I was out hunting two nights ago and had an opportunity at taking a beautiful 8pt buck. He came in very fast. I heard him coming from far away so I was standing and ready for him. When he was within range I drew back only to have my damn arrow fall off of my rest. By the time I got the arrow back on the rest he was 5 yards away from the tree i had my stand in. I knew this was my last opportunity to take a shot on him. If he would have walked past it was too thick of brush to take a shot. Nervously I took the shot. It was almost striaght down. I am pretty sure the entrance was pretty much straight down towards the vitals. The arrow went in and came out. After sitting in the tree for an hour after I got down to check the arrow. Sucess there was blood/hair/ and chunky white stuff on the arrow. My buddy and I waited another hour before we began tracking him. We finally found the area that he started walking and loosing massive amounts of blood. I did not see any bubbles as to a sign of a lung shot. Long story short we did not end up finding the deer. His blood trail became very light almost like the deer was spooked and running. My question for future hunts is; Is it possible to hit any vitals sucessfully when shooting at a deer almost straight down? I am very dissapointed in myself for wasting such a beautiful deer. I even saw another decent buck the next day with a 15 yard broadside shot but could not bring myself to shoot it becuase I felt so ashamed of myself. Thanks in advance for replies.

You know, kinda pick a bad day to post this, Atlas do you wanna take this one?

Never take this shot unless you are A.) willing to lose a deer; or B.) have practiced this shot enough to hit a quarter sized area EVERY time; or C.) are willing to lose the deer.

Several problems with this shot:
- you'll never take both lungs, so unless you can hit the spine, the deer may travel HUGE distances
- the white stuff you saw on your arrow is taloe - good for plugging wounds fairly quickly, so the deer bleeds out the bottom until the taloe in the brisket plugs the wound
- blood trails on high hit deer are always quite minimal as the blood has to drip all the way down the body

Live and learn. I personally would never take this shot even if the thing went 150+, it's not worth losing the thing over a shot filled with room for error. Good luck.

Personally, I will never take that shot. I owe it to the deer to take a better, higher percentage shot.
The possibility of getting both lungs from that angle is extremely low. I shoot my bow A LOT as do many people on this forum. I know that I can hit a .$50 piece at 40 yards and that is still not a shot I will take... even at 5 yards.

Good luck on the next one. Get both lungs.

Can you say WHISKER BISCUIT? Go back and look some more, good luck.

I always have to tell myself to aim low bacause for some reason(looking at the rack) makes me shoot high. I think the bigger, heavier the buck the harder it is for him to stay up and running. You'll find him later in the season probably and I think with a different cape you can get him mounted. Keep hunting around the same area, sounds like your in a good spot!

Big Buck Dave

BADSHOT is close to right on this. It's a tough kill. Not only that, most people don't know where to aim with that shot. Most people think you aim between the shoulder blades. You don't. You have to aim behind them about 4 or 5 inches and then refer to Badshots comment.

You don't take a straight down shot. There's too much of a possibility you'll miss the spine and you'll only get one lung -- if that.

I've had numerous chances to take a straight down shot. Never have and don't plan to start. I'll let 'em walk out to 10 -15 yards.

I'll disagree...

The buck I killed this year was ALMOST straight down. He had walked towards me, under me, then as he was walking away he turned ever so slightly. I hit him just to the right of the spine about halfway back and the arrow came out between the front legs. The 1 1/2" cutting diameter of the Spitfires made an exit hole the size of a small apple and the sucker bled like you were pouring it out of a bucket. Because I didn't hit the spine, I figured one lung at best so I gave him 2 hours. I never had to slow down to look for blood and the deer only went about 120 yds. As suspected, I only got one lung but I cut the artery going to the heart. The deer was cold and stiff when I found him.

I have taken several shots like this and have found all of the deer I shot like this. But as someone said, you better be confident in it because there is little room for error.

I'll take every shot like this, every time...

Ihave got 2 book bucks on the wall from straight down shots. Neither buck went more than 20 yds. I watched both of them fall and expire within 5 minutes. I got lung and heart on both of them. I'm not saying you should take this shot but just giving another side. I think you made a fatal shot on your deer. The meat is long gone so after season get some friends and see if you can come up with the rack.