7 and I remember every one of them. One was a 135" deer. I had several hundred pics of this deer and, after the shot, never again. Trailed him 400 yards and lost blood. I searched for him for 3 weeks through brier tangled clearcuts and bottoms. I still think of that deer. One I hit in the upper leg with my bow, ended up killing him with my rifle a couple of weeks later. Another was a 125-130" deer that I looked for for 10 hours and couple of weeks after. The others were does and with my bow. All of the one's (rifle) that I injured and didn't recover were due to my scope (that is my story and I'm sticking to it). It was sliding in the rings. I have since rectified that and I am lethal.

This year has been brutal at our camp. I would estimate we have had 20 misses or ones that we were not able to recover. It makes me sick. Some of our guys knowingly go in the woods with the knowledge that their gun is not sighted in (that will end in short order). One of them, who missed 5 deer in one day, fell through a ladder stand and landed with his back pinned against the ladder with his gun in between his back and ladder. He never sighted in and hunted the next 2 weeks without sighting in. We had a guy miss the biggest deer we have on our property 2 weeks ago. Said he missed him clean but I haven't had him on camera since (he was a regular). He couldn't find hair or blood where he shot so chalked it up as a miss. He never even walked in the woods to look around. I would have damn sure made 100% certain it was a clean miss had that been me. I am just sick of the complacency. We as hunters have a responsibility to the deer to make a clean shot and give a damn effort to recover the deer.

I�d be replacing some folks. Too lazy to sight in guns and look for deer ain�t gonna fly.

Some of the numbers killed per year are insane! WOW!!!!

We are going to have a come to Jesus meeting this weekend and after the season. I had a lengthy stern conversation last weekend with the one particular member who did the majority of the missing.

We had a member show up this weekend who just transferred a scope to a new rifle. He shot at the 100 yard target on our range and hit the dirt no more than 15 yards from bench he was resting on. He went to chamber another round and I stopped him, told him to put it up & take it to have someone sight it in for him. Luckily he had the wherewithal to bring another gun.

Our problem is that we are all close friends. Call them out and they take it personally. I am an asshole when it comes to hunting. I'm not an asshole just because I want to be. We have rules and I expect our members to follow them. As president, I take it personally when someone blatantly ignores a rule and the other members should too. It puts me in an awkward situation that gets even more awkward when I have to call them out. I have no problem doing it but I am always the bad guy. When someone thinks that standards don't apply to them it is a slap in the face to all members.

We had a guest (used to be a member) this weekend "mistakenly" kill a cowhorn for a doe. I don't know how that is possible seeing as he had 10" antlers. That may have been his last trip to our club. Luckily our doe days and guest days are now over. Hopefully our mistakes are all behind us and the bucks will get back to normal in short order. We finally started seeing all out chasing last night so prime time is here for us.

I have lost 3 bucks and 1 doe shot with a rifle. Two of the three busks were studs. One was Friday a week ago, 90% sure it was a leg hit and hopefully he will make it. It was my fault for trying to thread the needle through a bunch of limbs. The other stud I shot at 150 yards iron sights with a .44 mag carbine (don't judge, he was worth it). I honestly didn't think I could even see that far in those pines. I looked for him off and on for a week.

I lost another buck (no idea on size) due to trying the old texas heart shot, but it was way to late to be shooting anyway ( this was 20 years ago and I was young and dumb).

I lost one doe that I blood trailed to a swamp and decided she was not worth the swim.

I have lost 2 does with a bow. One was 2 years ago, she ducked the string bad and I hit her high through the backstrap. Had a buddy with a dog and we trailed her a while that night. I bet she lived.

I have missed 4 best I can remember. One was in the snow so it was really easy to follow its tracks and tell it never bled. The others stood there and watched me until I racked another shell and they would bounce off completely unfazed. I have missed on other occasions but been able to rack another shell and connect on a follow up shot.

Not sure of my total kill count but 250-300 in the past 26 years. I had several years in my teens and early 20's with 15-20 deer/season. I average about 3-5/season now.

1 with a bow... 4 with a gun.

I've lost 1 buck and 3 does with a rifle. Two of the does I could not find any blood trail and had no luck finding them in the thick pines around the field. Found them a couple days later due to buzzards, and they were about 150 yards from the field. Both were hit through the lungs. Sorry Barnes TSX bullets penciled through.

Other 2 were my fault for trying to shoot through too much brush. We found the last speck of blood about 3/4 of a mile from where I shot him at the edge of dense cutover. Made same mistake last year and tracked a doe about 300 yards to the edge of our property. I followed her too soon and actually jumped her at one point but I wasn't ready for a follow up shot and she got away in the thick pines. I don't know if either of these deer died, but if I had to guess, I would say the buck lived and the doe died just from the blood sign. We started losing blood on the buck pretty soon on his trail and it took hours just to find the last spot.

In the last 30 years or so I can think of 1 with a bow. I've only killed 4 deer with a bow. A spike that I got a gut shot pass through and never found. 4 bucks with a rifle. One of which was a mounter that I went back and blood trailed the next day for over 300 yards. Found his last bed where a 3ft circle of blood was. Never found another spot of blood and Never found him. I still think about that deer. One of the others was a 6 point that I found 2 weeks later. He tried to make it to the river but didn't quite get there. Coyotes and varmits had picked him clean.

Dr. B

I guess I'm lucky then or lick my shots better. I've never not recovered a deer a shot. Then one deer I missed was a clean miss when I was following it in the scope and i finally had a clean shot pulled the trigger and shot a small tree about the size of baseball about 15yds in front of me last year when I was sitting in the ground hunting and needed to be in a climber to get above some of the scrub brush. I have a buddy that used to hunt with us some on a few wma's I was with him on one trip at the black warrior WMA he made a piss poor shot and we tracked for 3 hrs and I jumped it at the end he went back the next day with a dog and never found it if he made a better shot he wouldn't have lost it and I know he had done it before there as well and never recovered the deer and once at his cousins place and he also no longer hunts with us. I told him if he couldn't shoot no better then that he could sit his ass at the house. He said he just wouldn't go with us anymore I told him that wouldn't hurt my feeling one bit. I understand it can happen but when you do 3 deer in 2 season like that and he told me he'd shoot into the bushes at a shadow if it resembles a deer you got no business in the woods

I'll give you this... you are tenacious.

A few but not many. I'm a dog hunter and usually already have dogs on them when they get shot. I can think of one I'm pretty sure I killed while running dogs. I was young and just didn't look hard enough. One sticks in my mind while still hunting. I put a dog on it and didn't trust the dog (also when I was young).

If you�ve never lost one, then you just haven�t shot at enough yet��.that statement might as well be written in stone.

yep ,,, and you aint gonna kill many if you dont pull the trigger .

Fixed it.


Cnc like I said I understand it happens, but all of his could have been avoided. With shot placement. All 3 times have similarities "I was smoking a cigarette trying to count it's points and it winded me and it went to run and I shot at in the brown"

Archery the learning curve was steep for my dumb behind. I lost too many sad to say.

this season, two with a bow. none recovered

Ouch!
119 on the tail gate so far this season.56 had to be caught and dispatched