Hey everyone, need some help putting closure on this experience. Had three bucks chasing a doe at a fast pace saturday evening, one buck was a nice shooter I hadn't seen yet this season. The doe came right under my stand, and the buck was hot on her tail moving at a fast pace and I had to think quick. When the buck was about to run into the very short shooting window, I grunted. He stopped so fast he wasn't fully out from behind the tree, but I could see his front right shoulder and upper back, he was quartering towards me at a sharp angle. At only 11 yards I was confident that I could place the arrow carefully. I was high enough in my stand that the shot was a steep angle maybe 45 degrees. I put the pin as far back as I could, (which wasn't too far) and high above the right shoulder and let her fly. Arrow struck true penetrated well I could see it sticking out when he turned and ran. But didn't pass through!?? Here is a drawing of where I placed the shot..it might have been even farther forward becuase there wasn't that much of the deer sticking out form behind the tree. But it was hight like this. I thought it was a really solid shot passing back through the lungs since he was quartering towards me. But I watched as the deer ran away looking pretty healthy. I assumed I would find him in the field where he ran out. Well to make a long story short, waiting until Sunday morning and tracked for 6 hours. At first we couldn't even find blood, but eventually found small drips approx 10 feet apart. No smears on any tall grass, he even went through standing corn! And NO smears of blood on any plants, just drips on the ground, small drips, smaller than a dime. He was heading towards the lake near our property. Tracked for over 1/4 mile and lost the trail and we were exhuasted. I also walked ahead and just checked all thickets and woods for the next half mile all the way to the lake just to be sure he was lying somwhere. I'm devistated, and feel terrible that a nice deer has 3 razor blades stuck in him and he is suffering because of my idiocy. We found the broken off end of the arrow pretty close to where I shot him, only about 6 inches snapped off, the rest is in the deer somehwere. Where did I hit this thing?? How is all that arrow inside the deer without contact with vital organs? Why no blood smears? Please send ideas. Having trouble sleeping in Wisconsin. Nate
Just was reviewing some Whitetail anatomy...I didn't realize the shoulder blade was so high? It would've been like an armor plate facing right over the area I was shooting into? But I didn't hear the "crack" people talk about if you hit a shoulder and also didn't see the buck favoring a leg when he ran away. Plus the arrow penetrated over 20inches? If I would've shot behind the shoulder blade with a quartering towards shot...could I have missed the vitals completely and hit the guts? Jeez..it looked so good, even after the shot seeing the arrow sticking out I was very confident. don't know what happened.
I'm starting to answer my own question...looks like I was an idiot. http://www.shotplacement.com/ I never would've taken a quartering towards shot if I was level on the ground, but I thought the high angle of my shot would allow me to pass down through the lungs...now I'm thinking maybe I had a single lung shot. According to the article above...a "long and difficult" recovery. People can live with one lung, so deer can probably do it better. This poor buck now has to deal with pain of a broadhead in his other lung.
yeah, I was dreaming about having a good dog to track this thing down. I don't think it is legal in Wisconsin to use dogs though.
