What's your shot/kill ratio with bow?

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Ridgerunner7
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What's your shot/kill ratio with bow?

Unread postby Ridgerunner7 » Thu Apr 11, 2013 2:11 am

A lot of guys talk about what the "successful big buck guys" are doing differently than the rest of the hunters. Scouting, access routes, persistence, and patience are some of the most common traits you hear. Obviously most of these guys execute when they do get those rare opportunities at nice bucks. I remember reading the great Fred Bear was very unhappy with the effectiveness of the bow and arrow combo, mentioning something like 1/2 shots led to a recovered animal. Don Kisky mentioned he misses at least one buck per year. I'm curious as to what your guy's shot/kill ratio is. Are you effective when you must be? or is this something you need to work on?

I remember reading a similar thread but don't remember seeing shot/kill ratios.

Although it feels like I've missed or wounded a significant amount of deer it seems my ratio is much better than most of my friends. One of my friends would have an incredible wall of Michigan bucks if he was better at making the kill shot. He is well under 50% but recognizes this and is working on it.

I have taken shots at 49 bucks and killed 40 (49/40) with gun/bow or 81.6% , (33/25) bow only or 75.8%
4 wounded unrecovered, 5 clean misses

Seems multiple screw ups fell in the same year when my confidence was really shaken.


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Re: What's your shot/kill ratio with bow?

Unread postby bones09 » Thu Apr 11, 2013 2:45 am

WOW, ridgerunner7 that's alot of bucks! I gotta be close to your age at 31 and i don't have half that many.

I've killed 12 of the 16 bucks i've shot at with gun/bow. or 75%

2/2 with my gun. I don't pull the trigger much on the gun.

10/14 with my bow. or 71% with 2 clean misses and 2 wounded animals.
Proud to say that i'm 7/7 since 2006 tho.
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Re: What's your shot/kill ratio with bow?

Unread postby BigHills BuckHunter » Thu Apr 11, 2013 2:55 am

Interesting topic. Thats alot of bucks RR!

My success rate is much lower than most. I will not use any excuses.

Wounded or missed 8 bucks with my bow and killed 6 so a kill percentage of about 43% in 9 years of bowhunting.

Besides practicing more I think I will put larger antlers on the target to make it more realistic and help me get better. This might sound funny but it could certainly help and wont hurt anything. I found out its the biggest bucks that I missed clean with my bow.

Any more suggestions to help improve my ratio? I have also realized I tend to get very nervous at the shot and want to rush it.
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Re: What's your shot/kill ratio with bow?

Unread postby JakeJD » Thu Apr 11, 2013 3:35 am

Ridgerunner7 wrote:I remember reading the great Fred Bear was very unhappy with the effectiveness of the bow and arrow combo, mentioning something like 1/2 shots led to a recovered animal. Don Kisky mentioned he misses at least one buck per year.


I recently read the book "Whitetail Strategies" by Dr. Bob Sheppard. He lives in Alabama and has hunted / meticulously logged every hunt for 30+ years. Plus, he has worked with a few large hunting operations in the south in order to log the hunters experiences - moon phase, moon set/rise, temp, wind, cloud conditions, deer seen (buck / doe), deer taken (missed, wounded, or recovered), etc. He also created a database to store the data and created a program to analyze the data. His database contains over 35,000 hunter days!

In his book, he frankly discusses the recovery rate for bowhunting. He mentions that he has experienced around a 50% recovery rate when he looses an arrow. Now remember, Dr. Sheppard has taken over a thousand whitetail deer in his life and is a very proficient hunter, archer, and tracker. He makes no excuses and does not try to explain away his recovery rate. It is what it is, and his 35,000 hunter-day database reflects his own experiences. Losing animals, whether they are fatally wounded or not (or even hit), is a fact of bowhunting around 50% of the time.

In my bowhunting career (5 years of serious hunting) and to the best of my recollection, I have taken 16 shots - wounded 5 animals, cleanly missed 5 animals, and killed / recovered 6 animals. I am not proud of my sub 40% recovery rate (almost to the point of giving up bowhunting a couple years ago). But, it is what it is.

In hindsight, I should have taken more small bucks and does to practice "killing" animals with my bow before I focused on big bucks. I work hard at tuning my bow, practicing "hunting" shots, and passing marginal opportunities waiting for a high percentage shot (20-30 yards broadside). But for me, Murphy's law seems to rear its ugly head at the most inopportune of times. Clipping small twigs and branches, deer jumping the string and/or spinning out of the arrows path, and unknowingly bumping my peep sight off have lead me to miss four deer. I have learned from each negative experience and strive to better myself as a hunter. I no longer use a peep to take that variable out of the equation (keep it simple stupid). Next year, I plan to wait for the deer to naturally stop or take walking shots - no more stopping the deer for me.

Bowhunting recovery rate is what it is, around 50% when an arrow is loosed.
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Re: What's your shot/kill ratio with bow?

Unread postby brink » Thu Apr 11, 2013 4:15 am

Topic didn't specify bucks or does and because this will be my fourth season I'll include does.

2/2 bucks with one muzzleloader and one bow

2/3 does both with bow. The miss was my first attempt at a live animal

I know I'll miss my fair share the more I try but I'm happy so far.

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Re: What's your shot/kill ratio with bow?

Unread postby Ridgerunner7 » Thu Apr 11, 2013 4:27 am

brink wrote:Topic didn't specify bucks or does and because this will be my fourth season I'll include does.

2/2 bucks with one muzzleloader and one bow

2/3 does both with bow. The miss was my first attempt at a live animal

I know I'll miss my fair share the more I try but I'm happy so far.

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I was thinking bucks only. Looks like you're doing well so far! Good work.
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Re: What's your shot/kill ratio with bow?

Unread postby rizzo999 » Thu Apr 11, 2013 4:30 am

I counted bucks that were 2.5 yrs old and older for this count. For the life of me I can't remember the yearling and button bucks off the top of my head. I would have to go back thru the years in a little hunting journal I keep.

I have only bow hunted deer for around 8 years with the past 4 years serious. I did not even harvest a 2.5+ yr old buck with my bow until 2010 and I got (3) that season. One in WI and (2) on public land in southern IL.
-4 deer that were 2.5 yrs old and older were tagged by me
-1 missed one all together in 2012
-1 lost one in 2012 (by far my worst year for confidence!)
-67% rate for tagging a bow killed 2.5+ yr old buck

I have a much better ratio with gun hunting success with 2.5+ yr old bucks.
-11 deer that were 2.5+ yr old were tagged by me
-1 deer lost back in 2001
-92% rate for tagging a gun killed 2.5+ yr old buck

Combined bow and gun for 2.5+ yr old bucks:
-15 tagged
-1 missed
-2 lost
-83% rate for tagging a 2.5+ yd oldbuck regardless of weapon

I have not calculated this in the past. I am very satisfied with those results so hopefully my drop in confidence from 2012 missing and losing (2) great bucks will not pass to this coming season. Now my goal will be to continue to increase that bow ratio as I had not lost or wounded/not recovered a good buck until 2012 with my bow. To miss out on tagging those (2) bucks last season really bothered me, but they did save me money! Either one of them were bigger than my largest. The only way that I am paying for a mount going forward is that it has to be bigger than my previous largest unless it has some really cool features like a droptine or double-main beam.
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Re: What's your shot/kill ratio with bow?

Unread postby mibowhunter » Thu Apr 11, 2013 4:45 am

This had me digging in deep in to my memory bank... haha

I'm 8/11 with a bow (72.7%) with 2 wounded and 1 clean miss.

The interesting thing is, I missed/wounded all 3 of those bucks before I killed my first one. I was young and antsy, with a serious case of buck fever (even on the little guys). For practice, I started shooting does and it made a huge difference in my confidence and approach.
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Re: What's your shot/kill ratio with bow?

Unread postby rack addict » Thu Apr 11, 2013 5:30 am

Just bucks
With my bow I'm 4/6 but started out 0/2. One being a clean miss and the other being a non recovery.
With my gun I'm 3/3.

If your talking a total for buck and doe with bow I'm 8/11 with 2 clean misses and a non recovery.
Gun 6/8 with a clean miss and a non recovery.
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Re: What's your shot/kill ratio with bow?

Unread postby rack addict » Thu Apr 11, 2013 5:49 am

BigHills BuckHunter wrote:Interesting topic. Thats alot of bucks RR!

My success rate is much lower than most. I will not use any excuses.

Wounded or missed 8 bucks with my bow and killed 6 so a kill percentage of about 43% in 9 years of bowhunting.

Besides practicing more I think I will put larger antlers on the target to make it more realistic and help me get better. This might sound funny but it could certainly help and wont hurt anything. I found out its the biggest bucks that I missed clean with my bow.

Any more suggestions to help improve my ratio? I have also realized I tend to get very nervous at the shot and want to rush it.


Dealt with the same thing for some time when it came down to making the shot. It seemed like my mind would race and I'd feel rushed and make a quick shot and would look around the bow as I let loose to see the hit. A couple things that have helped that, One being when I practice I make sure I'm still starring at the target after the arrow hits. The next thing was just getting some deer on the ground even if they weren't big mature bucks. I made sure I slowed down concentrated and put the arrow right where I wanted. Take easy shots it builds your confidence which I think is a huge part of it.
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Re: What's your shot/kill ratio with bow?

Unread postby Dewey » Thu Apr 11, 2013 6:01 am

11/13 with shots at bucks.

I am very picky about my shots and won't force one if I don't feel it is a high percentage shot. I had one complete miss due to estimating yardage wrong and the other buck I wounded and lost was while shooting a mechanical head. The shot was good but a little tight to the shoulder and no doubt if I was shooting my usual Muzzy it would have been a dead deer. Never used mechanical heads again.

On does my kill percentage is much lower and completely missed quite a few. :? Not sure why but I am so much more focussed on killing a buck. Probably why I don't try killing does much anymore.

Gun hunting I am probably around 50% mainly due to a rifle that was giving me problems for too many years and I was too stubborn to get rid of it. Luckily all of those were misfires and no wounded deer. I have since bought a new rifle so that problem has been eliminated.

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Re: What's your shot/kill ratio with bow?

Unread postby JoeRE » Thu Apr 11, 2013 6:30 am

- In the past 7 years bowhunting. (My log only goes back that far and when I started the journal is a good dividing line in my evolution as a hunter.)
8 shots at bucks. One clean miss. 7 kills. Not a single one went further than 150 yards after the shot. (Two were spine shot tho and needed additional arrows but I didn't count those as "shots." Of the kills, a couple I chose leave over night but all the shots ended up being "in there" and none lived for more than maybe half an hour tops. One spine shot resulted from jumping the string, the other was a broadhead failure (Deflection up into the spine off a rib).

- In 7 years of bow hunting before that time period from memory only: 5 bucks harvested. 5 bucks I can think of hit and lost, only one I believe died as a result though. About that many cleanly missed. Two pure gut shots of those five recovered. Overall in that time period not pretty, and not proud of it.

- With a gun. 12 bucks (I think that is right, including a couple cripples I put down I wouldn't have otherwise shot) harvested in 15 years. 4 I can think of hit and lost, one or two of them probably fatally hit. Half a dozen or so missed. I am not happy with my gun hunting record to date and am taking steps to improve it.


My doe hunting success rates are better. Generally I am meat hunting and wait for a gimme shot that will ruin a minimum amount of meat.
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Re: What's your shot/kill ratio with bow?

Unread postby Czabs » Thu Apr 11, 2013 6:50 am

Since 09 when I really started to get into bowhunting Im 3/3. 25 yards 09 six point, 20yards 2010 ten point, 40 yards 2012 eleven point

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Re: What's your shot/kill ratio with bow?

Unread postby wmihunter » Thu Apr 11, 2013 8:01 am

I'm 2/5 on does and 4/7 on bucks

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Re: What's your shot/kill ratio with bow?

Unread postby JakeJD » Thu Apr 11, 2013 8:04 am

My success rate looks much better if I include all my gun kills, but the title of the thread specifically mentions "bow" so I refrained from including gun kills.

And in my defense, when I started bowhunting I pretty much started from scratch. My previous 15 years of deer hunting with a rifle were restricted to the same river bottom "we always hunted" from the same permanent stands that my dad built many years ago during the same week of November every year. My dad came from a non-hunting family and just enjoyed being outdoors. He did not scout or put a lot of time into deer hunting. When I started bowhunting, I didn't know anything about scouting and knew very little about whitetail behavior. I was not blessed with a bowhunting mentor, so I really had no idea what I was doing and had no idea how many stupid mistakes I was making. To wit, I was hunting with an old Hoyt MT Sport that was sorely out of tune, but I didn't even know you could (needed to) tune a bow!

To be honest, I really had no business even taking a shot at my prey, but I did not realize it at the time and was not willfully taking poor shots or being lazy. However, I have since immersed myself into the art of bowhunting whitetails and have read many books and picked the brains of many accomplished hunters (many of whom reside on this site). I have learned (realized) my previous mistakes and I look forward to a future with a better than average recovery rate.
Last edited by JakeJD on Thu Apr 11, 2013 8:38 am, edited 1 time in total.
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