ugly kills

[longbow joe]

As a long time bowhunter we (i) strive for 1 shot kills .last season youngster i take hunting put wat i thought was a good shot on a buck .wen we aproached the dead buck it got up n ran ......then it turned into a $80.00 arrow flinging event.he got his buck n was very proud. But you know once in a blue moon 4 arrows aint enough.over the 35 years ive had some arrow flinging events. Its usually in a tree wen you dont have a good shot n the animal is down and stuffs in the way. Im sure every long time bow hunter has an arrow flinging story their not proud of.

[TheBig1]

I had to chase a doe one year when I made a bad shot. She kept getting caught up in mountain laurel and couldn't go any further. I took my knife in an attempt to dispatch her when she reared up and started swinging before going back down. I didn't shoot her again but what I did to end her suffering will forever be in my mind and will be something that I never forget. It's something that I will always think of while preparing my equipment for service as well as before I take my shot.

Chad

[Pickwick]

Dang Chad! Them things will skin you up something terrible!! It probably didn't go down exactly like the way I imagined it when I read it though

[TheBig1]

Dang Chad! Them things will skin you up something terrible!! It probably didn't go down exactly like the way I imagined it when I read it though

Pick, it was a little worse than I would like to admit or would feel that people actually want to hear on here.

Chad

[Pickwick]

No man, we would like to hear about it

[Waif]

Pre cross-bow.
Probably another hunt after third shift and light was creeping in when starting into the woods.
Heading into a stand site a deer got up to my left about thirty yards.
I gave a couple grunts hoping to cover my presence with a better association than being human.
Watching it's legs showed it was swinging towards my front now.
I kept advancing to a slightly open area and grunted again.
It turned onto onto the East West run through the front of the forest a passing through type run.

"It" became "he", in now decent light, rubbing on a well worn small sassafras..
No stranger this well racked buck, but he had been avoiding me earlier in the season. With the rut near he was less cautious as I would soon find out.

Who needs more than two arrows?
I had a string tracker on the first and a matching shaft and head for a reserve.

The buck left the run towards where he heard the grunts, right to within about twelve yards.
At my shot below him he took a couple jumps then turned to look for the cause of the noise.
As he moved while looking he went between the fork of an oak and stopped to scan his back trail with his heart and half his lungs exposed.
Thawaack ! went my second arrow..... off the side of one oak trunk and the buck jumped ten feet.
Now I had his attention,and could use another arrow.
While pulling hard on the string tracker from first arrow with no good result, the buck decided took look me over closer, and closer, and closer.
I was reaching for my belt axe when he got to handshaking range.
He figured I was no deer by then somehow and turned back up towards the runway, no hurry.

Not the first time a good sized buck when doe fevered approached close, but the first and hopefully last time I'm out of arrows when one does so..

[TheBig1]

No man, we would like to hear about it

Well it's definitely something I'm not proud that had to happen but it was necessary to stop the suffering. It was archery season so any use of a firearm is against the law, even to put a suffering animal out of it's misery. So I grabbed the nearest thing which was a big, coffee cup sized stick, which was about 5 feet long and went to work.

We're all hunters and accept the death of an animal as a way of them giving their lives to sustain future life but this was not my proudest moment in the dispatching of an animal. It does bother me but it bothers me because I should've had better equipment and I should have been more efficient with said equipment. This was a time in my life where I didn't understand proper fitting of bows and would simply walk into a shop, pick it up, pull it back, and say, "That's a good one, I'll take it." Instead of getting a proper fit with a properly sized arrow, etc...

[BeatleBailey]

I grew up running dogs for deer in North Carolina. It really was not my preferred way to hunt but as a kid my choices were limited so dog hunting it was. My ugly kill was finishing of someone else's ugly kill. The dogs ran a doe and yearling by and old man and his grandson and they opened fire. I don't know how many rounds of buckshot they fired but apparently it wasn't enough to finish the job. It sounded like world war 3 had just broken out. I was 16 years old at the time and walked out of the woods to avoid becoming a static myself as they weren't far from me. I jumped in my Jeep and headed down the road about a 1/4 mile or so and pulled up alongside the club president. I shut my truck off and could clearly hear the bleats of a deer. Not a nice calm bleat but a screaming bleat. At the time I'd never heard anything like that before. The president jumped out of his truck. Opened his toolbox and handed me a framing hammer. He asked me to put the deer out of its misery. I'm sure at this point everyone knows how it ended.

[Hester0305]

I've had my share of Ugly Kills myself over the years and its always been with archery equipment for some reason, The 1st 8 pt I killed this year was a high hit that took 2 more arrows to finish off, 2 more than I wanted to use. I usually always aim low in the heart area for a quick kill but sometimes things don't always go as planned even though we practice all year to make that perfect shot.

[agingcrossbower]

OK, in my youth I shot a doe late season. Got the trackers together and a tracking we went. Followed it to some thick stuff and my friend Terry followed it under a fallen tree top. All of a sudden he says BACK UP, BACK UP, she is right in front of me. Well now what to do. No problem. I crawled up on top of the windfall and stopped over the doe. Took off my belt and made a loop and YOU KNOW, I hung the doe. No lie. We did more half assed crap like that and I am still shaking my head. THINK, THINK!!! Sure made for crazy stories over a beer or two. Crazy youth.

[j.krug]

Ugliest kill is the coyote in my avatar. I was standing in a hedgerow and saw him trotting along the field edge towards me. I knew I would have to make a quick shot through a small opening in the brush on a moving 'yote. Vortex was up and ready. He came into my scope at about 12 feet and as I pulled the trigger he spotted me, hunched down and turned away quickly to his right. Ended up spining him.

He tried to run away but his back legs dragged lifelessly behind him at an awkward angle to his front end. He dragged himself about 30 feet like this then laid down. I assumed, wrongly, that he would expire quickly and went for a walk around the farm to let him expire. Came back about 40 minutes later and when I got about five feet away he tried to get up and run away but couldn't. His front end and back end were twisted and grotesque looking. I hate coyotes but don't believe any animal should suffer needlessly so I quickly loaded another arrow and promptly put it through the back of his head ending his suffering instantly.

As a side note both arrows broke in half which really pissed me of but the Rage broadheads survived unscathed.

[VixChix]

Hunting in Alberta in the 80s I had to track and finish off my hunting partner's deer a couple of times. He'd made bad shots.

It's a lot tougher when you're standing right over them.

One was a fawn which he'd somehow shot in the jaw. It took off. He asked if I wanted to go back and get the truck or track. I chose tracking. Took his 270 semi auto because it was scoped and my gun wasn't. Tracked for two hrs. It always rested with its tail to me. Finally managed to get a shot behind the shoulder and that slowed it down. Then when I stood over it the gun jammed. Semis in Alberta winters would do that. Argh. I got my knife out. Just as I did i saw truck lights coming across the snow. Swapped for my gun and got it done. Needless to say that relationship soon ended.