Is it Just Me? Or .....

Is it just me? Or does anyone else in the bowhunting community get irritated with many of the deer hunting vidoes on Youtube? I'm of course referring to the growing number of vidoes in which the hunter wounds or maims the deer and then does not recover the animal. Believe me, I have had a few non-recoveries in my 26 years of bowhunting, but it just seems like nowadays the hunters are more concerned with the shot they're getting with their camera rather than the shot they are getting with their bow. I understand stuff happens, hit a twig, the deer ducks the arrow, etc. What I don't understand is the now seemingly too prevelant statement of "oh man, I don't know what happened. I was right on him." obviously NOT otherwise you'd harvest the deer, instead of making him suffer for months before dying in winter from being gut shot. I have infinitely more respect for someone making a good shot on a doe and recovering it than I do for a guy making a bad shot on a 12 pointer and never finding it. Kudos to the fellas like SlowBow and guys on Youtube making quality, REAL videos on actual Public Land with good clean kill shots. Like I said, I understand crap happens and shots get flubbed, I know it happens to everybody, its happened to me. But it just seems like now everybody is more worried about "getting it on film" instead of hitting the vitals with their arrow. I think we need to have some respect for our prey. Sorry that's just my 2 cents

Well thank you so much madeforthewoods! I do appreciate the kind words. I try not to be too critical of many of the videos I see. I know firsthand the elation of getting that first good footage, but not a shot, and wanting to share it. Or, making a bad shot but still being so excited you got it on film you want to post it. I to have shaken my head at some of the videos I've seen, even though I do relate to the excitement of having captured your first shot on a deer on film. It happened to me in our video Stuffed Green Peppers. As you might be able to tell by the video title, we included a recipe at the end, because with a load of help from my wife we did recover my gut-shot animal.

It provided a platform in the video to discuss bad hits, and how to track them. That aside, I know that if you hunt long enough, and do a lot of it, you'll miss, or worse, make a bad shot. While this does happen, I think discretion should be used when posting video to a public medium involving wounding losses and poor shots.

We all know it can and does happen. We also know that for most ethical hunters, it is a very rare thing to have happen, but if it does do we really need to let the whole world know that it did?

I accepted going in to filming my hunts that it would probably cost me game. I have blown it and messed up trying to get the camera on target before shooting, spooked deer made them too nervous to shoot at, taken too long and lost the opportunity. You have to accept that and not try and rush the shot and make a bad hit if it does. For every hunt I post making a kill, I'll bet I have three where I didn't get the shot and just loaded the footage onto my external. Sometimes you can use it, you may have seen clips from that stuff in my trailers. But most of the time it just gets parked.

Self filming isn't for everyone, you have to be willing to sacrifice your shot on the game for the shot of the game if need be.

Yes I agree with you 100%. I have attempted to film many of my hunts for about 3 or 4 years now, even attempted to film my son's hunts and my wife's. And to date I have only actually got one on film, and I didn't even get the "moment of impact" because I was too into watching my son shoot his deer. And I have never had a perfect enough scenario to where I myself could film and kill at the same time, so therefore I haven't. I have filmed and I have killed, but never simlotaneously. And luckily I haven't filmed & wounded because if I have to choose, I choose my bow over the camera. But like you said, you have to be willing to sacrifice your shot on the game for the shot of the game if need be.

Great thread, I agree brothas!!!

There is a guy on YouTube who calls himself "bowninja" he only hunts from the ground and does a great job videoing himself. Check him out ...

Lost my first buck this year. Was the largest Buck I have ever shot or even seen, 8pt and was def a couple inches outside the ears. A tall, wide, boxy looking rack. T It was at dusk when I shot and it immediately started to rain. I only waited 20 min before I started tracking because of the rain. The blood trail was amazing and there were a lot of bubbles in it so I was pumped that any second we would stumble on him. After finding 2 larger blood spots where he bedded down and crossing the creek, the rain had just washed too much blood away and the trail was gone! We packed it out and I spent 10 hours the next day, including bringing dogs in (yea, I know, the rain washed the sign) looking for that deer.... I was SIKK, still haven't got completely over it.

Thanks for the link to bow ninja. I'm always looking for new hunting series on YouTube.