My wife shot her first deer today

[CarJunkieLS1]

As the title states my wife shot her first deer today and it didn't go exactly as planned. It was 6:30 am and a little doe (no spots) walks in on us. My wife slowly raises her rifle as the deer is walking away from us. Its ~35yds standing still quartering away very hard and she fires.

I saw the doe flinch and run with its tail down so I know she hit it. We wait 25-30min and go find where she shot it. We find hair and very little blood. We track the blood for 40yds and then we find a big pool of blood. Follow the trail for another 100yds or so and the blood is getting less and less and eventually dries up.

I call a friend who is way more experienced than us and he doesn't find blood we just fan out and grid search for the doe. About 3 hrs later I jump the doe and it runs through a fence across the street and into a field. Doe had blood on its left side shoulder and had a little limp but otherwise was fine. IMO it will live but we feel horrible she literally cried. I feel like it is my fault as I had a better angle and could've easily put it down. I'm almost positive with the angle she had and where she said she aimed that it was just a grazing because of the severe angle.

Just wanted her to get her first deer and this happens. Heart Broken at this point

 

[Rusty59]

Sorry to hear about that I did almost the same thing last year it sucks but there are plenty of deer to go around and your wife will have many more opportunities to get a deer
Good luck

 

[WayBeau]

Deer are tough animals, if she's still running around, she'll likely be fine.

Tell your wife to keep her chin up. Even the most experienced hunters miss, or put a bad shot on a deer, every now and then.

 

[CarJunkieLS1]

Thanks for the kind words. We will work on shot placement this off season. She can shoot very well on paper. Next weekend we will try again hopefully with better results

 

[WayBeau]

If she's good on paper, I'd work on controlling the 'buck fever'. Have her take several deep breaths to calm her nerves before gently squeezing the trigger. You'd be surprised how quickly she'll be able to put a good shot on a deer. Unless the deer is moving, she'll only need 5-10 seconds to get settled down and on target.

 

[CarJunkieLS1]

WayBeau that is something I've been trying to teach her since last year. I thought she was OK but she told me after I made this post that she felt like her heart was in her throat and that she didn't hold her breath.

I believe "fever" got her and she pulled the shot. I'll have to do a better job of teaching.

 

[J-Bar]

I'm 70 years old and have been deer hunting a long time. I took a doe on opening day, two weeks ago. My heart was pounding and my hands were shaking as I braced the rifle against a tree trunk to make the shot.

If I ever lose the feeling of excitement when I see a deer, I will quit hunting.

Coach her to not fight the excitement, but to learn how to control it. It's impossible to keep the sights absolutely motionless; teach her to focus on trigger squeeze while the front sight or reticle is bouncing around within the chest area. Set up your target, make her jog around for a few minutes until she is out of breath, then have her make the shot. When she sees that she can make an acceptable hit on the target even when she is breathing hard, you will both gain a lot of confidence.

 

[Yarddog]

"If I ever lose the feeling of excitement when I see a deer, I will quit hunting"

I love that first deer I see out of the stand.. Better luck to her on her next shot,
anyone hunts long enougf they'er bound to lose one or two ; )
Y/D

 

[buck460XVR]

Hopefully this experience will not turn her off to hunting, but instead motivate her to be a better shot. One problem I see when folks start out hunting is that they practice shooting at a black circle in the middle of a big piece of paper. This makes aiming for a particular spot easy. Then when a deer stands if front of them, because there is not a definite spot on the animal, they tend to aim for the whole deer. Especially at close range when they feel it's hard to miss. While it's hard to miss, it's easy to miss the vitals. I've found that using deer shaped targets, even simple cardboard cutouts works better for new hunters than standard bullseye targets(both for gun and bow) as it make them "pick" a spot on the deer to aim at. Then the hit can be evaluated as to whether it was a kill shot and the "spot" adjusted if needed. Training and getting used to picking a spot on a deer target makes it an easier to pick the right "spot" on a live deer in the woods.

 

[WayBeau]

the jogging around thing is something I've done for archery practice. if you have a set-up for rifle practice that will allow for this same type of activity, I'd give it a try. I'll also second the deer shaped target.

One thing that's worked well for me is very briefly closing my eyes after I've gotten my point of aim on the animal. Close my eyes, take a very deep breath to settle, then open them again and take the shot. J-Bar hit the nail on the head, don't ever lose the excitement.