Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Ever lost an animal?

Mesquite in Wyoming? Not quibbling, just curious. Our mesquites here in the southwest won't survive temperatures below 12 degrees F for more than about 12 hours. I'm wondering what plant is called "mesquite" up there.

I lost a mountain goat two years ago. I had a great set up-200 yards. 30/06 three shots through shoulder. That guy looked at me and bounded of the side of the cliff and got hung up 65ft from top in a rock pocket. He was 300 ft up from bottom of rock face. No rope and I tried to dislodge him by shooting him off. Didn't work.
I am sure that I lost a caribou when I was younger but the losing the goat really stung.

Sincerely,
Thomas

Lost a buck mule deer once. 80 yards, high lung shot with a .243 and a 100 grain hornady. Done it two dozen times before with that gun and load, and predictable results.

Dont know what went wrong...I just know I spent a BUNCH of time looking for him...to no avail...

For ROST I have tremendous respect for all animals. Feral Hogs are great game animals and probably much more intelligent than deer and probably quite a few people. The problem is they are so successful here that they are considered vermin. So not the highest of ethical standards but the SOP is to shoot as many as you can whenever you can. In spite of this RAMBO mentality I have only lost one Hog, shot too far back while running with a .375 H&H.

lost a speed goat....gust of wind hit me as i took up the last bit of the trigger.....hit him way forward.....spent most of a day trying to get another round in him, last i saw of him he was still going strong over a ridge almost a mile ahead of me so i think he lived......there is another mule deer buck that im pretty sure i hit but never found blood, never found a trace of him......still not sure what happened there....but thats it for big game.....numerous gophers have made it back to their hole before i get them stopped....im sure most didnt live long but they did get away....

I've lost a few coyotes. It always bothered me to loose one but if you shoot at game sooner or later shots go wrong. Like any bird hunter I know I've lost bird, both upland and waterfowl, despite concerted efforts to retrieve them.

The only big game I think I lost was a mule deer buck. I was considerably younger and my wife and I felt under the gun to fill our tags for the meat. I took a last day of the season low percentage long shot on a buck far too far away. He kicked at the shot and ran off. I don't know to this day if I shot under him or if I hit him. I scoured the area for blood or hair. I never found blood or hair. He ran off apparently uninjured. I played that shot over and over in my mind and still don't know if I hit him but concerned that I might have.

We didn't fill our tags that year and we still made it through the winter just fine. Lot of hamburger that year. I did make the personal decision to limit my shots at unwounded game to 300 yards. I've kept that personal limit for the last 20 years and haven't lost any big game, or coyotes, since.

Mart

One: A doe from about 10'. It took off without leaving a blood trail. I searched and searched with no success. I did find one that someone else had lost so I tagged it.

Lost one the first time I used a Partition, 180 grains, .30-'06. There was a big doe standing with two smaller does at about 150 yards on tilled cropland, pretty much a chip shot for here. They all took off but my cousin thought he saw the big one react to the shot. No blood or hair but you don't always get that. There was just enough snow to show the deer didn't leave the half section. We started a search after waiting a bit for the deer to bed and kicked the two smaller ones up out of a weedy corner. We spent the rest of the morning checking every plow furrow and every patch of weeds and every inch of the perimeter of the half section for signs she left but never found a thing. Not even a spot of blood but the snow was patchy on the dark tilled earth. Was like a UFO came by and sucked her up. Hope I just plain missed but I'll put it down to me screwing up for lack of evidence of anything else. Did leave a (undeserved) sour taste for Partitions though.

Have lost a few pheasants, it's inevitable. The last one was dead in the air but fell into a big patch of horse peppermint so the dogs were no help. We tromped around a bunch but funny how those gaudy colored birds can disappear in the weeds.

Shot a buck with my bow a little low and caught the shoulder/leg at least I thought. I could tell from the sound it whacked a pretty good bone.

It was at the house so I looked for a long time, got a friend over and we looked all night. I looked over the next couple of days and then I started hitting up the creeks and stock tanks looking for a dead deer. Only found a few drops of blood and the back half of my arrow.

I saw him again the next year missing his front leg. Didn't seem to bother him. I saw him again over the next 3 years total. He never did grow a funny rack but even tho he got much larger in body size he never grew a rack any bigger than the first year I shot him.

I also never saw him around the house till well after gun season was over in late January and he hung around a long time each time but then would disappear in the summer each year.

Sorry about the loss of the elk but nothing wrong with shoulder shots using the right bullet. Took my first elk with a Hornady 162g BTSP and wasn't impressed, although the bull went down. Switched to 160g Grand Slas and it took 20 years to recover one. When I did it had destroyed both shoulder joints of a 5x5 and dropped him where he stood.

My biggest buck to date[as of then] Oct.31 2011 with bow. Large 10pt about a half hour before dark. Climbed down just after dark. Went over and checked his trail/direction with flashlite. Good blood trail. Walked to the house, ate some dinner and went back looking/following blood. Heard an ankle biter yapping on up the mountain where a subdivision backs up to it. When I got up there I found where the deer had bedded and bled heavily. Apparently the dog had pestered the deer and it fled the area. I trailed it for 3 hours that night and tried to pick the trail back up the next afternoon to no avail after 4 hours.

the thing I take home from reading this is what I already knew and has prevented further losses on our end at this point.

Never rush a shot. I have ended up not getting shots because of it but so be it. Every time you HAVE to shoot a doe or buck etc on THIS hunt for some STUPID reason.... you put to much mental pressure on the situation which creates a bad situation.

I saw it on our lease again last weekend. A friends Dad gets this [bleep] in his head that TODAY he is going to shoot a doe. Never mind the last 2 months of season, come hell or high water he is going to shoot. and he takes a shot at a moving doe early in the evening. Its a high flesh wound after my wife and I trail and serach for about 2 hours. I knew that from the first blood we saw that it was only a wound. But we have to look.

Worst part had he waited, he had 7 doe out later at closer range feeding broadside not moving.....

He deserves a swift kick in the nuts.

Lost a doe hit with a cast bullet out of a 45-70.must have hit her too far back Wait about an hour tracked her size able blood trail and jumped her within100 USA lots of blood waited again same thing again and yet again until she finally crossed to property where we couldn't follow. Still think about her after probably 10 years

Lost a bow shot buck on a Saturday morning, that should have been a gonner. I wouldn't have aimed at him any different if I had to do it over. Quartering away, hit at back of ribs angling forward. I have no idea what went wrong, but I didn't recover him after looking the rest of the weekend.

The other was a bow shot doe that was farther than I usually shoot, and at a very steep quartering away angle. I plain didn't accound for enough angle, and made a bad hit, running the arrow up along the ribs.

Lack of experience in both situations. I hit wrong on the doe, and I think I would have recovered the buck if I had the sense to see I was pushing him along the track, but being young and energetic, I couldn't lay off.

Yes, as do any that rush shots. We give him a pass since we are simply glad that at 88, even though stubborn, he is in well enough health to hunt.

Because of his age.

Make it a slow kick in the nuts.


Age is no excuse for being stupid.

Yep, I gotcha, but its not like we all haven't made a mistake and age still gets some respect regardless. At least its how I was reared.

I loss sevral deer dis year, all wuz shot with my bow. But i did git my furst bow kill dis year, wuz a big ol doe. I shot dis buck dat ran in sum thik schit an i cood not fine it, went bak nex day and fount him down by da river. Sum try to git me to eat it but i said hell naw. 1 oter trip i shot dis doe and went to track her an laid my bow down and wuz trakin dat doe an a big ol buk was standin der. Cood hav kick my on ass dat day. I have hit treez an errything else but i end up wit 9 deer dis year. I gues i jus git in a hury and shoot to quik. But hell i is tryin and yotes need to eat to.

wtf????????????????????????????
you just slinging arrows everywhere like stevie wonder or something????????????????????