When Things go Wrong!!!!!!

[**DONOTDELETE**]

My first deer for this season was hit in a bad spot, but recovered....Since then I was thinking? what do you do WHEN THINGS GO WRONG!!!!!!


I'm only talking about hits on game you are hunting...Like my last deer I just went out and looked for the smallest signs/tracking and found my game. I knew I made a to long of a shot, but I will use that as a learning tool.

How do you get back in the right frame of mind to hunt again...

[James Wrenn]

I just try my best to make them right again.  

[**DONOTDELETE**]

I do to James, but lets say you take a shot & you hit just under the spin, NO BLOOD, missing the vitals... what then??? pratice more knowing you might have to lower ( from a tree stand )your aim or  raise (from a gullie ) your aiming spot more then you would think.

[Pat B]

The more you practice the less you will have to think(consciously) when it comes to crunch time. That way you can concentrate on where the arrow is going. If you shoot instinctively and practice from treestands or ground blinds and practice all the senerios you can think of you shouldn't have to wonder whether you shoot a little high or a little low because of where you are hunting. That should be automatic.
  I shot a nice buck years ago right at dusk. The shot sounded good and the deer ran off like he was mortally wounded but we trailed him for 5 hours that night and 5 hours the next day and eventually found where he jumped a fence after about 1000 yards. We only found the bach half of my ash shaft, broken across the grain, with a pin head size speck of blood on it. There was never a good blood trail but we followed tracks, turned up leaves, broken branches and anything else that was out of place. That deer was never recovered but was back 2 weeks later tending his scrapes. He had a distinctive right front foot print.     Pat

[BamBooBender]

There's no guarantees in this sport.Bad things can and will happen, regardless. The best you can do is practice (like Pat B describes), learn from your mistakes, forgive yourself ,and try to do better when the time comes. Healthy concern about what might happen and trying to avoid the bad makes one a responsible hunter. But, excessive worry about all the possible things that could go wrong can be crippling and rob you of the joys of hunting with a stick and string.jmho

[Bonebuster]

Through the years, serious hunters have become much better educated in all aspects of hunting.
We are all much more efficient, thats why many of us have "stepped up" so to speak.

There is no shortcut to success. It starts with practice until the shot is automatic. Then it often comes down to restraint, in that we only shoot when we know the shot is within our capabilities. Bad things still happen.

That is when we rely on the knowledge that we have done our part to prepare. We get experience
from others and actual "Bad Things" that happen.
We learn, move on, and get better.

The right frame of mind to hunt again comes from the knowledge that we have done our best.

[Tom Leemans]

Give everything your BEST effort, including tracking and recovery. When things go wrong, don't beat yourself up over it. Do your BEST next time too.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

A lot of great responses... I think anyone that hasn't taken any game yet well find this useful. You really don't hear about bad shots, things going wrong is a everyday thing... Learning from it Does help out... Thanks for the posts guys.

[Legolas]

In Dr.Ashby's report on animal hits he described it as random-meaning the best of the best have things go wrong.
I had to remind myself that yes a gut shot deer was terrible and I ruined all the meat, but how many deer get hit with a car thousand times a year just in one state.I will try again the best I can and if I don't get the deer someone's car might.

Paul