Bow Hunting if you were an animal

J

JasonYuke

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I have had the oppertunity to hunt in a zone that I can get a second tag, so last year i bought myself a excaliber cross bow, I admitt I used to bow hunt and was very unsuccess full about 20 years ago at the sport and gave it up mostly because of time.

So to make a long story Longer, I bought an excaliber and have seen many deer with while hunting this year, and finaly a nice meat deer that I was looking for stepped out at 25 yards quartering away.

I shoved an arrow into him i well placed shot into the lungs a bit high but a pass though. This was teh first big game animal I have experienced shooting.

I walked back to the house and had a coffee with my father and told him about the deer i seen and the dramma that unfolded as i shot.

about 30 mins had gone by since I walked out and seeing the shot and waiting now 40 mins i said alright lets go get him. I found my arrow, found his track and a good blood trail on the ground I followed him for about 75 to 100 yards and though I heard a crash? I said to my father I do not think he is dead? I think he is up, another 15 mins had passed making it 1 hour after i stuck him, and we took up the trail, sure as anything he did get up a pool of blood was on the where he was. I walked around the small rock face and there he was standing about 20 yards, I shot and slipped another arrow into his ribs, and he took off, now I looked at my father with and said, I can not believe this?

we heard him go down again, I reloaded and walked up to him ahe was not dead yet so I slipped one into the back of his head.

That was my first kill with a bow, and to be 100% honest I did not like what I seen. I would tell you if I mde a bad shot but i did not. I do not like to se anthing suffer, and this animal sure did that, It took him an hour to die.'

Some guys will say you should have left him longer and your right, But that animal still would have taken that long to Die?

I think I am done with bow hunting, I am glad I experienced it.
 
Nobody likes to see an animal suffer, and most hunters at some point wound an animal and need to track it to finish it off. Some wounded animals are never retrieved - some of them die and others live. I once shot a deer (with a shotgun) and when I cleaned it, I found a broadhead and about four inches of aluminum arrow shaft INSIDE the chest cavity, stuck in the sternum. There was no exterior wound, and that deer had been very much alive, with a broadhead that SHOULD have killed it, inside its chest.

I have been bow hunting for over 25 years, and MOST deer go only a short ways when they are hit. The one I shot this year (at about fifteen yards) did not seem to know it was hit, just walked a few paces away, wobbled a bit, and fell over stone cold dead, bled out through the heart.

But sometimes, even a shot that looked to be perfect does not kill the animal immediately, and that in my experience can happen with a bow, rifle, shotgun, whatever.

At the risk of sounding dumb, I am betting that your broadhead choice may not have been optimal, and if anything what you describe sounds to me like a broadhead failure IF the shot was good. The "satellite" broadheads were notorious for that - an archer would get a pass-through shot, retrieve the arrow, and never find the deer. They were razor sharp, very sleek, and did not impart much energy to the animal, they just whistled straight through. I use a broadhead that has a chisel edge at the front and which seems to impart a LOT of energy inside the animal, and leaves a good wound channel which tends to bleed the animal out quickly.

Anyways, I think most hunters feel sick to their stomach when they think that the animal they shot suffered, and that conscience is one of the things that separates us from wild animals and savages.

JMHO.

Doug
 
Well first off, a crossbow is not bow hunting. There is an enormous difference between that and a compound or recurve, which require VASTLY more skill... IMHO.

Second, it's a shame that happened. I wonder what type of broadhead you used? Or was it a mechanical, that opens on contact?

I have shot a bull moose with a compound. I used a 125gr Thunderhead broadhead, aluminum Easton arrow. That bull moose ran downhill about 400 yards before expiring, although he was dead on his feet. I have not bow hunted since, but that is only because I prefer rifle hunting.
If the day comes that the bow would offer more hunting opportunity, then I might take it up again.
 
I used a WASP 100 grain 3 blade, as what came in the excaliber package and reccomended from them.

I did hit high lung?

Well if a cross bow is not Bowhunting I guess I should have just used a 30-06 hey?

Not my point to argue whats what if you do not think its bowhunting thats fine its your opinion.

My point is that it sucks to watch an animal suffer but its part of the process of the kill sometimes. It just seemed not fair to the poor thing not to die sooner.
 
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Well..let me start by saying that its unfortunate that this is your 1st experience harvesting a deer with a bow. Even though
your shot placement might have been marginal, most deer die far more quickly than yours. The only explanation I can think
of is IF you were using expandable broadheads, for some reason the blades didn't deploy properly. Even your 2nd shot
should have done it. Maybe you didn't angle the shot far enough forward to enter the heart/lung area? When you field dressed
it what did you find? Was the chest cavity filled with coagulated blood? Was the heart lacerated? You should be able to
determine the effectiveness of your shots by the post-mortem.
And maybe you should have waited a little longer...if I don't see an aminal go down within sight, I wait 1 hour minimum
before tracking. Even when you bumped the deer the 1st time, I would have back out. I know its easy to say, and hard to do
when you are there in the situation. But an all-around un-fortunate experience.:(
I'm glad you were willing to share your story with us.:yingyang:
 
Its too bad that it happened but I hope you dont think that it always takes an hour for a deer to die when taken with archery equipment.

I have watched deer expire in less than 50yrds with a well placed arrow.


#### happens sometimes, nothing you can do about it.
 
Those Wasp Broadheads are crap in my general opinion. There are much better choices out there. I am sorry that you had a bad experience, it could easily happen to anyone, with any hunting method.

As to the statement
a crossbow is not bow hunting
Click to expand...
, that is just absolute crap. He says he uses a compound, so he loses all credibility. These types of broad paintbrush type statements do nothing but drive a wedge through our hunting communities.

BTW, I happen to bow hunt with a Crossbow, and a Self Made Longbow. Both different hunting styles, and both a lot of challenge.
 
Yes it was not the best shot as I said High lungs, the second one did him in It was right thought the middle lungs, and the 3rd well a finisher.

No the chest cavity had no blood as he had bled out.

I agree those broad heads may have been the issue but there sure was a crap load of blood.

As for the arrows I found them all, 2 shots were pass thoughs with lots of light blood. You could see where he stopped a frew times and coughed up pink/red foamy blood from the lungs on the first shot about 75 yards from the stand.

Yes #### happens it happens with rifles and shot guns more than guys are willing to admit. Itsthe ugly part of the process of tracking.
 
Its a shame the animal had to suffer a bit, but its also a shame it turned you off bow hunting. The majority of the time on clean pass throughs that Ive seen, the deer doesnt go far or suffer much.
Thats the way it goes sometimes though. Last year I shot a doe in rifle season, running shot, and she fell down in a heap. Jumped up and took off like a bat outta hell. We held off for a long time tracking, found a really good foamy blood trail, figured it was a lung shot. Never recovered it, after hours and hours of looking. :( That was upsetting! Although I probably wouldnt do anything different, it still pissed me off.
But hey... you found it and filled the freezer for another year, and sounds like you want to learn what to try different next time.
 
7.62mm said:
Those Wasp Broadheads are crap in my general opinion. There are much better choices out there. I am sorry that you had a bad experience, it could easily happen to anyone, with any hunting method.

As to the statement , that is just absolute crap. He says he uses a compound, so he loses all credibility. These types of broad paintbrush type statements do nothing but drive a wedge through our hunting communities.

BTW, I happen to bow hunt with a Crossbow, and a Self Made Longbow. Both different hunting styles, and both a lot of challenge.
Click to expand...



The crossbow is not BOW HUNTING. The ability to load a bolt into the crossbow, so that it is ready to shoot, at all times, is what makes the big difference. When you use a BOW, and have to draw it, without the animal detecting the movement(s), there is a lot more difficulty added.

The only similarity is the broadhead.

But if you want to think it's bow hunting go ahead. ;)
 
Demonical said:
Well first off, a crossbow is not bow hunting. There is an enormous difference between that and a compound or recurve, which require VASTLY more skill... IMHO.
Click to expand...

That comment has nothing to do with the topic or the advice being sought, and is just inflammatory BS. Go start your bow snob arguments in your own thread. :mad:
 
That's unfortunate for a first Bow kill.
My hunting Buddy has put down a dozen deer in the last 4 years with his Horizontal Bow.

I have shot a couple.

With a solid hit in the Lungs, they all dropped in under 30 seconds.
30-60 yards away. A few of the smaller ones were bang flops (tree stand shots on close deer)

Stick with it, good bow hits put deer down fast.

And as far as the Xbow, Bow argument, it does take more skill to use a Vertical bow than a horizontal bow as you have to draw your bow unnoticed. That being said, they both require getting within 40 yards of a deer. The Xbow is perfect for those that cannot devote the time to practice to become good with a Vertical bow and also a good option for 30 below days when it is hard to draw with cold, stiff muslces hindered by winter clothing.
 
The ORB said:
That comment has nothing to do with the topic or the advice being sought, and is just inflammatory BS. Go start your bow snob arguments in your own thread. :mad:
Click to expand...


So in other words, you are another guy that uses a crossbow and thinks you are bow hunting. The distinction between them is quite clear.

Btw, at no time did I say anything against crossbow hunting. I merely stress the difference. That is all.

Also, I am hardly a bow hunting snob, since I do not bow hunt regularly. Last time I bothered was about 7 years ago, maybe 8 years, but that is simply because in this part of the country, bag limits and seasons allow me to get in 3+ months of rifle hunting. I just don't need to bow hunt.
 
there too

Jason, I had the oppurtunity to shoot my first deer with a bow this year (Friday evening), a nice buck that string jumped on the shot. There was a little dark blood and some white hair on the arrow, we waited an hour and started tracking, 3 of us managed to track him for 3 hours that night, we pushed harder than we should have but there were monsoon rains coming...I went back out before daylight but it had been raining since 4am - the others joined me at 8am and we searched until 10am.

I sought advice from an experienced friend (who posted in this thread) and decided that with the deer covering as much ground as it had and climbing up and down the 40m ridges no problem it was not mortally wounded.

I spent the weekend questioning what went wrong, and what to do. I came to the personal conclusion that there are some things you can not control and some you can. I switched to a better broadhead, but I can not do much about the string jump. I will be more cautious about when I hunt if tracking may be an issue etc...

I will not stop because the thrill I experienced watching that buck work his way through the woods to my stand was over the top, I regret not getting the deer that night, but sitting at another location last night having another one circle me proved that it is about the experience - the desired clean kill a culmination of everything we have worked for and a memory to treasure.

Geoff
 
Demonical said:
So in other words, you are another guy that uses a crossbow and thinks you are bow hunting. The distinction between them is quite clear.

Btw, at no time did I say anything against crossbow hunting. I merely stress the difference. That is all.

Also, I am hardly a bow hunting snob, since I do not bow hunt regularly. Last time I bothered was about 7 years ago, maybe 8 years, but that is simply because in this part of the country, bag limits and seasons allow me to get in 3+ months of rifle hunting. I just don't need to bow hunt.
Click to expand...

Yea theres a distinction between them, that's rather obvious. Just like there's a difference between people hunting with: rifles/shotguns, dogs/no dogs, scopes/open sights... All styles we can pick and choose from, but ALL hunting, and no one greater than the other.
 
Demonical said:
So in other words, you are another guy that uses a crossbow and thinks you are bow hunting. The distinction between them is quite clear.
Click to expand...

To Paraphrase:

So in other words, you are another guy that uses a Compound Bow and thinks you are bow hunting. The distinction between them is quite clear.

Seeing as how the Crossbow has been around for a few thousand years longer than Compound Bows, it certainly has a lot more validity to it, in terms of what would be considered bow hunting. Yes I agree, there is more movement involved while using a Longbow or Compound Bow, but I have yet to have a deer walk right in front of my crossbow, or Longbow, for that matter. There is still movement while trying to get the Crossbow aimed at a game animal.

I see no reason to make a distinction such as
a crossbow is not bow hunting
Click to expand...
, because as I stated earlier, it just just drives a wedge though the various hunting communities, and does none of us any good. They are all valid means of "Archery" hunting, and they all have merit.
 
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