ORIGINAL: badshotbob
If your buddyindeed hit the deer where the red spot is he hit dead center of the spinal chord. And you wouldn't have had to track it at all. Trust me ifyou hit one in the spine they won't go anywhere. I guarentee your buddy hit above the spine. As people mentioned earlier the spine is lower than most people realize. Trust me I have hit two deer in the spine this year and they drop instantly.
Nah, it wasn't above the spine. I've dropped deer in their tracks by hitting them in the spine - between that and butchering them myself, I know where the spine is. The hit was lower than the spine, that is the amazing part of that hit. I saw the scab and it couldn't have been a spine hit. I never put much stock in the void myth, until I saw the scab on that buck and where it was.
I still don't believe in the "void" however, it is possible to hit the lungs and not kill the animal. I wouldn't have thought this but as we grow, age, we learn. I've learned that is possible to lung a deer and not kill it via a book I'm reading by John Jeanenney "Blook Tracking for Finding Wounded Game". In it they show autopsy's of deer, more specific doe with broadhead scars on the lungs. IF you don't deflate the lungs and you don't cut enough blood vessels to bleed them out which broadheads need (hemoraging), the deer can live. That's the case with the "void" area. Your still catching lungs but the upper lobes have less blood vessels and if you don't deflate them or bleed them, they'll heal. You have to catch at least one lung, spinal cord or bone when hitting that red dot area. Now behind it/high, somewhat a void though your clipping the diaphram, or high in front and if you miss the aertery, it's a flesh wound...