Big game wound/recovery ratio

[sndmn11]

A tangent from this thread last year. It popped into my mind when I was in WY last weekend and came across a few fres pronghorn carcasses. https://rokslide.com/forums/threads/how-often-do-you-find-unrecovered-animals.334329/

Also to continue on the current wounded animals threads. I am a bit surprised by the attitudes expressed by some, especially with how they contrast with what is expressed in the thread about Australian buffalo bow hunting.

For you AND your immediate hunting group/family/friends how many animals are you wounding per recovery? Big game animals only.

Do you think hunters should/can do better?

 

[PredatoronthePrairie]

2 in 25 years not recovered.

First was a doe shot with a riffle when I was 15. Still scratching my head on that one as we found her 3 months later 150 yards from her last bed. Plenty of good snow to track on to boot.

Other was a bow buck. Shot at 5 yards from the ground. Brought in a dog and turned up nothing but a few additional specks of blood after searching that night and the next morning.

Both still irk me in how the situations played out.

Edit: Need to add. Second one was completely my fault. Thought I could punch it through a gap in a small bush between me and the deer. Let the moment get the best of me.

 

[jimh406]

I've lost count on how many I've shot but it's more than 20. I hit one deer with an arrow that I didn't recover decades ago. My best bet is the replaceable broadhead I was using blew up on the shoulder blade or didn't penetrate although I didn't find the broadhead. It was a 4 blade satellite head if anyone remembers those. That was my only attempt at using that head.

I think it's very likely it survived. I trailed it to a road, so it's possible it was picked up by someone else as it was a heavily hunted area.

My guess is I'm probably more conservative on the type of shot I'll take than many people.

 

[ScreamingPotato]

I voted 1 per 20 but it's more like 1 per 100 or so based loosely on memory but that wasn't an option.
Edit: I've also clean missed a few times.

 

[finner]

It always irks me when someone claims they’ve never lost an animal. It will happen eventually if you hunt long enough and take enough shots, especially with a bow. If you have 3-5 tags a year, it’s just a matter of time. Arrows hit brush, you flinch, or the animal moves. I’d estimate I’m between 1/10 and 1/20. I’m fairly happy with that, given that the wound/loss to kill ratio in Montana is about 50/50. Each time is a heartbreaker, but you learn a different lesson hopefully. Seems that most people don’t learn those lessons and keep making the same mistakes

 

[ScreamingPotato]

It always irks me when someone claims they’ve never lost an animal. It will happen eventually if you hunt long enough and take enough shots, especially with a bow. If you have 3-5 tags a year, it’s just a matter of time. Arrows hit brush, you flinch, or the animal moves. I’d estimate I’m between 1/10 and 1/20. I’m fairly happy with that, given that the wound/loss to kill ratio in Montana is about 50/50. Each time is a heartbreaker, but you learn a different lesson hopefully. Seems that most people don’t learn those lessons and keep making the same mistakes

True. Poll should probably break out rifle and archery. I can't say that I've ever lost anything rifle shot in 40 years of hunting, but Archery unfortunately is not the case.

 

[justin davis]

I’ve heard of a few elk wounded with muzzleloaders and bows this year.

 

[sndmn11]

My guess is I'm probably more conservative on the type of shot I'll take than many people.

It will happen eventually if you hunt long enough and take enough shots, especially with a bow. If you have 3-5 tags a year, it’s just a matter of time. Arrows hit brush, you flinch, or the animal moves.

I think these two statements are related. I think the proximity of bowhunting leaves hunters with the idea that they MUST shoot. i.e. the current thread where scapulas are getting dinged from the front and sight pins are settling on white rumps. It's a hard thing for folks to turn down an animal inside 20yards rather than force it.

 

[RocketRob16]

Pretty dependent on weapon type amongst other things. First 10 years of rifle hunting lost one deer. Then began archery hunting and learning some lessons the hard way. 20 years of hunting and last year was my worst year by far. Buck fever, excitement and rushing shots absolutely wrecked me. In general, the rifle recovery rate is much higher than the archery recovery rate for myself.

 

[finner]

I think these two statements are related. I think the proximity of bowhunting leaves hunters with the idea that they MUST shoot. i.e. the current thread where scapulas are getting dinged from the front and sight pins are settling on white rumps. It's a hard thing for folks to turn down an animal inside 20yards rather than force it.

Absolutely, that’s a factor. But I also believe that once you get above triple digits of animals killed, it’s almost a statistical impossibility that you haven’t wounded or lost an animal. That might change depending on method of take and location, but I find it hard to believe that someone who has hunted for 25+ years has never wounded anything. I have a friend who swore he’d never wounded anything and claimed he never would because he only takes responsible shots. Cut to the next season as I watched him send an arrow through a rear quarter. Stuff happens.

I would like to see data on trends in bowhunting loss rates. Anecdotally, the amount of animals I see on social media with the shot yardages claimed exceeding 60 has gone way up. Solid data would require honest reporting, however, and that just isn’t going to happen.

 

[StuckInTheEast]

I'll bite...Im probably higher on the list taking my wife and kids into the equation, but it only factors in Midwest white tails.
However, there's a BIG curveball...we hunt property that borders an 1100acre preserve(that's big chunk of ground around these parts)... Years ago before it had well established walking trails we had an arrangement for retrieving lost game back there, then management changed and so did policy...so for last 10 years anything that gets hit and crosses the very hole filled 54" tall old wire fence is off limits... I think we've lost 7 in last10 years, 4 doe and 3 smaller bucks. 4 of them we went "hiking" in the preserve and found not to far from the property line.
The other 3 honestly blew my mind. Two were the first 2 deer my wife ever shot a week apart. Under 20 yards with 20ga sst slugs. Both dropped in their tracks legs in the air, but one fell behind a large tree and one into a ravine so didn't have follow up shots, but figured no need...within 5 minutes of being dropped both flopped around, hobbled up and took off full bore before we could get another shot from the stand...found decent blood and bone fragments on one then dried up...in the snow...and lost tracks in mess of other tracks in the preserve. Second one did same thing but not much blood. I think she hit a touch high and the slugs didn't expand and just punched through, maybe grazed spine and temporarily paralyzed them, either way it was tough first year for her.
The 3rd we never found was my sons 3rd buck he's shot. decent 8 point. 60 yards with .350 legend. Looked like solid hit, deer dropped ran towards fenceline front and shoulders down thought he was crashing for sure. Stumbled, corrected, JUMPED the damn fence and kept going...blood trail was nuts looked like lung or arterial could not believe he made it 200 yards to fence much less farther...tracked that deer drop my drop for 800 yards on a hike in preserve the next day and it just dried up.
That being said, we've recovered 30+from the same time frame not counting summer crop damage permits we fill on occasion.The white tail have been like roaches around here till EHD wiped out half or more of the herd couple years back.
We don't take loosing them lightly, my wife/kids have to put 3 inside a 6 inch circle consistently before I'll let them shoot that distance at game, both good to 200+ at this point.
Sometimes the animal is just tougher than the ammo you hit them with, or you just can't get to them
It's always a heartbreak to loose one, and I'd argue anyone that disagrees needs an ethics lesson and possibly a good beating...but the reality is they never go to waste...something makes a meal of it even if you dont.

 

[Ucsdryder]

Do upland birds count?

Shit happens, it sucks. Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.

Sometimes you get lucky and miss multiple shots at close range, and sometimes you make a shot that seems great and turns into a rodeo.

I had a 84 yard shot at a BOAL last week, with a muzzle loader on a solid rest, quartering away. Shot hit back and ended up with no dead elk and 5 drops of blood on a rock 150 yards away. I’ve thought about it a lot, plenty of woulda coulda shoulda, but shit happens. In the end I wouldn’t have done anything differently, I’d take that shot all day every day.

I looked multiple hours that day, 3 days later, and today, 11 days later, with no smells, no birds, no closure.

These threads always come across as a humble brag, but maybe I’m still salty.

 

[CMP70306]

Out of the 35 deer, a bear and a bison I’ve lost one deer with two others that ended up with slight wounds. The first one I gut shot at 300 yards when I was 13. I had missed a number of deer prior to that from the same spot and a heavy rain must have washed away any signs of the hit because we didn’t locate anything after searching that night and the following morning. We ended up finding it while turkey hunting two weeks later, that deer was the catalyst that got me into accurate rifles and long range shooting.

The second I was shooting 550gr paper patch bullets out of my Sharps and held too low on an offhand head on shot downhill at around 50 yards. I had zeroed it for 120 yards and knew it was hitting about 5 inches high at 50 so I held low trying to keep it out of the guts. She took off tail up at the shot and I ended up with just some white hair and a single drop of blood with the bullet hole in the ground just behind her back hoof prints.

I searched around for 45 minutes without finding another drop on her tracks and based on the hair, her reaction and the bullet hole in the ground I’m guessing I just barely skimmed her chest hair. If I had hit any higher into bone that soft lead bullet would have completely split her chest cavity open and she’d have dropped right there.

The third one I shot a doe with the .45 colt and the bullet bounced off her shoulder. The pine tree I caught the edge of just in front of her might have contributed to that result but I found the bullet on the ground in front of the tree I hit. That was a real head scratcher for a minute or two until I saw the hair stuck under the hollow point and on the tree where I assume the bullet bounced back and hit.



Either way doe was fine and I saw her two weeks later on camera munching on leaves in the same spot missing some hair on her shoulder. If I hadn’t hit the tree it would have been a couple inches farther back for a solid double lung shot.

 

[The Guide]

I've lost 2 that I put blood on the ground with in 36 years.

A whitetail buck that I lost the blood trail (on snow) after it crossed a river it was standing next to. Could find any blood on the other side after he entered the water. Went back to camo and got my dad and he helped me look. Concentrated all our efforts on the far side and we gave up at dark. Knowing what I know now about wounded animals, I would have looked on the same side that I had blood on (there was better cover) 200 yards up and down stream looking for where a wet animal had exited the river bank.

Lost a cow elk that was hit low in the brisket or fore leg. She got in the middle of the herd and wasn't limping or anything so I assumed I missed. Went and checked for blood and found that coarse brisket hair and small drops of blood in the snow. I tracked them into the trees and found where they bedded on a bench in a boulder pile. I glassed all the elk I could see and couldn't find any that were wounded. I was within 50 yards of the closest cow. She was chewing her cud and I almost shot her in the head just to fill my tag but wanted to do the right thing and only shoot the one I'd already drawn blood on. It was almost dark and they either winded me or decided that they were hungry. That bunch of elk got up and went down to the lower park in a hurry. I saw no one limping or struggling so I checked the beds before I walked off the mountain. The cow I thought about filling my tag with was the cow I wounded. There was a little bit of blood in the bed and none leading away. That incident lead me to my current and I'm sure many Roksliders mantra of use lower power, greater FOV, and rackand shoot until they drop. My dad was born in '34 so I was raise with the values of ammo is expensive, 2 bullets is 2x the meat lost, and you observe after the shot for tracking. Lot fewer rodeos with my current method.

My wife lost 1 antelope that she hit in the leg right below the brisket. That antelope ran 2 miles across public ground and a mile onto the neighboring private land with its leg windmilling before it bedded down. We asked the land owner to get access and he wouldn't let us on to attempt to retrieve it. Told us the only thing he hated more than antelope was hunters and if there was a wounded antelope out back them maybe the coyotes wouldn't eat any of his chickens or cats for a couple days.

My kids haven't lost anything that they've put a bullet in yet. Hope to keep it that way for a while longer.

Jay

 

[browning2480]

I shot the same buck twice last year. Once in the shoulder blade on Thanksgiving and then the second time right be new years high in the void. Still alive today.

 

[Moosehunter]

I think learning from mistakes is the best a guy can do.
And being honest about abilities. I've lost a few animals. And absolutely hate. However...learning from those mistakes will make us better hunters.
Rather than saying "thats just hunting".
I hate that line.

 

[Steve300xcw]

I put a round in the wrong spot on a bear and never found it. One of the few lost animals in my family for quite some time. We also dont throw pointy sticks at animals, so I'm sure that helps.........

 

[Pharmseller]

Two bucks out of maybe 50.

Zero elk out of not that many.





P

 

[Wellsdw]

Ive lost a few Over 25 years of bowhunting. That’s what led me down the road of training and working a tracking/trailing dog. That alone has put me on about 20+ difficult tracks every season. I see the same mistake over and over again. And it’s one I’ve made for sure. Hunters don’t know or more commonly come to the distorted decision to not wait. It’s gamble. Wait, probably loose some meat if not all of it. Or go in after and hour or two. The 2nd almost always leads to an animal being pushed. I get calls all the time with no blood and they jumped the animal twice, within a few hundred yards. That’s a dead animal where it was jumped the first Time had they waited. If you’re several 5-6-800 yards into a track, it’s likely one of two things. Superficial wound. Or you’re pushing it, unknowingly. The “pushing them” theory that I hear is only validated on recoveries……let them bed, their blood pressure will drop, their adrenaline will burn off, and they will go into shock and die. May take 4-6-8-12 hrs to die but you will never no unless you can get eyes on them, which means looking for them will
Kick them up and it starts all over. My advice to everyone is find a tracker in the area you are going hunting. (Legal in damn near every state, and probably not enforced in the ones it’s not) reach out prior to going on your hunt. And call them as soon as you make a marginal shot. Before disturbing the area, and definitely before grid searching. Trackers can be located on the United blood trackers website.
Good luck fellas

 

[Coveyleader]

For me species specific.

It’s been a long time since I’ve lost an elk, deer, my record has been much more spotty. I’ve lost some deer at some stupid close ranges. Some of them make me want to vomit.