Sorry to hear of your friends luck. It is very unfortunate. However, I have been bowhunting with my brother for several years.

First let me say that I have been fortunate that I have not lost any deer after a bow shot. I have been VERY lucky in this. I shot a doe a couple of weeks ago, 20 yards, broadside. I got down, walked to the spot that I shot her and found real good bright bubbly blood. I' m thinking double lung. I had heard her go down. It was close to dark. So, I get out to the 4 wheeler and wait until dark, then gget my brother. I let him finish his hunt first. But, I didn' t find my arrow. I told him about it and I was pumped, thinking double lung, good blood, this would be a quick track. It was but not because of my shooting. I mean I Robin-hooded an arrow at 18 steps this summer while practicing. When we recovered the deer she had only gone 80 yds. My double lung shot? No. I hit no vitals. I had caught the artery that runs along the back bone and had broken her back. I was very LUCKY. If I had been an inch higher, she' d have dropped in her tracks. An inch lower, she' d still be alive. Half of the arrow was still in her. The other half had broken off - Easton Carbons, with 100 gr Thunderheads with NEW blades.

My first bow kill came 7 years after I started bow hunting. When I shot the doe was broadside at 11 yards. When the arrow hit her, she was quartering away and I hit so far back that the arrow went through the tenderloin. I caught a lung and she went down in less than 200 yds, but the tracking was hard with very little blood. The point is that deer can move very quickly and the point of impact of the arrow is not always where you think it was. My brother shot one a few weeks ago, when I asked where the point of impact was, he said the deer was quartering to him and the arrow went in just over the front shoulder in the back part of the neck. When I found the deer 500 yds later, the arrow had struck low in the back part of the stomach and came out in the rear leg. It was 40 yard shot and the deer moved before the arrow got there.

My brother shot one a few years ago and we had decent blood that trickled out. We trailed and tracked over 300 yds. Searched for the better part of two days. His arrow had broken off about 3 inches above the insert. He though he' d made a good shot. Guess what. The deer lived. He saw her a few weeks later, with a knot in that shoulder and limping. She survived. He had hit the front sholder and that dead stopped the arrow. He shots a PSE Stingray at around 295 fps with Easton A/C/C' s and 100 gr Vortex Mechanical broadheads. He double-lunged a spike that only went 70 yds last year, no blood, but deer fell dead.

Those broad heads leave holes that you can stick a fist through, but sometimes we don' t get the deer. And that is part of the challenge of Bow hunting. That is why we get a longer season than rifles. That is part of the thrill of it, having to know your limits and sometimes that is the defeat of it, that you can' t recover the animal. It sounds like you made an honest effort to recover the animal, but truth is, we don' t get them all. We all hate to lose a deer, whether it is a doe or a big buck, they are all valuable.

I hope that your friend comes to peace with this and that all is well. Good luck in the future.