Ever not recovered a deer?

[Crazinamatese]

I agree with what others mentioned about inexperience. There is a first time for everything. Its easy to think about how you will react when the time comes but when its time to launch that arrow those big bucks mess with your head. As much as I want to have another chance at a slob I still have a little insecurity about my next opportunity because of one bad experience. I hope to get above that this season.

[218er]

I’ve lost a handful and it is always a gut wrenching feeling. The bummer is feeling that some we’re lost due to my own error. If I shoot a deer in the early am it can sit for an hour or two. I’m in no hurry I was going to be hunting anyways. The biggest reasons I’ve lost them was not taking my time with the shot, beginning tracking to soon, and losing a blood trail due to rain. The bummer is I’m sure it will happen again, hopefully that isn’t for a long time though.

[Huntress13]

Inexperience and shooting a too light setup with too light arrows out of an entry level bow. May have been successful on a 100 pound doe but wasn't enough on a big bodied buck. Found 8 inches of the back of the arrow broke off where he crashed through the trees. Then he walked off like nothing happened. No exit wound and no blood trail. It haunts me wondering.

[jrain904]

I am totally blown away by the honesty in this thread. When I started it I did not quite know what type of answers to expect as I am new to this forum. Thank you to everyone for your stories and experiences and may we all learn from them.

As I stated I did not recover the buck I shot last Friday and it is the first deer I have not recovered in my short hunting career. I have been trying to teach myself to hunt for about 7 years now and in the last 4 years I have started to put it all together and have shot a deer 3 out of the last 4 years on public land in Florida during our 3 day quota hunt. The buck I shot on Friday would have been my largest to date and one I would have cherished for life. The reason I had a bad hit is definitely due to inexperience, trying to rush the shot, and not envisioning the arrows path. He came in chasing a doe and he stopped just about under my stand as I bleated at him. Thinking he was about to take off again I quickly aimed and shot. Upon closer consideration I believe my arrow went between the shoulder blades (where I aimed) and down through the brisket, clean pass through. I should have aimed further down his back to catch the vitals! Rookie error. I just hope that he is still alive.

[buttonbuck]

Just happened to me last night.

[Tennhunter3]

I shot a buck with a muzzleloader my second beast year and never found it. It began raining and storming about 15 minutes after the shot. The blood trail washed away. I searched for hours never found it. Was a decent 8 point.

I had a bow buck last year I hit a limb right in front of the deer and deflected the arrow into a tree. At least it missed the deer.

[802bowhunter]

If u havnt lost deer u havnt hunted or shot at enough deer period.

[IndyDawg]

Well, guess I should bump this one. I failed to recover my first hit deer yesterday.

I setup yesterday on a leeward finger ridge bench on the military crest between two saddles that is above a thick bedding area. Had does coming around out of range starting around 9 am. At about 915 I blew a grunt tube, and immediately a big bodied six pointer came crashing down the finger ridge right at my stand. He came head on at me, ignoring my bleats and failing to stop, crashing into the bedding thicket looking for the buck that was grunting. He moved 60 yards past my stand to my downwind side, and I grunted again. He came back up the hill, to 35 yards directly behind my climber. I was at full draw for about a minute while waiting for him to enter a shooting lane, and leaning out of the side of my climber to get around the tree.

He stepped into the opening and stopped, and I released an arrow. I watched the lighted nock, and the flight looked clean, but it struck high and tight to the shoulder, and did not pass through. The arrow flapped wildly as he crashed down the ridge. With his crashing and stumbling as he tore off, I was fairly sure I had punched through into the lung and I'd find him dead in short order. After waiting over an hour, I took up the trail and over the course of 5 hours and 500 yards, it went from heavy blood to drips to nothing at all. The blood was dark red with very few bubbles throughout the trail. No beds, only a few spots in the first 200 yards where he stopped and stood still and bled large piles of blood. A grid search of the thicket he went into when I lost blood turned up no additional blood, sign, or a deer. Pretty crushed by this failure.

[Thesouthpaw]

Lost one on Friday. Pretty positive it was not a lethal hit though, which makes me feel a little better. It still sucks.

[heartdart]

I have lost several...
It happens to everyone who hunts no matter how good a shot you are. Just gotta try and learn from it.