The first deer I ever shot went unrecovered. I was a teenager, hunting with Daddy and
several others at our club. We were
using shotguns and dogs as is traditional in that area. I was standing next to a small field when a
large buck (in my memory it has moose-like proportions, but in reality it was probably a nice
8 point or so) came out of the woods at a slow run about 30 yards away. I put two shells of 00 buckshot out of my old 870 into the deer
but it kept going. How accurate were
those shots? I don't know. I was 15 or so. I was a pretty good at turkey shoots but lousy
at clays. Did I actually aim at a spot
or just at the deer in general? Did I,
like Daddy reckoned, aim at the antlers? I don't know those things either, the
details are lost to memory.
Regardless, I stayed put until one of Daddy's friends
showed up and we started on the blood trail, a good one too. Plenty of the bright red stuff. Unfortunately, the deer made a straight line
for our property boundary, and crossed over into timber company land a couple
hundred yards away. I remember that, for
whatever reason, the blood between us and that landowner was worse that the crimson splattered on the sand, and we were
strictly forbidden from trespassing.
Could things have been different? Of course, looking back as an adult I would at
least call someone in charge and tell them the situation, a boy's first deer is
likely dead a short way across the fence.
I'm not sure if someone did anything like that or not. I just remember I was forced to give up.
Looking back on it I suppose the feelings from that incident could have been a part of
why I gave up hunting for a couple of decades. When I finally shot another deer it was messy as well, we
recovered her but not until she soaked up a finishing shot from another of our
hunters.
Those are distant memories though, and the two deer that I shot since I returned to hunting both had the
decency to die quickly and not very far away. I’ve spent a lot of time
thinking about how lucky that was, because I’ve read a lot of bad
accounts since then.
Lately I’ve thought even more about wounding since it’s archery
season now in Florida Zone C and I’m hunting with my recurve. I’ve practiced a lot and
feel pretty confident to 25 yards or so, but a 370 grain arrow from a 45 lb bow is a long way from a Barnes VOR-TX .270 round. My friend Charlie, who was a hunting guide on Catalina, wrote me a lengthy email
about tracking wounded game, emphasizing the positive mental attitude
aspect of it. He ended up editing it and it got posted on the blog of a
hunting club in California, its a pretty good read that doesn’t hide any gruesome details, I highly recommend any hunter taking this advice to heart.
So what happens if I do make a wounding shot, and after absolutely exhausting the
search find no carcass? I certainly don’t want to cause excessive suffering. But I also know
that many, if not most, wild animals die suffering, and in the woods
nothing is wasted. I’ll do my absolute best to do my part, if but
everything goes wrong and I don’t get the meat, the buzzards will.
And I
really like buzzards.
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| Nice mixed flock of Black and Turkey Vultures at Palm Point, Newnan's Lake |
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| Beautiful adult Black Vulture at Anhinga Trail, Everglades National Park |
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| Turkey Vulture in a pond cypress, Pa-Hay-Okee Overlook, Everglades National Park |
