Deer get easier to kill?

[Jolan]

Did the deer get easier to kill with a bow?  Or have I just run across the region's stupidest deer?  I still can't seem to hit the broadside of a dog house but I've killed two deer with another dying after bleeding all over the farm.

 

[Doc Gonzo]

They do get easier to kill with a bow in my opinion but there's still an uncontrollable element of luck involved. 

My best advice is to sneak up on the deer from behind but at an angle where you can clearly see the its flank.  When you're close enough that you feel you can hit the deer with reasonable success stand, draw your bow and aim for the deer's front quarter. When you stand though you'll have to be very quick as the animal will spook, as you likely already know.

My wild guess is that I'm able to drop seven out of ten deer these days while bow hunting.  Of the remaining three shots, one might miss and the other two will wound.

It really does get easier with practice though ...

[Drifter Man]

My preferred tactic is to sneak sideways around the deer until I am directly behind it. When you are directly behind, the deer does not notice you even when you stand up to shoot and you have more time to aim correctly. In addition, when you hit the flank, there is a risk that the deer will collapse onto the flank, your arrow will sink into the ground and you may not be able to recover it.

Note that if the deer suddenly stops as you approach (outside of the regular stops it makes, which make the perfect opportunity for an accurate shot) and starts sniffing the air, you are too close and must stop moving immediately. If you make another step, the deer will run away.

When hit into the hindquarters, it takes 40 minutes for the deer to bleed out. If you are less lucky and hit a leg, it is 2 hours.

I'm credited with 135 deer in my current 431-day Voyageur run - almost all of them with the bow. Drifter Man, Inc., does not condone the wanton destruction of wildlife.

[Dirmagnos]

I hunt deer purely by wolf.

Circle deer, from safe distance, that he would be on same line as wolf, then charge it. Deer run away... just to be attacked by wolf(and since escape mechanic is broken, it just runs into wolf). Wolf kills deer. I approach. Wolf charges me. I put an arrow into its head at point blank range of couple of meters at most.

1 arrow = 2 corpses. Plenty of meat, guts and hides with little to no effort. Such method of hunting is actually the easiest on Stalker, since there is a lot more wolves than in other difficulties, while their strength is the same. So having both deer and a wolf in your los is fairly common occurrence.

[Jolan]

14 hours ago, Drifter Man said:

My preferred tactic is to sneak sideways around the deer until I am directly behind it. When you are directly behind, the deer does not notice you even when you stand up to shoot and you have more time to aim correctly. In addition, when you hit the flank, there is a risk that the deer will collapse onto the flank, your arrow will sink into the ground and you may not be able to recover it.

I wondered about my arrows.  Thanks!

[Jolan]

17 hours ago, Doc Gonzo said:

They do get easier to kill with a bow in my opinion but there's still an uncontrollable element of luck involved. 

My best advice is to sneak up on the deer from behind but at an angle where you can clearly see the its flank.  When you're close enough that you feel you can hit the deer with reasonable success stand, draw your bow and aim for the deer's front quarter. When you stand though you'll have to be very quick as the animal will spook, as you likely already know.

My wild guess is that I'm able to drop seven out of ten deer these days while bow hunting.  Of the remaining three shots, one might miss and the other two will wound.

It really does get easier with practice though ...

front quarter ok - is that because they run away from you?

[Jolan]

8 hours ago, Dirmagnos said:

I hunt deer purely by wolf.

Circle deer, from safe distance, that he would be on same line as wolf, then charge it. Deer run away... just to be attacked by wolf(and since escape mechanic is broken, it just runs into wolf). Wolf kills deer. I approach. Wolf charges me. I put an arrow into its head at point blank range of couple of meters at most.

1 arrow = 2 corpses. Plenty of meat, guts and hides with little to no effort. Such method of hunting is actually the easiest on Stalker, since there is a lot more wolves than in other difficulties, while their strength is the same. So having both deer and a wolf in your los is fairly common occurrence.

I haven't been able to hit a wolf yet - so I have had to kill them the old fashioned way.   

[starfighter441]

44 minutes ago, Jolan said:

I haven't been able to hit a wolf yet - so I have had to kill them the old fashioned way.   

And don't we just hate that???  I know I do.

[Doc Gonzo]

12 hours ago, Jolan said:

front quarter ok - is that because they run away from you?

No, I aim for the front quarter because (again in my experience) that area is most susceptible to producing an instant-kill shot.  The last thing I want to do is chase after a wounded animal if I can help it.  Most of the time if I can hit that animal in the front quarter it will instantly drop. Here's an image of a deer that I marked up to illustrate where I try to aim.  The image isn't ideal (to my way of hunting) as the deer is coming toward the camera and is already spooked but it still clearly shows the area I aim for.

[Doc Gonzo]

21 hours ago, Drifter Man said:

My preferred tactic is to sneak sideways around the deer until I am directly behind it. When you are directly behind, the deer does not notice you even when you stand up to shoot and you have more time to aim correctly. In addition, when you hit the flank, there is a risk that the deer will collapse onto the flank, your arrow will sink into the ground and you may not be able to recover it.

Note that if the deer suddenly stops as you approach (outside of the regular stops it makes, which make the perfect opportunity for an accurate shot) and starts sniffing the air, you are too close and must stop moving immediately. If you make another step, the deer will run away.

When hit into the hindquarters, it takes 40 minutes for the deer to bleed out. If you are less lucky and hit a leg, it is 2 hours.

I'm credited with 135 deer in my current 431-day Voyageur run - almost all of them with the bow. Drifter Man, Inc., does not condone the wanton destruction of wildlife.

Shouldn't you be in the damn fiddling with spreadsheets and such?

Kidding of course.  Wanted to chime in that this is also spot on advice with regards to hunting deer with a bow in TLD.

[elloco999]

On 28-3-2016 at 11:21 AM, Drifter Man said:

In addition, when you hit the flank, there is a risk that the deer will collapse onto the flank, your arrow will sink into the ground and you may not be able to recover it.

When this happens, remember the spot the deer fell (you can also mark it) and come back to collect your arrow after the carcass has disappeared. Note that arrows can be blown away by the wind, so if this happens on the ice it's possible your arrow is nowhere near where the carcass was.

[Jolan]

16 hours ago, Doc Gonzo said:

No, I aim for the front quarter because (again in my experience) that area is most susceptible to producing an instant-kill shot.  The last thing I want to do is chase after a wounded animal if I can help it.  Most of the time if I can hit that animal in the front quarter it will instantly drop. Here's an image of a deer that I marked up to illustrate where I try to aim.  The image isn't ideal (to my way of hunting) as the deer is coming toward the camera and is already spooked but it still clearly shows the area I aim for.

Cool!  Thanks!

[Jolan]

8 hours ago, elloco999 said:

When this happens, remember the spot the deer fell (you can also mark it) and come back to collect your arrow after the carcass has disappeared. Note that arrows can be blown away by the wind, so if this happens on the ice it's possible your arrow is nowhere near where the carcass was.

they can be blown around?   It would be funny if it was like a real wind and blew all the "trash" into one spot.

 

[Doc Gonzo]

8 hours ago, Jolan said:

they can be blown around?   It would be funny if it was like a real wind and blew all the "trash" into one spot.

 

Not that I'm aware of but I think they can roll down hillsides or inclines.  When a deer or wolf lands on my arrow, I mark the spot with a dropped piece of tinder and come back the next day.  Occasionally, when the carcass is on a hill, I'll find the arrow at the bottom of the hill and not near my piece of tinder. 

 

Doesn't always happen but it's happened enough times to convince me.

[elloco999]

10 hours ago, Jolan said:

they can be blown around?   It would be funny if it was like a real wind and blew all the "trash" into one spot.

 

 

2 hours ago, Doc Gonzo said:

Not that I'm aware of but I think they can roll down hillsides or inclines.  When a deer or wolf lands on my arrow, I mark the spot with a dropped piece of tinder and come back the next day.  Occasionally, when the carcass is on a hill, I'll find the arrow at the bottom of the hill and not near my piece of tinder. 

 

Doesn't always happen but it's happened enough times to convince me.

Yes, arrows can be blown around by the wind. You can see this most clearly on the ice. If you miss an animal and the wind is blowing, you can see the arrow moving across the ice. If the wind is not blowing, it will remain where it landed (or rather, where it slid to after hitting the ice). It does have to be a pretty string wind to get the arrow moving, a light breeze will not touch it.

I haven't seen an arrow moved by the wind when it's in the snow, so it might be that this only happens on the ice.

[Doc Gonzo]

Thank you Elloco999.  Very valid points on the wind and ice.  Come to think of this I've experienced this before but never put two and two together. 

[elloco999]

To be honest, neither did I before reading about it here on the forum

[hauteecolerider]

When practicing bow hunting on the ice in Coastal Highway, I noticed that the arrow will skip two or more times across the ice after hitting the target. I developed a habit of visually marking the last "splash" of ice crystals and walking to that first - recover the arrow first then harvest the carcass. Sometimes the arrow is there where my eyes are glued, other times I have to quarter a bit before I find it. So far I've lost only one arrow out there on the ice.

Snow is a little different. I've lost two arrows in snow. It's trickier when it doesn't stick in the animal. But I usually quarter around the carcass until I find it. 

[Drifter Man]

On 3/29/2016 at 8:33 AM, Doc Gonzo said:

No, I aim for the front quarter because (again in my experience) that area is most susceptible to producing an instant-kill shot.  The last thing I want to do is chase after a wounded animal if I can help it.

An important point I didn't think about. In most cases, pursuing a deer is not a good option... a wolf will get to it before it dies and then you have to deal with the wolf. Which makes hunting deer by wolf much more attractive. A shame, I think, because hunting could be much more fun.

Anyway, back to my spreadsheets

[Jolan]

On 3/30/2016 at 2:50 AM, Doc Gonzo said:

Not that I'm aware of but I think they can roll down hillsides or inclines.  When a deer or wolf lands on my arrow, I mark the spot with a dropped piece of tinder and come back the next day.  Occasionally, when the carcass is on a hill, I'll find the arrow at the bottom of the hill and not near my piece of tinder. 

 

Doesn't always happen but it's happened enough times to convince me.

Thatt's a good idea, thanks!

[Jolan]

Whoo! Hoo! actually shot two deer and this time certain it wasn't by accident.  it only took about 4 tries per deer, evidently I can't aim. ;D And I lost no arrows doing it.  Thanks guys!

[Jolan]

On 3/28/2016 at 5:21 AM, Drifter Man said:

 

This was particularly helpful as was the big red circle below. 

 

On 3/29/2016 at 2:33 AM, Doc Gonzo said:

No, I aim for the front quarter because (again in my experience) that area is most susceptible to producing an instant-kill shot.  The last thing I want to do is chase after a wounded animal if I can help it.  Most of the time if I can hit that animal in the front quarter it will instantly drop. Here's an image of a deer that I marked up to illustrate where I try to aim.  The image isn't ideal (to my way of hunting) as the deer is coming toward the camera and is already spooked but it still clearly shows the area I aim for.