This Saturday I had a real nice 8/10 pt typical come around the stand and stop at 12 yds. It was 5min left of legal light, cloudy day, and I am in the woods under the canopy. Needless to say it was pretty dark. The little shooting lane he stopped in was no more than 24" wide, he was quartering towards me. I thought I have about 2min to make this shot before I can no longer see my pins, so I let the arrow fly. The arrow hit right inside his right shoulder and it made a good thud noise, not a smack of shoulder blade, but a cavity thud, he fell to the ground and rolled on his side, got up, and hobbled into super thick grass 8-9' tall where you cannot see more than 5' in front of you. I felt 100% confident in the shot and the reaction of the deer. I heard where he stopped about 35yds out and it sounded like he crashed. Gave the deer an hour, 3 guys came to help me track, we found no arrow (assume still in the deer) and no blood at impact point. We found minor minor muscle blood to where I heard him crash, after that nothing. We backed out, it rained that night, came back and 5 guys walked the entire grass field with no sign of the deer and again no further blood trail. Other than not take a quartering towards shot, and wait for broadside shot, I believe there was noting more that could have been done. Where was this deer hit? I cannot imagine this deer surviving with an arrow in him. It just seems like a very unlucky circumstance. 3 years of bowhunting, 3 deer shot and never found, no deer recovered with a bow to this point. It really is becoming very frustrating.
Sounds to me there is a dead deer in that field that you need to find. Dogs legal in Il? Any tree you can climb to get a top view of the field? look for sign or paths out the other side of he grass?
I don't see anything good happening in this thread. Quartering too shot is obviously not the best choice add in very low light and the other information and it keeps getting a lower chance of recovery. Good luck if you go back out after him and like head2toe camo said if you can use a tracking dog that might help.
I've only taken one quartering too shot. The buck approached my decoy from the opposite direction and came towards the back end of the buck decoy. My only assumption was that I used some Tinks 69 Doe in Estrus on the decoy so it totally confused the buck. I let the arrow fly as he was about to raise up and mount my decoy, which would have quickly ruined the hunt. My shot was taken back of the front leg as it wasn't an extreme quartering shot. The arrow did not fully penetrate and I watched the buck bound off and eventually walk away. Waited 30 minutes, got down and looked for blood at the impact site and found nothing but a little bit of hair. I backed out and came back 4 or 5 hours later and we still found no sign of a blood trail. Eventually I decided to walk to the last place I saw him and begin the search from there. Luckily we found him within 20 yards of that spot. The arrow hung up on the opposite side shoulder blade, but stayed in the cavity, destroying everything in it. Still, there was no blood trail and I was fortunate to find him. I have no intention of taking that shot again, the risk is just too high for not making a good shot. That being said, that deer is most likely out there dead. If you got into the chest cavity, there's really not much chance it didn't hit something vital.
ksand...could you throw up a picture (any google image) will work of about how it was quartering and a dot where you believe your arrow hit? Others covered everything...
Tynimiller - here you go. The next morning my buddy saw a buck from the same stand in the same field walking slowly through it... Rack was as I described to him. He believes that was the buck and seems to be doing fine. Again, it was getting dark at the time of the shot, 12yd shot so the minute I released the impact was made and deer feel down. No lit nock or anything to see the path of arrow.
I certainly don't know the details of the other 2 deer you've shot and not recovered, but it sounds like there is a common thread among them all, and eventually you'll figure it out. Frustration leads to taking marginal shots, which leads to more frustration. Whatever you do, don't use hunting TV shows to help you judge what is and what is not a good shot.
That's the shot you took? Very poor percentage of anything going right. I also find it hard to believe that the deer reacted the way you said it did and your buddy saw a similar one acting fine. Either your recollection of the buck is off or your buddy saw a different deer. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Take this for what little worth it has being I wasn't there or saw the "deer maybe" like your buddy did the next day but I'd say based soley on the picture and where you think you hit it I'd say shoulder hit hence the hard hit sound. A lot of time a shoulder hit deer will go through a shock and hit the ground even some...imagine having an arrow hit your shoulder blade but not going through it? I'm in no way saying a quartering to shot is one that has no chance of harvest, but it definitely has a smaller room for error than broadside or quartering away...I personally won't take a quartering to shot myself, just me; nor will I ever defend them when someone takes them. Now if I were to do so I'd wanna be level (ground hunting) and within 20 yards preferrably even closer. My advice is tough but I'd force myself to wait for a broadside or quartering away shot and hold off in any other situation. It is tough and sucks sometimes watching them have to walk away, however WHAT YOU FEEL NOW SUCKS FAR FAR WORSE. Shake it off, as tough as it is, refuse to do it again and get back out there a better hunter! Look forward to a harvest post this year from ya!
Nothing unlucky about it. There simply was not a decent shot present, but you were running out of light, so you shot. It was obviously pretty darn dark if you don't even know how many points he had and was only 12 yards away. Stay calm and don't be afraid to pass on shots that are not optimal. Shooting light does not always run until legal quitting time.
My guess on that shot placement is that you caught the edge of the shoulder and it deflected the arrow path up avoiding any vitals. hopefully.
Is what it is at this point - I'll be out much more this season so we will see what happens. Got a bunch of deer, does and a couple bucks that I have seen from 35+ yds this year (out of the comfort zone so i have continued to pass and play it smart) I'll for sure stay after it.
Gotta make better choices on the shot in order to recover them IMO. You see one taken on video now and then on some of these TV shows and soon everyone thinks that's an acceptable shot. It may be for some.
I'll admit, before coming to this site that's a shot I would have taken, and did numerous times over my 17+ years of hunting. I have taken multiple deer with a shot like that, but we owe it to the animal to take an ethical and high percentage shot. I no longer take shots like that. Broadside or quartering away only. I didn't have to learn my lesson the hard way, just some good people on this site and me not being stubborn.
At that angel you are lucky to even have 30 percent of the vitals visible. From up in the stand it's probably even less. I know we may sound like we are getting after you for a bad and or unethical shot but I hope you know everyone here wants you to succeed at harvesting a deer. We all go through these growing pains but at the same time we need to learn from them. Good luck.
I'm not against the quarter to shot, you just made a poor shot. Needed to aim lower and right, you're in the upper shoulder. With that shot your best case would have been 1 lung and liver, lower and right you're inside the shoulder and he's dead.
alot of that shot depends on bow and broadhead arrow etc....I have killed alot of deer with quartering shot's and blew through everytime. I shoot a heavy arrow with high foc and a fast hard hitting bow. ofc I prefer a broadside. depending on broadhead and bow etc.... maybe best to only take broadside shot's
