Did I get lucky on my first kill? I missed 4 different deer over thanksgiving week. Anywhere from 15 to 40 yard shots. I am typically an okay shot at those distances but I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong? I am doing everything I usually do, could it be the bow? I will admit I do get the deer shakes but can calm myself down enough to shoot. Any help?

What distance do you practice at? Have you continued to practice since the season started? When was the last time you checked to make sure you were on target? Are you following through your preshot routine and making sure you hit your anchor point prior to releasing an arrow? Did you follow through on the after shot and hold your position? Are you moving the bow and trying to watch the arrow? Are you picking a spot on the animal, like a hair or muscle line, or just aiming behind the shoulder? Have you practiced from your stand?

With a bow, there are alot of things that can cause a miss.

Are you shooting high? Can you find a pattern in the misses...?

Missing high?
Missing low?
Are you finding arrows?
I missed big buck this year at 12 steps due to branches that were in my arrows line of flight but not my sights!
Get your target out and regroup!

Get the practice target out and work on the fundamentals. Concentrate on the sight and squeeze the trigger (not jerk it). It's very easy to get target anticipation and break the shot too early. This was my issue. I hit the range and start over fresh. Start shooting at 15 or 20 yards (or closer) and work on the fundamentals.

I have practiced out to 40 yards but not in a week or two. The all seem to be way left, and high. I have found the 15 and 26 yard one but not the further ones. I thought my sights were off after I missed the first 2 times so I tried to move them around and thought I fixed it but I was proved wrong again... Twice!!

Could it be my stabilizer being taken off? I seem to be able to hold the bow better if its lighter.

Can you hit a target. You should be able to answer if it's the bow or not.

Have you practiced with the broadheads that you are using or do you just practice with field points

So you just took the stabilizer off and expected nothing to change?

Shoot at a target and quit shooting at deer till you figure it out!

It could be anything.

The broad answer is that only you can answer the question with diligent practice/work.

I was using my hunting tips but I was spending to much money getting new broad heads because they got dull after shooting into target. Started using target tips. I decided to not hunt again until I can figure out my problem. I can go the target pretty good with the target tips though

Use your old dull blades to practice, then just replace with new sharp blades to hunt

You can sharpen broadheads...

Maybe I read it wrong but did you say you missed a few deer so you adjusted your sights but never practiced again to see if that was even a solution before hunting again?

You need to get to a good bow shop with a range and get someone to help you fine tune your bow.

Well I would shoot my target tips and then go hunt with my broad heads and would miss. Go back to house and adjust bow and sight in where I thought my arrows were shooting. I guess that's where I messed up. Would a target tip and a hunting broad head fly different?

Yes if your bow is not tuned 100%. If your bow is perfectly tuned you can switch back and forth between same grain tips. But if it is not (and yours definitely isn't if your BHs shoot THAT much different than a field tip) a broadhead will magnify any tuning issues you have.
If you don't know how to tune your bow perfectly to at least get the field tips and broadheads to fly close to each other, then stop shooting field tips for now and sight in with your broadheads. This may take adjusting the rest and the sights.

Definitely stop shooting at deer until your know where your arrow is going to go.

yep

Some do some don't.

Here are some recommendations.

Only hunt 1/2 as far as your practice. So if you practice at 40 yards only hunt to 20.

If your stand is elevated you need to practice elevated.

If you sighted it in with the stabilizer on then hunt with the stabilizer on.

Next time you go to your stand pick a target and shoot it before you get settled in from your stand. If you cant hit it go home and practice till you can.

Buck fever can make even a great bow shooter get the shakes when aiming at a deer. Doesn't take much of a shake to put UR arrow flight off target. A 1/2" of movement on realese will give u the misses u are describing. I would check UR arrows aswell. Roll them on a table to check for straitness. Shoot many arrows befor u start to adjust UR pins to eliminate shooter error vs. an off sight bow. Misses with a bow are usually shooter error. Don't underestimate the rush of buck fever. It still gets me every time. And what hunting is all about.

You must shoot like you practice. If you're in a stand practice from a stand. If you practice with a stabilizer shoot with one. If you're sitting in the stand/blind practice while sitting.

Start here.

if you are shooting high and left, it is probably a couple of things, either in isolation or more likely in combination.

1. For sure the BH will fly differently than FP so practice with the BH you have dulled.
2. Removing stabilizer will possibly affect flight of arrow, and the extra weight added may be helping more than hurting because
3. If you are pulling left and high it sounds like the lead arm (if you are shooting right handed) is pulling and possibly jerking at the time of arrow release. Make sure to proactice follow through as mush as the shooting process itself. Follow through with a gun or bow is as important as trigger pull, and compounded in bows since there is a split second of arrow contact on the bow after trigger pull. By lightening you bow, you have made it easier to pull/jerk on the follow through, so you may have accentuated this by removing the stabilizer.

Follow through and see if that is the culprit.

This was my first thought. Had guys miss some, and they were practicing standing on level ground, then climbing up a 12 foot tower.

Its called buck fever learn to control it and that will only take time! Once you get some harvests under your belt you will learn to feel your feelings after the shot. If the equipment is not the problem then you gotta start looking in the mirror, its part of the joy of hunting...examining yourself.

If field points and BH are not shooting with in an inch or so of each other your bow is not properly tuned, this is assuming your BH and FP are the same weight. If you change anything you need to make sure you are still properly grouping arrows and then use the sights to move the group to the bulls eye.Given a properly tuned boy groups differ in sizes depending on your skill level. One guy is happy with a 3 in group at 20 yds another with a 6 in group at the same distance. IMHO if you can't keep it in less than a 6 in group you shouldn't be bow hunting. Not trying to be preachy just need to be fair to the animals we hunt. My goal is to have to shoot different spots to keep from ruining arrows. It just depends on you, once the bow is tuned.