That entrance is definitely a few inches too low for a shot from an elevated stand. It is not nearly high enough on his side to get the heart from 25' up. Glad it worked out this time. Push arrows through a 3-D target and you will get a much better understanding of where to aim from a tree-stand.
I just killed a deer yesterday with that shot. Bled like a sob. I was looking 20 yards ahead of me when blood trailing as the blood was visible from a airplane. Found him in 70-80 yards dead as they get. I just think you were terribly unlucky. Perhaps when the arrow entered it hit the bone and deselected it somehow away from the vitals? I have no idea. But 99% of the time you shoot a deer there it's like pulling the plug out of a bathtub.
All it can take is hit a rib and the arrow can be deflected some. The buck I killed this year was perfectly broadside, I center punched the rib on the near and the exit was about 4 inches further back.
I will just state I 100% disagree personally. That entrance hit from an elevated stand (the crucial reason) will never get more than one lung or minute chance touch of heart. Long tracking job unless heart snipped.
To me I would've thought where Rybo's arrow went the chances of getting the heart were better then that of the lung. I figured/thought the lungs were higher then the entrance where he hit it from that angle to catch the near lung. I don't think he was aiming that low either. Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk
Field point probably doesn't catch lung but a broadhead gives a little more room for error. Lungs appear , atleast from the pic I found, to come down to a point in the area he hit. I know 3"-4" higher from his poi and the deer won't go far at all and in most cases, you will see it fall. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk
I think shultzy is the only one that read my whole post. I didn't aim there and never intentionally shoot that low, but how many guys shoot for the heart, hit "just behind the shoulder" and lose or have a difficult time. When I saw the hit, I wasnt thrilled to hit thatlow but iI see people shoot deer there all the time. The reaction and initial blood was a hard heart shot. That obviously realized wasn't when the deer wasn't dead in under 100 yds. I thought posting this would bring awareness to those who aiming at deer and take heart shots. But it appears everyone is already an expert.
Not at all I read the whole post and I know for a fact you didn't intentionally aim there. I thought this thread is the perfect example of how elevation totally changes where people should aim on a deer. Story after story of un-found deer I guarantee you happen from shots like this where people think man I "smoked him"...but the angle of the shot says anything but. I loved the post because it raises thought, anytime you do that it's a good thing.
Only my opinion but I would have wanted to be 4 or 5 inches higher up so that the arrow would exit on the opposite side at the same height that your entrance was. If I was level with the deer I would have gone about 2 inches higher that your shot was, but thats being picky, where you hit on a level shot would have been a good one anyway. The elevation meant you exit was to low I reckon. Glad you recovered the deer, great effort. Not telling you to suck eggs just thought I would throw it out there. Edited to say, from a elevated postion I aim so that I hit high on the lung near to me, so that I should drive down through the lungs (high to low). I Hope for a pass through and letting gravity and blood pressure give me a good blood trail to follow.
That shot is quite a bit further forward and if you are purposely aiming that low, you leave little room for error. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk
I genuinely want it about 3" higher. I like it low, reason for this is sometimes a high shot if it doesn't get through your screwed. What has happened to me in the past was just that and because the wound is up high and down on a angle you get like a pooling effect in the deer. I've searched and searched for a doe who died within 100 yards but couldn't find her until hours after because there was tiny specks of blood only. Down low like I said is like a drain plug. You open them up and no matter pass thru or not your getting blood trail. Even if it means wait one hour before tracking so what. Wherever it bedded your gonna find it because there's a creek leading you there.
By no means am I. I was sharing my experience as well of hitting that spot and how hard it was to track. Then showing where I hit last year for a perfect heart shot. Just trying to expand upon your example.
Great for you that you found the deer. You just beat a pile of "cough"... hunters. You show courage for placing the pictures and story on here... knowing what is likely coming. One thing we tend to forget, as Tyni is stating, is deer are not flat paper targets. They are nearly as wide as they are deep. The vitals are in the central part of that tubular shape beneath the spine. You can shoot between the leg (knee/knuckle/elbow...whatever) and not get vitals but get a solid hit on an artery and still kill the deer, though you will likely have a long tracking job, especially if you jump him. By the way you can do that just getting down if you make noise. You can also get a single lung hit though I disagree with the thought that a deer shot from top to bottom through a lung is likely going far... if we don't chase or spook. The more vertical the shot, the more you have to aim to hit the center of the tube. Eventually you get to the point where you are shooting spine and risk shooting over the vitals... then its time to wait for a better shot. Down shots are tricky and inevitably require longer tracking jobs than expected. But for a clean kill, think about centering the tube beneath the spine. 15-20 Yards is my distance preference because it makes double lung hits much easier. Of course we never get perfect 18 yard 90 degree broadsides... do we?
I talked to a blood tracker one time and he said one-lung deer are the hardest to recover. The deer are capable of going far, sometimes surviving. The hunter is also too confident that it was a double lung and pushes the deer on a "death march." He said he would rather gut shoot a deer than one lung it. Congrats on finding him!
