Blood tracking vs running deer with dogs

Saw a post on Facebook earlier about a deer shot about two inches above the hoof. They had a tracker come out with two hounds run the deer over a mile bay it in a creek and finally finish it off. It was almost a completely superficial wound.
At what point are you just running a deer with dogs? Those situations just don't sit right with me. Before anyone starts hollering about coyotes getting it yeah thats a possibility but I've also seen deer missing part of a leg that have healed up and they were doing fine

I figure the state will get involved before long.

They can call it like they want but if the hound is off leash and running the deer . That ain't tracking.

Course I couldn't care less.

Way people talk about shooting dogs I think I'd keep mine on a leash

I tracked, bayed, and killed a buck with my Taz dog many years ago. It was shot right at top of hoof10 hours earlier. Bone was exposed and rammed into the dirt.

A deer shot thru or right above the hoof is a dead deer walking. Every time they push that exposed bone into the dirt, in goes more bacteria.THAT deer will die from infection, will absolutely not survive long.

I once posted on here I'm not the best shot in the world. I take that back, I'm an expert marksman after reading this

I tracked one like that a few years ago. The hunter called me and said he had shot a good buck that evening. He was carrying a leg as he went out of the field. He felt like the hit was good but lost the blood trail at about 100 yards and wanted to see if I would bring the dog out the next morning.

The next morning I put Otis on it and he starts tracking it. We worked the track out to over 900 yards when suddenly I heard Otis cut loose barking a hundred yards in front of me. When I caught up to him he was in a privet thicket with the buck squared off on him. I snuck in close enough to get a shot through the privet. I had one hole to shoot through to bucks body so I tone Otis back and took it. The buck broke and ran and Otis quickly locked him down again at which point I snuck in and hit him again. Long story short we finally got him. It was only after the fact that we looked the deer over and realized the original hit was just about the hoof.

As far as how many of these deer will make it?? There are thousands of deer that are wounded by hunters in Alabama each season. We have said that it’s likely in the tens of thousands and leg shots are one of the most common ways which it happens. So out of the thousands of leg shots that are occurring…..how many three legged deer do you see trail cam pics of showing up on social media?? The survival is rate is next to zero.

This looked like it didn't do much more than break the skin

Here’s another one……Same scenario. The hunter calls and said he has put a good shot on a buck but cant find it. I turn the dog out to track it and 300-400 yards later Otis find him and starts baying him. We finish him off and find this for the original shot……

I don't know , I've killed a few three legged deer but the one missing was a front leg. I guess they missing so far up they didn't get in the dirt.

I think about it I've never seen a deer missing a back foot or part of the back leg

I hope they don’t put in some regulations on tracking. I’ve tracked bow shot deer hit with mechanicals that we didn’t find. With a dog to run them down they might’ve died a less painful death.

Hunters owe it to the deer to do everything possible to find it. A tracking dog, to me, even if it bays the deer is not the same as turning a dozen Walker hounds loose trying to “run” the deer in front of a gun.

Lol. ,, tracking dogs can't read no trespassing sign either.

I see where your going with this. It’s similar no doubt.

However, the difference is a dog is used after the shot…not before it.

I don't have a problem with dogs . Over the years I've killed a lot of deer and few nice bucks because of trespassing dogs.

I'd kill the deer , catch the dogs and tell the owner thanks . You'd be surprised that they get pissed because I killed that big 8 they been after, etc .

CNC that a first for me . I hunted a place years back and does missing a front leg was not that rare there. . I had one here at home that would lay down in a corn pile and eat .

I called him Survivorman......The first time I saw him was the only time I ever ended up seeing him in the daylight.....I got pics of him for two more seasons before he disappeared. That is so rare though and after tracking with dogs now for years its even more amazing to me because a back leg shot usually doesnt stand a chance against a dog.....I even found one that had its back leg blown off that tried to cross a creek ditch and just couldnt get back out of it...... so how that deer lived and avoided the yotes that long is one in a million

They are used before a fatal shot

Let me pose the situation to you……Lets say its Oct 31st…..bowseason……and suddenly I hear a car slam on the breaks and hit a deer in front of my house…..I look out in the yard to see a crippled deer struggling and flopping across the yard and finally comes to a rest just laying there with a broke leg…..Would you have an issue if I went out there and shot it with my pistol and put it out of its misery? Is that something that’s worth raising a stink over?

Completely different situation. It was impacted by a vehicle probably has internal damage

From an Ethical stand point I have zero issues with it. As long as it is done safely and not trespassing in the process. But I dog hunt too so my view maybe different than yours on that side of it. From a legal standpoint that’s going to be up to the Game Wardens Discretion. In one case you could have two guys following a dog hoping he bays it. The other side could be dumping 3 or 4 dogs on one with four guys trying to head it off and kill it. Pretty sure in the first case you would be fine. In the second you’d be getting a ticket if in an area no dog hunting is allowed or after dog season is over.

Do the trackers have to stop at 3 bucks like everybody else or do they keep killing them because they’re providing a service? 😀

When the shooter changes its running deer with dogs

Southwood makes ya think who killed it. I would not mount a deer someone else killed. So do you tell people you slowed it down and a dog caught it and oh so and so shot it.

"Check out this deer I shot in the foot and the dog tracker killed after we ran it a mile..."

At the end of the day we’re talking about deer that have been taken out of the game either way no different than if they were hit by a car and crippled up…..They are all salvage missions to recover what we can of them…..Truth be told the reason most of these folks have a problem with it or “it doesn’t just sit right with them” is because they’re just mad that someone else may be having some fun that they’re not…… So they reach for a reason just to throw salt in someone else’s game.

I'm gonna have to go get my rubber boots on if you're gonna keep spewing all this bulllchit

Great question

You already know the answer to that

I never took mine off.

I beg to differ. Many instances where I have to dispatch a deer that we are tracking I am the only one that carries a firearm. There a very few people who I will let dispatch a deer with my dogs nearby.

But I agree the ones that run them for miles and miles just to bay them up and catch them aren't really into tracking. I have a rule I usually follow if they break bay 3 times and cover ground faster than the dogs I leave them alone. 90% of the ones we trail are doa however the few we do bay up are going to die we may have been mislead about the shot and got on a gut shot deer too quick and bay it or we get on a leg shot and bay it. I don't care what anyone says a leg shot deer is a dead deer in Alabama if my drahthaars can catch up to him imagine what a pack of yotes do to them.

Dano…….Go back and give some thought to what you are saying here and see if you don’t feel like you’re just splitting hairs……and is it worth it to draw this line in the sand where you're drawing it…..Is it worth having to track on-lead from now on?

You're saying you don’t like the guys who run the deer for a long distance and dispatch them but you're ok allowing your dogs to bay them three times……That seems like cutting some mighty fine hairs….For the sake of ALL trackers and the ability to use tracking dogs off lead…..wouldnt it be best for everyone to go with the fact.....and it is a fact..... that if we can finish him off then he is a dead deer walking regardless of the distance the GPS shows?? The two lower leg shot deer that I posted pictures of barely went anywhere…..they just bayed up out of the bed…..Does it really change the fate of what will happen to that deer though if that same deer breaks and runs before its dispatched??…..Its the same wound and same dead deer walking…..One just broke and ran and one didn’t. Is this worth losing all tracking off lead over? If folks aren’t trespassing then just let it be……

The deer they kill count for you. Thats weird, aint it.

You can only shoot 3 bucks a yr in Bama. Do you game check them all? Do you have permission to hunt on the property you are tracking on etc?

Just so happens I have a leg shot deer living on our place. I guess dogs could have bayed and killed it but he looks like he is doing okay besides a slight limp.
hopefully he will live

If I shoot one in the leg and it crosses the property line and then somebody hunting nearby blows his lungs out then who killed the deer?

We had one like that last year wasn't shot but it was broken. He was killed this season and weighed 200lbs

His bone was broke man you can see it sticking out in my partners photo.

That’s the one like Backwoods cowboy shot that bled for 165 yards and then quit……Dogs aren’t gonna bay that one up and finish it off…..Its a flesh wound no different than the backwhack I showed a pic of.

Here’s another example of some of the type of shots that are occurring and that we’re trying to salvage…..This is the deer I was talking about that got down in the creek and just couldn’t get out. We found it 300 yards down creekand finished it off. The deer was actually recovered at over a mile from where it was shot…..Did the distance part of it really matter though??

If he can't do any better then he did then he needs to stay home

Im talking about the woman with the dogs not who shot it.

I saw the post you are talking about. No way that deer would have died. And the comment about the dogs being able to chase coyotes down so they are “good”. WTH does that have to do with dogs tracking a wounded deer

Yall are some nitty little girls. I could care less if the dog chases the deer down and they dispatch it. I typically don't do it. I don't care if the deer runs off and gets eat by coyotes and buzzards if my phone never rings. I don't care if all the people that split hairs and hooves and whatever else is the case. I just know when someone calls me to track for them I do all I can in my power and my dogs power to find the deer. Sure sometimes I call it off cause the sob has caught another gear and obviously my dogs ain't slowing him down. Could they? probably if I wanted to run them for miles and miles. But I'm fat old and don't want to chase one that bad. Now if my dogs are locked in and bay it I go dispatch.

Harold I really think you just over analyze everything anyone says on here. Just cause someone has a different opinion or way of doing things doesnt make them wrong and it doesnt make you wrong for doing it or seeing your way.. Look I've sent you tracks and you've sent me tracks I will continue to do that and hope you do the same. You've got great dogs that find a slug of deer but honestly sometimes being quiet and not so analytical is best. Hell ask lane kiffen about analytics.

I could see how a track could turn into a hunt. Now if there is good blood I just think more effort should be made to pursue. The situation really determines to effort for a recovery. Some people really don't want to track because they think if the deer is not dead they may get another shot. I know if the person that shot the rack deer I found in the woods a few years ago shot the deer legit they sure would be all for a tracking dog to have found it. Deer react differently and running deer and tracking could be an issue, but if the guts are hanging out I would like to see that deer not suffer. Over the years it would have been good to know a tracker close by to find a few deer I have shot. Hard to fool a dog's nose and sometimes the way a deer don't always leave a blood trail only a dog could find them in an five year old growed up pine thicket bottom. The thing about it, a dog can move good in those thickets day or night. A party of 10 it may take days to cover 40 acres and still the little thick spot no one dared to go in could be where the buck of a lifetime hid out. Now, running one a mile for a recovery could be classified as hunting and not tracking if there is not wound. If you are a dog hunter that could be called hunting!😃 i just know it sure is bad to find one a couple of days later and all that meat go to waste!

Depends on your definition of waste but that's a different discussion

Well said. A lot of us do it me included not just CNC.

Y’all sound like a bunch of lefties that are just reaching for some kind of “cause” to whine about and stand up for…..even though its not a real issue. The folks that are overanalyzing are the ones taking a 1 in 10,000 case of a leg shot that might survive and running with it like the sky is falling ….. Y’all should make you a commercial with Sarah McLachlan singing a sad song in the back ground while you say…..…..”For just 29 cents a day….the price of a cup of coffee…..you too could help save a poor little leg shot deer”

There you go again

Anyone who tries to push only tracking on leed needs to go hug a tree and go to a petting zoo. Sell your guns, dogs and move off to the city. Bunch of dang pansies arses. I've got a deer we had to leave in a swamp till we get permission this evening. Followed blood and chunks of bone for the last 1/2 mile with his front leg shot off. I'm betting he's so weak this evening we can finish him with a knife. Hate we couldn't end his suffering lastnight

I'll repeat what I said earlier. IF the leg is shot low enough and the leg is broken the deer WILL put the leg down at some point. IF dirt gets in the wound the deer is dead. Not today or tomorrow but infection will killl that deer. Every damn time. I have seen deer get a small puncture wound, like a nail, get infected and swell up. Infection will lead to sepsis and death.

When i hunted pickens co back in the day, guy shot a big 10pt on opening morning. Found bone and blood for a bit but lost it. Fast fwd to january and my buddy shot a big 10 that was dogging a doe in a cutover. It was the same 10pt. Back leg hanging by a piece of skin and the ham had deteriorated to nothing. He still wanted that coochie and my buddy said he didn't even show a limp while running after her.

When we get a call and it ends up being a leg shot, the pics I’m posting is the reality of what the end result usually looks like……For folks to take the ones that don’t look quite as bad to them and use for something to be outraged over is done so in part because of ignorance of what they’re complaining about. The survival rate for these deer is about 0.001%......When folks want something to complain about though then they’ll dig deep to find it.

This is the shucks that gets new regs in place.

If people are “outraged” about it on the book of faces then not talking about it here isn’t gonna change a thing. I would rather the truth be told from folks who actually have a boots on the ground understanding of it rather than only hearing some sky is falling nonsense from a bunch of social media Karens that just need something to grab and run with. Why in the world would we make new laws? Do deer need saving or do whiners just need appeasing?

If that was meant for me, I agree with you. That was aimed at the Karens.

I don't understand it either. Always gotta have a few cry babies hunting something to cry about.

Why would the people that are against using a tracker dog rather the deer die a slow painful death. That pic CNC posted , no way that deer would’ve lived. A lone coyote would take that deer down.

Is the complaint from the people against it that some of the lower society rednecks in counties without dog hunting will start turning dogs loose and claim they are certified tracking dogs? Seems like that would be an easy thing for the game warden to prosecute.

I think it says alot that yall say you see some of these ridiculous shots fairly often. Looks like some folks need to give the shootin house a break and get a little better with their weapon. I dont blame anyone a bit for tryin to recover a dying animal. What I dont understand is taking a terrible shot, or hunting with a rifle or bow that is that bad off.

Yep……I’m just surprised to see some of Aldeer’s own be the ones that are doing the most crying.

Exactly ^^^^^
That I’m always right and your always wrong crap is ridiculous

Have you ever been to a public shooting range? There are lots of individuals that have no business pulling the trigger on an animal. I’m amazed at the number of people I’ve heard of that got a new scope boresighted at a sporting goods place and go hunting with it without shooting it. Or they shoot it at a pie plate at 25 yards and it’s on

I hear you….there is some truth to that I don’t disagree. …..But no matter how much everyone practices there’s a large portion of these shots that are just a natural part of hunting. For every 100 deer we kill there will be a certain % that get marginally hit and they will stem from a variety of reasons from lack of practice….to bad shot angles….. to buck fever…..to grown men using .243’s….to just the fact that “chit happens”, etc…etc…. . Whether that % is 5% or 20% though is a difference of there being 10,000 wounded deer or 40,000 when you’re talking about killing a total of 200K annually….. Sure, we can improve that number through better shooting skills, taking better shots, etc……but we’ll still have marginally hit deer to try and salvage in the thousands. Tracking dogs help to further reduce this number to the lowest amount possible. Isnt that the intent of the law that talks about doing everything to recover the deer? To reduce waste? Well, that's what is occurring at the end of the day.....reducing waste.

Yep people need to learn to shoot and make better shots. The last time I lost a deer was probably 15 years ago. I hit it in the brisket. I knew I messed up as soon as I pulled the trigger. It should have been an easy shot, Standing broadside in a greenfield at 150 yards with a good rest. Still think about that one. As I have stated before I am a dog hunter. That means taking a lot of shots at running deer. That is no excuse for taking shots at deer that you know you will likely not kill. The last time I lost one while dog hunting was 20 years ago, I was trying to shoot too far with buckshot. That was a lesson for me, and have since let a lot of deer go by that were out of range. I do not claim to be the best shot. I just know my weapons, the weapons limitations and my limitations, and do not take shots that I can't make.

I grew up at a time when running dogs was a standard in west central Alabama. In all those years I don’t remember a non-fatally wounded deer ever being caught by the dogs. Dogs had to go and get pulled off the track often times several miles from where they were put out…. With the deer still going. So to assume a non fatally wounded deer was bayed up, walked up on and killed by a tracker in a distance less many miles, is a far reaching assumption. A fatal wound can be inflicted, as stated here earlier, with any leg or hoof injury. It may not be a rapidly fatal wound, but rest assured for a wild animal it will be fatal. I’d much prefer to see the dog assist in preventing that animal from suffering than have someone say, “oh well, couldn’t find them after looking for 50 yards so reckon they’ll live”.

That’s nonsense!

Going back to the post a month or so ago, i said if tracking involves a gun, it’s hunting. If a guns involved to finish the animal, it’s hunting. Right or wrong, good or bad, like it, don’t like it. Now what to do with a wounded animal ? Idk

Alright Harold, you done gone to meddling now. Ain't nothing wrong with a .243 for sure. Both my daughters shoot .243 caliber rifles and ain't neither one of them ever lost a deer nor had to call for a tracking dog.

Carry on with yer analyzing and leave our .243's outa this conversation.

Well dang. Maybe one day I’ll grow up 😀

I'm guessing you have never missed a deer or wounded 1?

Clean missed a couple with a bow never missed or wounded one with a rifle

That great Beadlescomb, I have only had 1 I wounded but it did survive and I couldn't believe it. I'm not a expert in this but its amazing how much a deer can overcome.

Good info right here.^

Just to be clear, it’s nonsense to blame the need for a tracking dog on a small caliber. I too will not grow up! I love my .243

A .243 will definitely get the job done. But I have yet to be walking through the woods tracking a deer and hear the words “I sure wish I had of shot it with something smaller”

I’ll say this…….There’s some truth to both sides of the .243 argument. Folks post a lot of pics where things go right but we get called to track…..”When .243’s go wrong…..”

When a 275 lb grown man is calling me out to track that hard quartering away or quartering to shot…..or maybe the one he tried to put a Texas heart shot on……I have to just pause and give it a silent “WTH man” when he tells me he was using a .243……..Why man!?!?......Why!!!!.......

This infection and death talk has me thinking. I killed a buck two weeks ago that had clearly been scrapping. He had a wound on his nose area that was really swollen and full of puss, to the point it was draining out. Upon skinning him out I found multiple stab wounds in his hams and he had marks all over his hide. Y'all think that deer would have died from the infected nose wound? Never really considered that, maybe I did ole boy a favor even if he was a year younger than I thought.

wounds, cuts, broken bones in the body or upper legs will usually heal on their own. In my experience with foot, and very low legs wounds with broken bones is that those wounds are nearly 100% fatal in a few weeks.

I’ve killed several 3 legged deer over the years. For what it’s worth. That were healed over. Deer are tough as Hell.

Here’s my take on the three legged deer…….. The biggest factor is that the coyote situation today is not the same coyote situation we had 20-30 years ago. The types of injuries a deer can survive with is different with and without the presence of coyotes…….Without coyotes around a deer stands a much, much better chance of living with three legs……..With the presence of yotes that goes WAY down. It’s even a little more complex than just the yotes presence though……What has also evolved over the last 20-30 years is that the yotes have learned how to pack up and target wounded deer. In today’s deer herd you aren’t gonna have deer run around with broken legs for very long before they get targeted. Just do the math here on how many leg shots happen each year……thousands…….What happens to 99.9% of them??....They get eaten by yotes and in a quick fashion. Sure, someone somewhere will see ONE eventually but that’s out of thousands that occur annually…

This three-legged doe seems to be making it just fine.

There are thousands of deer getting their legs blown off right now. Simply getting a picture of one of them still alive is a far cry from being evidence that she is “doing just fine”….or better yet, will do just fine over the days to come. I bet that the average life expectancy for a deer that gets it leg broke by a gun shot is less than 24 hrs. If not we would see folks posting pics like that all the time year round. There would be three legged deer living on every property. The few that make it longer than that just do so just by chance of not being discovered yet.

You know what would prevent a lot of this unrecovered mortality from marginal wounds.....Semo said it has been recorded as high as 40% in some situations....What would heavily reduce it is if we went to bowhunting only. The rate of mortally wounded deer that went unrecovered would likely drop to single digits….especially with the use of tracking dogs…..I bet a situation that bow hunted and used tracking dogs would cut it down to less than 5%.

CNC



I ain't buying that

I would think it would increase and if the tracker had to use a bow not a gun to dispatch the deer it would be even higher.

It would go up. Way up. Whatever it is now. Triple it.

You post a lot of crap I don’t understand but that may be your finest work

It's true…..Most deer shot by bowhunters are either recovered or they live to see another day…. Unrecovered leg shots alone from gun hunters probably account for more % wise than everything total from bow hunters

So bow hunters don’t shoot legs too.

No, they don’t take 300 yard shots that they’ve never practiced. Less shots taken equals less not recovered.

Typically no…..bow hunters are aiming behind the shoulder and not at the point of the shoulder like a lot of gun hunters. Their low misses usually just zip in under the deer and don’t result in a lot of low leg hits to begin with. In the event a bow hunter does hit the shoulder or leg though it doesn’t have anywhere near the same impact or cause near the amount of trauma as a bullet.

Along the same lines as what foldemup is saying…… bowhunters don’t tend to take nearly as many marginal shots on the extremes as gun hunters. For example, many gun hunters will attempt a shot at a deer walking directly at them or directly away.....and will usually be ok with a hard quartering shot…..but very few bow hunters are gonna let an arrow fly without the deer at least standing at a 45 degree angle. All of those other shots are typically not even taken by bowhunters

bulldoodoo. Bow hunters will sling arrows all over the woods same as gun. Maybe it’s not 300 yard shots. But yes sling em at 60 70 yards real regular. Then Put a big buck in front of them and they will have to shoot no matter how far. Then you act like there is a difference between gun hunters and bow. But there is not, it is the same people. People that would much rather have a gun but are using bows cause that is all that is allowed.
And the argument about where they are aiming does not hold up either. How about the quarter away shot. Which is a preferred shot of bow hunters. That puts leg directly in line with aiming point. Then if they are aiming back from shoulder on a perfect broadside shot that leads to a lot of gut shot deer.

Then let’s get to the deer moving at sound of bow. They duck, leading to your favorite, the “back whack”

Every bow season the woods are filled with folks trying to get an early start. Every club I’ve been around. There are deer shot every day that are never found. Folks that would rather have a gun but want early start. Now make that the whole season, and see how that works out.

Then let’s talk about marginal shots. A bad shot with a gun has a lot better chance of recovery than a bad shot with a bow. Period.

Hunt with a bow all you want. Hell I do. But to say we would have less lost deer is ridiculous.

Whatever!

Most of the deer being “tracked” with dogs are “living to see another day” until the dogs catch/bay them.

Hard on the bow hunting crowd tonight.

no problem with bow hunting. Problem is with shitty hunters period. Take shitty hunter then Only allow less effective, harder to use weapon and it is recipe for problems.

Even IF true, wounding a deer and then it living to see another day is not a good outcome. Saying that more wounded deer live instead of die, does not help your case. It is still a wounded deer that was not recovered.

There’s a big difference in just making assumptions based off what you think happens versus actually going out and tracking the real calls……The longest bow shot I’ve ever tracked was 54 yards and theres only been a handful that were 40+….That vast majority of bow shots are 15-30 yards…..Tracking for bowhunters is totally different than tracking for gun hunters. Once gun season opens, especially as the rut approaches, it becomes a lot more like the wild west……99% of the tracks that people are crying about come from leg shot deer during gun season……You don’t even have those calls at all during bow season.

I've never tracked a deer shot with a bow this far back........I've tracked numerous ones shot with a gun. If you dont believe there is a big difference in guns versus bow then you're simply making assumptions and not looking at the real world data




Different deer with the same shot.......Bayed and dispatched over a mile from the shot site. Gun hunters are slinging lead fellas...

Running dogs we lost a few deer, but by far We’ve lost more deer with a bow than with a gun. Especially when you factor in how few we shot with a bow vs how many we shoot during gun season.

The question isn’t “How many did you shoot at and not recover”……The question is "How many of those you shot at ended up dying because of it?" There’s actually been some studies done on this. It showed that something like 91% or 93% of deer not recovered by bowhunters end up living.

This is what it looks like when a bowhunter misses a little too far forward. This deer was tracked and lived but killed later. This was the original wound.



This is what it looks like when a gun hunter misses the same way…..This deer was tracked, bayed, and dispatched. Big difference in the amount of trauma caused by a gun versus a bow on marginal shots.

My 11 year old killed a 7 year old seven point on Saturday afternoon. It had old scar tissue from a broadhead just north of his jugular. Same shot with a gun would've blown its head off.

Not assumptions. Been hunting and tracking shot up deer for thirty years. I see what happens.
It could be you don’t get those calls because people see the arrow hit and know better than to go look for it.

Too many deer get shot up and lost and your answer is to limit weapons to a bow. If folks can’t kill with a rifle a bow will be worse. It Ain’t that hard.

I’m done here. Ive Had enough arguing with a fence post.

So a deer living from a shot is better than one dying that was later recovered?
You are making my point for me. Thanks

Who freakin cares if someone's dog runs and bays up a wounded deer. That's no different that coyotes or wild dogs doing it. If the deer is hurt bad enough he will die one way or another might as well recover it. Cause I can promise you one thing I've ran deer dogs long enough to know ain't no health deer just going to stop running. If you have a problem with track dogs by all means don't ever call one but let the guys doing it and the hunter who shot the deer recover it.

Yes, bow hunters cause much less unrecovered mortality. Its just a fact chief…..Over 90% of deer shot with a bow either live to be hunted another day or it goes home in the back of the truck…..Per studies there are less than 10% of them that get mortally hit with a bow and not recovered. You’re talking about mostly gut shots or low shots that are often the easiest ones for the dog to track so adding in tracking dogs cuts that number down to near nothing. At the end of the day a bowhunter combined with a good tracking dog are not gonna leave many dead deer in the woods…..Period….End stop.

I hope that all of these pictures demonstrate to folks the variety of different shots that are occurring that trackers are salvaging instead of it just being about the ONE folks find to cry about. This is what the vast majority of what we recover actually looks like……

I've seen way too many consecutive pictures in the same thread of deer that have their balls shot off

In a nutshell the bow versus gun debate boils down to no matter how many arras bowhunters may sling….. they typically either hit the deer inside the red circle and recover it or they hit outside of the red circle and just scratch it up with a flesh wound.....especially with the new mechanical broadheads... Gun hunters on the other hand have a much more powerful weapon in their hands and four legs to blow off from any angle. Without tracking dogs virtually none of these gun shots get recovered. That's how gun hunters account for a higher percentage of unrecovered mortality.

Bow shot deer we tracked a couple weeks ago…….Deer was quartering to the hunter at 30 ish yards….arrow was never recovered. We tracked it the next morning for maybe 350-400 yards with pretty decent blood before the trail just stopped……The deer lives to be hunted another day.

I wonder if people are just way less picky with a gun because they think there super creedmoor magnum will kill an elephant anywhere they hit.

There’s definitely a lot of misconceptions about the impacts of guns versus bows…..

CNC, do you know if that deer was shot from ground level or elevated? If elevated, it seems like it would’ve gotten the other lung

It was elevated maybe 15 ft or so.....one of the taller ladder stands.

There was more blood on this one than your normal shoulder shot so it clipped something pretty good in there. It was a teenage boy that shot it. It was the first buck he’d ever slung an arrow at so he was shook up and didn’t know for sure exactly where it hit…. He reported hearing a good thump though. We were all thinking he had hit too far back and we’re expecting to find a dead deer. It was disappointing that day not to find.

I highly recommend you listen to this: MASH ME

Lots of eye opening information regarding what is/isn't lethal and survival rates.

I said I was done here. But back to point out that you are again showing us a pic. of a deer that was left wounded by a bow. To show how less deer are lost with a bow. Makes Sense.

I said less unrecovered mortality……he aint dead or lost.

He still got shot and not recovered. I guess we have a different definition of what is an acceptable outcome. That is not.