My best friend , we are the same age and grew up together, shot a very nice deer with the Bow today. He called me at 9:00am, we got on the blood at 9:30(had to change a tractor tire), and recovered the Buck at 2:00pm. ...Leasons learned: Bring a weapon, A bow, along to recover "Dead" deer.... Although the hunt was longer then needed, it was one of the best hunts I have ever been on, alot of figuring out the trail, getting wet to the waist in streams, deer running through blow-downs and rose-bushes, seeing Nature in her Glory and her Death... a nice Bow deer at the end of that trail... and A daym Good Friend to spend a day with doing what we both enjoy more then just about anything...

Wow, nice buck. I've never been deer hunting or tracked any kind of wounded animal.... is it normal that it takes 5 whole hours before it finally gives out, or did your friend not hit a vital spot? Hopefully he gave you some for all of that hard work

With a Bow there is usually a blood trail to figure out, Tracking this deer was so long because the arrow hit, while good, wasnt the best, and we tracked him down slow and silent, sometimes by drops of blood, sometimes by his footprint.

On the subject of deer, today is a Holy day here in North Dakota. Its the first day of deer season! No buck for me this year . Keep on keepin on 'yall!

It's only been a couple of months now since i shot my first ever deer with my Tikka .223. Apart from the initial excitement (it went down in one very wellplaced chest shot) I must say i was a bit dissapointed because 1. it was only a youngen and 2. it would have to have been the stupidest deer i have ever seen. We saw it at the same spot twice in a row and there was simply no 3 second rule applying here, it stood there and gawked at us for way too long before seeing us as a threat.

Still it has made a very nice skin for my bedroom floor. I'm just eager to face a much bigger challenge next time.
I'm sure any hunter would agree that the more work which goes into tracking down the game, the more rewarding the end result will be if you snag it.

Nice buck!

Deer tracking 101:

First thing to remember when you hit a deer with an arrow is wait.
If you immediatly climb down from your treestand and start tracking the deer it will cause the deer to run further into the woods.
Wait atleast 15 minutes before makeing any movements, other than saying a silent prayer of thanks and asking for the animal to die quickly.
Second thing to remember is -deer run downhill after being injured.
A deers first response is flight, which usually lasts about 5 to 10 minutes. (unless you get a double lung shot )
The deer will run hard in a direction away from the danger.
Watch it and rembember the direction. After you have waited for the deer to flee, follow it in the direction it ran. Once the deers initial burst of energy (adrenaline) has been expended it will almost always start traveling downhill, as this requires much less strength for the wounded animal.
Keep an eye out for hair on branches and spots of bright red, fresh blood.
If you can find some traces you can usually deduce which direction the deer took. Follow the lowest terrain and remember, the deer still wants to get away but it is losing strength, so it is trying to follow the lowest terrain and go down hill as much as possible.

Good luck and safe hunting!

[edit on 9-11-2007 by 11Bravo]

Wow..that should keep you in venison for a fair while!

After the arrow hit and you chased down the deer, did you have to follow-up with a coup-de-grace to finish him off, or had the animal died from the arrow-wound by the time you tracked it down?

Good points all 11Bravo, #1 being to WAIT before following up...I usually like to wait at least 2 hours before following up on a blood trail.. And Yes I do say an old Indian prayer ..." I am sorry to hurt you Deer, but the people are hungery" when I'm tracking. Side Note: High School kids come to where we cut our deer up and get organs(eye balls, heart, kidney's) for extra study at school, it was strange request at first but we are now known to save organs for the local high school science classes.

It's a welcome sound to hear that some still hunt along the lines of our ancestors. I can respect those who hunt with bows and also do more in the lines of stalking and making it an actual hunt versus ambush.

I know much of the season, at least here, is thinning the herds in game management. I belong to a wildlife management association.

Here in Texas, most people set up a feeder with corn for months and basically train the deer to show it each day, morning and evening. Then a box stand is placed withing 25 to 50 yards. Folks just sit there at the feeding times and shoot what arrives. Not much of a hunt involved.

Not saying it's right or wrong, I just enjoy knowing some people do stayed tuned in with and try to hunt with methods of our forefathers.

Originally posted by roadgravel
It's a welcome sound to hear that some still hunt along the lines of our ancestors. I can respect those who hunt with bows and also do more in the lines of stalking and making it an actual hunt versus ambush.

I know much of the season, at least here, is thinning the herds in game management. I belong to a wildlife management association.

Here in Texas, most people set up a feeder with corn for months and basically train the deer to show it each day, morning and evening. Then a box stand is placed withing 25 to 50 yards. Folks just sit there at the feeding times and shoot what arrives. Not much of a hunt involved.

Not saying it's right or wrong, I just enjoy knowing some people do stayed tuned in with and try to hunt with methods of our forefathers.

I prefer to stalk deer by rifle. Although it is sort of a continuum, as far as the degree to which it's a "mere ambush."

Where I hunt, there is a cedar break that is triangle shaped and funnels down to a creek-crossing. I frequently walk to the west of the breaks, knowing that the deer will smell me and head down to the ford in the creek. I take a shortcut there, and am waiting for them when they cross the water. how different is that really, from using a blind? Sort of like robbing a convenience store when it's done right: maximum steak for minimum effort. Our ancestors would've been proud.

The property has three permanent blinds w/ feeders, one for each major wind direction. (SW, N, or East). All of them are at ranges of 75 yards to 120 yd. Which is a fairly challenging shot in tall grass or along a treeline.

Again, I hunt for meat more than sport at this point. I've been out of jerky since july.

When it comes to sport, I much prefer pheasant hunting. There is simply nothing like the hunt involved, and the thrill of a whole flock of cocks taking wing at once. It's more like a quick-draw shootout than a sniper's lair. I also prefer to smoke pheasant. ( even though they are hard to keep lit!)

I also start walking every evening a month or two in advance---I often cover 10 miles of cropland on the opening morning of pheasant season.

A welcome surprise to see all the folk's who enjoy hunting here, To tell the truth I really thought I was opening a can of worms with the Peta people.... Thanks for the comments...We controll 1200 acres here in southern NY, 600 that we lease and the rest is friends lease's that I patrol. The land has many Deer, turkey's, 'yotes, Ducks and grouse, rabbits and squirrels, muskrat and mink in the streams. No baiting or feeding stations, no spotlighting, fair chase only. Our own little chunk of Peace thats 70 miles from NYC, that we use not just for hunting but also for a place to get away and maybe just sit still for awhile and watch nature.

Here in texas, the question of deer feeders is a constant one. For starters, in a dry year, the population will crash without some. Second, if you raise corn anyway, the deer will be eating out of your fields no matter what, and eating domesticated crops . . . so in some ways its merely a question of how strong of a hint you will give deer as to where to find the free corn.

I know people who don't hunt, but still put out corn for the deer . . ..


When I worked on farms, we'd always manage to load the trucks from the combine at the bottom end of a cornfield, near some standing water and cover. Of course, spills were inevitable. But they also seemed to happen more, near transition zones next to sorghum or sunflower fields . . . that's not exactly bait, since more animals will feed there than you'd ever hunt realistically. Is it interfering with nature? Yes, anything that enhances your hunt is SOME type of interferance . . . If you live in a desert, anything that helps the population is interferance, too.

.

I'd love the opportunity to go bow-hunting but,like everything else in this god-forsaken UK, it's illegal.

Guess I'll have to wait for the fall of civillisation to put my own bow-hunting skills into practise.

(SIDE NOTE)
I'm glad to see the deer was actually put to good use afterwards as I'm a great believer in not killing purely for sport.
You gotta at least eat the bloody thing you hunt.
Venison is lovely.

Our group of hunters is made up of guy's and a few of the women and kids also hunt. Clean fair chase hunting, we dont put out feeders or bait, and we dont make "deer drives". We hunt from stands(tree and ground) and stalk/still hunt, and only take shots that are quick killing(a "Texas heart shot" will bring some strong condemnation)...We do our own cutting up of the deer, bone-less with all the fat and sinew removed, kids that want to are involved in skinning, boneing, cutting into steaks or roasts, wrapping and label. We waste nothing...Heart, Liver and tounge are saved and cooked, Suet is rendered and saved for the birds in winter, skins are given to a veterens group for crafts, scrap meat is given to a friend who cooks it for his dogs, bones are returned to a special spot on our lease and the coyotes, fox and crows clean-up quickly... We also give to the "Hunters for the Hungry", and we give wrapped deer meat to some of the local old timers that cant hunt anymore.

Great Post. Thanks for sharing the advice.

I also bowhunt but in Indiana..of course we all have a lot of stories also. First hunt this year..I have climbing stand ..climb right at crossing of two trails. I have a nice rub nearby... I see one but no shot. My friend just lays in this field. He says just before dark he hears a crunch rises up and sees an 8 ptr. He shoots. I return to truck and a few minutes later here he comes says he got one.. We find some blood where he shot it.. Next couple hours - no blood. Turns out the arrow lodged in opposite front shoulder. Plus deer went opposite direction as he thought. I just figured he nicked it or something I loaned him my flashlight and went on home.. He found it laying against this fence like an hour and a half later. Usually the ones I have shot pretty much die in 30-50 yds. Those were good hits.