Recovery Rates for Fixed-Blade and Mechanical Broadheads

[bowbum]

"Any" study that ask questions and has no method to validate the answers can be called "flawed."

My experiences on wounded deer are so lopsided toward rifle wounds not recovered that it is not even close.
I've bowhunted out of a lot of camps on a couple of continents and many states and provinces and some places that counted arrows before the hunt and after and I've found more rifle wounded deer in my own woods than archery wounded deer in all those places combined in all my years.

Of course there can be geographic exceptions in hunting ethics with groups from certain areas.....my New Jersey and Bucks County cabin neighbors are the most unethical and poorest hunters I've ever seen.

[Deleted]

I have also seen and found a whole lot more deer that have been wounded and lost/not recovered after rifle deer seasons. I think many of them are hit on drives when shots are taken at running deer. We used to find several during our winter inventory hikes when we hunted out of the Huntingdon County camp. Since moving to this camp in Somerset County, we have not found a single deer that was shot and lost, and that includes the ones we hunters from Camp Rip-N-Tear wounded and did not recover. Dave shot a wierd buck a couple of years ago that had a decent four-point antler on his left side but only a foot long spike on the other. When skinning this one we did find a wound in his left rear leg that had healed, probably from a rifle shot. The vitality of wild animals is amazing at times.

[GlennD]

Which brings me to:

I used to hunt with a group that had a farm adjoining Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland. Because of the size and limited access to the property, it has been full of deer for many years. Our adjoining farm was a major food source. Aberdeen was fenced with very high chain link and patrolled, but the deer were always finding openings especially in a big swamp the fence ran through. Plus, the farm and APG bordered the Bsh river, and the fence went out in the river about 20 yards and stopped. The deer would go around the end of the fence.

Anyhow, lots of deer and a bunch of bow hunters.

It was not uncommon to while field dressing deer to find multiple projectiles in the carcass. Broadheads, arrow shafts, rifle bullets and birdshot. Sometimes all four in a single deer.

Point is, sometimes we think a hit deer is lost, when in fact they do survive non-lethal hits.

[3212]

I wonder how efficient native american bowhunters were.I've read some accounts of their driving game into confined spaces before killing them.I wonder how much individual hunting they did.I'm referring to eastern deer not buffalo hunts.

[dougell]

I've killed quite a few deer with big mechanicals but most of the deer I've shot have been with muzzy's and slick tricks.My theory is this,big mechanicals seem to scare deer and they take off like a raped ape after being hit.Conversely,the majority of deer I shoot with fixed heads run,stop after about 30-50 yards,wobble and fall over.Other than one gut shot that I recovered the next morning,I can't remember the last time I didn't see a deer drop.

[ridgecommander]

Sept 4, 2018 7:46:03 GMT -5 dougell said:

,I can't remember the last time I didn't see a deer drop.

We need machetes down here when we blood trail. I can barely see the deer when I shoot them at 15 yards.

[dougell]

I know,it's a jungle down there.

[cspot]

Sept 4, 2018 12:00:39 GMT -5 dougell said:

I know,it's a jungle down there.

Just thinking back over the last several years, I would guess that maybe 25 to 35% of the deer in archery we shoot that we actually see drop. I would guess another 25% or so we hear crash just out of sight. Most of the deer that we shoot are within the 1st 2 weeks of archery.

[ridgecommander]

My experience is the same as cspot. I would say about 30% of the deer I shoot in archery drop within sight. Of course visibility is not the greatest from most of my stand sets.

[fleroo]

I've recovered way more than that for other hunters

Got some bloodhound in ya, do you ? How well do you take to a leash ?

[dougell]

I've done handcuffs several times as a yout but never a leash.