Your Personal Wounding Rate- Archery Elk

What is your personal wounding rate on elk with a bow? # unrecovered divided by # shot with an arrow

  • 0-10%

    Votes: 81 68.1%
  • 11-20%

    Votes: 15 12.6%
  • 21-30%

    Votes: 5 4.2%
  • 31-40%

    Votes: 2 1.7%
  • 41%+

    Votes: 16 13.4%

  • Total voters
    119
This is a great thread for trolls and antis.
Yeah we should just pretend that it never happens.

Maybe the sample size is too small or maybe Hunt Talkers are just very proficient bowhunters, but the numbers according to the poll are pretty surprising to me. I don’t think it’s really giving ammunition to antis when the vast majority of the respondents in the poll have wounding rates under 10%.
 
Imo most guys who consistently take animals with a bow legitimately have a low wounding rate. I know personally I feel every bit as confident with my bow as I do a rifle.

I feel that sloppy hunters are just that, regardless of what weapon they are using. I would venture to say those who wound a lot of animals with archery equipment most likely do the same with a rifle
 
I have a 100% loss rate on archery elk. I lost the first 2 that I shot in the mid 1980s. I hung up the bow for 15 years but went out again in the early 2000s and lost another bull. Shots were 20, 35, and 45 yards estimated. Though I practice quite a bit some years I haven't taken it back out.

I have killed somewhere around 40 elk with a rifle and drew blood on one that I know of that I didn't eat. I shot through a cow in the timber and hit one behind it that I never saw. I cut the track with blood in it or I wouldn't have known.
 
I actually never had the opportunity to take an elk yet. However I've been with family on many hunts over the years. I can remember only 2 elk that were wounded I've seen. Been elk hunting around 30 years now. 1st one was on a windy day and one of my cousins took a far last day shot. Hit far back on hind quarter. 2nd one was one of my buddies. He was new to archer and honestly needed more practice. He shot a cow in the front leg just above calf muscle. Excitement and lack of practice cause that one. Now I've lost a few mule deer throughout the years. I actually had a blade fall off in flight and cause a brisket hit. I should have checked them before I shot the tip was loose. It was a fixed blade broadhead. A few years back I got a shot at a big muley buck. I got excited pulled my shot and gut shot him. Tracked him for 2 miles and lost blood. I shoot my bow about 3x a week year round. I think it happens to the best of us.
 
I think their needs to be a slightly different angle taken when new bowhunters are being introduced to bowhunting. It is great to explain where and how far to shoot, but the emphasis needs to be if you don't hit the spot on the spot with an animal, you will not find it and you just wasted a precious resource. It's true. If you fling a hope and a prayer, it's highly unlikely to find it. If you take the extra seconds and double check that your shot will be good, send it.

Ask me how I know.
 
My archery elk wounding rate is 100 percent and every elk wounded has been recovered. I don't take risky shots with a bow or a rifle though
 
The second elk I ever shot I lost in some dense brush. A week later my next-door neighbor found it when he saw the buzzards. What really made me sick was that it was within 30 yards of where we had searched. We gave up too soon.

In all my years of working and playing in the woods I have come across many animals lost by hunters. The majority had been shot with rifles. Responsible hunters occasionally wound and lose animals but the vast majority are the result of slobs who don't give shit if they lose an animal. Here in Oregon, you can hunt archery season or rifle season but not both, so I think most of the slobs gravitate to rifle season. Maybe the percent of archery losses is slightly smaller here than in states where everyone and his brother goes out and flings arrows. I don't know.

When they first made it an either-or choice I was upset because it limited my hunting opportunities but now, I think it was one of the smartest things the commission ever did.
 
14 honest dudes at the moment
I have watched elk die from about any means possible to legally kill them. I would argue one well placed sharp broad head is about the most lethal way I’ve witnessed. I try to hit them between half and 2/3 the way up and most bulls don’t get out of my eye sight before tipping over.
 
If you wound and lose more than 40% of your archery shots, you should put your bow down. You obviously don't put enough effort into it.
If you’ve killed one or two and wounded one that’s 30-50% wound rate. If you’ve never shot a bow you could answer 0.

I’d bet it would turn into more of a bell curve if you could only participate with 8-10+ archery elk harvests.
 
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