[acridlon]

Sure I would still be proud, but I also wouldnt put on like I did everything right either. I see nothing wrong mounting the deerand slapping my tag on it. I did everything right up to the point of impact, or maybe it was a tracking error, or just inexpierience. I would be proud that I stuck with it and was atleast able to salvage something from the expierience.
I do see you point about guys acting like it was a clean kill, but I think that is just their insecurity showing through. I dont hunt to show off for other people, and the stories I chose to share are to show an expierience good or bad...

 

[Flecky]

i had it happen once before, its not so much pride by then as it is relief for me, i hate to loose anything that i shoot, i didnt hunt for the following four days until i found him

 

[slickstalker]

:thumbs_do I can't even imagine such behavior but I know it happens. These individuals must have a very messed up sense of self. If this makes them proud enough to brag and such, what on earth does it take to feel bad about what they have done? That's scary. :behindsof

 

[dressed2kill]

What else would you do with it? Throw it away? Leave it there?

 

[JG358]

"Would you be proud of a deer that you grassbagged and found later, knowing full well you screwed up? "


Proud???? Nope no braging from me in a situation like that(thankfully I've never had to deal with a stuation like that), the rack would just end up in the garage with the roadkill racks and sheds.

 

[WIbow]

What would Tred Barta do? Don't take sh*t shots...period. Be humble and find that animal,have him mounted and everytime you look at him,realize you could have done him better and learn from that mistake!!:darkbeer:

 

[DIESEL40]

Happened to me once, at my cousins farm a few years ago. Two weeks later was shot gun season and one of my uncles buddy smelled something dead and found it in a large brush pile in the bottom of a large swale said he was ten feet from him and couldn't see him but could smell him. he got way up in there. I was sick after we couldn't find him but I still count him as a kill BUT I always mention that he was not found until two weeks later.

 

[Pickert]

It happens

Yes, actually have one on my wall now.
I shot one about 5 years back that I made a bad shot on (a gut shot, hit him too far to the left). The shot was 27 yards, within my confident range of 30 yards that I had at the time. He came out from the corner of the timber into a cut bean field. It happened quick and he almost caught me off guard. Grabbed my bow and settled for the shot. Shot and hit him back to far. It was getting later in the evening and getting darker at the time of the shot but still light enough to see my pin and the deer fine. We looked just around the area that I shot that night and headed out later the next morning. Nothing! We looked for several days after that with no luck. The area that he went into is Thick, full of cedars and brush. Lets just say I was a little dissapointed and sad after that. Then about a week later a guy my dad worked with at the time asked if we had shot a deer and couldn't find it. And my dad told him yes that I had. Well his son, our neighbor, came across him when he was **** hunting one night. He told us to stop by his house and see if it was the one I had hit. And right away I could tell it was. He had a fork on his left G2. and white tipped tines. He was a deer we had several pics of from earlier that season and were hunting. I saw him once earlier in the season. He is actually the reason why we hung the stand I shot him out of and another one. Our neighbor, Bruce, gave me the deer and I can't express the feeling I had and still get to this day. He is a very nice guy and not only gave me my buck but another nice one he had found ealier when **** hunting on some other property.

I am actually sitting here looking at the buck right now. And everytime I look at it I think about the hunt and the emotions that I felt from before it unfolded to after it was all over and the roller coaster ride in between. And that is hunting in a nut shell I guess. Sure it would be great if we never had to recover a deer that way that we made a bad shot on. And I will be the firsrt to tell you that, I made a BAD shot but those things happen. No one wants to make a less than ethical shot on an animal but it happens. And the memories that go along with that be it good or bad will most likely never be forgoten. Though we try to learn from our mistakes, they still happen and will happen to everyone if you hunt long enough.
So yes I cherrish my trophy. I wish I not only could of had the rack but the meat but those things happen no matter how bad.
And I tell everyone I shot it but I also tell them the story memories that go with it.:darkbeer:

 

[xswanted]

A similar situation happened to my Dad two years ago.

He was hunting way late in the year here. Around the end of December and snuck up on a nice four by four in a cattail slough. He took the shot he had which was a head on shot and the deer took off up over a small hill.

He tracked and tracked and tracked. The deer made it a little over a mile at that point.

He didn't want to give up though so on New Years eve day he and I went to look for it. This was about two days later and a snow storm had gone through the night before. We were pretty sure we wouldn't find it.

We started walking and separated. My dad came up over a hill and saw four coyotes eating on something so he walked over and sure enough it was his deer.

Skull, horns and spine were all that was left.

He's still very proud of that one.

 

[Lien2]

......."bragging to your buddies..."

No, but I would be glad I found it and it would give me peice of mind to know what happened. Everybody "screws up" sooner or later.

Lien2