During general rifle season as an adult, not during doe days or without MLD permits etc., there are you happy now lol.

I can take does during rifle season as an adult in an AR county. Still lost

Some AR counties have specific doe days. For instance Navarro county used to be fri-sun after Thanksgiving. Just 3 days. It is now the first two weeks of general gun. Each county is different.

Ok lol im not sure why this has to have a presentation made of it. In my response I said myself i chose my wording poorly. In most AR counties as i understand it, and the one that I own property in, you can shoot does by mld permit, in archery only season, as a youth in youth season, during the few doe days over thanksgiving, and perhaps during muzleloader season. They are very restrictive on doe harvest in my opinion. Most counties i hunt in are not AR counties and i can fill all my tags with does on any day of any season by any legal means.

Just food for thought that a lot of folks dont follow up well after the shot.

Unfortunately, I have seen people in my day who would have no more remorse in letting a wounded deer get away than they would in losing a fish. In both cases, their thoughts would be little more than "it happens". Like fishing, they would have no problem shooting at deer until they finally got one on the ground.

When a hunter spends enough time at the range and knows his/her limitations and shooting capabilities, any shot they take carries a very high probability of being a lethal hit. It's why they'll spend as much time as needed to cover the area as many times as needed to find it. Simply put, the deer is on the ground somewhere nearby and they know it.

I don't know if some else mentioned it, but I think in TX no blood = no dogs? Tracking a wounded deer with dogs is ok. A wounded deer is one leaving a blood trail.

He's right you know. Funny how some folks hate dogs being in the woods until they need one to bale them out after making a poor shot.

You are correct that a lot of people don't follow up well. However, your AR understanding is flawed. Doe restrictions and buck restrictions are completely separate - antler restrictions have nothing to do with restrictions on does. The county you have land in happens to have both doe restrictions and AR. I hunt in Mills county and can take up to 5 does but only one 13"+ buck. Five of the seven counties immediately surrounding me are the same way, only one 13" buck but tag out on does. There are likely some counties that do not have antler restrictions but do have doe restrictions.

Dan, you’re grouping every hunter into Roy Rogers with Daniel Boone tracking ability; and that ain’t happening in Texas.

I posted about the dogs since the OP said that he didn't find any blood and someone suggested dogs. In TX you can't do that. My self imposed darkness limit is closer to 15 minutes after sunset because of the possibility of the situation described.

Agree with what Texas Dan said - if practiced and confident (and not trying "beyond ability" shots), when the shot is fired, there should be no question of scoring a hit. Not that I am the greatest shooter in the west, but I was fortunate to harvest a buck last weekend. He showed no initial signs of being hit, just turning and bolting into thick brush. I waited 30 minutes or so, and started looking for blood. There was very little, and what was on the ground took me time to find and petered out quickly, but I knew it was a good shot and he would be down - he was and about 100 yards away.

I know there are exceptions (I once shot at a buck and searched for an hour for any sign, and when finding none went back to the original location and realized I had shot through a strand of barbed wire around the feeder pen), but like others have said, if confident in ability, there should have been no question that the deer was down somewhere and the second buck should not have been targeted.

Not really, at least IMO. I've known and read comments from hunters who use the presence of blood as the almighty rule of thumb in determining if an extensive search is even necessary. It's no exaggeration to say some of these guys will walk up to a feeder and quickly decide not to search at all if they don't see any blood. I'm sure there are some who are reading this now who follow that approach. I still communicate with a guy today who admitted he never knew a deer that had been lethally hit could bolt and run as if it was a clear miss. How did he learn this? He learned it the night I helped him find a doe that he had shot earlier that evening. In fact, the only reason why we went back to look for it was because I told him never to judge a shot as a miss without first looking for the deer. Now honestly, I'm not referring to a young guy but a man close to retirement age. He later confided in me that he may have left a lot of deer in the woods that he never looked for.

But I do agree with you that it's a way of thinking that may be more common in Texas where hunters aren't that interested in venturing far from their feeder for whatever reason seems reasonable. Their only defense is the never had anyone that could teach them the ropes. I mean, all anyone really needs to learn how to deer hunt in Texas is how to put together a feeder and sit back and wait for something to show up.

If someone shoots at a deer in the last 5 minutes of light and can't find it in the dark, the very first thing they should be doing at first light is looking for it not sitting in a blind trying for another one. That was the biggest mistake and in my mind is a waste of game.

Agree with Red Chevy and DQ’s first take on page 1 but this is what it’s about. Exactly. Bottom line you better have a friend close with a unused tag.

My deer I shot with my rifle this year did not bleed a single drop. Where I hunt is VERY VERY thick cactus and brush. Found him piled up 45 min after started looking less than 50 yards where I shot him. Had to have walked past him 3 times it’s so thick. I helped trail a 9 point last weekend that left good blood every 15 or so feet for about 30 yards and then stopped. We (6 of us) circled for 2 hours and found him the next morning just after daylight over 300 yards away. Shot was touch back it appeared. The hunter tagged it and called it good.

“There are written and unwritten laws. The written laws tell us what we can and cannot do while the unwritten laws tell us what we should and should not do.” T.D. Carroll, the Father of Texas Hunter Education
“ethical behavior is doing the right thing when no one else is watching- even when doing the wrong thing is legal.” Aldo Leopold
"Good hunting ethics are not usually covered by written laws. Ethics are a personal code which dictates how we act. It is conduct that is morally right, safe, proper and fair." TPWD

Next time the opportunity comes in the last 5 minutes of legal shooting time ask yourself if you are certain you can reasonably make an accurate shot. Having made that shot now. Ask yourself If you can't find the animal in the dark are you reasonably certain you made a good shot? Are you certain it was not a gut shot that could have allowed the animal to push on a little farther without a blood trail? Are you reasonably certain the terrain is such that you would have easily seen it in the dark when you canvased the area? If you still did not find the deer in the dark does the answer to those questions lead to you believe it prudent to come back at first light to search in daylight when you could more easily see the tiniest blood droplets or an animal on the ground from farther away? Ask yourself is the right thing to do now to keep hunting the next morning and shoot another deer first before making that search? Only you know your shot, how the animal reacted, etc. and your answers.

Having made your decisions up to then, shooting a 2nd buck, and finding the 1st buck, it is really more of an ethical issue than a legal one. Can you live with leaving it on the ground to waste, or to avoid a GW encounter, to avoid Deer camp embarrassment. Can you live with only retrieving the antlers and would it be right to hang them on the wall now? How will your buddy see you if you waste the animal? Would it be better to retrieve the extra deer, dress it out so it does not go to waste, and risk a gw check? Would calling the GW and pleading your case to clear you mind be better for you? Would asking or accepting a friend's offer of illegally but unenforceable, to tag your extra deer with his tag to keep you out of trouble or somehow justly the kill be ok to you? How will your friend see this, and will you reimburse your friend for his expenses now that his hunt or season is over? Could any of these decisions put your friendship or lease membership in jeopardy? And so on.

There are no right or wrong answers once the initial mistake has been made. Only your personal code as you make your own choices going forward. Such is life.

Agreed. It takes a greater sportsman to make the decision not to pull the trigger.

Hunting involves a lot more than just pulling the trigger!

the mistake was asking on here

Many good responses, in the end, some are strictly governed by their own code of conduct. But, I think there are many, many, silent hunters that would take that massive first buck and chop up buck two. Anyway or anyhow, it would puzzle the guy.

I would love to see these two bucks, please post pics

I'd still be looking for buck #1 the next morning and also confirming my gun was still zero before hunting again.