Wounded? Yes or No?

[Hunter-Habib]

Who's call is it on the reaction?

When in doubt, I trust the white hunter and/or the tracker.

 

[Mike B.]

Who's call is it on the reaction?

Not likely to the hunters as recoil won’t allow for you to follow the shot in all instances. A lot of times yes, but if the angle is weird and you shoot, it might bounce a tad bit more off the sticks than normal. So then that’s where the trust and experience of your PH comes into play.

I’ve seen animals fall over to a shot that weren’t even the intended target. I was hunting axis deer with my buddies in May. I was watching a buck that I thought was the main target. The shot went out, and that buck fell off all 4 legs and onto its side and then got back up and ran off. I was telling them to shoot again and they were confused because the target buck was dead. I’ve never experienced that before. I would have bet my life that the buck was hit and would have paid any trophy fee without question and I would have been dead wrong.

I personally prefer the speck of blood as the baseline but I’m never going to be the guy that argues with a wounded animal if my PH tells me he/she believes it was indeed hit and that is where trust of your PH to not screw your over comes into play.

 

[grand veneur]

I was going through some of the old threads and happened to come across a topic that made me think that it would bring about some constructive discussion which is probably due for some renewal. Hopefully, some of the members who are yet to embark on their first safari will find this useful.
The post is simply for educational purposes.

When, in your eyes as a hunter, do you accept that an animal has been wounded as opposed to a clean miss?

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There are many signs of a hit on the place where the game was standing, there is hardly any need to discuss them. The problem is more when I have shot at a game and it flees without giving any signs that it is wounded before or/and while fleeing and you find nothing on the place, how can I rule out that I missed it ?...I cannot do it !

You can maybe rule out a miss if an observer is there and has clearly saw the reaction of the game after the shot and where the bullet hit in the ground, but that is also very uncertain.

If there is the slightest suspicion of wounded game, a search is mandatory by law in our countries. Without any clear signs, a specialist with a dog is called in to help and some of the results of such searches by so-called "missed game" are sometime very surprising. Without a trained dog, something like this is not possible and this practice can hardly not be transferred to Africa. Perhaps you have more wounded game than you think.

 

[KMG Hunting Safaris]

If there is the slightest suspicion of wounded game, a search is mandatory by law in our countries. Without any clear signs, a specialist with a dog is called in to help and some of the results of such searches by so-called "missed game" are sometime very surprising. Without a trained dog, something like this is not possible and this practice can hardly not be transferred to Africa. Perhaps you have more wounded game than you think.

Quality tracking dogs are worth gold. I would estimate that we lose 1 per 100 animals due to our extensive use of dogs down here.
It amazes me when my American hunters tell me that using blood tracking hounds in their state is illegal. I simply cannot see a good argument for such a law.

 

[VertigoBE]

I've been in this position in Africa. On an eland no less. Multiple shots taken, and at least one where I was 100% confident of where my crosshairs were pointing at. (see my recent report).

We never found any blood, leakage, hair or anything. Tracked that bull for 2.5 days, until he finally jumped over a boundary cattle fence and just kept going.

I was willing to pay for it, as I was sure that I must have hit him at least once. And I trusted my PH for him to speak the truth and act accordingly. In the end it was considered a miss, and the eland was not added to the bill. I still do not know what happened those 2.5days.

 

[375Fox]

I think a lot depends on the hunt and who I am hunting with. I’ve been lucky in Africa I’ve made good shots and think I’ve hunted with some excellent PHs so I haven’t been in this spot. I have had a few clean misses though where all agreed. If I knew I hit an animal I’d tell PH even if no signs were seen or blood was found. I’ve become a lot more selective in the PHs I’ll hunt with. I’d like to think I can trust PH’s call if an animal was hit even if we can’t find blood, but hopefully there is blood so no question in PH’s mind or mine. I have had two incidents hunting roe deer in Europe though. Neither resulted in any blood. The first appeared to be far back and animal reacted like it was hit, but no blood or other sign was found. My guides sent for dogs and said it would be found. The guides later said it was a miss. I told them what I thought but was not charged. The second incident was a very long shot on a roe deer in pouring rain on final night of hunt. We agreed a hit but couldn’t find a deer and obviously no blood in the rain. They recovered the deer the next afternoon with dogs. It can be a bad spot to be in but I’d like to think I can trust the people I chose to hunt with.

 

[everett]

I would always defer to the ph. If he says hit; I pay the trophy fee. If I really thought he was trying to just get a trophy fee when it was a clean miss, I pay the trophy fee and hunt with someone else on my next trip.

I will also say that I’m more about the hunt. If I have a good hunt and I miss the shot, I’m ok paying the trophy fee for the experience.

Never had a problem with that in Africa. Actually shot a warthog across a valley on one trip. Followed blood for awhile until it got too thick. Had shot on video, and when ph (also land owner) watched video, he refused to let me pay. He said I didn’t kill that warthog, and another hunter was gonna pay the trophy fee on him. I ended up giving him the money in another way at end of trip because he refused to take as trophy fee.

 

[HankBuck]

Man, tough question.

I shot a white tail buck a number of years ago from a tree stand, only about 65 yards or so, 30-06, 165 gr pills, slight quartering-to shot. The buck didn't even react to the shot, let alone act as though he'd been hit. He just kept walking into a privet thicket 30 or 40 yards away. I sat there stunned, asking myself "how did I miss that???"

My youngest son was with me, he was probably 7 or 8 at the time. I finally said "well, let's go down there and see if there's any blood on the ground." It turned out to be a very good hit, with a nice pool of blood on the ground where he was standing when I shot, and a patent enough blood trail that my young son was able to "lead" the tracking job, right up to the dead buck 50 or 60 yards away.

Sometimes they act like they've been shot when they haven't been, sometimes they act like they haven't been shot when they have been. I just don't have a hard and fast rule on it.

@sgt_zim: that is very interesting reaction from a “Whitetail” ie: NO Reaction??
I’ve killed many whitetail - well over 150 including both rifle, shotgun and bow. In my limited experiance they are the MOST reactive of all big game animals, they always react and violently - jumping, running, kicking,….even clean pass thrus with a bow/arrow they always “react” although sometimes only jog a few feet-stop-drop dead. With a rifle or shotgun - never had one that didn’t either drop on the spot or run like hell. What you describe matches my experiance with Elk or Moose but NOT whitetail deer ——those sissies can’t “take a punch”.

 

[Tim Blackwell]

Personally, 3 things.
1. How the shot felt.
2. The animals reaction.
3. Finding blood.

 

[Hunt anything]

@sgt_zim: that is very interesting reaction from a “Whitetail” ie: NO Reaction??
I’ve killed many whitetail - well over 150 including both rifle, shotgun and bow. In my limited experiance they are the MOST reactive of all big game animals, they always react and violently - jumping, running, kicking,….even clean pass thrus with a bow/arrow they always “react” although sometimes only jog a few feet-stop-drop dead. With a rifle or shotgun - never had one that didn’t either drop on the spot or run like hell. What you describe matches my experiance with Elk or Moose but NOT whitetail deer ——those sissies can’t “take a punch”.

I’ve shot a lot of whitetail as well around 200 + or -, most did react most shot with a 7mm REM Mag but one memorable bow kill was a big doe that was eating acorns at about 15yds. When she put her head down to pick another acorn I shot her and she just kept walking so I shot at her again. She kept chewing the acorn for about 10 seconds and fell over dead. Both arrows hit her in the heart. She evidently felt nothing at all.

Another was a smallish 8 pt trailing a doe was shot 3 times and never picked his head up off of the trail.

Those are the only two exceptions I can recall of whitetail not reacting to being hit. Clean misses are another story , I’ve had them stand around until I could get my nerves together and make a good killing shot.