My First Hunt

[Fenix-Frank]

Hi everyone,

Went on my first deer/moose hunt this past week with my 2 boys and broth-in-law. To warm to start, then it cooled down and snowed.

Until Saturday all we had seen was a doe that actually came up to us to see what we were, and two moose cows one with a calf and the other with twins. All of these encounters were incredibly within 20 yards or less.

Saturday around 11:30am I see a huge black tail buck moving across a cut behind me, he disappears in a hallow and comes out again. I guessed he was 400 yards away ( later my brother-in-law who has hunted this cut and had range founded that run at just under 500 yards) and I was leading him just at the front of his neck and pulled the trigger. He rears up like a horse and disappears after to leaps and we figure he is down for sure. Nope! I have seen this buck for a total of 10 seconds only. I find his tracks cutting the road and blood trails on both sides of him. I mean a lot of blood sprayed 10 inches out on the snow on both sides. He was leaving an easy trail a blind man could follow on the fresh snow and going hard.

We track him heading for the pines and we are very confident at the amount of blood loss already that he will be down within a few hundred yards. NOPE! He has not even slowed his pace, blood is still flowing hard and we still have not seen him other than when I took the shot.

We have already covered close to a kilometer tracking him and now he leads us out of the pines across a road and down a steep bank heading for the thick forest. We still have no problem following because of the amount of blood he is leaving us to follow. We track through the forest for over 2 km before we hit the muskeg that he has headed straight across.

I have my two sons with me so we decide to head back, get the truck and drive closer to where we are so when we find him we will not have to drag him so far. Why did we do this? Because we figured he would be down somewhere on the other side of the muskeg. NOPE!

We trudge across the muskeg, easily pick-up the blood trail and begging scratching are heads as to why this thing has not died or bedded down yet? Up the valley we go, over the hill, up a very steep bank and into another cut block. Now he has started moving faster by his tracks, clears the cut and slows again still bleeding and making tracking easy. We are now about 6 km into the chase as we come out of the forest and come across a logging road that just happens to have a sign at its y so we now know where we are. I track him across the road into some 10 year old trees and 500 yards later we come into another cut and yup, this thing picks up the pace again to clear the cut.

It is now nearing 3:30pm and we have a long haul back to the truck, threating to snow hard so I flag the last spot in the cut and head back to the truck. Back to camp for some grub and by 7:00pm we are back at the last flagged location to begin the tracking which has been easy until this point.

He is losing less blood, peeing and he is loosing blood that is very clear/orangeish in color. I track him through the cut onto the road and follow it for about 2km before he looses us. For about 5 min minutes we can't figure out where he has gone until my brother-in-law finds a speck of that clear/orangeish stuff on the other side of the road. He had doubled back in his tracks literally! Back across the road and into a clearing and now it is getting harder with all of the other deer tracks along with his.

A speck of blood and then a good gush to confirm we are are following the right tracks. He heads into some dense bush and we are starting to get hesitant about following him into the heavy bush. Who knows what may have found him by now! He has started too slow and show signs of blood loss so I push on confident we will find him soon. NOPE!!!!!!!!

Now this isn't a plug for my lights, but I can tell you I would not have been in that thick bush, in the dark, tracking a wounded deer without those lights.

I come out of the heavy bush and follow him for over a km where he heads into a thicket. He stood oozing that clear/orangish blood with some red blood in it. You could see he was staggering on the spot and I couldn't see where he had crawled into the heavy, heavy bush so we call it a night knowing first thing in the morning we will find him dead in that heavy bush.

Sunday morning I can't wait to get in there and claim my prize. It has been about 9 km of hard hiking and I am anxious to see where I had hit him. Anxious to see how big his rack is. So we head out spirits high, expecting a good morning.

We drive to the last location, head in to where we thought he had crawled into to die, and can you believe it we can't find him. The rabbits have danced all over the tracks and made a huge mess of ever-thing. I push my self into the heavy bush looking for a track and can't find any, so we back track and find that that deer had doubled back again and heads out into another cut. We track now by his dragging feet. He walks around branches, staggers and has a very short step now. There is only a drop of blood or that clear/orangish stuff every now and then to encourage us that we are on the right track.

We track him through the cut and again he doubles back. He's moving very slow and stops often with his front feet wide apart to steady himself. Man are we feeling good. Again we thought we would find him just ahead dead. Now he is wandering side to side and there are several other deer tracks with his.

We find a spot where something has bolted and left a scar in the white snow. We don't realize that this is my deer until we come across the wolf or coyote tracks. The deer walks around the trees and heads back knowing the coyotes are headed straight for him. We see where he bolts away from the coyotes. Now we have no clue which direction, which deer or which coyotes track go where.We tried to figure the mess of tracks out for sometime, but being green we gave up.

After 10km of hard tracking we are beaten and dejected. I have only seen this buck for 10 seconds before I had shot him, never to see him again. So many time we were confident we would have our prize. So many times I was taught not assume.

As we drove home we continued to talk over how? Why? and can you believe what has happened?

Over all what an experience for my first hunt. One I can say I will never forget. One that my kids will never forget. Even after all of the effort and toil my two boys and myself agreed what better way to spend a week.

Next year will bring a new season. Next year will have a new hunter and next season you can count us in for the hunt.

[rocksteady]

SOunds like you did your best to try to recover the animal. Too bad...

I do have to mention though that going on your first hunt and shooting at a deer at 400 or 500 yards, should povide you with an experience that you will probably not do it again...Only shoot within your own comfort distance... I will not belabour that point...

[WKCotts]

good to see you put in some serious effort to recover the animal.

on the other hand, 500 yards is a hell of a shot for a first time hunter. better make damn sure you can make that shot before you take it

[kennyj]

SOunds like you did your best to try to recover the animal. Too bad...

I do have to mention though that going on your first hunt and shooting at a deer at 400 or 500 yards, should povide you with an experience that you will probably not do it again...Only shoot within your own comfort distance... I will not belabour that point...
X2
A good learning experience.
kenny

[Hanrahan]

That's exactly what I thought when I read this. I still won't take a 500 yard shot on a deer and I've been hunting for years. Mainly too save myself the hassle of tracking a deer for hours.

To your point of the amount of blood you saw - My experience with deer is that generally, when a deer is hit with a well placed shot right in the boiler room, there is not much of a blood trail. Most of the blood ends up in the chest cavity. I was involved with tracking a poorly hit deer a number of years ago. There was blood everywhere. I mean it looked like he couldn't possibly have any left inside him. We tracked that bugger for miles through the snow. The blood trail was easy to follow at first, but over the miles, the blood trail dried up. We found a few places where he had bedded down and could see that he had been hit in the chest, but the shot grazed the bottom of his ribs. There was lots of blood, but the wound was superficial. We finally gave up following that deer when the blood had dried up completely and his tracks looked like he wasn't even slowing down. Anyway, the point is that a lot of blood does not guarantee that he was well hit.

[f350ps]

Just because he said it was his first time hunting doesnt mean he just fell off a turnip truck, maybe this guys a long range competion shooter. Good job trying to catch up to him, all I can add is maybe you shoulda given him some time to bed but I wasnt there so I don't know the circumstances, but I like the way you never gave up. K

[rocksteady]

Just because he said it was his first time hunting doesnt mean he just fell off a turnip truck, maybe this guys a long range competion shooter.

If he was, I am suspecting he would have mentioned it :)

[Sofa King]

Just because he said it was his first time hunting doesnt mean he just fell off a turnip truck, maybe this guys a long range competion shooter. Good job trying to catch up to him, all I can add is maybe you shoulda given him some time to bed but I wasnt there so I don't know the circumstances, but I like the way you never gave up. K

typical of the internet.
if someone has less posts, they must know less as well.

pretty impressive, the tracking that he did.
it's amazing how tough a deer can be.
we cut our finger and we're down for the day.:lol:

i won't take a long shot like that again.
my longest was 400 yards.
i dropped the deer and felt even more confident in my shooting afterward.
but, it's just too risky.
too many variables to go wrong.
the last thing i want to do is track a deer all day.

[Fenix-Frank]

SOunds like you did your best to try to recover the animal. Too bad...

I do have to mention though that going on your first hunt and shooting at a deer at 400 or 500 yards, should povide you with an experience that you will probably not do it again...Only shoot within your own comfort distance... I will not belabour that point...

I was comfortable with taking the shot and shooting from a shooting stick so I was stable. I have shot some distances before I had just never hunted a deer while doing it. I was holding forward and high knowing that if I were to far forward my shot would be a clean miss. I hit him in the front I guess by his reaction when he reared like a horse on his hind legs.

[Fenix-Frank]

typical of the internet.
if someone has less posts, they must know less as well.

pretty impressive, the tracking that he did.
it's amazing how tough a deer can be.
we cut our finger and we're down for the day.:lol:

i won't take a long shot like that again.
my longest was 400 yards.
i dropped the deer and felt even more confident in my shooting afterward.
but, it's just too risky.
too many variables to go wrong.
the last thing i want to do is track a deer all day.


I had guessed at 400 max. I had seconds to make my decision and assess the situation. I didn't find out from my brother-in-law how far it was until he had come up from where he was hunting on the other branch of the road.

It was a clear shot, no wind or anything between me and the deer. The tracking was made easy by the fresh snow that had fallen. The blood coming out of it was about 9" apart on both sides of the animal.

It was not a pot shot, I hope I never gave that impression.

[huntcoop]

Did ya try one of these...

http://www.gerbergear.com/Hunting/Lights/Game-tracking-flashlight_31-000304

http://www.c1k.com/images/gerber/31-000304.jpg

[Onesock]

500 yards off shooting sticks is over the ability of about 98% of hunters out there. 500 yards is a loooooong way. I would guess there has been too much watching long range hunting shows on TV. Have you ever attempted hitting a 10 inch circle at 500 yards prior to this shot? Just asking. Did you know the exact distance or as you said you "guessed" 400 yards?

[Fenix-Frank]

I guessed at 330 - 400 yards max. My brother-in-law later informed me it was a 500 yard shot. They had actually been playing with the range finders there the season before.

Things look different when you are in a cut, distances do not seem as far when you are looking through a scope.

[Fenix-Frank]

Did ya try one of these...

http://www.gerbergear.com/Hunting/Lights/Game-tracking-flashlight_31-000304

http://www.c1k.com/images/gerber/31-000304.jpg

Wouldn't have made a difference in the snow. We could see the blood just fine when it was there.

[anotherone]

disgusting,, don't care what anyone says, fact is you tried a shot you couldn't make and wounded an animal, most likely fatally wounded, aimed for its neck,, oh boy good job, ever think of what happens before you shoot?simply put...obviously not, with the so-called amount of blood you found then the animal should have been down, no it wasn't, hit in the jaw or in the windpipe lots of blood but not fatal, at first that is, then a slow painful death by starvation,,, good job way to go,, why not go out and try some more shots you can't make.
don't care what anyone has to say, the facts are the facts.

[marcus44]

disgusting,, don't care what anyone says, fact is you tried a shot you couldn't make and wounded an animal, most likely fatally wounded, aimed for its neck,, oh boy good job, ever think of what happens before you shoot?simply put...obviously not, with the so-called amount of blood you found then the animal should have been down, no it wasn't, hit in the jaw or in the windpipe lots of blood but not fatal, at first that is, then a slow painful death by starvation,,, good job way to go,, why not go out and try some more shots you can't make.
don't care what anyone has to say, the facts are the facts.

And I'm sure you've never made a mistake shooting or on a distance. Fact is frank took a shot he felt comfortable with and did everything he could to recover the animal.

in my opinion your comments are extremely ignorant.

For all we know there could be other factors in play, he did saw he saw coyote or wolf tracks in the area, which could have heard the shot and started pushing the animal away from him.

tough luck Frank, good luck next time. The feeling of losing an animal after wounding it sucks

[ElectricDyck]

Good honest account of one's experience! Two thumbs up!

[Fenix-Frank]

disgusting,, don't care what anyone says, fact is you tried a shot you couldn't make and wounded an animal, most likely fatally wounded, aimed for its neck,, oh boy good job, ever think of what happens before you shoot?simply put...obviously not, with the so-called amount of blood you found then the animal should have been down, no it wasn't, hit in the jaw or in the windpipe lots of blood but not fatal, at first that is, then a slow painful death by starvation,,, good job way to go,, why not go out and try some more shots you can't make.
don't care what anyone has to say, the facts are the facts.


We will all have our situations arise as we go through life. I was not tiring to disfigure an animal by shooting his jaw off as you have put it. The deer was moving at a good pace and I believed at that moment leading him at the front of his neck was the best place to aim to compensate for his moving speed.

And whether you believe it or not he was bleeding hard, not just trickling down his sides.

[NitwiT]

Quick everyone!! An HBC member gave an HONEST ACCURATE description of a shot that ended with less than perfect results. EVERYONE SHIT ON HIM!!!!! Before he recedes back into the shady world of arm chair HBC members who have never and will never have a story that did NOT result in a harvested animal!!!!! GET HIM WHILE HES VULNERABLE!!!!!


roughly translated you should be reading... "anotherone, your a tool, take your high horse somewhere else. Frank did his best"

[Davey Crockett]

Quick everyone!! An HBC member gave an HONEST ACCURATE description of a shot that ended with less than perfect results. EVERYONE SHIT ON HIM!!!!! Before he recedes back into the shady world of arm chair HBC members who have never and will never have a story that did NOT result in a harvested animal!!!!! GET HIM WHILE HES VULNERABLE!!!!!


roughly translated you should be reading... "anotherone, your a tool, take your high horse somewhere else. Frank did his best"

I agree and i commend him for sharing. I think that message here is that if you are not 110% sure that you can put a shot into the vitals, don't shoot. Whether you need to range, wait for a better shot, get closer or just let the animal walk. I have wounded animals before and learned the hard way like him. You feel terrible and will never know how the poor bugger faired.

As for those long range hunting shows on tv, has anyone noticed how surprised they look when they connect the shot? Makes you wonder what they aren't showing you.

[scoutlt1]

Just before I duck....

Did you cut your tag??? :)
Were you shooting a .270 or 30-06???? :-D





Not a shot I would necessarilly have taken, but good on ya for the effort on the attempted recovery.

[Fenix-Frank]

Just before I duck....

Did you cut your tag??? :)
Were you shooting a .270 or 30-06???? :-D





Not a shot I would necessarilly have taken, but good on ya for the effort on the attempted recovery.


Intialy I thought the shot to be between 300-400 yards. I had no idea of the acctual distance until my brother-in-law informed after I had shot, that it was 500 yards. 300-400 yards I was confident at taking the shot and was sure of myself, not doubting if I should or should not pull the trigger.


We put in every effort to find the deer and dispatch it if it was only wounded.



Yes my tag was cut canceling it! 270 with a home load my brother-in-law has perfected.

[Fenix-Frank]

Just to clarify with everybody,
Initially I thought it to be a 330 - 400 yards max shot. My brother-in-law later informed me it was a 500 yardshot.
I hadn't figured it to be 500 yards and I was comfortable with the distanceI believed it to be.

Problem I guess is the fact it turned out to be 500 yards. I was comfortablewith the shot at the distance I thought it was. When you look through yourscope you either feel you can take the shot or you hesitate and don't take theshot.

I said I was new to hunting deer, I never said I was new to shooting. Manywill be uncomfortable and unable to back a trailer down a long winding road.Most of us would not be able to deal with a person dying in front us. Some ofus will make a choice that others will never agree with. I made a choice basedon what I thought was 300 -400 yards and I was comfortable with the shot andhave never second guessed that.

I never started this thread to offend. It was simply because I couldn'tunderstand the amount of blood the deer had lost, the orangeish fluid in thesnow and how amazed I was at how far the deer had gone. I gave the informationso some of you could understand possibly what had transpired. If i said it wasa 300 yard shot all opinions would change. I simply was telling it truthfully whathad happened.

We had been following him much of the time because of his labored movements.He was dragging his heels to say for some time and the blood trail was obvious.
Yes, I agree we followed to soon and have learned much through this all.When I saw the amount of blood he was leaving as he fled I was confident in afatal shot. My bullet passed clean through leaving blood, heavy blood trails onboth sides of the deer.

[mijinkal]

Don't worry about the flamers here. You'll get them in every forum.
You took a shot that you felt you were comfortable with and connected. Unfortunately things didn't work out for you. Learn from it and get back out there hunting.
Thanks for sharing your story with us and I hope you keep em coming.

Also, you shouldn't have cancelled your tag. Only do that when you are standing over the dead animal.

[Buffalo Bills]

Anti troll.....................

disgusting,, don't care what anyone says, fact is you tried a shot you couldn't make and wounded an animal, most likely fatally wounded, aimed for its neck,, oh boy good job, ever think of what happens before you shoot?simply put...obviously not, with the so-called amount of blood you found then the animal should have been down, no it wasn't, hit in the jaw or in the windpipe lots of blood but not fatal, at first that is, then a slow painful death by starvation,,, good job way to go,, why not go out and try some more shots you can't make.
Don't care what anyone has to say, the facts are the facts.

[4 point]

Fenix-Frank don't beat yourself up to much. Yes probably should maybe have not taken the shot but that hindsight now. You tried your best to retirive.

I shoot a bull moose head on while he was rocking getting up from his bed at approx. 75 feet in snow with a .338. Down he went at the shoot over on the side doing the death thatsh. Ran up the slight bank now I am 35 feet from him go to put a fatal shot into him to finsh him off. WTF only 1 shell in the gun and it's spent. I ALWAYS have 3 in there but not this time. As I am getting a shell out of my vest pocket up he jumps and runs away from me like a freight train. Blood splatter on the snow covered ground where he thrashed like a slaughter area. We waited and then followed him until dark in tough conditions following an ever shrinking blood trail for 5 hours. Next morning right back on the trail where we stopped the night before threw crap in cold tough terrain until worn out. Never did find him. Shit happens but I am still sick about it.

[Onesock]

Frank.... not throwing daggers here, only wondering if you have shot off your sticks at 400 yards? Once again just asking the question.

[ElectricDyck]

Where's Perry Mason when you need him?:roll: Most on hbc will let you believe they've never lost an animal, in fact that may be true, you can't rightly lose one from behind a computer screen....:mrgreen:

Buzzards gotta eat, same as the worms...hakuna matada, it's the circle of life.

[Mulehahn]

He gave an honest account of what happened. The site could use more of that. We all make calls in a hurry if we have to. He took a shot he thought he could make and he connected. Maybe he should of waited for it to bed down, but who knows the circumstances after he lost sight of it. I find it strange that the buck didnt bed down at all. By the time your partner gets there and you get to the place the deer was hit, sort out the trail and stuff is probably 20 mins or so. Plenty of time for the deer to bed down, but from the sounds of the deer just kept on running and running. Not towards water, not to a ravine or dense cover (it went through the bog) like something was pushing it all the time. With the bright orange blood trail sounds like it was hit it low and to the rear (with a wind pipe or mouth shot the blood is usually pretty crimson). Who knows what happened, and its a shame that it was your first animal, but it will happen to everyone who goes out enough (I know my day is coming), you just got it out of the way early. Thanks for sharing and good luck. Use the experience and get back out there!

[Fenix-Frank]

Fenix-Frank don't beat yourself up to much. Yes probably should maybe have not taken the shot but that hindsight now. You tried your best to retirive.

I shoot a bull moose head on while he was rocking getting up from his bed at approx. 75 feet in snow with a .338. Down he went at the shoot over on the side doing the death thatsh. Ran up the slight bank now I am 35 feet from him go to put a fatal shot into him to finsh him off. WTF only 1 shell in the gun and it's spent. I ALWAYS have 3 in there but not this time. As I am getting a shell out of my vest pocket up he jumps and runs away from me like a freight train. Blood splatter on the snow covered ground where he thrashed like a slaughter area. We waited and then followed him until dark in tough conditions following an ever shrinking blood trail for 5 hours. Next morning right back on the trail where we stopped the night before threw crap in cold tough terrain until worn out. Never did find him. Shit happens but I am still sick about it.


Thanks for your story as well. Yes I feel horrible that I couldn't find him.

[Fenix-Frank]

He gave an honest account of what happened. The site could use more of that. We all make calls in a hurry if we have to. He took a shot he thought he could make and he connected. Maybe he should of waited for it to bed down, but who knows the circumstances after he lost sight of it. I find it strange that the buck didnt bed down at all. By the time your partner gets there and you get to the place the deer was hit, sort out the trail and stuff is probably 20 mins or so. Plenty of time for the deer to bed down, but from the sounds of the deer just kept on running and running. Not towards water, not to a ravine or dense cover (it went through the bog) like something was pushing it all the time. With the bright orange blood trail sounds like it was hit it low and to the rear (with a wind pipe or mouth shot the blood is usually pretty crimson). Who knows what happened, and its a shame that it was your first animal, but it will happen to everyone who goes out enough (I know my day is coming), you just got it out of the way early. Thanks for sharing and good luck. Use the experience and get back out there!

The blood was from the front of the deer (fore leg area) and the orange was apparent only after the fact when his red blood became less and less. He was dumping bright red blood out both sides, and when he did stand still it was definitely a frontal hit. I just don't know where?

[BiG Boar]

Real lesson is get a range finder. And don't take shots you might make. We've all been in the same situation. Some just wont admit it....

[brian]

Even a 300 win mag drops more than 20 inches between 400 and 500 yards. That shot would have to have been seriously pooched to accidentally hit the animal where you said you did (assuming you were trying to shoot for 330-400 yards max).

[Westslope]

Good Point Brian. Jack O'Connor said in one of his books that poorer shots are actually more likely to hit animals at unknown or poorly estimated distances. His point being that better shots will have tighter groupings that will all land in a similar spot either below or above the beast. The less experienced or unpracticed rifleman will spray bullets high low left and right and has more of chance of getting lucky. Not necessarily saying this is the case here I have just always thought that it was an interesting point.
I lost a deer once with a poor shot, the buck was at around 100yds and I missed the vertebrae in the neck, giving him a flesh wound that bled dark red for a few hours than eventually no longer bled. Last I saw his tracks he was in with a group of other deer. Interesting thing to note is that the next year dad shot a mature deer with a huge scar on his neck, not sure it was the same buck, but the deer was taken less than 200m from were I had lost the one a year before. Deer are tough and sometimes heal up (just read some of the other recent posts on here). Range wasn't a factor in my experienced but can be extrapolated from it. I will now only take high percentage shots at know distances. Trying to sleep knowing that I wounded a deer and he was likely suffering out in the rain and snow somewhere or being slowly chewed down by a coyote made me realize being as sure as possible prior to pulling that trigger is worth it. No matter how large a deer is I will wait until I have a good shot or I won't risk crippling him. Long range spraying I am sure accounts for more lost game than anything else. Someone on here said scavengers need to eat too? That is the most f#cktarded thing I have ever heard, they can have the gutpile after a successful kill! We aren't out there to hunt for the needs of coyotes and ravens, they do well enough as it is. My .02

[Fenix-Frank]

The deer was not quartered at all, I had a full broadside shot. I was holding under his chin at the front of his neck and using my elevation marks on my DOA scope for 400 yards.

My gun is a 270, using a 130 grain bullet and the powder and amount I will verify with my brother-in-law.

I was relying on my scope to be accurate for the elevation, and I was leading like shooting a duck, on the move.I know I hit low for sure because of the error I made in judging the distance but I feel I was leading him correctly to make a good shot.

Being my first buck I accept the fact that I did make mistakes:

1. judging distances correctly
2. Jumping on his trail instead of giving the deer time to bed down
3. lack of patients


Things I did learn:

2. Wait, patients is your friend,

3. A GPS unit to mark your location, with back road maps to find roads that are near to you,

4.Expirience you can gain from others is invaluable

5. Never stop learning form your experiences.

I appreciate everyones in-put and I hope I have offended none.http://bigshotsbc.ca/Themes/sunset-2-0-1-5/images/icons/modify_inline.gif

[mijinkal]

Why were you aiming at his chin at 400 yards? Why not aim for the boiler room?

[BC_Viking]

Why were you aiming at his chin at 400 yards? Why not aim for the boiler room?

Because he said the deer was on the move so he took a leading shot ... Shooting a moving deer at 400 yards is piss poor hunting ethics if you ask me ..

[Fenix-Frank]

Why were you aiming at his chin at 400 yards? Why not aim for the boiler room?

He was moving at a steady pace. If I had aimed at the boiler room I would have hit him in the rear end.

[Fenix-Frank]

Because he said the deer was on the move so he took a leading shot ... Shooting a moving deer at 400 yards is piss poor hunting ethics if you ask me ..

As for the ethics poke, You call it as you will. I in the heat of my first hunting trip, in my best judgement, took a shot I thought I could take. It wasn't a random, close your eyes, hope I hit it somewhere shot, so it can run off bleeding and die!

How many have at a closer range done the same thing or even worse. Shoot it, track it for a while and saty oh well. I never gave up trying to recover and to make sure the deer did not suffer.

I respect your opinion and everyone elses on HBC, but pointing fingers is well past already.

[brian]

1. judging distances correctly
2. Jumping on his trail instead of giving the deer time to bed down
3. lack of patients

4. Shooting beyond your capabilities.

You held roughly 15-20" high on a deer that would be roughly 40" at the shoulder. If you were good enough to take that shot you should have missed because of #1.

[Good2bCanadian]

Fenix great effort on the recovery. We all have to learn sometime, me included.
Not gonna guarantee that I'm gonna make all the right choices, but I'm gonna try.
We all learn from our experiences.
Good effort again, I enjoyed your story.

Pm me your best recommendation on a very light weight flashlight for my pack.
It will be my backup to my headlamp.

Xmas is coming and the wife wants to know what I want.

Thanks for posting

I shot my wolf at 225 yards. I had an idea it was 150-200yards or so. Dropped to a knee, wrapped the sling on my elbow and dialed my scope up. It was facing me, my heart was pounding, my aim was not steady at all. As soon as it turned I reacted and boom it was down.

[brian]

Listen I don't mean to be sanctimonious, anybody can pull a shot in the heat of the moment. Even easy shots can be pooched given the wrong circumstances. I just never read anywhere in your posts where you acknowledge it was a bad shot to take, which is my mind the biggest lesson you should have taken from the whole experience. Part of what makes long range shooting so difficult is the difficulty in judging distances in the field (especially at long range). 400 or 500 yards on a moving deer is a bloody tough shot to make. You clearly missed boiler room and probably hit forward of the shoulder or behind the liver. It was your first hunt, you had a decent opportunity on deer you misjudged... Lesson learned. Wolves or Coyotes got to fill their bellies on an easy meal. I commend your efforts to track it down.

[Fenix-Frank]

4. Shooting beyond your capabilities.

You held roughly 15-20" high on a deer that would be roughly 40" at the shoulder. If you were good enough to take that shot you should have missed because of #1.



I was confident in taking the shot. If I erred it is an honest mistake. I have never hid any of the evevidence nor took malicious un-calculateded shot.

4. Shooting beyond my capabillities.

[rocksteady]

You are taking a lot of heat here Frank, hopefully it does not stop you from posting...

Taking shots, at any distance, especially long ones, at paper targets is a toal different ball game when its a live animal.... Its called buck fever, the brain just goes into overdrive. I suspect the buck is dead and consumd, do you have any plans to go back and look for the antlers??? Or was it a far away hunting trip???

On another note, regarding scopes... I know a guy in town who has a 6 to 20 power 50 mm scope with ballistic turrets etc mounted on an old .303 british (he bought it at the "garage sale" at the sports shop)... My point is that all of the fancy technology in the world can not guarantee a one shot kill, it will just help improve the odds.... So you have to be brutally honest with yourself before you squeeze the tigger that it is 95% chance of killing, not just "doable"....

I will leave you alone now and hope your future hunting endeavors are more successful and hope to see pictures of you with a kill.... Hang in there....

I think everyone on hre has more than likely lost an animal and replayed it their minds a million times and saw what happened to you and thought "I did that once, why did he not learn from my mistakes".....

[Fenix-Frank]

Thanks rocksteady

[brian]

If I erred it is an honest mistake. I have never hid any of the evevidence nor took malicious un-calculateded shot.
I know you didn't. I am dreading the day that I loose a wounded animal. Hopefully it will never come.

[anotherone]

fact is,, a rookie hunter,, took a shot at a moving animal with no experience, first time hunting.
like i said i don't care what anyone says, most of you are just afraid of saying "HE WAS WRONG TO TAKE THE SHOT".. yes a very bad decision,, animal is suffering because of the decision you made.
does that animal deserve to die a slow painful death because of your inadequate shooting skills,,,short answer is no.
maybe your comfortable at shooting 3 or 400 yards. fact is also that you don't know your yardages.
next time before you pick up a gun and shoot at an animal i suggest you take a second and think instead of trying to pull off a shot in under 10 seconds on a walking animal that you don't know the distance on.
if he was bleeding as bad as you say then he would have been dead. simple. losing ones jaw creates lots of blood. I've found dead animals with no jaw in the past and seen lots of blood.
Marcus44... perhaps you should look up the word ignorant and read the meaning,, my thoughts were thought out before i typed them. nothing i said was in ignorance, given the post and subject in question. but hey your entitled to your opinion as am i
Nitwit....calling people names on this forum is not allowed, please read the rules before you enlighten us with your well thought of comments.

[ElectricDyck]

Really only one way to die naturally in the wild.....deserve or not it was coming.

[Fenix-Frank]

fact is,, a rookie hunter,, took a shot at a moving animal with no experience, first time hunting.
like i said i don't care what anyone says, most of you are just afraid of saying "HE WAS WRONG TO TAKE THE SHOT".. yes a very bad decision,, animal is suffering because of the decision you made.
does that animal deserve to die a slow painful death because of your inadequate shooting skills,,,short answer is no.
maybe your comfortable at shooting 3 or 400 yards. fact is also that you don't know your yardages.
next time before you pick up a gun and shoot at an animal i suggest you take a second and think instead of trying to pull off a shot in under 10 seconds on a walking animal that you don't know the distance on.
if he was bleeding as bad as you say then he would have been dead. simple. losing ones jaw creates lots of blood. I've found dead animals with no jaw in the past and seen lots of blood.
Marcus44... perhaps you should look up the word ignorant and read the meaning,, my thoughts were thought out before i typed them. nothing i said was in ignorance, given the post and subject in question. but hey your entitled to your opinion as am i
Nitwit....calling people names on this forum is not allowed, please read the rules before you enlighten us with your well thought of comments.In all the shooting I have done, the majority is a moving object, off hand shooting.




If you read the post you would see I had mentioned the blood was on both sides of the deeds body around the font legs.My guess is a very low neck shot. It was pumping out at least 9 inches on both sides not just trickling out. Please refrain from assuming I am not telling the truth in that matter.

As for your jaw shot! You need to stop and look at what I have told you. You assume greatly on the part of experience and I do not need to defend my abilities. You can say all you like but I felt it was a shot I could take that would be fatal. Not a simple let see what happens.

I unlike you, am not able to judge everything as it seems, including the exact yardage. I knew it was going to be a 3 - 400 yard shot so I choose to shot based on the greater distance. If it was shorter than anticipated it would be a clean miss with no injury to the deer.

There are several senior members on here that have class when it comes to pointing out errors I have made. You on the other hand chose to attack instead of encourage. WE ALL MAKE MISTAKES INCLUDING YES, INCLUDING YOU


This forum is about sharing good, and yes, bad experiences so we can all hopefully encourage, mentor and learn from our experiences we share.

[BCKyle]

Amen frank, sounds to me like you fully understand the errors and the situation; some folks don't seem to get that from your posts. Good job doing everything you could to recover the animal. Too bad you couldn't; but I don't see why some people just can't stop beating a dead, misunderstood horse. Cheers for sharing, even in the face of some hot criticism, and I wish you luck next time!

[meat keeper]

Amen frank, sounds to me like you fully understand the errors and the situation; some folks don't seem to get that from your posts. Good job doing everything you could to recover the animal. Too bad you couldn't; but I don't see why some people just can't stop beating a dead, misunderstood horse. Cheers for sharing, even in the face of some hot criticism, and I wish you luck next time!

totally agree better luck next year

[laredo318]

Good on you for your efforts after the shot.
The flaming you are taking is bullshit.
you made a rookie mistake, but the Internet heroes are the reason that more people don't post the fact they are human. If someone else learns from your mistake it is worth it. Makes you wonder how many other people that would not have the balls to post, their mistakes, and who could blame them?

[Fenix-Frank]

I can honestly say that I appreciate the comments and advice, direction and correction I guess you could say, have taken over this post. It is amazing how the words "First hunt" can bring out such an array of assumptions and accusations though. Not saying I wouldn't do things different next time, just commenting.

[moose2]

Hey Frank
First hunt or hunt # 100 I am sure this has happened to most hunters. I have few simular stories to this over my years of hunting as well. I have also done it from a lot closer range. A big blacktail buck can be very tough I have witnessed that first hand myself. I have taken a couple good animals cleanly with long shots that I felt I could'nt get any closer to. How ever through the years I have learned what a comfortable distance is for me, and I try to get myself with in or under that before I shoot. That being said I did miss a few up hill shots at a billy this year, but I knew I was at the edge of my and my equipments ability. After the three misses I watched him walk away untouched. In the snow conditions like you explaned, myself I would close the distance and if he disappeared I would slowly snow track in hopes of seeing him closer. People can be tough when a story like this is posted. If you had a picture of a trophy blacktail most of this thread would say "congrats great shot", but because he got away you get the opposite. Nice work on trying to find him and good luck on the rest of your season.
Thanks for posting.
Mike

[curt]

good job you can go home knowing you did everything you could. We lost an elk this year my body shot we were finding chucks like 1 inch chunks of bone and that critter just kept on going we searched for hrs it just didnt stop!?!? There will to survive is amazing thats for sure.

[Fenix-Frank]

Thanks. I know I did everything in my power to recover the buck. It still leaves you with a nagging unsettled feeling though. I like conclusion, and this has none.

Next year brings another season of hunting and you can believe I will be out there.

[solo]

Wow, great post. Not many would put so much effort into a recovery! Was sorry to read the comments by the trolls, though. Get another tag and go for it again. Good Luck.

[Fenix-Frank]

Wow, great post. Not many would put so much effort into a recovery! Was sorry to read the comments by the trolls, though. Get another tag and go for it again. Good Luck.
If it wasn't for comments how could we all get excited!!

Thanks for your reply, no time left this year for hunting. Starting to get ready for the outdoor show season and have to work my real job so............. it will have to be next year.