Recovery of Big Game – Evening Hunting
This article will be more of requested of receiving comments from the readers. I have been watching a great deal of programs on the Outdoor Channel with both rifle hunters and archery hunters when I have the time to do so in recent years.
I have to say there are some great hunters out there both female and male that get the job done and make the shows real.
The following words, which I write in this story, represent my views on subject of recovery of big game at night.
Hunters choose various times to hunt which range from dawn to dusk, hunt the morning only, and hunt the evening only.
Today, I am going to talk about the evening hunt from around 1300 to dusk! So much game is spotted just before short minutes of ending legal shooting times. Shots are made during that time frame and there is what should be the recovery time. Recovery time includes time for the animal to exhaust from the shot and then we are into the actual recovery time which is darkness.
I am amazed at the technology of the knowing the animals whereabouts and their movements at any given time with the aid of trail cameras, boundary systems and GPS systems. This will tie into my words with the recovery of big game without saying anymore…
In my young adult years, my Dad (Bill) and Uncle Dave, taught me when you harvest an animal in the hours before dusk, that you make every attempt to recover the game before leaving the field. I continue to live by that code to his day. Only one time I have not been able to locate an animal at dark, though my partner and I spent more than 4 hours trying to do so, plus my son turned around some 60 miles away to help locate the deer (the deer is alive today). This just happened to be in 2012 during the general archery season and I have been bow hunting since 1970.
On one particular program there was hunt in a Western State during an archery season for Antelope – Pronghorn. The hunter was hunting the afternoon prior to dusk and makes what appears to be a great and solid shot. On the video we all see the Lope go lay down and this was prior to darkness, it appeared to be about a ¼ mile away from the hunter and his crew. It almost broke my heart when the next part of the video showed the hunters going on recovery in the morning. Considering the light of the day, one would think they ate breakfast first before attempting recovery. What they found at the sight was just a skeleton of the Pronghorn that had been stripped of all meat and hide by coyotes. I was amazed it still had it horns as coyotes love the horn. This was a trophy Pronghorn that the meat went to waste, but fed the predators. I did not finish watching the program, as I could not believe the guide did not know or tell them a Pronghorn left overnight will be stripped. It is very hard for me understand why they did not go after the Pronghorn a bit later. Plus are we to assume that they continue to keep hunting and the horns went to the barn?
Years ago I lined up a hunter in the Silvies Unit of Oregon with waypoints for harvesting a Boone & Crockett Pronghorn. He found “thee buck” in the evening, shot the buck. It was not the best shot and he watched the buck head out into the sage brush and lay down outside of Riley, Oregon. It was getting dark and he decided waited until the next morning to find the buck, what he found was nothing but hair! It had been stripped by coyotes also. My comment to him later was “what were you thinking?”
This is not the first time on these programs that the hunters waited until the next morning to find their kill! Ok! We all can have a bad shot, but leaving an animal over night with the bad shot, the meat is not going to be premium quality. The animal was alive and the fluids of a bad shot still affect the overall meat quality even though it might freeze. Then again during general bow season it should swell right up from the heat. So was it just about the trophy, the kill or the amount of footage on the video? There could be the other side of the coin that they are showing what can happen with a bad shot and what to expect. I am one that doesn’t want to know or see that type of footage; it leaves a bad taste in everyone’s mouth.
Lastly there is the shot on an animal that should have never been taken, such a Mountain Goat on a pinnacle at 1000 yards cross canyon and the goat is not anchored in his tracks with the shot and free falls 6000 or so feet to the creek bottom and no recovery can be done. Heck of a shot, but the judgment of recovery was not there no matter what time it was shot!
We all have lost game over the years and the more time you spend in the field it can happen via a bad shot, miss or a non-fatal shot. In Oregon during the general seasons of rifle a bad shot can be opportunity for the next person in the canyon… Archery hunting that is not the case, which is why most of us will bow hunt for solitude!
Maybe some hunters are afraid to be in the woods after dark as they might fear a predator or even the “boogie man.” Just maybe they can’t handle darkness and lack the ability to walk in the dark. A large number of hunters have never had the opportunity to run a night mission out of country (combat). Plus in many states it is legal to carry a sidearm during archery and rifle season for protection. Hunters will pack a sidearm for protection against the 2 legged predators, so why not four legged predators? Ok! Sometimes it just feels great to carry a 1911!
In most states which, doesn’t include my home state of Oregon, bow hunters can use lighted nocks which can help a great deal with recovery of a hit the animal, you can tell if the animal was hit, direction of the animal’s travel if it sticks in the animal for a while and if the arrow passes through the animal you can check the blood content.
There are number of the seasoned hunters on these programs that will seek until they find the game at night and I applaud them. We all know these hunters and those are the one’s I am going to tune into the future!
Bwana Bubba
Al, I remember the time you hunted the Chesnimus Unit in Oregon for Elk. You shot a dandy branch bull
in very deep snow. You could not find the bull and it was getting late and you were aways from camp.
You keep the search up, though you couldn’t find anymore tracks on a steep hill side. Wonderment I believe is
what you had, but circle and circle to find that bull had jumped and landed on the opposite side of a large
down Douglas Fir. I know because of the bears in the area that you pulled that bull out at night and didn’t get
back to camp until 0200! Al you were always a good man to back out the game and leave nothing, such as the time
with the Aoudad down deep in Devil’s Canyon! We boned and you packed it! Hoorah! To bad you not in Oregon to
re-live a new Elk Hunt! Cobra
Good stuff Frank!
In Idaho, if a predator eats your animal while you are trying to recover it then you can go to F&G and they will issue you another tag. I tracked a bear, that I shot about 5 years ago, for about 3 hours before we finally found it right at dark. That was with 4 of us combing the mountain and searching a larger area each hour. I should have remembered my training, as we found the bear downhill, like most wounded animals travel.
I hope everything is well with you in Oregon!
Thanks! Rich Hersey
I agree. This disturbs me also. In Oregon it is not legal to waste game meat and in MHO that is what is happening. I watched a Oregon coast black bear hunt on a sports channel were there was a 400 yard shot taken about 30 minutes before end of shooting light. It was a dead right there shot. They shot the bear across a 400 yard clear cut and then said they would retrieve it in the morning!!!!! Made me mad.
I think they do it so there is daylight when they retrieve the animal so they can film the successful hunter beside the trophy. I am sure the meat was probably bad though since the animal was not properly cared for after the shot.
Roger S.
Well said, Frank!
Can’t believe anyone would leave an animal over night whether it be on a hot day or a cold one. I can’t remember a time I’ve left an animal such as you describe. This is part of the hunt, and teaching the proper way to hunt to your kids should include the care and preservation of an animal whether you intend to feast or just boast about the hunt. It is often heard about “the one that got away”, but personally, I would not want the story under my belt about the one I “let get away” because I was afraid of the dark.
LCDR Al Murray U.S.N. Retired