HuntingNet.com Forums - First Kill with a Bow

CPA, congrats on the first kill with your bow.

The situation sounds exactly like the doe I got this year and brings up an excellent point as far as recovery goes..

I took a broadside shot at a doe, 18 yards from my stand. As I released she turned slightly towards me, and my broadside shot became a quartering towards shot. My arrow did the same thing. It entered in the lungs and exited throught the front of the guts. The arrow went completely through, and richotched off a tree and went into never never land (I still have not found that arrow). The mechanical broadhead left a huge exit hole that was immediatly plugged by some of the guts. We found blood only where she was hit initially, never any blood after that.

After the shot I watched her tear out over a small crest and down into a low gap, out of site. I watched her run until I lost sight of her and herd her crash. I left the area and returned with help about 1.5 hours after the shot. At the time I did not know it had exited a little far back and thought the shot was double lungs, but gave her time anyway.

When we returned we picked up the trail where she was shot and found a little blood at the initial shot location and then nothing. We decided to go into the low gap since that is where she was last seen, and I knew I heard her go down. My hunting buddy, BeeS, shined his light on the side of a bordering ridge, and there she was dead as a doornail. Later autopsy revealed I destroyed the back half of the near lung, shredded the liver, punched through the diaphragm and just clipped some of the guts. All in all she went about 80 yards, but I relearned 3 valuable lessons and they were the only reason we found her.

Lesson 1.
After the shot watch the animal until they are out of sight. The last point you can see her, burn a mental image in your mind of where they were. If you can not find blood, go to that spot. I can not tell you the number of times I have hunted with guys that took a shot and asked them where was the deer, and what trail did they take out? The usual response is she was over there somewhere and went that way somewhere. Burn that image in your mind!!!

Lesson 2.
Listen after you loose sight. Your ears can be a very valuable asset after the shot. I heard my doe go down and knew it, and knew where she went and where to go when we lost the blood trail.

Lesson 3.
When in doubt give them time. Unless you see the animal go down, give them time to die. Do not push them to early and possibly jump them up, pushing theminto the next county.

In your scenario you did all 3 of the above and you are to be commended. These 3 lessons are ones that many new/inexperienced hunters have not learned, but you obviously have. Congrats