Some of my friends hunt w/ a bow(I rifle hunt) and I hear a lot of "oh I shot this cow and thought I made a good hit, but lost the blood trail after a couple hours"
What do you think the average is of game wounded/game actually harversted-tagged?
No, I'm not a spy. Like I said, I hunt with a rifle and couldn't find the elk I shot last year. I didn't mark where he fell as well as I should have and after I hike down to where he should have been he wasn't there. I saw him fall at the shot like You'd hit him w/ a hammer so I thought he was down/dead. This is the only time this has happened to me and was sick all night wondering what I did wrong.

Out of 40+ deer that I have shot with a rifle I have never not recovered one that was hit. Knock on wood! I have harvested 18 or so deer with a bow and have lost more than I care to admit. A lot was when I was younger and I am a self tought archer who took some bad shots with some questionable equipment. All of those deer I am sure did not die from my poor shot arrow but that does not make it any better. So 1 point I believe is very important is educating young archers and not sending them off to learn on their own at wild games expence. Lately however my kill ratio has gone up. I have lost 2 animals for the last 10 bucks I harvested. 1 brisket that I am sure survived, and a high shoulder shot after a misfortunate string slap on my parka that I can only hope survived. Out of those 10 all were very quick kills but 1. I feel I am at least an average shot with at least average willpower when it comes to shot selection. Getting honest answers from other hunters when it comes to this subject I believe can be tough. Any one who thinks that a higher percentage of deer are not wounded with a bow than with a gun I think is wrong. But practice, proper shot selection, and a respect for you quarry can make an arrow kill at a high rate to wounding.

I have bowhunted for over 30 years and have only lost three animals. I hog, one doe and one warthog.
The hog was a long shot that I should not have taken. By the time the arrow got there, the hog had turned towards me and the arrow struck him sqaure in the "face".... Tracked him for 400 yards before loosing the trail.
The doe was a wierd one that I have not ever figured out. I had a broad side pass thru with blood eveywere....... and after only 80 yards...nothing?? I looked for two days.
The warthog...... well...... after the shot, the PH took off in a big hurry saying we have to hurry its getting dark. After about 75 yards we heard him get up and run, leaving a big pool of blood and my arrow. He was found two weeks later.

I figure I am around 3% for lost animals with a bow. I think the average is around 10%, but not sure were I read that.

It boils down to knowing your limits, having good equipment and knowing what to do after the shot.

Have not hunted with a bow many years ... but so far have not lost an animal. I seem to just plain miss about one a year , but I'd rather do that than hit one badly.

I really hate the idea that anyone would not bother to make very best effort to track up wounded game ... gives all hunters a bad name.

Hi

Do you rarely use tracking dogs in the states?

When we hunt moose here in Sweden we always use dogs when tracking! Sometimes it's impossible to track without the dogs!

I have only not collected one deer that I hit a little high. We searched for hours, it started raining and couldn't find it. All of the others were dead in less than 50yds. complete passthrough, usually both lungs, sometimes the heart also, good blood trail if needed. No problems here. If your loosing that many deer, then you might consider spending more time at the range or stump shooting to be able to hit where you intend to. Bow Hunting is great, but it takes more patience and the will power to not take a shot that is too far out.

The simple fact of the matter is that a bow is far less forgiving to shoot, or to poor shot placement then a rifle is. With a rifle, If I squeeze the trigger it will be darn near certain that the animal will be dead. Even a confident bow shot can end up a miss due to about 100 things that can happen to the arrow before it gets to the target. It is relatively common for some species to "jump the string". How many times have you seen a whitetail jump the rifle shot? It is also not uncommon for an arrow to be deflected by unseen foliage.
Hunting with a bow is simply more difficult then with a rifle, that is part of the reason that many choose to hunt in this manner.

[ 04-09-2003, 18:31: Message edited by: Thomas ]

PLEASE DO NOT TAKE THIS POST AS CONFRONTATIONAL! IT IS NOT MEAT TO BE! Bo-n aro That is fantastic that you have harvested 97 animals and only wounded 3. That is something to be proud of, and I truly mean it. As far as 10 percent being the average I think that might be a little low. I believe that if you took 100 average archers and 100 days in a row they were taken to a hunting situation type target and given 1 shot. The kill zone hits on those targets would be considerably lower than 90 percent. Then add to that that hunting situations add excitement, are not a target type situation, and then the prey is a real live animal that wants to survive and escape. MSTARLING says he has never lost an animal but misses one a year cleanly. Well in that case I would say he is much more lucky than good, and that is good for his quarry. As he learns to shoot better he will wound a lot of animals. I was thinking about these posts all after noon and that is why this follow up. I have harvested 2 animals in the last 5 years in northern WI and the UP that had survived an arrow wound and I personally know of 3 others. I hunt a relatively lightly hunted area. I am an avid archer and LOVE the sport. But I believe we are kidding ourselves if we think bow kill percentage is the same or close to gun kill percentages.

Dick,

Certainly won't argue about the lucky versus good. I believe in practice and more practice and more practice. Fortunately, I see a lot of deer each year and can wait for relatively easy short range, broadside shots.

The misses appear to have been sight movement going up and down trees ... and plain old nerves when facing a really lovely big buck last year.

I am learning to check things more carefully between trips! If it happens that I start wounding animals ... I'll bloody well stop bow hunting.

[ 04-10-2003, 09:17: Message edited by: mstarling ]

I do better with my bow than any rifle. Maybe it's because I shoot my bow all the time, but only occasionally do I shoot my gun. I like to keep bow shots on game down to 15 yards or so, although I have taken a bit longer. They don't jump the string much at 10 yards.

Mistarling. That was one thing that I mentioned about that a hunting situation is not a target situation. Nerves and such do affect our shooting. I actually have little reminder notes on my riser painted in green and black. Like PASS, that means Pick A Spot Stupid. Or DC , Don�t Creep, there are more that I try to check if I might take a shot . As far as my comment about being lucky than good what I mean is when you miss a deer say high or low, if you miss but not by that much he is wounded. if you miss that much to his rear you have one sick dieing animal, And it happens. As far as sight adjustments I usually have 2 practice arrows in my quiver, nights I shoot when I get on stand, mid day if I hunt that stand all day, mornings I shoot them when I am ready to leave. It checks my sights, shooting lanes, and with the weather up here I am always changing layers of clothing. I got out of that habit one year because I thought I was shooting so good. I bought a new parka and my first shot out of a tree stand with it on was at a nice deer. The sleeve is just a tad puffier than my old and the string caught it throwing my arrow up and considerably slower into his shoulder backbone area. Now I am back to my practice arrows.
Big Redhead, what kinds of problems do you have with rifles that you wound so many animals?

I've bowkilled 151 deer and I avg losing about one out of every 14.

ncbowman if you devide your kills into thirds, say first 50, middle 50 and last 51 deer. Does your kill rate stay the same for each group?

When I was young I had no one to teach me about bowhunting and I lost a deer or two. Not that I didn't practice, because I did but my equipment just stunk.

Once I got good equipment, I haven't lost a deer since.

I have wounded two elk cows both of them shoulder hits that did not do a dang thing. I have lost one deer with rifle none with bow taken 23. I have lost one boar with a bow taken 9. Of the animals lost the cow elk where still around do fine 14 days later. I hunt a farms place. The deer gone gone gone dont know where but hit him good. I was only 14 at the time first shot knocked him down (shoulder hit from a 22 hornet 30 yards) the other four killed dirt. 14 yr old that couldnt track well enough and way under gunned. The boar might have lived I have pulled arrows out of some I killed that where healed over.
As far as percentage. I am I know way above the average of some of the guys that hunt in areas where I have hunted. I know one guy flung and stuck 5 bulls before he tagged out one year. What a (&^%^ but have seen it.

Nation wide I wouldnt know. Percentage is higher down south where most people stand hunt and know the distance. In the north west where spot and stalk is the style its a lot lower.

I've lost one deer early on in my bowhunting career, and haven't lost any since. That is only 10-15 animals total, but I feel archery tackle does a good job. Biding your time and taking a good shot is what counts.

I have actually lost more deer with firearms hunting, as at an early age I was somewhat handicapped by my experience and the equipment. I can't think of any big game that I have lost in the last 10 years though.

I've been hunting with bow and rifle since the 60's. In that time I've taken a lot of animals with both. Deer is the largest game I've taken with bow, but I'm taking the bow to Africa this year. I've lost 2 big game animals, both with bow. I know people that elk hunt with bow every year, and their loss ratio is more like 50%. I think a bow puts animals down as well as a rifle , but the bow hunter must have good tracking skills. I've tracked both rifle and bow kills over 1/2 mile. I think most rifle shooters assume they missed if they don't see the animal go down. Last year I tracked down 3 deer that rifle shooters had given up on, and my son wounded one that got away when it crossed the river.