Made bad shot other day, feedback please
 

I finally got the chance to go hunting this past week. I was actually going to go and scout my farmlands for sign because I haven't had time to do this all year. I told myself if the one treestand is still in tact then I would climb it and sit.. So, I got to that treestand and decided to go up and got up and started to get ready... within 20 minutes of me being up there I spotted a nice 8 point about 60 yards away and he started coming my way.. He got to within 20 yards and i pulled up on him and waited until he gave me a good shot... well i shot and somehow my arrow went towards his rear end and I hit high and behind the ribs.. The arrow showed blood with some fat and gristle on it but there was no blood on the path he took running away from me.. The past 2 days I had my family out there with me searching our farmlands and we didn't run across any dead deer...
So, my question to you is... Do you think I hit him high enough and far back enough that I didn't kill him? We own a 300 some acre woodland and we had 10 ppl walking through the woods and we pushed deer up and we found no dead deer.. so I'm hoping he is still fine because he was a dandy... I'm also hoping that he doesn't know what hit him and stays in the area if he's alive... please give me your feedback on whether or not you think he is dead.. thanks

RE: Made bad shot other day, feedback please
 

Critter meat if he's dead. Screwed up rack next year if he's alive.

RE: Made bad shot other day, feedback please
 

How high was the hit? You could have possibly hit high ABOVE the spine. This will give some blood, and definatley fat on the arrow.. If you did, he's alive, because you didnt cut any major ateries..If you did, you would have had a red brick road to walk.

He's prolly alive..

If you hit him below the spine, through the liver or guts.. he's dead....

I shot a buck last year, through the liver, blood all over my arrow, great blood trail for 70 yrds. Then just quit.. I found him 2 days later. almost 1/2 mile by a creek..

Good luck..

RE: Made bad shot other day, feedback please
 

You didn't scout? Did you even practice with your bow at all? No offence to you but these are exactly the kind of resultsI would expect with that kind of preperation. If the buck dies he won't be waisted.

RE: Made bad shot other day, feedback please
 

My guess is that the shot (assuming it hit below the spine) may have hit the kidney or intestines.That type of shot is going to be fatal. From what I've read it's best to give the deer 24hrs before even starting to track on a hit like that. But if you pushed him he could have ran a very long distance.

RE: Made bad shot other day, feedback please
 

of course i practiced... thats in fact why i haven't had time over the summer because i am on our college's archery team here in pennsylvania... you can look us up at www.pct.edu/athletics.. for the scouting business my dad has been out around his treestands and looked over our ground and found signs and he was the one that told me to go and try to get in that treestand and if it was broke down i should just walk around and see what i can find for the week ahead...
anyways... Yeah I hit behind the ribs and high enough that i might of actually overshot the spine.. my dad says that if i hit that high then the only thing that was ruptured was just the fat and hopefully he said that the buck didn't know what hit him and we'll be coming back into our ground again... thanks for the feedbacks and keep them coming.. i'm going out tonight again this time in a climbing tree stand to try another area out

RE: Made bad shot other day, feedback please
 

Good luck tonight

RE: Made bad shot other day, feedback please
 

Check for buzzards, crows and other critters congregating. If he's down they'll be feeding on him. I'm guessing you skipped across his back ABOVE the spine. That's about the only way you'd get all the tallow and fat on the arrow. Below the spine would more than likely be just blood and/or gut material. I say he's alive and well.

RE: Made bad shot other day, feedback please
 

He may have a funky lookin rack next year... KEEP a look out

RE: Made bad shot other day, feedback please
 

Sorry to hear

RE: Made bad shot other day, feedback please
 

good news... he's dead
the other news is this...
dad and i decide to go out and he tells me he's going to hunt where i shot this buck and hit him on wednesday... i told him he's crazy and he won't see anything.. so anyways i go my way and he goes his... around 6:15 i get this call on the radio to come to him but to come on the south side of his treestand.. so i figure he has a buck in the thicket and wants me to push it to him.. i'm about 90 yards away from the treestand when i see my dad sitting there with the buck i shot at on wednesday.. so i run up and am just bewildered that he found him right there... then i begin to notice.. a blood trail and fresh blood... my dad ended up shooting the buck at the same place i shot at him.. i guess he was a deer of habit and was going towards our fields to feed... we ended up skinning the hind quarters and found where i hit him.. i hit all fat and i have no clue where the blood on the arrow came from... anyways the buck is fantastic and i am going to post some pics on here soon
he measures at 20 1/2 inches wide and stands at 13 inches tall.. he is a dandy 9 point with 5 on the left and 4 on the right.. dad wants to argue a point on the right but last year i got a nice 8 point that i thought was a 10 and he wouldn't give me the two points.. so anyways i'm glad he got the chance to see that i wasn't bull****ting about the deer and that the deer was still alive.. i told him i slowed it down for him because he's getting to old and i wanted him to have a chance.. haha..
what amazes me is that the deer came down the same trail i told my dad that he came down...
pics will be uploaded soon, whenever i can find a digital camera

RE: Made bad shot other day, feedback please
 

Thats good news man, you couldn't have hurt him that bad ifhe came waltzing down the same trail in the same place. Congrats to your pops, its nice to see one of these threads with a happy ending :)

RE: Made bad shot other day, feedback please
 

Heck he probably came down the same trail hopeing for another back scratch.

RE: Made bad shot other day, feedback please
 

Well, isnt it always nice that you miss then dandy, then your dad shoots him? If that happened to me, I'd be very excited. More happy than if I put the death shot on him. I'm still waiting this year for my 72 yr old father to harvest one..

RE: Made bad shot other day, feedback please
 

You'll get some blood when you cut through the skin. When you get an arrow with all the fat you originallydescribed there's only a couple ways to get it, real high, real low across the breast bone and across the brisket....none of which are vital hits.

RE: Made bad shot other day, feedback please
 

I'm happy he got it... it could be his last buck ever and it is a dandy.. but the past 3 years he's shotten a buck that i spotted first.. one time i was walking to him after he got home from work and he was just sitting in one of our hayfields and i pushed up a buck and 5 minutes later i heard the shot and then the call on the radio to come help gut and drag it... i'm always happy when there's venison to eat

RE: Made bad shot other day, feedback please
 

Good deal. Same thing happened to me Sat. I ended up killing a doe that my brother had shot the previous weekend. He had also hit her high and back. She was sure moving slow but no worse for the wear.

RE: Made bad shot other day, feedback please
 

Congrats i bet that sort of thing doesn't happen often.