How often do you find unrecovered animals?

[Hnthrdr]

I would say 1 a year. Found a couple 2 years ago, took some buddies to the flat tops on a first rifle hunt… sounded like a war zone (which to me often indicates dudes are shooting into herds) seen it several times, ended up finder two dead cows the following day, one was spined and one shot in the ass

 

[Turkeytider]

Makes me think there`s a lot of folks out there " hunting " that shouldn`t be.
And I feel bad when I can`t find a downed dove!

 

[tylerwhat]

I was wondering about this too. I found a dead cow yesterday. It looked like a good shot and wouldn’t have travelled far. It was clearly visible in the middle of a huge clearing. I obviously don’t know what happened, maybe it it just ran a long way after being hit. It seemed like someone didn’t put much effort into tracking though.

 

[Scoot]

I find many dead deer every year in the weeks after our firearms season finishes up. Not to mention 3 legged deer and deer with obvious gunshot injuries...

 

[Dust Rider]

Here and there. Used to find more when I was younger and hunted nastier country. Don’t drink from the river! Golden Eagle eating on a road shot coyote, who was eating on an elk gut pile.

 

[wytx]

We have found a few.
This bull was in an easy spot to locate. GW was pissed and tagged it for us and asked us not to try and locate the hunter, we did try but to no avail.
It laid there for 10 days before we got permission to haul it out. Someone was pretty sad I'm betting.

 

[gabenzeke]

I find typically 2 whitetail bucks a year on public. Almost always post shotgun season here in Iowa.

Same. After shotgun season I always find at least one. I've found one archery shot doe in my life and I'm confident whoever shot her never even made an attempt to look for her because it was a heart shot and by the looks of her she had bled pretty well.

Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk

 

[tallbuchholz]

We usually have a wounded buck run onto our property in Texas and die each year. Sometimes find them still alive. Sometimes with rotting wounds. Most of them we find like that seem to be shot in the neck.

 

[PNW bow hunter]

Wow

I don’t recall ever finding an unrecovered animal

I’m shocked it’s so common for so many guys

 

[AZmark]

I usually find at least one elk a year sometimes more, but I live right in the middle of good elk country and when out driving I always check out an area where I see a lot of crows or buzzards.

 

[BRTreedogs]

I find dead animals all the time, but im not a forensic scientist so I make no determination on why they died.

 

[BRTreedogs]

I assume most of them were pushed buy us low life shed hunters and just flopped over dead.

 

[sndmn11]

The other half of what prompted me to post was the slew of threads on archerytalk where guys are slinging minute of whitetail arrows and then hoping online to ask for advice.

The poll is to satisfy my curiosity if this is a universal thing, eastern thing, species thing, western thing, etc.

 

[Jn78]

I find an elk that appeared to have been killed by a hunter and not recovered every two or three years. I cannot recall ever finding a deer.

 

[McCrapper]

Found a dead horse this year, shoed and all. That was a first.

 

[BRTreedogs]

Found a dead horse this year, shoed and all. That was a first.

Last year I glassed up what I'm pretty sure was a completely saddled horse just doing it thing.

But maybe the rider had him on a long lead and was already over the roll of the hill.

A few years ago during archery we caught a horse on the road and returned it to a camp miles back.

 

[Macintosh]

In over 50 years, 40 of them traipsing around hunting or where others hunt, I found 1 deer that was illegally shot--from the road, and not a legal buck during a season when only bucks are legal. I heard the shot--which had to have been from within feet of the road if not from the vehicle--watched 2 people walk into the treeline, and then a few min later walk back to car. Didnt think anything of it until the next day when I stumbled onto the dead deer and realized what I'd seen. Called game warden, but that's all I could do at that point. Thats not the same as an unrecovered deer, that's just blatant poaching and then walking away becasue they couldnt pass it off as a legally taken animal. I have never found a unrecovered dead deer that I could say with any liklihood was shot by a hunter, as opposed to just winter or coyote kill. And I have found 2 deer carcasses that had a very small amount of meat taken (backstraps only, etc) and the rest dumped in a ditch--not sure if those were poached or just a really poor home butchering job as the deer could conceivably have been legally shot.
My dogs have found many unrecovered dead or wounded pheasants. And I have found clearly shot/left there bobcats and coyotes.
I would say around me finding an unrecovered hunter-shot deer is extremely rare. I suspect many of the shot unrecovered deer are not in places where they'd likely be found any time soon, but I suspect there just arent enough deer and people hunting them for it to be widespread enough to really register.

 

[BRTreedogs]

In over 50 years, 40 of them traipsing around hunting or where others hunt, I found 1 deer that was illegally shot--from the road, and not a legal buck during a season when only bucks are legal. I heard the shot--which had to have been from within feet of the road if not from the vehicle--watched 2 people walk into the treeline, and then a few min later walk back to car. Didnt think anything of it until the next day when I stumbled onto the dead deer and realized what I'd seen. Called game warden, but that's all I could do at that point. Thats not the same as an unrecovered deer, that's just blatant poaching and then walking away becasue they couldnt pass it off as a legally taken animal. I have never found a unrecovered dead deer that I could say with any liklihood was shot by a hunter, as opposed to just winter or coyote kill. And I have found 2 deer carcasses that had a very small amount of meat taken (backstraps only, etc) and the rest dumped in a ditch--not sure if those were poached or just a really poor home butchering job as the deer could conceivably have been legally shot.
My dogs have found many unrecovered dead or wounded pheasants. And I have found clearly shot/left there bobcats and coyotes.
I would say around me finding an unrecovered hunter-shot deer is extremely rare. I suspect many of the shot unrecovered deer are not in places where they'd likely be found any time soon, but I suspect there just arent enough deer and people hunting them for it to be widespread enough to really register.

Dang traipsing around?
What did that look like? Tarzan?

 

[Turkeytider]

I find many dead deer every year in the weeks after our firearms season finishes up. Not to mention 3 legged deer and deer with obvious gunshot injuries...

Like I posted earlier, people in the woods with firearms that have absolutely no business being there. I swear I just think a lot of people just weren`t raised right!

 

[Turkeytider]

We have found a few.
This bull was in an easy spot to locate. GW was pissed and tagged it for us and asked us not to try and locate the hunter, we did try but to no avail.
It laid there for 10 days before we got permission to haul it out. Someone was pretty sad I'm betting.

View attachment 628371

View attachment 628372

That`s obscene! Glad you were able to get it out. After 10 days, wouldn`t it be spoiled?