What would you do?

[AZP&Y]

Back in the early days of bowhuntung, I hit 2 cow elk.

 

1 in the stomach (paunch) , no blood trail. Just the rank grassy arrow. Found that cow 2 days later devoured by yotes.

 

Second cow was the day before my last day, liver shot. We watched and waited and then pushed it and it bolted , gone like the wind.

 

The last morning of the hunt, I slept in and was done. Mentally I couldn't justify going out. I does not matter to me if it's a bull, cow or whatever...

 

I went back to the drawing board , got better prepared and the next year killed a pope and young bull, that I watched crumble to the ground !

 

AZP&Y

[Guest akaspecials]

Keep searching for the bulls and stop shooting. If you can't find either bull, tear up your tag.

 

And next time you draw on an animal think out the shot before you shoot and be 100% sure it's a double lung shot.

[WadeNAZ]

You're gonna get many answers to this question. For myself, I would probably NOT keep hunting. I can't help but ask the question though: "It depends...did another group of hunters cut me off and bump my bull while I was tracking it?" Just had to put it out there!

 

Nice!

I have never faced the issue but have thought it over many times and would like to think I would call it done at one. Like said above I got my animal just couldnt find it.

But who is really going to post on here that they would keep wacking animals until they found one?

 

I agree I dont think you are going to see very many if any at all who will say yes to this question. I also think I know where this question originated seeing another post about someone out looking for two wounded bulls. Pretty sad if you ask me. I have never had to face this but think one would be devastating enough for me to not want to risk it again. I am reletively new to bow hunting and realize there are a lot of things that might cause a shot to miss its mark. but if you dont have the knowledge, skill, time to find that animal I think you should not risk it. just one opinion.

 

I would have liked to see this question as a poll then you might see a couple anonymous yes answers

[luvdemcoues]

You're gonna get many answers to this question. For myself, I would probably NOT keep hunting. I can't help but ask the question though: "It depends...did another group of hunters cut me off and bump my bull while I was tracking it?" Just had to put it out there!

 

 

Hahaha!

 

I shot a bull about 8 years ago in Montana. Good hit at 35 yards. Spent the next 2 days riding all over the Bull Mountains looking for it on horseback. Even with my guide insisting that I shoot another bull, I couldn't bring myself to do it. I had already shot my bull and was sick about it.

[THOR]

Keep searching for the bulls and stop shooting. If you can't find either bull, tear up your tag.

 

And next time you draw on an animal think out the shot before you shoot and be 100% sure it's a double lung shot.

I was on a hunt with a buddy that past up a shot at 60 yards because he said he was only good out to 50. there needs to be more hunters like that. I was proud of him...it was about a 340 bull....tough to do. one shot one kill. i have chased so many blood trails without them being found (not by me). I have not lost anything yet but if you hunt long enough it is going to happen. Work hard, scout hard and target shoot as much as you can...

[matthewp45]

I hate to even think about how many more bulls are hit fatally and never found than the ones that are fatally hit and found to put the tag on it. I guarantee that if there was a way to estimate it or come up with a real number they would either shut it down for good or make people pass a proficiency archery exam, making hunters run a 100 yards stop shoot at a 50 yard target, shoot moving targets and be able to hit a 6" circle when given only 3 arrows and making all 3 inside that circle. Also watch a video where opportunities are shown to them and they have to take the shot or pass and if they get any wrong they fail and only get one try for the whole course (shooting and video/written portion) It sounds crazy hard and a lot of people are going to say I am crazy but if an archer could shoot that perfect and answer all the questions correctly under pressure of three officers watching him he is probably good to go for making a good shot. It doesn't make 100% recovery of every elk shot but it would sure increase that percentage. If a regular guy that never or has never shot a bow knew he had to take this test he would probably not put in for the archery tag in the first place. It would weed out the guys that put in for bugle elk hunts because thats what their friends said to do and they have never shot a bow in their life. They get drawn and buy a used bow and a cheap range finder. Then practice once a week a month prior to the hunt. Then the hunt comes along and they get this new call that is so cool called a hoochie momma. You don't even have to blow on it. Then they go out and have an elk scream in their face, crap in their pants and shoot it in the a%# as the crap runs down their leg.

[JLW]

so on the card game and fish sends...... did you wound any animal(s) that you didn't recover?

uhhhhhhhh? 9

I would be so sick over the 1st one that I couldn't think about anything but that 1 let alone go after another one!

I got sick from missing a shot last year and I didn't even wound the animal.

 

james

[4Falls]

I too have lost a couple of animals in all my years of bowhunting and its bound to happen to all of us sooner or later. Both were hunt ending propositions.

This is not a problem solely for the archery community. Just as many animals are lost by rifle and muzzleloader hunters. In the rifle category one may argue that more animals may be lost just do the fact that there are far more rifle tags. Also small blood trails and hunters taking shots beyond their capability.

[elkaholic]

 

This is not a problem solely for the archery community. Just as many animals are lost by rifle and muzzleloader hunters. In the rifle category one may argue that more animals may be lost just do the fact that there are far more rifle tags. Also small blood trails and hunters taking shots beyond their capability.

- i'm getting a deja vu here

 

pretty sure there was a lengthy discussion about this - rifle/archery wounded /loss statistics somewhere

[azdesert rat]

one and done no mater if it was recovered or not.iv onley lost 1 deer and that was becals it ducked the string hard and hit him high, looked for 2 days getting lost twice and opted to spending the rest of seson at the range instead of continueing to hunt, i had my deer even if i didnt have my deer

[izquik72]

I had that happen to me last year in Dec Archery.

I shot a buck high then it rained and lost the blood trail. I glassed him the next day in the most vicious fight i have ever seen between 2 animals, After about 5 mins he started to bleed again. It got dark and no shots that night, to shorten the story up I was finally able to slip another arrow into him 12 days after the first shot.

 

There was no way I was hunting a different buck until I found him.

[sjvcon]

Nope. Time to hang it up. Heard a story in a Pro Shop a couple of years ago. A guy comes in and the guys in the shop ask him how his hunt went. The customer just shook his head and stated that he shot 9. NINE!!! and did not recover any of them. I literally wanted to vomit. I had to walk out of the shop while he told his "War Stories" to the employees or I might have done something that I would have regretted.

That's disgusting!

 

+1

 

In my mind (and this may just be the way my moral compass works) you get one animal per tag. That means that if you wound and do not recover ONE you are DONE. You owe it to that animal, to every other hunter and taxpayer out there, to do everything humanly possible to recover that ONE animal. If you don't, bad on you ... shoot better. Your hunt is over. Go home and kick yourself in the ARSE the entire way there, and then some more when you think you are done. After that ... get your hunting buddy and your wife and kids to kick you too.

 

Again, maybe that is just my moral compass.

[200"mulie]

I met this guy helping my buddy on his hunt. I told him his hunt should be over. You can't keep shooting animals and not recover them. The next day he was hunting. Bunch of B.S.

 

 

Should of had a tape recorder...then called game and fish.

[200"mulie]

Keep searching for the bulls and stop shooting. If you can't find either bull, tear up your tag.

 

And next time you draw on an animal think out the shot before you shoot and be 100% sure it's a double lung shot.

I was on a hunt with a buddy that past up a shot at 60 yards because he said he was only good out to 50. there needs to be more hunters like that. I was proud of him...it was about a 340 bull....tough to do. one shot one kill. i have chased so many blood trails without them being found (not by me). I have not lost anything yet but if you hunt long enough it is going to happen. Work hard, scout hard and target shoot as much as you can...

 

 

+1 on more ethical hunters.....buddy put me in for archery javelina in 2010. Got my bow in Nov. tried different set ups...and even some broken parts(i repaired them) and found my good set up with only 2 weeks to shoot....so i practiced many times a week... but was only good out to 50 yards. That hunt i could have shot some pigs at 60 and 70 yards but didn't. cause i was not comfortable taking those shots. We ended up getting a double out of a herd in the second week.

[Today's the Day]

I did get the guys license plate number and left a message with the game and fish today. Waiting for a call back.