book on my failures over the years of hunting in general let alone hunting deer with a bow exclusively for the past 20 years. Every time I see one of the post you mentioned I am flooded with these memories of the ones that got away and share in the feeling of disgust and disappointment with the hunter. I realize though that without these failures early on I would not have been prepared to handle the many adversities bow-hunting or life in general would throw at me in the years that followed. I've responded to the posts of "hit but not found" with what I've learned through this process. The most important tool we have is not our weapon of choice but the confidence in witch we wield that weapon. Confidence alone can make or break a hunter especially with a bow where we in a lot of cases we intentionally handicap our selves within the confines of stick and string and having that confidence in our equipment and self will encourage us to take the shot when it's presented. The second most important thing in my mind is determination. Hunting and killing mature bucks is not as easy as they make it look on TV and if your gonna pull it off consistently you better have a heap of determination. Not every hunt I go on is an episode of Monster Bucks in fact most are quite uneventful and I am happy to see any four legged critter (except for the dang cows that plague my every move.) This makes shots at a mature buck that much more intense and nerve wrecking. This is where the determination comes in. Determination or drive as its sometimes referred to can not be thought or gained as confidence can, but is a decision that we make. So when that bad hit on the one you have been waiting for comes your way you can continue to kick your self or you can be determined to get your mind back in the game. You can't get that arrow back no matter how bad you wish you could but you can set that shot up and practice on a target. As prevention of failure my advice is to be determined to gain the confidence through testing of not only your equipment but your self (practice the shots you will be taking while hunting until you cant get it wrong.) Second, don't be afraid to fail. Know full well that failure will come to us all at some point but you have the choice to let the fear of failure interrupt the execution of your next shot. Instead allow all that practice, testing and training you put in to take over and when that moment arrives, have confidence, be determined and focus hard on that spot you want to hit, settle your pin and execute.

Very well said, failure is a matter of choice. It can define you or it can refine you...its just that simple. The challenge should be getting close not how far you can shoot him. Our limits diminish when experience kicks into gear. Also, taking a risk, like getting inside a bedding area is not failure...its a price to pay of learning how to hunt bucks.

 

[Mackerel]

Due to work schedule restraints and keeping family life at a premium, I didn’t get to fling an arrow at anything(living) till a little over a week ago. I tend to be picky and prefer to shoot the old nanny does if I know they are in the area. That being said it was looking like a killer evening for filling the freezer with doe meat. As per usual the yearlings and 1.5 year old does came out first grazing in front of me, playing down wind of me( luckily they are still uninformed of my lust for honey and teriyaki soaked deer kabobs). About 20 minutes later I had queen bee of does at 12 yards. After what’s seemed like an eternity of waiting on the little ones to quit looking my way I could draw my bow. Half way through my draw a youngin’s head spun around looking right at me like a reincarnated owl searching for my ginger soul on a cloudy night. So I stood there, frozen, bow drawn and had to make a shift in my saddle to get my anchor points to shoot making me have to wait even longer to move. At the point of almost letting down and telling the crowd below I was there she looked away. Between the waiting, adrenaline and loss of focus I saw the pin behind the old does shoulder and shot. It flew three feet in front of her. Her and another older doe bolted, the young deer trotted looking confused and still unsure if they should leave( they didn’t). So now I’m in panic mode; what did I do? Was it my bow? Was the arrow off the rest? Did my cam hit something? About 10minutes later a had the chance to look at my bow behind the tree and check my marks. Nothing had moved. Not long after that I had a chance another four legged meat sack at 10 yards. Took cover behind the tree, settled myself, drew the bow and sent a rage two feet In the ground after it blew through both lungs.

I trust my gear, plain and simple. Trusting myself is another story. How much time have I spent looking for my keys when I’m holding them? Don’t ask, only God know.

I laid in bed that night trying to figure out what happened and couldn’t come to a conclusion. The next day I set up in the backyard and tried to recreate that scenario. It took 2 hours but I figured it out. Between the chaos of eyes, ears and my own adrenaline, I saw my pins on her shoulder from the wrong eye and let it go. Thankfully she wasn’t facing the other way and it wasn’t a ham shot.

What I do after a bad shot is practice and talk my way through all of my steps until I get my confidence back in myself. This time, my wrong move was rushing and not finding my anchor points.