When you have lost an animal, what do you believe was the cause?

[GuyinIdaho]

Im not really sure what to attribute that to. When something like that happens I like to look for what went wrong so as to learn a lesson from it. When you stick an elk right where you aim and get good penetration and it takes off and you cant find it, its one of the most frustrating things i've encountered. You feel like you did everything right and you dont know where you fell short. Just one of those things I guess. Im telling you these 3 instances were perfect shots, there was no second guessing on placement or penetration. With archery equipment I dont aim for the heart I aim for a clean double lung. The most recent was a big 6x7 broadside at 23 yards. I saw the arrow hit its mark clear as day.

did your arrow pass through? I am guessing on the bull I lost I only hit 1 lung, or maybe none. The arrow broke in half when he spun after the hit and I think that caused some blockage in the wound. Blood was good to start but dried up after 100ish yards. My solution was switching up my arrow set up to a heavier one as well as sharpening my broadheads as sharp as I could get them.

Do you aim for double lung due to the shoulder being in the way?

 

[Geewhiz]

did your arrow pass through? I am guessing on the bull I lost I only hit 1 lung, or maybe none. The arrow broke in half when he spun after the hit and I think that caused some blockage in the wound. Blood was good to start but dried up after 100ish yards. My solution was switching up my arrow set up to a heavier one as well as sharpening my broadheads as sharp as I could get them.

Do you aim for double lung due to the shoulder being in the way?

No pass throughs on any of those. Out of a dozen or more archery bulls i've only ever had one pass through, but never really a lack of penetration. Seams like about every time, I find a broadhead either buried into a far side rib or right up against the hide or barely poking through. They always take off with 1/3 to 1/2 a shaft sticking out of the entry side. My arrows are about 410 including a 125 grain head. In my mind, my perfect archery shot (broadside) is right in the crease just less than half way up. not trying to sneak it behind the elbow or shoot through 6 inches of shoulder meat and/or shoulder blade. Gives me the most room for error.

 

[Fowl Play]

I have lost 3 bulls with what I would have considered 10 ring double lung shots. I'm going to get haters for admitting this but I can say with 100% certainty they were all 3 double lung broadside shots that should have resulted in dead elk within just a few yards. And yes I looked and looked and looked and had help looking. You say "if they were double lung shots they would have died immediately". Well thats what I thought too.

1 of them I found 3 days later 1.24 miles from where I shot him. Absolute needle in a haystack luck that we even found him. Fixed blade broadhead intact and stuck in an offside rib. Similar elevation but sidehilled around 3 ridges.

One of them I found 7 days later 800 yards away, up hill 600 yards and 200 yards down the back side of a ridge. Devoured with no sign of an arrow or broadhead.

One of them I never found.


3 Very odd situation that I really have no explanation for. Shuttle t lock and montec heads going about 285. Weird deals.

Can you tell me what arrow/broadhead setup you are using, so I can never use that setup...

Edit: nvm see it right at bottom

 

[Geewhiz]

Can you tell me what arrow/broadhead setup you are using, so I can never use that setup...

Edit: nvm see it right at bottom

I don't think you're being sincere, but a pretty foolproof setup as far as arrows go. 410 grain arrow going about 285 fps with a fixed blade coc broadhead. Shuttle tlocks are super tough, and I've seen montecs bend but never break.

 

[Beendare]

I have lost 3 bulls with what I would have considered 10 ring double lung shots. I'm going to get haters for admitting this but I can say with 100% certainty they were all 3 double lung broadside shots that should have resulted in dead elk within just a few yards. And yes I looked and looked and looked and had help looking. You say "if they were double lung shots they would have died immediately". Well thats what I thought too.

1 of them I found 3 days later 1.24 miles from where I shot him. Absolute needle in a haystack luck that we even found him. Fixed blade broadhead intact and stuck in an offside rib. Similar elevation but sidehilled around 3 ridges.

One of them I found 7 days later 800 yards away, up hill 600 yards and 200 yards down the back side of a ridge. Devoured with no sign of an arrow or broadhead.

One of them I never found.


3 Very odd situation that I really have no explanation for. Shuttle t lock and montec heads going about 285. Weird deals.

That is weird. Theoretically a BH through both lungs and out the other side collapses the lungs quickly....they can only go a little ways on their last breath.

 

[Geewhiz]

That is weird. Theoretically a BH through both lungs and out the other side collapses the lungs quickly....they can only go a little ways on their last breath.

Weird to say the least. My theory is if the arrow stays in them the hole can seal up around the shaft enough for them to make it a ways. I dont know how else to explain it.

 

[Beendare]

Im not really sure what to attribute that to. When something like that happens I like to look for what went wrong so as to learn a lesson from it. When you stick an elk right where you aim and get good penetration and it takes off and you cant find it, its one of the most frustrating things i've encountered. You feel like you did everything right and you dont know where you fell short. Just one of those things I guess. Im telling you these 3 instances were perfect shots, there was no second guessing on placement or penetration. With archery equipment I dont aim for the heart I aim for a clean double lung. The most recent was a big 6x7 broadside at 23 yards. I saw the arrow hit its mark clear as day.

I had a weird one like that....35 y, perfect broadside shot placement, 70# compound 440g with a Slicktrick mag head. Witnessed by my buddy Kirk. The bull went a little ways, dropped rolled around got up..then down again...that bull lived another 15 minutes- crazy. I finally snuck in and heart shot him.

The autopsy revealed the head had dulled on the mud crusted hide on the way in...it was as dull as a butter knife and did go through both lungs but it was bruised with little blood lodged in the off side hide.. I would have thought that even a dull BH through both lungs woulds work- not in that case.

 

[Beendare]

Possible voting option

"Couldn't track it"

I've seen a lot of guys that didn't react well after the shot. Some even yelled, "Got him". Guys talking, walking on the blood trail making a bunch of noise, guys not glassing and stalking their way on the trail.

I've seen it many times, we think they are dead but instead they are laying down with their head up watching their back trail. Animals can pattern human footsteps on noisy ground, they can hear you coming.

Assume the critter is still alive, Stalking in and glassing every couple steps is always always a safe strategy. Use your binos.

I have learned that lesson the hard way myself. I had one good buck 35 years ago in Nevada I pushed out of his bed while sloppily following the blood trail and lost him.

Another one elk hunting in Co u76, I called a good bull to a buddy. He shot him and then the bull ran to within 20y and looked around- then took off. I asked my buddy why he did not shoot again. He said “that bull is dead..“
Good blood we followed rather quick but then glassed that bull 800y away working across a huge meadow to the other side. He spotted us in the open….and we never found him.

Once, doing it right, I had a buck in the mountains I made a bad shot on. It was high sage flat and windy, 70y and the arrow pushed left catching him back. Good blood trail but I glassed ahead and saw the buck he had been with was with standing sentinel in the sage looking around a 1/2 mile away like his buddy was bedded there. I sat there and glassed, sure enough I got a glimpse of my buck trying to stand. If I would have stumbled in on them within a 1/4 mile, I never would have found him. 3 hours later a huge lightning storm came in with a vengeance and pushed me off of that huge open flat.

It rained hard for hours. Next day I stalked in to his bed- gone...but kept glassing and found him bedded another 1/4 mile away....stalked in and shot him. done. Not the best scenario but at least I got him By being stealthy on his backtrail.

 

[ShedHead20]

I believe lost a whitetail by dying in a river after a full pass through, through the lungs. Shot him at 7 yards. Watched him run to the river immediately after the shot while leaving a small blood trail but could find no blood or water splashing evidence on the other side. Looked for a few days and never found him. Even checked some log jams downstream but no luck.

 

[rcb2000]

1. Lost one deer when I shot too far forward, and my Grim Reaper expandable smashed his leg, and got almost no penetration.
2. Two seasons ago I made what I believed to be a perfect shot on a doe. I was sure that I would find her 20 yards in the woods dead. I ended up finding almost no blood, and followed pinpricks for about 30 yards before I went and got my buddies blood tracking dachshund. I brought that dog back and put her on the trail, oddly enough 40 yards later, we found this giant hunk of bloody fat, I managed to get this picture of it, but then dropped it, and the dog quickly ate it. We followed that track for another 120 yards and jumped that deer out of its bed, I backed out and came back the following day without the dog and never found the deer. Two weeks later, a buddy of mine, that hunts, the same area, followed the sound of a bunch of crows and found the carcass.


In almost all of the instances of a lost deer, it’s usually because the shot was not under 20 yards and at a severe angle.

 

[prairieboy]

only 1 doe. First deer i shot at with the bow, didnt know alot of stuff that i know now. Entry level bow, shot a 425 gr arrow 235 fps. Which is enough. Bow shop sold me some interloc over the top expandable broadhead, dull out of the package, and they dont have an o-ring or spring to keep them shut, just tension and they were stiff to open. Shot the doe at 23 yards. May or may not have hit shoulder, it was hard to say. Got 4 inches of blood on the arrow, which i found 40 yards down the trail. Very little blood. Couldnt find her that night, and gave up. Went back next evening and found her pretty fast by the smell. I walked within 10 yards of her the previous day. She went about 150-170 yards, coyotes had completly finished everything except head and neck. Shot 2 other deer with that bow with razor sharp fixed blades and 0 issues, all passthroughs. Have since killed plenty of deer with other bowswhich are faster, with fixed blades and expandables but make better broadhead choices now. Sharp is key.

Shot elk, moose, deer, bear with rifle and quite a few deer with muzzle loader and shotgun, never lost 1 and prefer to keep it that way. use enough gun and bullet. keep the nerves calm, dont take risky shots. Know your weapons range limit and be honest about it. For example a muzzleloader firing a 250 gr sst at 1950 fps is not a 250-300 yard gun. Groups well to 200-225 thats it, goes subsonic after that and groups go to crap. Having a good steady shooting position is key, crosshairs cannot be all over.

I have helped track numerous deer for a family member that we all lost. risky shots, rushed shots, never practices, pisses me right off. like 3 times in 4 years. all muzzleloader and rifle crap and not small rifle either. 30 cal magnums.

 

[littlerhorner]

Weird to say the least. My theory is if the arrow stays in them the hole can seal up around the shaft enough for them to make it a ways. I dont know how else to explain it.

The only think that comes to mind is a somewhat dull broad head. I would venture that wasn't the case, but a dull broad head will push tissue aside at the end of the blades rather than slice through it.

I think shots on the lower half of the chest cavity bleed good. And upper half barely at all until the cavity starts to full up. A lot of the elk I've shot with archery equipment have left faint blood trails.

 

[Long Cut]

12 yard buck, broadside
74# bow 28.5” draw 28” arrow 420ish grains slick trick magnum

Took the shot and didn’t see my lighted nock, but saw the buck hunch and a dead twig in front of me moving violently…

I saw my arrow flying straight down about 10 yards behind where the buck was standing, it landed straight into the ground like this.

Being this was the biggest deer I ever ran an arrow through, waited 24 hours and put a dog on it. No dice.
48 hours later, bring a second, seasoned dog & handler. Tracked him 2.8 miles and jumped him at last light.
Waited 24 hours and grid searched to no avail.
Day 7 grid searching .5 miles away, I jumped the buck with a doe. He was running just fine.

I never saw the dead twig due to my sight being 3” above my arrow. Up close, it wasn’t in my line of sight.

I figured a gut shot would be lethal in 7 days… Never did find his deadhead that Winter.

So all that to say, shot placement-other for mine IMO

 

[DB29]

Where is the option for “no idea what happened but damn sure it wasn’t my fault”?

 

[Bump79]

Where is the option for “no idea what happened but damn sure it wasn’t my fault”?

Haha great point. Seems like a common belief!

 

[AZ_Hunter_2000]

#1 answer should be: lack of effort on recovery (the word "lazy" would trigger too many people)

Lots of folks, even on this site, give up way too quickly and proceed to continue to hunt. Was a great thread awhile back about folks' continuing to hunt after being unable to find (wink wink) a wounded animal. Crazy that only "dinks" are unrecoverable...

From your list, I'd say shot placement not being what the shooter thought it was. Could be due to buck fever, a POS scope, bullet deflection, animal movement, poor ranging, jerking the trigger, bad wind call, etc.

 

[Bump79]

#1 answer should be: lack of effort on recovery (the word "lazy" would trigger too many people)

Maybe this is true - but in my experience this seems to be a small minority of people. I've ran into so many people looking for a lost animal for days. Myself included. I think we all know "the guy" who does this but I don't think this is representative. At least from my experience it's not.

I believe that a better description would be tracking methodology. It's really an art - especially with archery. Tracking to soon I think is huge.

 

[kcm2]

Unless you recover the animal, or saw a terribly poor hit, you have no idea why.

 

[Bump79]

Unless you recover the animal, or saw a terribly poor hit, you have no idea why.

In archery scenarios - I think it's possible. Most of the time I can see where I hit, if pass through blood on arrow tells a ton, if arrow still in em I know where I hit, blood on the ground can indicate a lot, etc.

 

[Dennis]

To the basic question of what causes wounding loss I think it is lack of penetration, sharpness / durability of the broadhead and shot placement. None of these guarantee success as they all have to work together for us to achieve success. You can make a perfect shot with no penetration or have a dull broadhead, or get full penetration in something not vital. Blood trailing is another problem if there isn't one to follow.

My story of wounding loss and my full circle

I kept notes from old arrows from years gone by and thought I would share some lessons I learned over the years. During my early bowhunting career (1979-1985) life was good and no animals were lost according to my notes. Three elk, four deer and a bear were harvested. I kept each arrow recovered for years and documented from which animal and their weight. Those early years started with Satellite 125 grain four blade 1" razor blade broadheads, XX75 2216 shafts, 72 lb. draw weight with a forgiving round wheel compound bow, shooting fingers with a tab at 202 fps.

Following my early success I began changing things to follow the crowd and the marketing hype (1986-2020). New cam bows, lighter and lighter aluminum arrows, heavier 150 gr. broadheads then lighter 100 grain broadheads, mechanical broadheads, carbon shafts, full metal jacket heavy shafts, new releases and my list could go on. As I made these changes and my wounding rates increased, but accuracy improved in practice. I thought it must be my shot placement on animals (which looked good), or maybe my broadheads were causing the problems. I wondered why better shot placement and faster arrows were leading to fewer recoveries. Not every shot was perfect, but I noticed penetration was decreasing and animals living longer than what I had come to expect from those early years. I also noticed deflections were becoming more and more common which I hadn't seen before.

Over 40 plus years, (updated 7/28/23) have lost six elk (one maybe two I believe were because of shot placement) and three deer. Plus some additional stories of long tracking jobs with antelope in open country. About three years ago I sorted my arrows by years and noticed overall weight had been steadily declining over the years by 200 grains. I knew that lighter weight arrows allowed me to have more pins and more pins meant I could shoot farther. However in actual hunting situations I never shot much farther than I had earlier. I gradually started passing good shot opportunities because I had lost confidence in my setup even at close range and just took a picture to share with my buddies who thought I must had joined PETA.

Three years ago I decided I needed to figure out why my old system worked so well, before I quit bowhunting. I decided to learn about arrow lethality and make whatever changes were required using my old system as a base example. I wasn't sure I believed everything I read and heard but thought I would give it a try before my bowhunting career comes to an end. I didn't follow everything I learned that first year, but I was willing to try it and as luck would have it I did harvest a bull elk that first year and everything was different. It was different than anything I had ever experienced before and it was like my arrow was on steroids just passing through an elk. Second year I moved up a little more in weight and FOC and again everything was different just like the previous year. What I mean by everything was different was arrow flight, penetration, broadhead sharpness, reaction to the shot, tracking distance etc.. Shot placement was okay on a quartering in and better on quarter away. But the reaction to the shots were totally different. Both bulls jumped at the shot/impact, then walk a short distance, stood still then fell over within sight. Much better than old system. No tracking was required on either bull and penetration was complete and total pass through. Previously I only had one total pass through on elk in forty plus years of bowhunting.

I realize my sample is only two elk, but I only get one tag per year.

Good luck to all,

PM me if you have questions