There is one thing that hunters absolutely dread, and unfortunately most hunters have faced it at some point in our lifetimes. However, knowing that most others have had this happen doesn’t make the heartbreak and sorrow hurt any less. As you can probably guess I’m referring to putting a shot on an animal and not being able to recover it. This situation can present itself in one of two different ways, and each of them cut us deeply but in differently. The first is shooting an animal but not fatally wounding it. The heartbreak comes not from a missed opportunity at harvesting an animal (although that does still haunt us), but rather it comes from knowing that we were the cause of an animal suffering. The only upside here is that the animal has the chance to recover, and depending on the shot could still potentially get around just fine. But the second situation is the one that happened to me on my first hunt of this season.
To paint this picture we have to go back a few months to give you a sense of the effort that went in to avoiding this situation in the first place. See, the vast majority of hunters have a strong calling to conduct themselves in a beyond ethical manner. As such, preparing for a hunting season is almost if not more important than the hunting season itself. The reason this holds true is because our preparation allows us to be effective, ethical, and yes lethal when hunting season rolls around. This especially holds true for bow hunting. In bow hunting, shot placement is critical. If you are off by a few inches, in can mean the difference in a great visit to the deer woods or spending your nights tossing and turning thinking of what could have been. For me, I practice archery year around because I want to be extremely accurate and know that I can place a shot within my effective range exactly where I want to. But once we get a few months out from hunting season my practice ramps up dramatically. I shoot from multiple yardages, multiple times per week, and countless arrows per day. Even shooting from elevations that mimic my tree stands. But even with all of that preparation, things can still go wrong. This year was a bit different in that two days before hunting season the serving on my bow string started to fray. Having had a string snap on me earlier this year I refused to take any chances. Fortunately, the local bow shop allowed me to borrow a bow so I could still be in the woods opening weekend. The principles remained the same, but the bow wasn’t set up for me like mine is. So those last few days I spent every evening getting comfortable with this new bow. It took some time and lost arrows, but I felt comfortable shooting this bow prior to climbing into the tree stand.
With a little background on my offseason, opening day comes and I am able to climb into a stand the next day. I didn’t walk into the woods with high hopes as it was slated to be a very warm day (high of 82). Sunrise was at 7:00 am, and as a general rule I like to climb into the stand at least an hour before sunrise. This trip was no different. I got into my stand at around 5:45 after creeping quietly through the woods, barely making a sound. It was a damp morning, so I was able to get into my stand undetected. Little to my knowledge at the time, there were a couple of deer that were bedded within 50 yds of my stand. I quietly climb into my stand and get settled. Now it’s the waiting game, not only waiting on a deer but waiting on it to get light enough to see your hand in front of your face. Early season the canopy is still very full, especially here in the south. It really takes until right around sunrise to be able to see well enough to shoot. I sit, and I wait. Around 6:45 it starts getting light enough to grab some yardages using my Leupold range finder. I slowly and quietly verify some yardages through my shooting lanes. I do this to avoid being caught off guard when a deer comes through. I quietly tuck away my range finder and start scanning the woods.
Around 7:00 am I hear two deer spring up out of their bed and start running. One of the deer passed within 5 feet of my stand and the other went down the trail running behind my stand. It stepped out into a clearing around 20 yards away. The deer that came running by wrapped around some undergrowth and stopped at 13 yards away. At this point I began to feel confident that I was going to be able to get a shot at one of these deer. I targeted the one that was closer, simply because of where it was I felt like I would have a better opportunity to get a shot off. The other deer could have easily turned away slightly and I wouldn’t have had a shot. The two deer were on to me, at least to a certain degree. I had to be very cautious in any movement to avoid being seen as a threat. I patiently awaited an opportunity to get into position, and fortunately I didn’t have to wait long. Focused on the deer close to me, she turned her head back and lifted her hind leg to apparently reach an itch. I used this as my opportunity to stand up and wait for another opportunity to reach full draw. She kept her head turned digging at where her hind leg attaches to the rest of her body, this was my chance to reach full draw. Once at draw, I knew I didn’t have a shot yet. So I decided to shift my eyes momentarily at the other deer, which based on the behavior I have to assume was a button buck. I didn’t rotate my head, merely shifted my eyes to him. He was staring at my bright eyed with his ears forward. He began stomping his front foot like a bull in a matador ring getting ready to charge, this deer was definitely aware that something was up even though he may not have known exactly what the danger was. At this point, the doe that I was targeting had taken another step or two and was standing broadside at 13 yards. I began to steady my pin over the vitals, but I couldn’t release my arrow yet. Part of the undergrowth had a small branch that was blocking the vitals, but I could see the front shoulder. I’m starting to get a bit concerned, I knew that the doe wanted to keep walking, but she kept glancing up at me then to the button buck that knew something was going on. So there I am, holding full draw and waiting on this doe to take just one more step. I had to have been at full draw for a minute and a half, but I couldn’t take the chance on resetting. This is where all of the training comes in. Because of all the time I spend in the gym and training my body, I was able to comfortably hold the 65 lb draw bow for just about as long as I needed to. But then it finally happened, the deer took one more step. I quickly picked a spot, steadied my pin, and sent the arrow flying. The deer haunched up and took off down the trail, stopping and looking back at me around 40 yds away, but behind a lot of cover so I couldn’t put another shot on. Even still, I quickly began to place another arrow in my bow, trying to keep an eye on the deer in hopes that it would give me another shot. But she turned and disappeared into the cover. Even still, I was confident that I put a good shot on this deer. After all, I have a tight grouping at 30 yds and this was a chip shot in comparison.
Then comes a part of the experience that is full of nerves. The waiting game before you can start tracking your deer. Although I was confident that I placed my shot where I intended, your mind starts to play tricks on you. You start to think of all the things that could’ve went wrong. Especially for me in this case, as this would have made my first archery deer. About 30 minutes goes by and I climb down to retrieve my arrow. Normally I would wait longer, but I knew I got a pass through and the deer had moved away from my stand. I found the arrow stuck half way into the ground, with some hair but very little blood. As I inspect the arrow I see it. The brownish green matter that tells me I missed the vitals. I had missed my mark by about 3-4 inches. A “gut shot”. Even still, I feel like there would be a pretty good chance to recover this deer. So I climb back into my stand to wait it out before starting my track. About an hour goes by and I climb out of the stand to find the first bit of blood. I track the blood and eventually start seeing a pretty good trail. I follow this trail for a while before it simply stops. I’m baffled, confused, and it is starting to set in that I may not recover this deer. I spend about an hour in a 5 foot radius trying to find the next drop of blood to indicate what direction this deer took off in. Eventually, it occurs to me that the deer could have back tracked. I start looking along the trail and find that the deer doubled back and took off down another trail. My hope comes back as I get onto the thickest blood trail I have had for this deer yet. As I’m trailing this deer I notice that it crosses the border and heads onto my neighbor’s property. I quickly leave the woods and go receive their permission to track this deer on their property. They agreed and I continued my search. However after a couple of hours on my hands and knees following this trail, it completely stops. I keep looking for a couple of hours for the next drop of blood but can never find it. My heart sinks. A roller coaster of emotions from highs to lows. At this point I head back inside and grab a quick bite to eat before starting the search back up. Stepping away for a minute allowed my eyes to rest, so I spent the next couple of hours walking around the woods, following the creek line, and hoping to recover this animal. When that didn’t work, I went back to the blood trail to see if my fresh eyes would allow me to see something that I previously missed. Unfortunately not. After a couple more hours of searching it became evident that I wasn’t going to be able to recover this deer. In total I spent about 8-9 hours trying to find her, but my efforts were for naught. My heart was broken, and I knew there would be many hours of lost sleep ahead.
As a hunter I am always trying to educate myself. It doesn’t matter if I have found success or failure, I always try to learn something. So what were my takeaways from this hunt? What did I learn? A few things. But there are two key takeaways for me. The first is without a doubt the most important. Simple, understand the shot you are taking in every way. Not only the position and yardage of the deer, but your stance and how that will impact the flight of your arrow. When I stood up to take my shot I was so consumed with what the deer was doing, that I overlooked an important component of taking a shot with the bow. As I mentioned earlier, I practice a lot, especially leading up to the season. So I had my checklist. Draw at eye level then bend at the hips to place your pin, make sure you hit your 3 anchor points, loose grip on the bow hand, pull against the stop of the string, place finger on trigger, slowly exhale as you steady your pin and have a nice slow trigger pull for a surprise shot. But there is one thing missing in my checklist that caused me to miss my mark. My feet weren’t positioned the way I had been practicing. When I stood up and went to full draw, I positioned myself for a good shot. But as the deer continued to walk it caused me to rotate my torso and effectively have a closed stance. I haven’t practiced with this foot position and it caused me to pull my shot to the right, missing the vitals. Even though it was at close range. Archery is about consistency and the slightest tweak can have a major impact. It is up to you how you compensate for this, but it should definitely be something to consider. Either make sure your feet are positioned correctly, or practice from this stance so you will know what effect this will have on your arrow flight.
The next takeaway comes from the track. Once I released my arrow I was so confident that I placed the shot perfectly, that I didn’t continue to focus on the deer. I started texting friends to ask for help with the track instead of keeping my eyes and ears on the deer. I don’t know for sure that it would have made a difference, but it couldn’t have hurt. Maybe I would have caught another glimpse of her, maybe I would have heard where she was walking. I will never know. But what I do know is that there will be plenty of time to text your buddies and ask for help on the track later on.
Hopefully this offers some help. I don’t claim to be an expert, but what I am is a student of hunting. Whatever we can learn from others or especially our own experience will do nothing but help us in the long run. Always be learning, always be aware. Stay outside, and stay strong!
Author: Josh Westmoreland
