Let me offer you this scenario and tell me what you would all do. This happened to me 5 years ago. I has been hunting along a thicket with many oak trees on the outside. All morning I had bucks chasing does and responding to rattling, but all the shooters stayed out of range. Around 11 I had 2 does and a spike come trotting along. I stopped the largest doe at the far range of 7 yards while she was quartering away and I let her have it. Or so I thought. She ran off about 70 yards and just stood there. I grabbed my binocs and saw my entry and saw blood pouring out of it. It looked PERFECT for a quartering away shot. I could not of drawn a picture better than where it was, but there she still stood for a full 20 minutes without moving. She finally bedded there and I slipped out. 6 hours later I returned and she was gone. I started tracking her and then the rain came so I went back for a coat, and still never found her. The next morning I returned and my dad spotted a deer bedded in the bottom of a ridge. He stood on top of the ridge getting her attention as I snuck up on her. I put an arrow right through her lungs and she never moved. It was my doe under 200 yards from the stand. To this day I still don't know what happened. The entry and exit of the first shot looked perfect. My only guess was a single lung hit. Any other insight on this?
I actually had this thread from HNI from last year printed out in my pocket with me last night. I put it in there several months ago and forgot about it.
One thing we learn in whitetails, there are no absolutes. In John Jeanenneys book, Tracking Dogs for Finding Wounded Deer there is a study that was done on an island of NY I believe. They autopsy'd all doe that were taken off the island on a management hunt and was stunned to see broadhead scare tissue on lungs. The show the picture of the lung with a 3 blade scar on it. The upper lobes of the lungs carry less blood vessels than the lower front part of the lungs. After reading that book I believe you could double lung the deer and for what ever reason, not deflate them or hemorrhage them enough to kill the animal immediately. Another reason to not hurry on a trail when we don't see an animal go down. Not sure what happened with your particular deer as I said, no absolutes but maybe you hit the nail on the head with single lung hit, or part of the hypothesis I mention above. Nice you did have closure on her. I take it you didn't do an autopsy to find out?
My second arrow went through both lungs, and stuck in the opposite shoulder, so while gutting I was more concerned on not getting a broadhead in my hand. There were no guts or stomach contents like you would see with a gut shot deer while field dressing. The way she acted after the shot indicated to a gut shot deer, but with the entry/exit holes and what I found while field dressing her I can't see how I caught any part of her intestines/stomach.
Also Rob, that is a very interesting study your talking about. I had read a similar article some years ago about a whitetails amazing ability to heal from wounds. A few years ago a 12 pointer was shot on our farm during shotgun season. While butchering the deer, we found a muzzy broadhead and about 1/2" of carbon arrow stuck in the deers tenderloins. This buck had no visible side effects from this wound other than a small bald spot on his back.
Incredible.. I shot this BB in 2007: When i walked up to him i found that he had a bullet hole through his face, that had been there for at least 2-3 days. He was still alive and well..but probably couldn't eat much. I don't think he would have lived another week in the cold November snow. He was still tough as nails to keep on trucking.
Not trying to take away from the bowhunting mentality, but I have seen deer do crazy stuff. Example: Buck had both front legs literally shot off at the knees with a high powered rifle and another bullet thru the neck. I watched this deer with my own eyes travel 100yds at least. Anytime I hear someone say "this or that is a fact" about a wounded deer, I just laugh.
Thanks GR8, last bump. If it's not worthy of a sticky on this forum, it can slip into the internet black hole.
I'm just wondering... If a shot is made in the evening or just before dark and you need to wait 6 hours like mentioned, when would be the best time to get out of your stand and head back to camp for a while?
