Well I did spine shot a buck last year and I didnt want to tell the story for fear of giving the antis ammo against another bowhunter, but its all hear already so Ill tell my story. I saw the buck coming through the goldenrod and he stepped out onto a mowed path at 30-31 yards and I was shaking some with the curse of buck fever I drew and released and the arrow hit the spine in the half way down his back. The buck dropped in his tracks with all four legs sticking out straight. I thought to myself there is no way I killed him with that shot. Well the buck layed there for 20 to 30 seconds and then tried to get up and started flopping around on the path so I put another arrow in him as he was flopping around to try and finish him off, this arrow entered above the heart and traveled down to the shoulder. The buck then rights himself and is sitting up and starts to drag his backend like a dog when they rub their butt on the ground, so I knew his backend was paralized. I stood in my stand and watched as the buck drug his backend out of my sight , I stood there in disbelief and pondered what to do next, I could still hear the buck dragging himself through the goldenrod so I decided to climb down from my stand and walked to the spot where the buck entered the field of golden rod and was astonished to see the width of the trail of mashed down weeds left by the bucks hindend and the quaity of blood in the trail, the amount of blood was stagering. I stood there staring into the goldenrod continplating whether to go after the buck and try to finish him off or wait and let him lay down and hopefully expire soon.I wasnt sure if the shot would cause him to bleed out even though there was a ton of blood since I had never spine shot a deer before I didnt know if I had hit an artery running down the spine or not. I decided to go after the buck and finish the job. I followed the path left by the buck into the goldenrod and then down the ridge for a total distance of about 60 yards and found the buck laying in a slight ditch that borders the clover plot. I stood at 20 yards from the buck as he layed there looking me straight in the eyes and I knew what I had to do, I didnt like it but I had to do it . So as he watched me I drew and released a arrow straight into his heart he took a few deep breaths and then 1 long breath and as he exhalded I could hear the gurrgle as the blood filled his lungs and he exhaled one long breath as layed down his head and died. This was the worst experience to ever happen to me in my bowhunting years and one that I pray will never happen again.This was not the good clean quike kill I had practiced for.
I will practice day after day to insure that I never sucumb to buck fever again, and pray that history will not repeat its self again.