Comparison Of Crippling Losses Of Whitetailed Deer Caused By Archery, Buckshot, And Shotgun Slugs

Of the 126 deer killed by hunters within a 746-acre enclosure at Albany, Georgia, during a 10-year period, 24 (19 percent) were not found by the hunter. Archers lost 4 of 8 deer killed (50 percent), gunners using buckshot lost 16 of 61 (26 percent), and gunners using shotgun slugs lost only 4 of 57 (7 percent). Antlered bucks were lost at more than twice the rate of antlerless deer. Only 2 of the 24 lost cripples were fawns, the lowest rate recorded for any group. In both sexes, yearlings were lost at a higher rate than older deer. Archery loss data from Virginia are in· eluded for comparison.