Deer lost

[FishDFly]

Texas now mirrors your state, must be on a leash if used for tracking and only in certain counties, if allowed.

 

[tenngun]

I have only taken deer,elk and antalope with a ml and prb.Took myfirst at 17.I missed a shot on two at close range uphill and shot under them.Have never lost one,never had one go more then 50 yards.Did shoot one through the liver with a smoothy and it ran into a nother hunter who shot it on the ground.I hunt close and only shoot the standing.The deer Ilost were deer I didn't take a shot at as it wasn't a good shot.

 

[Silex]

Thanks everybody for those insights. I always wondered about those "dog-statements" in other posts.

Silex

 

[Elkeater]

I started big game hunting about 1985 on a high prairie ranch. Mule deer heaven,took one every year with a 270 win, and an occasional pronghorn. Never a bad experiance.

When that ranch changed ownership after 22 years I went to the mtns for elk; not nearly as successful. Saw a monster bull out of range. Next day came upon a herd with nice bull; hesitated with the image of the monster etched on my brain. Hurried the shot and nicked him. He went up the mtn , in the trees about 80 yards stopped and screamed at me. As if he was saying if he had a rifle he would have shot me between the eyes. 1/8" drops of blood was difficult to track. Last sign he gave was a coagulation of the size of a marble.

Live and learn. Keep your cool.

 

[crockett]

On the dog thing, maybe attitudes are changing because I know they aren't legal in many areas but to me it just doesn't make sense.

 

[cynthialee]

Folks (non hunting veggie eaters) get this image in their heads of dogs running down game and savaging it to death wolf style, all the while some bear gut Bubba watches on and laughs.
They do not understand the dogs are for tracking, treeing, retrieving and an extra set of eyes and ears.

In the liberal city dweller circles they have a very skewed view of what we actually do. They imagine savages with blood lust.
I have been accused of being a gun toting savage with an unnatural blood lust just for being a hunter by a few vegan types over the years. I can just imagine how these sandal wearing latte (soy of course) sippers would react to a hunting dog! (jerks give a bad name to sandal wearers and latte aficionados everywhere)

Anyways, the way things are going I wouldn't be surprised if they outlaw retrievers for duck some day.

 

[FishDFly]

On some ranches in Texxas, when you put a hole in a deer it's yours to pay for, get the check book out, some hunts are $20,000 to $25,000.

On one ranch the cost is $175 per B/C point. If it makes the book, you write a check for $29,750 whether the deer is recovered or not.

There is one man with a dog(s) in South Texas that makes his living during deer season, recovering lost deer. Hunters are glad to pay his fee for recovery.

 

[crockett]

Heard about one guy in Texas paying $50,000 for a deer hound. Not for tracking but deer hound running (a southern thing) I guess this dog could tell buck from doe and know about when a buck would double back and in what direction and then head him off. Wonder dog.
In Florida we have a bunch of guys that use hounds to run deer. The deer, between doubling back over their trail, hitting the swamps, etc- can lose a hound. A lot of the hounds aren't that good anyway and run does.
For trailing a wounded deer only, it seems that even a little fiest type dog might work. I've had game that was shot right at sundown and we couldn't find that night- had to go back in the morning. Those deer get donated to the Goodwill and I'm not sure if they even bother eating them. What a waste when a small little dog on a leash could recover the animal.

 

[crockett]

And....if it sort of sounds like I like dogs, yeah- guilty as charged. Not much gets said about what is a period correct dog for black powder. The longhunters had what looks like hounds in some painting. The mountain men sometimes had a dog as a watch dog for hostile NDNs around a camp but these watch dogs were more lke little fiests.

 

[vthunter52]

This seasons deer will be, if it happens, my 32nd whitetail taken with a ML. Have I lost any that I hit, No, but I do have 4 memorable misses on trophy deer!

 

[Billnpatti]

I have been hunting for many a moon and have killed my share of God's creatures for my table. I don't know how many deer I have killed with my muzzleloaders but it has been several (somewhere between 10 and 100), I didn't keep count. I have lost only two. In both cases, I tracked them until there was nothing left to follow. In one case, the deer ran after being hit in the boiler room and disappeared from view into a clump of cedar and brush. I gave him time to lay down and bleed out before attempting to find him. The ground was very rocky and the only thing to follow was a very light blood trail that led to a 7 or 8 foot drop off. No sign of the deer there. I looked everywhere for the blood trail but it was no where to be found. After searching for a couple hours, I assumed from the lack of a decent blood trail and no deer to be found that I had only wounded him and he would live to see another day. A day or so later, I killed a deer in almost the same location. He, too, ran but not far. In searching for him in the brush and yopon, I shortly found him and as I was looking, I spotted another deer's white belly hidden well under a low growing yopon bush. It was the deer that I had shot the previous day and lost. He had dropped as he was running downhill and had slid on the loose rock up under the yopon where he could only have been spotted if I had been approaching from just the right direction with the sun at my back. The days had been warm and the meat was ruined. I hated that I had taken his life and he had died for nothing more than buzzard, armadillo and maggot bait. I suppose that if you hunt enough, you will eventually have something like that happen to you. It is a shame when it happens.

 

[Walks with fire]

I lost a few when I was first starting flinter shooting. I did my best to find them and I almost never hunt if there is no snow. It's very rare for me to miss my mark now with a flinter shot. I do generally have them travel a bit (mostly under 100 yards). I never flinch or pull up on a shot and I wait for deer to present a good solid aim or I don't shoot. I know if the shot is good or just close to real good. I also don't overpower my loads like I once did.

Place the shot behind the front leg and watch for the reaction gets it done for me. No need to use big loads with a roundball; 100 yards is my limit. I let my rifle tell me what it likes but see no need to exceed 100 grains; I like around 80 grains in my .50 calibers. I rarely shoot offhand unless it's under 60 yards or so; I use a rest of some sort for most shots; if I don't have a solid sighting with absolutly no wavering I don't shoot.

I agree that if you hunt long enough you will lose one.

 

[AZbpBurner]

All my hunting has been done in wide, open clearings, a long way back into wooded areas.

I was given good advice long ago: "After you shoot and you have to chase, do you want to go where he's going?"

Only deer I've lost have been to the man in the bear suit.

First one, I'd tagged, then returned to camp to get my bag. Upon return, hungry bear was dressing out my kill in a manner that made it not worthy to fight over. Only mistake was that I already applied the tag, and Mr. Bear said I couldn't have it back.

On all hunts, the .41 mag. followed along, but it's never in my best interest to challenge anything bigger and hungrier than me. Besides, I didn't tag anymore until ready to dress out.

 

[AZbpBurner]

I lost a few when I was first starting flinter shooting. I did my best to find them and I almost never hunt if there is no snow. It's very rare for me to miss my mark now with a flinter shot. I do generally have them travel a bit (mostly under 100 yards). I never flinch or pull up on a shot and I wait for deer to present a good solid aim or I don't shoot. I know if the shot is good or just close to real good. I also don't overpower my loads like I once did.

Place the shot behind the front leg and watch for the reaction gets it done for me. No need to use big loads with a roundball; 100 yards is my limit. I let my rifle tell me what it likes but see no need to exceed 100 grains; I like around 80 grains in my .50 calibers. I rarely shoot offhand unless it's under 60 yards or so; I use a rest of some sort for most shots; if I don't have a solid sighting with absolutly no wavering I don't shoot.

I agree that if you hunt long enough you will lose one.

I think you've summarized the essence of experienced and common-sense muzzleloader hunting very well.

There is a large crowd of newbies asking about bigger calibers, heavier conicals/maxi's, and high velocity/long distance loads in fear of being underpowered with 'mere' PRB.

I've used largely .357 mag lever action rifle, or .50 cal. percussion PRB. 35 to 75 yards was ideal for me with either.

Anything further, as I discovered on my first 'Hi-Powered' hunt many decades ago, is just way too much work. That 150 yard shot turned into a several mile round trip when covering the 'uneven' terrain between shot and kill.

 

[George T.]

I have been hunting deer in Texas since 1958 and the limit was 4 to 5 over many of those years.

I have never lost a deer with bows or MLR's. I can not say the same about scope sighted modern center fire rifles. I have lost three all shot with a 130 grain bullet in a 270 Winchester.

Geo. T.

 

[Dave K]

I know allot of hunters say they have not ever lost a deer. I hear it often enough. After the deer season I do walk our farm to see what has happened during the gun season. Every year, I find a dead deer with a slug, usually in the guts. These were probably all from guys that swore up and down that they must have missed, since they found no blood or the deer didn't react to the shot.I have found deer also where I do not hunt as I have heard the story about the deer that got away. I have always called the shooter where I found their deer. Many don't believe it and some will even say it is not there deer, since there was no trail. Some will ask, when I report to them that I found their deer, "should I tag it". All I can say is let your conscious be your guide, I am not your keeper, but the deer is dead because it was hit by the hunters bullet or arrow. The real only way to know that you didn't connect, is to find the dead deer or see it later. Even good blood trails, don't mean a killing shot. Heck I have left some pretty good blood trails of my own in the workshop and I haven't died yet. I have been there as well.

 

[stinkyfeet]

I had a buddy swear up and down that he hit a big doe right behind the shoulder and that he seen where the arrow hit in the chest and seen the arrow sticking out of the deer to confirm the shot. Long story short 1 mile into the recovery we lose the blood and the spent another 2 hours looking for the deer without luck. The next night I go to my night stand and see a doe staggering by injured hobbling along, I arrow her and she goes down. I get down and look and theres a arrow hole right smack in the middle of the front leg low about 6 inches above the knee and theres a broadhead and part of an arrow lodged in the leg bone. My buddy still swears to this day it was someone else that shot the deer not him even though it was the second day of the season and no one else was around us and ohh yeah the exact same broadhead and camo colored shaft as him. Sometimes our mind must play tricks on us and we see things that aren't really true or we believe them to be. I've lost deer in my days much less since I have matured and not taken bad percentage shots anymore, and I quit making excuses for bad shots ohh my arrow must have clipped a branch, the deer jumped the string, I didn't lead it enough, the gun hang fired, the deer moved right when I shot. In reality I just made a mistake in the heat of the moment and it was all my fault. I have lost deer to other hunters who the deer runs up to them and dies they never fired a shot, or some that shot the deer after I do (the joys of hunting public land in Michigan) First person to tag it its there deer. I shot a big 8 point looked for him for him all day long. Went out the next morning shot a decent 9 and while dragging him out ran acrossed the 8 point from the day prior dead under a pine tree hidden under the canopyI had walked by 10 times the day prior. Im out of tags. I called the game warden and he recommended I have a friend tag the buck which we did. Even though its sickening to me that I have lost deer, I will admit my best hunting area was found by tracking a poorly hit deer.

 

[hanshi]

I've made perfect shots (not MLs) on deer only to find a similar deer with a similar wound the next day. Unbelievably everything is identical to the one I shot except the yo-yo who shot this one hit way off from where my hit was. What are the odds? :idunno: :redface:

 

[stinkyfeet]

I've made perfect shots (not MLs) on deer only to find a similar deer with a similar wound the next day. Unbelievably everything is identical to the one I shot except the yo-yo who shot this one hit way off from where my hit was. What are the odds? :idunno: :redface:

Well that is an odd coincidence and it happens a lot. Just like how my buddies and even I have done it once, stating it was a solid 130 class buck and follow the blood trail and locate some idiots 110 inch buck where my monster was suppose to be laying. Lets say it together ground shrinkage strikes again.. But that's not my buck mine was way bigger, whats the chances of this smaller buck running the exact same blood trail and dying :idunno: