When it comes to the topic of misses, I’m no stranger. At some point, if you hunt long enough, you will miss or wound an animal. What you do after making a poor shot is a bigger deal than the shot itself.
Oh, the stories I could tell of hunts gone wrong. We all have them and pick up a few more every year it seems. Trying to remember hunts gone bad and applying them on future hunts will help you recover faster and possibly make the best of a touchy situation. Once a shot is taken it can’t be taken back, so making the right shot the first time is always best. What happens after the arrow is released tends to be up to the hunter, in most cases. Experience is the best teacher and if you are lacking, this is the time to get help. One of the most important things to do is pay attention after the shot and attempt to make sense of the situation.
I’m not trying to write a book here, but the stories of my trial and error hunting years could fill one. You would think after nearly 20 years of bow hunting experience, you would have seen everything. This is definitely not the case. New mistakes are waiting to arise, and will, as long as you hunt. The more you make, the less you have to experience. So getting them out of the way and learning from them early is ideal. I had three such experiences in under an hour, back when I was totally green. I learned a lot that day.
I have had my share of bad luck in the woods, but this day took the cake. It started off good, with no rain and cooler than normal temperature for that time of year. It was late October and the rut was just starting to heat up. I wasn’t too picky back then and any deer over a year and a half was fair game. It just so happens that small bucks tend to move heavily at this time of year. As day broke, the morning started out a bit slow. As it reached about 9 am, I heard footsteps in the leaves across the fence. I am allowed to hunt both properties, so I positioned myself for a shot. Not long after, I saw a six point approaching me. It came in to about 20 yards and as it passed behind a tree I drew the bow. The deer walked into my lane and I whistled to stop it. It gave me a perfect shot and I let the arrow fly. About half way to the buck the arrow connected with the barbed wire, deflecting it downward and embedding it into the ground at the deer’s feet. The deer didn’t know what had happened and whirled around to look behind itself. I was so surprised, I never loaded another arrow even though the deer was still in range and paying no attention in my direction. It finally bounded off to live another day.
