Archery and Whitetails

[alwaysoutdoors]

Anyone hunt whitetails with a bow?

I have just started a couple years ago. Yet to harvest one, but I did however make a shot on one last Thursday. It was a shoulder hit and she kicked her rear legs straight up into the air. My buddy and I trailed the blood for 4 hours to find it led to a thicket. We decided it just wasn't worth crawling in there on our hands and knees to recover after 4 hours of trailing and a 14 hour day. I hate to lose deer like that, but I gave it a real good effort to recover. I think she was quartering away so much that the arrow missed all vitals. We also recovered the back half of the arrow (not a pass through shot) which was covered in blood. She never laid down before entering the thicket based on the fact that there wasn't any pools of blood just several spots.

[andersmg]

I bow hunt when I get the chance. You have to be real careful about your shot placement, if you don't have an excellent shot then it is best to pass on the shot.

I have lost one deer I gut shot because I made a poor shot, since then I am a lot more particular about shot placement. I try to only take a shot when the deer is broadside and within 25 yds of me, I feel as long as I keep myself limited to these shoot don't shoot parameters I can make a good kill shot that wil dispatch the deer quickly and humanely.

[towerclimber37]

you know, if you shot them with a rifle, you'd probably do better.

[Rightwinger]

Love to archery hunt. Haven't gotten a shot this season so far, to hot and the only deer I have seen were being pushed by two dogs (arrghh, maybe dog meat for supper next time).

You may have done this and just not posted that you did, is to immediately go still and then sit back down and wait. Half hour is good, an hour is better. Don't let the deer even know what just happened and let it lie down and die. The last two I stuck didn't even get out of sight, I just froze and then slowly sat back down in the stand and waited till all movement ceased and then waited some more. As the other poster said, unless its a riduculous easy shot for you, pass, there will be more opportunities, probably that same day if they are moving near you and not winding ya.

Good luck and shoot straight.

[TGO David]

I used to love archery. I hunted a few times with a PSE bow that I used to own and actually got a fairly nice buck out of it. Things got kind of effed up after an eye injury that made bow hunting fairly impractical for me anymore. Then I re-discovered modern firearms season, took my son with me once, and enjoyed that even more.

[andersmg]

I hunt with bow, muzzleloader and high powered rifle, as each of the seasons open. I usually get a few deer although in the last few years I have not had any luck with my bow.

[Guest GlocKingTN]

I haven't experienced bow hunting, only gun season for me. But I have thought about trying out the crossbow style of hunting. Although, you can buy bows now for CHEAP! I seen a guy on another forum selling a PSE for $150. I thought that was kinda cheap. It even came with everything, including arrows!