A short story about a spine shot; One of my sons friends, Kevin, was on his very first archery hunt at the age of 14, and on opening morning a small forky walk right under his tree stand. Kevin took careful aim, but his arrow nailed the buck right in the spine. The buck lost all control of his rear half and started baaing and spinning in tight circles. Kevin didn't have a clear shot from his stand so he climbed down and approached the deer for a kill shot. The buck spun around and faced Kevin, (in Kevin’s words) and looked him square in the eye with his big brown eyes pleading for help. Well, Kevin couldn't shoot him again looking eye to eye and started circling to shoot him in the back of the neck. After about three 360's he gave up and let one go and it stuck right inthe bucksforehead. Not shooting allot of poundage the arrow didn't penetrate the skull and now he had a broken down unicorn very pissed and wanting to fight. This was way too much for Kevin to handle so he found his dad in a nearby tree stand and asked him to help finish off the buck. When they returned the buck had expired, but the experience was so traumatic Kevin lost all interest in bow hunting for deer. He loves duck and pheasant hunting and enjoys a good buck story now and then. I can't say I would have reacted the same way, but the moral of the story is: spine shots are not always the most humane way to kill a buck.

Oldpops