ORIGINAL: GMMAT
I apologize for the photo in the back of the truck.
Shot was a 33 yd shot on this buck that was slightly quartering away. Complete pass-thru......40-50 yd recovery.
When assessing the shot....imagine where the front leg would be when the buck was standing. I'll give the results of the autopsy, later.
So.....would you be proud of this shot? Would you consider this "optimal"? If not.....what IS "optimal"?
Also.....note that this is the entrance hole.
Jeff,
I'm sure I missed it but was it a complete pass-thru? If so where was the exit hole? Just curious because I thought this was the deer that left you a tough trailing job withvery little blood to follow. I would be happpy with the shot and proud of my deer, one thing I will add is even though you had a successful recovery youdid sayyouwere notaiming there and misjudged the distance as well so those are things I might not consider optimal or be too proud of (despite the results). I would make sure I took a lesson from those miscalcualtionsand apply it to future hunts. I'm sure you know an error in judgement in the distance or the arrowspath through the deer can easily lead to much different results and I'm glad for youthat didn't happen with this guy.
"I" personally like to try and tuck it up near the arm pit a little more, especially if they are broadside or just slightly quartering only because there are a lot of blood vessels to hit up their even if you miss the heart and that shoulder boneangles much farther to the front than most realize and that makes a nice little pocket to shoot for. Some of the toughest tracking jobs I have been on involved high lung hits that were near the back of the lungs so I really try to avoid that area. Lots to consider with archery shots likestand height, shot angles, deers body angle,etc and really being able to mentally envision the path your arrow needs to take is a skill we all should be honing all year. I lowered my stands to around 15-18 feet for archery to get better angles at close range and in the early season I can still usually find plenty of cover to hide in.
JMO.