Good hunters, ones who could actually supply there families with food have been doing it for there whole lives. It is a developed skill like anything else.
Most deer don't drop where they are shot. I don't think a lot of people understand how difficult it can be to follow a blood trail. Sometimes one tiny drop every fifteen feet or so.....while the sun is going down.....it's 20 degrees outside.....in the rain.....with no shoes...okay I'm just playin now
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No doubt.
My husband and boys did not even nab a deer this year due to just these things. For one, they were trying to BOW HUNT during bow season, AFTER my hubby got home from work - on Grandpa's land. (which left maybe an hour and a half of daylight to hunt)
Around here I believe you can hunt all you want on your own land, but grandpa's land is in a "no gun" zone - so it has to be by bow. Bolts get expensive when you can't find them.
There have been a number of missing arrows, one doe presumably shot and never found
Then, if you have someone else out there who thinks YOU are a deer, and you think THEY are a deer - it's good sense to know when to hold your fire until you actually SEE the deer. heh. That's how accidents happen - so consider that too.
This is why I don't mind the young boys going hunting with dad - because there are no other hunters around - and they know who is with them and where. Usually the nephew goes too, and occasionally one or two others. One goes to the tree stand. The hubby and boys stick together, and the last person goes to the end of the property to drive any nearby deer up to the front where the rest of the crew waits.
Believe me, they have baited, left food, salt blocks - and have seen some huge tree rubs, tons of tracks etc. So it wasn't due to lack of experience that we don't have some deer meat.
THEN - comes the worst part for anyone who is anywhere near squeamish. You hang the deer, you skin the deer, you chop it, grind it, pack it. Can't tell you how much easier it is to just pay for a butcher to do it - but last time we sent a deer (and a cow) over that way - they added nitrates to the trail bologna and who knows what else - which irritated the heck out of us. So seriously - best to know how to do your own.
I've been in both country and city - hard city life as a child with mom in the city (divorced parents) - but lots of country with the poppa. He bought a 13 acre farm, and we had a horse most of my life (still have one) always had cats, and shepherds, etc. etc. Then I met the hubby, and we've had chickens, rabbit, and cows.
Personally I LOVE training animals, and have been tossed by horses so many times in life it's crazy. I can train large dogs to do just about anything, including attack. These I think are excellent skills, that just do not come from the city. Yeah, they have pitts that fight, and large dogs in the city - but definitely not horses. And when is the last time you saw a cow standing out in the back yard?
So I don't know. Considering all my experiences, I would venture to say what I have learned from "po folk" has been a lot more valuable than what I have learned from "city folk."
Thanks!