The rain was pouring down the other day, and one of my friends made a bad hit on a small buck. It was a scraggle-antlered six-point, with a rack that looked like it had been put together by committee.
Size or beauty isn't the issue here. Wounding an animal is.
It was an ugly looking rack, and body-wise, the buck was small. He was one of those animals that would never had much of a rack. If we know of a hunter who just wants to shoot a small buck, I'll place him in an area where such a deer lives. I've done it several times in the past when predicting time and place to ambush the animal was well defined.
The rain was blowing hard and heavy, and the shot no longer was a quartering-away opportunity. There was a fine but narrow window of opportunity to shoot as the buck stood facing almost directly away from the hunter.
The bow hunter said he thought he could make the shot. He aimed, and hit just a touch forward, and the little buck lurched away as the arrow hit him.
The arrow hit the shoulder blade, and the broadhead made a neat incision along the outer edge of the shoulder, but it was a lousy and non-fatal hit. The arrow exited the front of the shoulder blade on the outside, and the deer scampered off without any serious injury.
The animal came trotting past another hunter, and he could clearly see a thin wound in the skin. But, the deer wasn't hurt badly, and would clearly survive this encounter and be much the wiser for it.
The hunter thought he killed the deer, but such was not the case. And this points out the need to know when to take and when to pass up a bow shot. Bow-shot deer, unlike an animal hit by a rifle bullet, experiences little shock. Death comes because the broadhead severs arteries, capillaries and veins, and by destroying vital organs.
That buck would probably be killed by another hunter, but knowing when to shoot and when not to is as much a part of bow hunting as carrying a bow into the woods. Only one type of bow shot is responsibly taken: a high-percentage shot, which falls into two distinct categories.
A broadside shot and a true quartering-away shot are the only ones an ethical hunter should take. They offer the greatest possibility of cleanly killing a deer in just a few seconds.
Everything else falls into the low-percentage bracket. That means hunters should never take a quartering-toward, straight-on, straight away, and straight-down shots. They offer the least opportunity for a good clean killing shot. Shooting a deer in the paunch is a really iffy and horrible shot to take.
Gut-shot deer often run a short distance and lay down. If your deer has been hit in the guts with an arrow, stay off the trail for six to eight hours and hope the coyotes don't find it before you do. Such deer will lay down, and if not disturbed by an exuberant bow hunter, will probably die. Recovery of the animal will occur six or eight hours later.
Pursue gut-shot deer, and they can travel for miles. You may get close to them, but adrenalin keeps them going. In years gone by, I've helped hunters follow such deer for two miles or more. Recovery is difficult, if not impossible, and any deer not found is a shameful waste and a poor example of good sportsmanship.
I know hunters who try for neck shots with a bow claiming they will either hit and kill the animal or miss it. That is not true. If the arrow misses the windpipe or neck arteries and veins, and goes above the vertebrae, the animal may recover but most probably will not. Such hits often prove fatal but the animal is seldom recovered.
A buddy was taking his boss out hunting some years ago, and the dude wanted to shoot a buck. They were sitting together in a ground blind, and spotted a buck trailing an estrus doe.
"I can see a nice buck coming," my friend told his boss. "When I signal to draw your bow, that means the buck will walk past the shooting window in just a few seconds. Get ready."
The buck walked past his vantage point, and he made the motion to come to full draw. Just as the hunter got the bow back, the buck walked slowly past the window and the boss man shot, hitting the buck in the spine.
"He's down," the boss said, as the spine-hit deer bounced on the ground in an attempt to get up. He charged out with bow in hand but no other arrows. The friend advised him to shoot again, and the boss, being a boss, took the high road, claiming the deer would die.
My friend saw the arrow working loose, ran to the coop, and got another arrow. "Shoot him again," he said, handing the boss the arrow.
The boss wouldn't listen. He took the arrow but didn't nock it as the buck bounced on the ground. Suddenly the arrow popped out and laid on the ground. The hired man hollered "Shoot him now or you'll lose him."
The boss didn't shoot, and the buck regained his feet, stared holes through the boss man, and ran off. Knowing when to shoot, and when not to, is something all hunters must learn.
The boss man never saw that buck again, and they trailed sparse blood spots for almost a mile, and that buck was still running hard, putting some distance between it and the hunter. Once the arrow relieved the pressure on the vertebrae, the buck got up and got gone.
One problem with beginning hunters is they seldom know exactly when to shoot. If they draw their bow at the wrong time, the deer will spot the movement and run off. The best time to draw is when the animal is motionless, and looking elsewhere and within bow range.
Begin a slow and methodical draw while watching the animal. Make certain other nearby deer are not looking in your direction.
The next thing to learn is to take the shot that you want. Never take the shot a deer offers unless it is a perfect positioned animal but such things rarely occur when the deer first comes within bow range.
Don't try to convince yourself that a difficult angle to try can be a killing shot. If you ask yourself "Can I make this shot?" and the honest answer is "No," don't bother shooting. There is usually another day when the deer will turn and offer a much better shooting opportunity.
The trick is to bide your time. Deer that are not spooked, and are moving normally, often stop, turn, move around, and if the animal is given enough time, it will usually offer a shot. Never fall into the trap of rushing a bow shot.
Don't be hasty. Learn to develop patience when waiting for a deer to offer that high-percentage shots. They often do if given enough time, but if it doesn't occur, don't take a hurried and poorly planned shot at a bad angle. Such shots usually result in a wounded and lost deer.
Learning when to shoot a deer is a matter of maturing as a hunter. No offense meant, but anyone who takes a poor shot and misses, or even worse, wounds the animal, should learn their lesson quickly,
Forget about peer pressure. It forces hunters into taking risky shots they would normally not take. Pay no attention to taunting peers.
"I got my buck, Jim, a nice 8-point," is how this debacle usually begins. "I made a great shot, the buck ran 50 yards and was dead within three seconds. How about you? Have you shot one yet?"
If the person hasn't shot at or killed a deer, the pressure to succeed begins to force the hapless hunter into taking an ill-conceived shot. The angle may be bad, the deer may be spooky or looking toward the hunter, too far away or the arrow doesn't go where it is supposed to go.
Common sense is the common denominator in gauging whether to take a bow shot or not. The testing of your sound judgment should be whether you fully and truly believe the shot can be made and an honest analysis of your shooting skills.
The question is "Can I or can't I make this shot?" The answer should be easy, but it's important to be honest with yourself.
Look deep inside your heart, and if you are honest, the answer should be a straight-forward "yes" or "no." Any thoughts of "maybe I can" or "I think I can," simply aren't good enough reasons for drawing, aiming, shooting and wounding an unrecoverable deer.
Our whitetail deer are much too majestic an animal to risk taking a poorly conceived shot at any deer. A half-night blood trailing job without recovering the animal can teach a hunter some of the things he should have learned long ago.
A wounded and lost deer is a lesson learned ... the hard way.
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