Someone asked me an interesting question about tracking that I really don�t have a clue the answer to. It kind of made me wonder myself after they brought it up. Does anyone have an estimate of how many deer across the state are wounded each year by hunters and never recovered? There very well may not even be an estimates out there but I figured the good folks here at aldeer could probably come up with one. What do you guys think? Do you think 5-10% of the total harvest would be in the ballpark. This would mean that one deer is lost for every 10 to 20 shot. What is our total harvest estimated to be, generally speaking?

I'd bet you are a little low on that number maybe not though.

I would guess if you including bow season in that estimate I would also say you might be a little low maybe 10-15%

Never lost one with a rifle and two with a bow. I manage to kill 4 or 5 a year.

But I hear stories all the time about people losing 2 or 3 a year with a rifle

Just based on the reports from LFTT this bow season, I would say about 1 in 3 is lost.

Way too freaking many. It happens much more than most think. I'd say only 65-75% of wounded deer are recovered.

Thats why I only shoot 25 yds with my bow. there are too many variables. The further you shoot the more a deer can react. Fast bow or not. I agree with Matt. The only deer Ive lost with my bow were shot with a mechanical.

How many of the wounded deer are actually wounded, and not just a miss?

There have been several times I have felt I was looking for a deer that was never hit, but the hunter was sure that it was.

I know there are many that are not recovered because people don't do their due diligence in looking.. Or say "Ah it was just a doe".

The hunter survey for 2013-14 estimated that we harvested around 270,000 deer if I'm reading that correctly. From the way its sounding most people are guessing that 10% of the total harvest is a little low and realistically I wouldn�t doubt it�s closer to what Matt is suggesting at 25%...that would be one lost for every 4 shot. If we stay somewhat conservative and go with 15% then that means that there are a little over 40,000 deer that go unrecovered.

Impossible to know because how many of those deer not recovered survived?

people need to learn how to shot if that's true ,,, damn !!!!!!


is funny though , all the deer i killed i can remember all five i lost one of those could not be retrieved from a flooded creek the others just could not be found . i killed my first deer in 75

And how many assumed misses were actually good hits? A guy I used to work with, MISSED a good buck one weekend. Monday at work he was telling me how it ran off unscathed and crashed off into the bushes.

After telling me that, the conversation went something like this, not word for word of course:

M) Did you not find any blood or hair or anything?
H) Nah, It looked fine when it ran off.
M) Well, did you look?
H) No, it was nearly dark, and I had to still pack up and drive home.
M) For real? You said you heard it crash through the bushes? Healthy deer don't normally do that. I'll bet your deer is pretty close to where you heard the noise.
H) Naw, it looked good when it ran out of sight.
M) Was it flagging?
H) What's that?
M) Was it's tail up when it ran off? Did it kick out or hump it's back up when you shot.
H) I dont know. I don't think it's tail was up.
M) Good Grief Man. Your deer is probably laying there, half eaten by now I was guess.

Fast forward to next Monday:
H) You were right. I found what was left of a decent 7 pointer where the noise was.
M) Imagine that.

Good point. I have heard of that happening also.

Metal muncher I've had that EXACT same conversation dozens of times. People have absolutely no clue what they're doing. Whether it's a lack of having a mentor and someone training them, ignorance, or just laziness, I'm not sure.

x2

It's not surprising that if the deer didn't go down, a few wouldn't look for it. We live in a throw away society.

I think your low too. People can't shoot and are terrible at blood trailing. People expect to find blood like its been thrown out of a bucket, sometimes that may be the case, but when its not, you have to get down on your knees and find it.

I think the gun losses are way higher than 10% for the general population of hunters. Among those I have hunted with it would be accurate to say the loss rate was lower than 10%, but overall it will be a lot higher.

Loss rates for bowhunting are usually higher BUT, studies done at military installations in the past have shown that a high percentage of hit/lost bow deer recover from an arrow wound. I would think a much higher % than with a rifle.

and then there idiots. A couple of guys in a club I had shot seven or eight deer one season and recovered ONE, and it was a day er so after it was shot. Neither was a good shot and insisted on shooting at deer at long range. Both shot 7mmRMs with Sierra MATCHKING bullets because "those bullets are more accurate". Well maybe, but they don't open up and kill deer effectively. So these two had a 87+% loss rate.

Idk this is a hard subject to estimate I think. For every 10 hunters who make good shots there is probably 10 hunters that take unethical shots or shots that they shouldn't take in the first place. Same could be said for tracking. For every hunter that spends the time to track his deer there is someone that doesn't look or only looks for like 15 minutes.