Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting Whoops....bad shot!

I have American Archer on while I run numbers in JBM and glanced up as Tom Nelson tripped the release on a buck. I thought the arrow hit way back so I backed the DVR back and watched the shot.



It happens, but I wanted to see what happens next. I have seen a bunch of shows where the hunter was happy and celebrating after a bad shot and didn't even mention it.

When I continued the show Nelson appeared genuinely concerned and stated straight up, he made a bad shot. They waited six hours and went back and did recover the deer.

Personally I think Nelson is a stand-up guy for being honest with the viewers and discussing how to handle the recovery.

Nelson is an ok guy from what I have seen on his show. On the other side of the spectrum, watched a guy on the "Whitetail Properties" show clearly shank a shot on a monster buck. Dont know if he was aware of where arrow impacted, but he was doing some serious celebrating. Of course the area the arrow hit and the big mech head he was running ended it quickly, it was certainly not a shot I would purposely attempt or be proud of. But a large mechanical broadhead to the jugular is a deadly combo lol. Of course the hunter was very proud of himself, but never once did he mention that he, mr celebrity tv hunter, made a bad hit

Saw a show last week where the TV personality shot straight down on a buck under his stand. He starts celebrating while the deer runs off. I am thinking "bad shot, he only got 1 lung otherwise if he hit dead center to punch the heart he would have hit spine and deer would go down right there." They showed blood trailing to 300 yards then backed out for the night. Deer was not recovered after 2 days of searching. I believe it was killed during gun season with a healed wound. Straight down is not a shot I will take, no margin for error.

I hate it when the shot clearly goes in a bad place and the TV personality celebrates and fist pumps as he gasp for air all goggle eyed as he states "We'll leave him until the morning and come back and get him." This is in shirt sleeve weather and it is obvious the meat is going to spoil but nobody gives a damn about that. The only thing that counts is that they recover the 150"+ deer for the hero shot on camera.

about all the above posts indicate why I can't stand to watch hunting shows any more.

If they had some on that were educating, instead of "entertaining"( YMMV greatly) then I"d try em again.

As it is I"d just as soon sleep than watch the crap thats on hunting shows these days.

I agree, there is not much quality television nowadays and I normally have FOX on, but I end up screaming at the tv so I keep it on the hunting/fishing channels for the most part. It's on but I am normally more focused on the computer.

A few years ago I saw Alan Warren shoot a Mulie in the ham, he celebrated and started pimping his sponsors. I sent an email and asked if he believe that was the best way to handle a poor shot and received no reply.

I think half those guys out there are using the pod. They make these terrible shots and darn if they don't recover 99% of them.

Remember the pod?

It drives me crazy to watch TV shows where they "back out" to return in the morning. It's like some sort of trend now. A lot of them admit that they find their animal within 50 yards of where they were shot. Those are lethal hits that puts an animal down in 50 yards or less. They are doing it in hot weather and as has been said, that meat is bad by morning. I could even understand waiting an hour or two then following up on the shot, but not if it's after time change you are looking at 10-12 hours before daylight. If you made the same shot at 0900 am would you wait until dark that evening to go after it...NO

The warrens are down here. Supposedly one is better than the other. I know one is absolutely worthless IMHO. I overheard him yacking once at a sporting show, and did not impress me.

I just find it hard to even check the outdoor channels lately, no matter how bad the rest is. I"ll just go to the computer before I do that typically. Or to bed or read a book or back outside again.

I dunno, even a gut shot is easy to retrieve. For us we've found you have to wait 8 hours. 6 doesn't do it. I have had to trail a few for other folks, and even a few for myself. Got to watch 2 over the years, IE open fields etc... and found you don't waste the meat on those, they simply take 6-8 hours to die.

We've only had one bad gut shot over many years and many bowshots on a larger lease. That one we waited for, about 6 hours and by the time we started to very carefully look for the bedded deer, the hogs had found it and ate it.

The rest have all been found, but a few took another shot or even more trailing. Thats where we finally found 8 hours is the ticket for us. All of those left 8 hours have been found dead in the first bed inside 100 yards.

Couldnt agree more. Most of the hunting shows, if not all, are about pimpin their sponsors and having some sort of celebrity status because they killed a deer with some huge score. And folks line up in droves to buy xyz item because celebrity john q deerhunter used it on tv. To me its slob hunting. Have respect for what you hunt. I know if I screw up a shot, there is no celebrating till that animal is found. Guess thats just one of the many reasons I dont have my own tv show

I pretty much quit watching the shows because of this trend. They don't give a chit about the animal at all. Worst one I ever saw was Roger Raglin shot a buck here in SD with a rifle. Animal dropped in it's tracks, but in the name of good camera lighting they decided to go retrieve it the next day.

Never did find the buck, but come spring the Rancher found the antlers and Roger was sure proud to recover those. Who the hell shoots any animal and sees it drop and decides to go back the next day to retrieve it?

Pretty much sums it up. I don't appreciate any of the celebrating these idiots do after a kill. Hunting isn't a contact/recreational sport....to me anyhow. IMHO it's disrespectful and fist pumps and high fives belong left on the football field. However, I do turn it on for scenery and it beats the hell out of watching the Kardashians.

I agree 8 hours is better than 6! The thing to remember is gut shot animals really do not start spoiling until they expire.So if it took 6 or 7 hours to expire it really hasn't laid that long. As long as the animal is alive the flesh stays oxygenated, therefore anerobic clostridium that spoils meat will not proliferate. However the meat will slowly get a bacteremia from the gut juices leaking into the blood stream. Therefore gut shot meat is not ideal table fare and should be cooled as soon as possible and processed for freezing. (I would discourage ageing or hanging the carcass) and cook it thoroughly before eating. (might be best as spiced salami etc) Not as a raw Tartar. The Liver in these animals may have higher than normal bacteria levels also.