Well today was another great day to be hunting. The weather was perfect for deer movement, as was the moon phase. Within an hour of me getting to my new favorite spot and climbing a tree, I began seeing deer. About an hour before dark (around 6pm i think) I got a shot opportunity at a doe only about 5-10 yards in front of my stand. This sounds like an easy shot, the only problem is that I was 25 feet off the ground so the shot was at an extreme downward angle. This kind of shot is not that unusual for bowhunters. So I took the shot, heard the arrow hit and watched the doe run away. First problem, as she ran off I could see my arrow still stuck in her, this is odd. So I wait a while and then climb down to track her. Second problem, I didn't see any blood. But since my arrow was stuck in her, I knew I had hit her. So I continued to follow her tracks for about 50 yards and started to see a lot of blood, this is good. About 50 yards further and the blood stops, this is bad. At this point it is pitch dark out, I had a flashlight of course but still tracking in the dark is hard. So I continue following the trail that I would guess she followed and never saw any more blood, never found my arrow, and never found a dead deer. This happens sometimes, I know, but I can't help but feel like crap. I have absolutely no problem killing an animal I'm going to eat, but wounding one leaving her to die, that's no good. Which maybe she won't die, maybe the arrow will come out, the wound will heal and she'll be back to normal in a few days. But I somewhat doubt that. And if it does heal, I still hurt her and slowed her down from carrying on with her life for a few days. So basically I cause harm to an innocent animal, an animal that I have a lot of respect for, and in the end it happened for nothing. I suppose these things happen. Should I have passed up the shot and let her continue moving and feeding and tried to get a better shot? Did I just not aim where I should have? Did I shoot too quickly and cause a bad shot? I don't know the answer to any of these questions, but figuring out the answer is the next step in my progression as a bowhunter. I guess tonight is just a case of my hobby, which I dedicate a lot of time and resources too, raring it's ugly head and teaching me a valuable lesson. As always, thanks for reading. I'll leave you with a couple of quotes from great hunters of the past.
"I have never felt that a hunter is morally qualified to hunt a noble animal if he has not prepared himself to overcome reasonably forseeable problems" -William Negley
"A peculiar virtue in wildlife ethics is that the hunter ordinarily has no gallery to applaud or disapprove of his conduct. Whatever his acts, they are dictated by his own conscience, rather than by a mob of onlookers. It is difficult to exaggerate the importance of this fact."
Aldo Leopold
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