So I am assuming that you have never made a bad shot with you beloved deer rifle and never recovered a deer? If not, you haven't been hunting long enough because it is bound to happen to all of us.

It happens to both gun and bow hunters. It stinks that it happens because no hunter wants to see an animal suffer.

I gun hunt and bow hunt and have had deer run farther with a gunshot wound than I have with a broadhead. Placement is everything, and unfortunately, nobody is perfect.

I appreciate the concurrence.



Bowman45, like the others have said, you're good, and my comments were not directed to you specifically. But THF is notorious for group-think, and in about 2.5 airborne seconds, a good thread which might otherwise prompt excellent discussion (like this one has), turns into a South Park episode.

Again, we're not talking about the slobs. We need to police those guys hard. But sometimes good hunters, just doing what they love to do, throw the chips and they don't always fall where we want them too. We need to pick those guys up, dust 'em off, and set them back up in the stand. That's the only way we'll preserve our way of life for our kids, and their kids too.

Shoot 'em straight, gents. Good luck this season.

Kyle

You have two types of hunters for lack of a better word for one group, but they are as follows.

The true hunter is the one that respects his quarry, and takes the time to master his rifle or bow, and tries to do everything possible to achieve a perfect shot, and clean kill, obeys the rules, and regulations, and respects the animals, and the land that he or her is privilaged to hunt.

A hunter will do all he can to make the shot count, and to recover the game, but nothing is a given when shooting at a living breathing animal, and we are all prone to human error.

The other is the slob, who could care less about taking time to practice, and master his equipment, because after all it's suppossed to do what it's claimed it will do, and nothing else should have to be done in order to do so.

Game is there for the taking, and that is why you have tags and ranchers lease their land so that you can go and hunt.

They don't worry about rules since most rules don't apply to them, and trashing the place is acceptable in their mind because they failed to see game and they feel they got cheated, and wonder why they usually fail to get invited back for some reason, and just go on to the next lease.

You will always have both types of hunters, and why it's up to the true hunter to have to defend his sport, and threads like this is why you always end up with the drama because you have both types and most of us know of someone or of someone who was once on one of our leases that fit that discription.

Lots of assumptions being made about this without all the details of actually what happened. Without all those details we have no way in knowing the truth. I will throw one into the hat also- how do you know it was shot by a hunter and not a poacher?

I've been reading this thread and I just can't take it anymore. It sucks that this buck was wounded and had an arrow still in it but why would you be mad? How do you know the bow was not powerful enough? That could of been anyone making a clean shot (or bad) but to assume someone would stick a deer with the intention of wounding it or hunting with inferior equipment is ridiculous. Can you tell me how many pounds his bow was set at, brand or model? Why make the assumption that because that deer did not keel over and instantly fall dead or only run 20 yards just perfectly like on the tv shows that someone had to of been doing something unethical or using inferior equipment. If as hunter's we can't see that these things are possible then we are not being honest with ourselves. Just hope the animal survives or died quickly thereafter. Give people the benefit of the doubt unless shown otherwise. We have enough people that don't want us to hunt to be making wild assumptions amongst ourselves.

Your right TAT and thanks.stxranchman your areright could have been a poacher.And buckrage when we dont know what happened I thought it was called an assumption.I dont know that the bowwas powerful enough.For all I know it could have been a very experienced hunter that may have gotten his arrow deflected by something unseen in the moment of adrenaline rushing through him.As far as making me mad,was not mad at the hunter just mad at the fact that this happened I hate to see an animal suffer,Especially since I dont get to hunt as much as I would like to and getting to see a deer is very exciting to me not getting to see that many when I do get to hunt and see one it is like the very first deer I seen when hunting for the very first time every time I go.Hope I cleared it up.

This has been a good thread bowman45 and if anything it proves one thing, and that is that everyone has an opinion, and some would rather think that their opinion is the only one that counts, but you see by the responses that everyone has a different take on what might have been the cause without anyone ever knowing what really happened.

That is why just like the heading of the Texas Hunting Forum states that "this is the best place in Texas to talk hunting" and that's why most of us come here.

We won't ever settle anything, or everything, but we do like to give opinions, and in some cases some of us give out some pretty good info, others maybe not so much, but just remember one thing, and that is you get what you pay for!

About 20 years ago I was a guest on a lease where one of the leasors had brought out his son for the weekend trying to put him on an old buck with a nasty looking, though strange rack. The kid got the buck and try brought it back to camp to clean it. That buck had a complete arrow inside him that ran at an angle under his spine back to his hips. From the looks of it, it had been there at least one year and likely more.

I've made wounding shots and am not ashamed to admit it. Anyone who hasn't is either lying or hasn't been in the field much. Even a "perfect" shot can sometimes be non-fatal.

Thanks Jimbo thats why I love this site cause of the info good or bad.Have learned alot on this forum and will continue to visit it everyday as always.Good hunting everyone and be safe out there.Be nice if we could all get together and BBQ or something.I love BBQ and horseshoes.LOL

This is a very interesting topic.

This year, I moved onto a new lease rather late and just got my camera, feeder, and treestand up a week before opening day. I was very happy to take a big fat doe yesterday. I pulled the card from my camera after loading her up. Among lots of good pics, I found this...

[img]http://db.tt/MDaFN2DE[/img]

I have had cameras out now for 5 years. Hunted a bunch before then. Never seen a wounded deer like this before. Clear entry and massive exit wound. Not sure if the head on shot was intentional or the deer moved on the shooter. Hope they tracked her a while.

Needless to say, doe tag #2 is on hold until I see if I can drop her. I will try.

And I agree... too many assumptions to get mad. I hope no one would try a head on shot on purpose like this. But no way of really knowing.

not cool

We had an incident during the last week of gun season a couple of years back. We are only allowed 1 trophy buck, even though it is in a 2 buck county. I had already taken my good buck. A 8 1/2 year old buck, that always seemed to break his antlers off, and had gotten another free pass to the next year showed up with an arrow sticking out of his back. I didn't want him to suffer, so I finished him off. I asked the landowner to check with the neighbors, to find the hunter and give him the antlers. They all denied bowhunting at all. As a bow and gun hunter, I see both sides. Deer shot with both are lost each year. Many recover, but some don't. I'm sure everyone feels sick when it happens.
http://i1239.photobucket.com/albums/ff513/killabooner/DSC00212.jpg

Bad hits happen, no matter what the weapon is. A non-fatal wound from an arrow is something that a deer usually gets over just fine. A bad hit from a rifle is almost always worse and ends up being fatal after losing the animal. That's why you don't see as many pics of deer walking around with gunshot wounds. They happen just as often as with bows.