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.