Looking for input on recovered deer.

Hey everyone

First post here… have hunted whitetail for 20+ years and had an experience this year I’d like input on. Like all good hunters, I am always trying to learn more, and this one has me confused.

I had a shooter buck come straight toward me from 12 o’clock sitting in hang on stand 18 feet up. Buck came to me and turned to his right, giving me a quartering to shot at 28 yards. He was about to enter thick timber and likely no further chance at shot, so I grunted to stop him and took the shot. Shot placement appeared a bit low but I felt good about entry point. Buck ran 25 yards, stopped, and then slowly (but not well) walked away towards bedding area. I immediately thought it may be a liver hit based on reaction.

I gave it 40 minutes until I got down to retrieve arrow which indicated clean pass thru with light-ish blood on fletching. No dark blood to indicate liver. There was a bit of white hair on exit side. Oddly there was one single corn kernel at the impact sight, in the blood. I had very good blood at impact and visually for first 10-15 yards but given bucks reaction backed out of woods and went back to cabin.

Unfortunately that night it poured rain and was warm. I decided to pick up search in morning.

Upon returning to the impact sight the next morning, all the heavy blood trail was pretty much washed away. I checked the immediate bedding area hoping he had just laid down nearby and expired, but no such luck.

I ended up finding a tracking dog in area who tracked the deer 900 yards without finding a visible bed. With some extreme luck, we ended up recovering the buck only 150 yards from the original shot in CRP field. We estimate he traveled 1.1 miles in a loop before expiring based on the dog tracking and scant blood we found along dog trail, confirming it was this deer.

Field dressing indicated the 2inch rage clipped lung, solid liver hit, and exited out barely slicing the paunch. There was no strong gut smell on arrow or during field dressing.

Estimated live weight of deer was 227lbs and he was rutted up.

My best guess is the quartering to shot mostly hit liver, but that dark blood was wiped off the arrow as it exited quartering away.

I have attached pictures of the entry and exit as well as pictures of the buck. I am looking to better understand what anyone else think may have happened. Lesson learned on quartering to shots because I hate the thought of putting that animal through that.

Thanks in advance for any input

 

Congrats on a nice buck. Quartering shots Do not like them and not had good luck with them. Deer have always traveled farther than a good old broad side even if it were back farther than wanted
One ,years ago,he moved at shot and I watched the arrow slice in under his elbow heart side. Then go straight out along brisket same side. That had to hurt opened up a big non lethal wound. Well non lethal until infection or a coyote pack tracking it down. Sticks in your mind, those things.

 

First, nice buck and glad you found it.

"Aim for the exit" is a common saying and I think it applies here.
Hold on the near side so that the exit will be right behind the far shoulder. Your entry side is where I would've wanted to see the exit.

Like oldnotdead said above, I am also not a fan of quartering to shots unless they are only slightly quartering to. But looking at your entry and exit, it wasn't a super terrible angle really. You just held on a spot on the entry side that would've been great for a broadside shot, but not near enough forward for a quartering to shot.
You did everything right after the shot, so shake it off and give yourself a pat on the back for making the best decisions afterwards to get you a recovery.
Oh and welcome to the forum. Stick around, it is a great forum with a great group of fellow hunters.

 

nice buck, glad you found him. I never take qtr to shots or shots straight down. or full frontal. broadside and qtr away shots only. I think in the heat of the moment we just want to get that arrow in there and believe it will kill. which it does, but you end up with losing most of them. Learned the hard way over the years and it's not worth the lost sleep anymore.

 

Thanks everyone for response. Appreciate the comments. I do feel like I made best decisions possible with recovery, but the very warm weather and rain really made it difficult to say least. I wanted to leave him long enough to expire and not push, but not so long to waste.

Extremely fine line to toe because you just don’t know… I think going forward my lesson is avoiding those quartering to shots like you all said, ESPECIALLY when the temps do not comfortably allow me to leave plenty of time for him to expire.

In this case the mixed signs on arrow and impact, along with reaction of animal, led me to play it safer than I should have given the temps. With the liver hit, he likely expired much sooner than I gave him, but frankly would have had no chance finding him that night anyway in heavy rain and given distance he somehow traveled.

Thank you again for comments.. it is helpful.

 

I have would never quartering to shot...I picture a arrow in head or stick out between shoulder and brisket. I've seen what a straight down shot looks like running through my woods...it's an arrow sticking straight up out of a rump. Though since a particular person moved out of state, I haven't seen that or 3 legged doe around anymore.

 

I've made this exact same shot on deer before, with varying results. They always die, but some quicker and closer than others. From my understanding of things, it really comes down to where you hit in the liver itself. The single lung shot is survivable, and if it's lethal on its own, often takes a while to kill the animal. We all know the same is true with the gut shot. However, the liver shot is always lethal.

For those interested, listen to Dudley's Nock On Podcast with Dr. Peter Attia. They cover this exact scenario concerning liver shots and how some are deadly in seconds while others take hours. He points to the fact that the liver has two main blood supplies, and if you hit one of those, you tend to get a quick recovery. But if you don't, that's when it can take a long time for the animal to expire. Interestingly enough, one of those blood supplies is oxygenated, which produces bright red blood often associated with lung hits, while the other is deoxygenated, which produces that dark red blood we think of when we think of liver shots.

We've all heard stories of humans being injured where if the injury were a fraction of an inch in a different direction, they would have died. The same holds true for deer. You may have just barely missed hitting one of those two blood supplies by a fraction of an inch which would have resulted in a much quicker recovery.

PS - I love these threads where everyone chimes in that they never would have done something like this and are perfect humans who have never made a decision they later regretted. It's always nice to be surrounded by so many perfect people.

Congrats on your buck!

 

If that was directed at me....I said I've taken poor quartering shots. In fact even though I don't like them took one on the drive away buck this year. That said it's not to hard to say from those experiences in mind I haven't nor wouldn't take a quartering to shot. Last night's doe is proof to that.
I would assume anyone else saying the same, may be working under the same thought process. To take it as some sort of jab at others, causing such a defensive response well hhhmmm

 

I always hate that time after the shot. I always would get out of the stand and change out of my camo have a beer and ponder the shot in my head get the lights and go. I always had a pit in my stomach till I found the deer. Congrats on the recovery you earned it.

 

many deer are lost on 1/4ing to shots... I wont take 'em ... 1/4ing away sure, it is to easy to f up a 1/4ing to ...

 

But have you ever? You are older and wiser now.

 

when I was younger (30 yr back) and didnt know better ...... now, nope .... I'm somewhere around 120 deer killed (80 bow/40 gun) aprox. and Ive only lost 5, none were never lost to lack of penetration, just lousy hits of one reason or another ... to me, thats 5 to many ... I have passed on some nice deer 'cause of the shot angles .... live and learn

 

I have taken some bad shots and learned a lesson. I did not want to brow beat the guy at all. I have seen Dan Infalt take some very stupid shots and I cringe. But a frontal shot is something I have never done. Nor have I shot straight down on a deer hoping to hit spine. But I have made bad shots, there is a difference in making and taking bad shots...

 

Nice buck, I’m glad you had access to a good tracking dog to make the recovery.

Great post I appreciate you sticking your neck out knowing full well you would take some heat.
Good reminder, my first buck with a bow was slightly quartering to at 7 yards. That was easily recovered but like others I have some that were not. Older wiser now.


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Watching Bill Winkie last night. Shot a buck qtr to and his justification was, " I shoot 80 lbs and and a 32" draw" I cringed when he said it. Yes the deer died quickly but he has done this over and over again. He ain't the only one. I understand making a bad shot, but not taking a bad shot.