Bowhunters- PLEASE Don't Take Bad Shots- See Picture

[CharlieNY]

My son and I have been bowhunting since season began and have passed up on a number of young and smaller bucks. We run trail cams on my properties to check on the quantity and quality of available deer. My son checked the trail cams this week and found this picture of a buck with an arrow stuck in his neck. Someone on a neighboring property took a BAD SHOT at this buck. If you cannot make a good shot into the vitals, you should not be taking a shot. There is NO EXCUSE for this.  I am hoping that this buck is able to extract this arrow and that he survives and grows to be a bigger buck.

valoroutdoors.com

 

 

[turkeyfeathers]

Lousy penetration too   That arrow should fall out pretty easily I'd think

[Culvercreek hunt club]

That stinks, Let me ask you though, have you taken every deer you have ever shot at? never a miss or lost deer?

[Culvercreek hunt club]

3 minutes ago, turkeyfeathers said:

Lousy penetration too   That arrow should fall out pretty easily I'd think

That is what makes me think it was deflected. 

[The_Real_TCIII]

Looks like its 40" long. All kinds of things can happen on a shot, might not have been a bad decision

[Nomad]

Number of years ago a buck came up through at less then 20 yards , I shot and my arrow hit its antlers ?! Made a heck of a noise .  I take only  mostly broadside shots at 20 and under , and I tend to do very well so I was confused .

Then I saw this  hanging vine swaying back and forth ......

[dbHunterNY]

i get it the message is still important.  the assumptions always get you burned though.  hopefully he ditches the arrow and injury doesn't set the health or antlers back to much.

[wolc123]

The last deer I took with my vertical bow (about 5 years ago) was struck in the jugular and piled up dead 40 yards away.  That is not where I aimed.  That is the main reason why I will probably not hunt with a vertical bow again.  Shooting at an alert deer with a bow is almost a guarantee that it will not be in the same place when the arrow arrives as it was when it was launched.   That is the main reason why I support full inclusion of the crossbow in archery season.  Eliminating the need to make a draw with a deer in close greatly reduces the odds of shooting at an alert deer.  It is not always easy to tell if a deer is alert.    That said though, I would never want to stop others from using compounds, recurves or longbows if they wish.  The weapon they choose is none of my concern.   Mistakes can and do happen with any weapon.   Some do reduce your odds of making them however.   I see less mistakes as a good thing, when it comes to making a clean kill on a deer, and that is always my primary concern.   As long as there are folks who place more weight on challenging themselves, than on making a clean kill, we will continue to see pictures like that.     

[Buckmaster7600]

How do you know it was a bad shot? The arrow obviously defected and that's why it got no penetration. Had the arrow penetrated that deer would have been dead in seconds with a very good blood trail.


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[nyantler]

You can't be sure if he took a bad shot our just made a bad shot... they are not the same. Lots can happen from the bow to the deer.

[Culvercreek hunt club]

9 minutes ago, nyantler said:

You can't be sure if he took a bad shot our just made a bad shot... they are not the same. Lots can happen from the bow to the deer.

If you click onthe picture it almost looks like he has it in his mouth like a cigar

[BowmanMike]

The arrow must be stuck in the spine,right? He will probably snap it off soon.

[YFKI1983]

Gotta be a deflection. Full force hit that would be a dead deer

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[Core]

2 hours ago, wolc123 said:

The last deer I took with my vertical bow (about 5 years ago) was struck in the jugular and piled up dead 40 yards away.  That is not where I aimed.  That is the main reason why I will probably not hunt with a vertical bow again.  Shooting at an alert deer with a bow is almost a guarantee that it will not be in the same place when the arrow arrives as it was when it was launched.   That is the main reason why I support full inclusion of the crossbow in archery season.  Eliminating the need to make a draw with a deer in close greatly reduces the odds of shooting at an alert deer.  It is not always easy to tell if a deer is alert.    That said though, I would never want to stop others from using compounds, recurves or longbows if they wish.  The weapon they choose is none of my concern.   Mistakes can and do happen with any weapon.   Some do reduce your odds of making them however.   I see less mistakes as a good thing, when it comes to making a clean kill on a deer, and that is always my primary concern.   As long as there are folks who place more weight on challenging themselves, than on making a clean kill, we will continue to see pictures like that.     

For me all the deer I've ever pulled a vertical bow on have either been completely oblivious to me (I was doing it out of their peripheral vision) or they made me immediately and bailed. I've never, ever had, nor can I even really fathom having a deer within reasonable bow range that is aware of me and doing anything but staring right at me (or running). If they see you, they look at you. And they either freeze or they bolt, and if you make any additional movement they bolt. I know there are exceptions to every rule, though.

That shot is weird for sure in the OP's pic.

[Steve D]

7 hours ago, wolc123 said:

I see less mistakes as a good thing, when it comes to making a clean kill on a deer, and that is always my primary concern.   As long as there are folks who place more weight on challenging themselves, than on making a clean kill, we will continue to see pictures like that.     

Spoken by the man that uses the "texas heart" shot to fill a tag.

[sodfather]

7 hours ago, wolc123 said:

The last deer I took with my vertical bow (about 5 years ago) was struck in the jugular and piled up dead 40 yards away.  That is not where I aimed.  That is the main reason why I will probably not hunt with a vertical bow again.  Shooting at an alert deer with a bow is almost a guarantee that it will not be in the same place when the arrow arrives as it was when it was launched.   That is the main reason why I support full inclusion of the crossbow in archery season.  Eliminating the need to make a draw with a deer in close greatly reduces the odds of shooting at an alert deer.  It is not always easy to tell if a deer is alert.    That said though, I would never want to stop others from using compounds, recurves or longbows if they wish.  The weapon they choose is none of my concern.   Mistakes can and do happen with any weapon.   Some do reduce your odds of making them however.   I see less mistakes as a good thing, when it comes to making a clean kill on a deer, and that is always my primary concern.   As long as there are folks who place more weight on challenging themselves, than on making a clean kill, we will continue to see pictures like that.     

The deer and crossbow arrow I pulled out of him proves that crossbow hunters make bad shots to.  It happens from long bow to rifle.  I think as hunters we all need to practice with the weapons of choice and not 3 days before the season 

[Fletch]

you oughta print this and give it to your neighbors not me!

[nyslowhand]

I try not to criticize before I know all 3X sides of every story. The fact is you can be super proficient & confident with your weapon of choice, but there's a couple uncontrollable facts that come into play while hunting. Target panic &/or buck fever, brings out the very stupidest decisions from every hunter, newbie or seasoned. I'll admit to it, even after 50+yrs of deer hunting.

[wolc123]

18 minutes ago, sodfather said:

The deer and crossbow arrow I pulled out of him proves that crossbow hunters make bad shots to.  It happens from long bow to rifle.  I think as hunters we all need to practice with the weapons of choice and not 3 days before the season 

Are you sure that was a crossbow arrow ?  In the photo you posted of the back section, you could not see the knock.  I have never heard of anyone using an aluminum arrow with a crossbow.   Maybe it was from a vertical bow with an overdraw.  They use real short arrows, similar to crossbow bolts.  Nonetheless, I agree with you that practice is very important, even with crossbows.  A  good friend told me yesterday, about a nice buck he lost with his this year.        

[Doc]

14 hours ago, wolc123 said:

The last deer I took with my vertical bow (about 5 years ago) was struck in the jugular and piled up dead 40 yards away.  That is not where I aimed.  That is the main reason why I will probably not hunt with a vertical bow again.  Shooting at an alert deer with a bow is almost a guarantee that it will not be in the same place when the arrow arrives as it was when it was launched.   That is the main reason why I support full inclusion of the crossbow in archery season.  Eliminating the need to make a draw with a deer in close greatly reduces the odds of shooting at an alert deer.  It is not always easy to tell if a deer is alert.    That said though, I would never want to stop others from using compounds, recurves or longbows if they wish.  The weapon they choose is none of my concern.   Mistakes can and do happen with any weapon.   Some do reduce your odds of making them however.   I see less mistakes as a good thing, when it comes to making a clean kill on a deer, and that is always my primary concern.   As long as there are folks who place more weight on challenging themselves, than on making a clean kill, we will continue to see pictures like that.     

Well, probably what you should do is throw down that other "weapon of challenge", the crossbow and wait for the season where you can use the most effective and humane weapon .....the rifle. I'll bet crossbows are subject to deflections too.

[steve863]

18 hours ago, CharlieNY said:

My son and I have been bowhunting since season began and have passed up on a number of young and smaller bucks. We run trail cams on my properties to check on the quantity and quality of available deer. My son checked the trail cams this week and found this picture of a buck with an arrow stuck in his neck. Someone on a neighboring property took a BAD SHOT at this buck. If you cannot make a good shot into the vitals, you should not be taking a shot. There is NO EXCUSE for this.  I am hoping that this buck is able to extract this arrow and that he survives and grows to be a bigger buck.

valoroutdoors.com

 

 

 

 

 

Honestly, you are making a number of assumptions with your statement.  There probably are some that take shots that they shouldn't, but there are others who typically don't. I don't know any hunter with a good bit of experience under his belt who hasn't blown a shot at least a time or two in their careers.  Maybe this was one of them???  It isn't pretty, but $#!+ can happen to the best of us.

[Five Seasons]

Weird angle.

I️ doubt the hunter intended that... off your high horse now.


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[sodfather]

9 hours ago, wolc123 said:

Are you sure that was a crossbow arrow ?  In the photo you posted of the back section, you could not see the knock.  I have never heard of anyone using an aluminum arrow with a crossbow.   Maybe it was from a vertical bow with an overdraw.  They use real short arrows, similar to crossbow bolts.  Nonetheless, I agree with you that practice is very important, even with crossbows.  A  good friend told me yesterday, about a nice buck he lost with his this year.        

Honestly Wolc your like the 3 or 4th person that said that about aluminum arrow and how they don’t use them anymore so I’m not %100.  The knock was different from a long bow knock. It was a lot shorter arrow than mine.  But it really doesn’t matter he’s dead and not suffering. 

[reeltime]

29 minutes ago, sodfather said:

Honestly Wolc your like the 3 or 4th person that said that about aluminum arrow and how they don’t use them anymore so I’m not %100.  The knock was different from a long bow knock. It was a lot shorter arrow than mine.  But it really doesn’t matter he’s dead and not suffering. 

they do make aluminum crossbow bolts, some of which are far cheaper than the carbons.

post a picture of the nock and what the total length is. bolts are generally 16-20" in length.

 

as far as over draw arrows go they are generally only 5" shorter than the common 30,31" arrows, and for the most part the overdraw fad faded away years ago when the bows advanced in technology.

[sodfather]

6 minutes ago, reeltime said:

they do make aluminum crossbow bolts, some of which are far cheaper than the carbons.

post a picture of the nock and what the total length is. bolts are generally 16-20" in length.

 

as far as over draw arrows go they are generally only 5" shorter than the common 30,31" arrows, and for the most part the overdraw fad faded away years ago when the bows advanced in technology.

Dam I know I’m sounding like I’m making an excuse here but those were the only 2 picks I had of the arrow. I lost the fletching half when I was dragging out of the woods. I’m going back there next week I’ll take a quick look. I only have the broad head half.