ORIGINAL: tschammel
The angle is irelevent from the hitting a branch and it could have hit a rib and deflected it in a different direction!!! JEEEZ!!The buck in my atvar hit mid bodywhen I shot him on the ground andhit arib and angled up into the bottom of the spine and dropped him in his tracks. I was on the ground the arrow angled up. Lets get over the angle. If there is meat on the arrow it went under the spine. It's fat and skin on top of the deer, and if it went over the spine with a three blade there would be some slicing of hide I just see holes.
Like I said before there is a small void under the spine and there is some meat there, backstraps. The guts don't rest on the spine.
I think you nailed it, the arrow went under the Spine, but may not have touched guts, but from the exit wound may also have hit some of the intestines.
There is no way, from the impact point, which is on the far side of the backbone, that this arrow went above it, deer's body simply isn't big enough to have a void above the backbone. Arrow did go beneath the backbone, question really is, did it go above the guts, or clip something. more than likely it also clipped some of the intestines, but not enough to cause him any major suffering. He may survive if infection doesn't set in. Wounds made with razor sharp broad heads heal fast, so he may just have a chance