straight down??
 

i was browsing the pages and happend to have a hunting show on just now. the bow hunter shot a buck that was DIRECTLY below him. i dont know all about bowhunt yet but i didnt like the look of the shot. hit the spine and hes going down asap. but whats the best you could hope for? 1 lung. or if your lucky heart. is that a good bowhunting shot? straight down like that?? i think an ideal shot is away from the tree and a solid double lung. they said it went down in 50yds and blood everywhere but its also TV. the arrow was sticking pretty much straight out of its back. i just didnt think a shot like that would be a good shot to take. any info?? sorry if this is a pretty dumb question. i plan to get into bowhunting this year. and dont want to have a deer under my stand and i do it because they did it on tv. just by rifle hunting and knowing the basic anatomy of a deer i dont think thats a good shoot. but thats why im asking....thanks guys

RE: straight down??
 

your on the right track that isn't your best shot it can be done but like you said a little further out broad side shot is way better

RE: straight down??
 

Yes you are right; wait for broadside or slightly quartering away. I shot a doe a couple of years ago with a muzzleloader, when I went to dress herI noticed a bump on her back. I investigated to find an arrow busted off and sticking straight out of her back; obviously from some nimrod that had pulled off a similiar shot as you talk of. I took my knife and cut around it and honest to God a pint of yellow green pus coming running out. The broadhead was wedged in the spine and I had a hell of a time getting it out but I did not want anyone to find the carcass with an arrow in it so that people would think badly of bowhunters.I left the deer and refused to tag it as the deer had a major infection in it due to some idiot. I had put it out of it's misery.HCH

RE: straight down??
 

Generally not a good shot to take, but many guys will take it. Stick with the standard broadside or quartering away shots.

RE: straight down??
 

your right it isnt a good shot. It may kill a deer and it may not and you good end up crippling a deer like the one hch was talking about. If you shoot them through the lung it is a definite kill shot ,good luck bow hunting

RE: straight down??
 

I'm curious, does your state allow you to simply shoot any deer that might appear to be injured, just to end it's apparent suffering, without putting a tag on it?Was there any indication of the deer suffering before you shot it? We have butchered one elk and one whitetail that we found and recovered broadheads from. In both cases, the shooter never witnessed any indication that the animal was injured before the shot. Both cases had a large pus pockets around the broadheads, BUT the rest of the meat on the animals showed no indication of being tainted, infected, or other wise uneddible!!
What made you think the rest of the meat was no good to eat?
The staight down shot isn't the best, BUT on that TV show, it worked, and I'm sure others have made it work. I remember Jay Gregory getting away with it on TV once also, and his deer went down with in eye sight! Two lungs with a whole through them is better than one any day! And the heart is a small target that most couldn't hit if they wanted to!

RE: straight down??
 

I got a 186 and a 172 3/8 on the wall that says its a pretty effective shot. I watched both of them expire from my tree stand not 20 yds away. SureI would rather have a double lung broadside shot but big bucks have a way of not presenting them. These two paticular bucks were both hot on the trail of a hot doe. In this situation you might have 10 seconds to shoot or never see that buck again. Hes on the move and nothing is going to stop him except a pair of doe cheeks. If your not confident in your abilitiles at shooting and knowing the deers anatomy then don't shoot. I know several members on here that will take this shot without hesitation. Ones got to know his limitations though. Now flame.

RE: straight down??
 

I think I saw that same hunting show, was the dear called the big 8 or something like that? When they showed that shot I was so surprised that he took that shot on camera. Like you said it was straight down and did not look like a good shot at all.
I think on the same show the hunter took a quartering towards shot. What do you think about that type of shot?

RE: straight down??
 

I shot it at 145 laser ranged yds with a muzzleloader. It showed no indication of anything wrong with it before I shot it, but I didn't study it too much. No way I am going to eat a deer that just had a pint of yellow-green pus run out of it. It was left for the buzzards and the yotes and other animals in the wild. Unwritten law in my woods; I am glad you like infected animals; not for me.

RE: straight down??
 

thanx guys. ill play it safe and pass on those shots. if you have shooting lanes and dont spook the deer thats under your stand sooner or later it will have to present a shot unless it walks DEAD away from you. even then i think id grunt at 10-15yds and see if i cant turn it slightly for a shot. im sure its a deadly shot. you put a hole in a lung and it should die. but thats a good bit of bone to get through first. i dont even think id take that shot with a rifle. just me..to each his own. i wont bash or flame anyone for making quick clean kills. people bash me for head shooting. i know my abilities with my rifle. i took and made the shot and ive never seen a deer fall so hard and fast and was down. dead. end of story. if im not confident in a shot then i wont take it. thanx for the advice and knowledge guys.

rookie....i didnt see the whole show. it was on but i was on here and just caught the hunter shoot that buck straight down like that. didnt get great penetration or anything. hunting shows are staged anyways. could took them hours or days to recover that deer for all we know. ive watched them say OH he went down over there! its late afternoon. they play the next clip its PITCH black and the deer is stiffer then a oak board! and how many times have you killed a deer and it falls nicely on a log or rock under its head etc?? i know they do that stuff just to keep the blood and guts off TV. but shows they are reenacted. they RARELY show a blood trail. they rarely show a hunter following a blood trail. and barellly barely ever show when one gets hit and is lost. i understand its all for TV and keep a good image etc. but it shows they are staged. period

RE: straight down??
 

these shots will probably require a second shot if arrow hits just the spine.
hardcore why would you choose to make gun hunters look bad? plus your unwritten rules are best kept tight lipped not good for any hunters.

RE: straight down??
 

I think your decision of letting them pass on this shot is a good one. To me, it's not a matter of knowing anatomy at all. It's more of problem of getting through a lot of bone to hit the heart. Without getting into penetration and all that remember that deflections off of bone do happen. It's really not about how good of an acher you are. Remember alsothat it's prettymuch impossible to get both lungs from this type of shot. So if you count the double lung and the heart out, what is left? The liver? Single lung? - Not for me anyway.

RE: straight down??
 

Gunhunters wouldn't look bad. Coyotes and animals had it cleaned up except for bones in 4 days. I just didn't want the broadhead showing out of it's backbone. Many deer are shot by shotgun party hunter slug hunters every year during shotgun season that are never found. Buzzards have to eat same as worms. It didn't go to waste; nature used it.Next time I shoot one with agangrene, pus sac infection,I will call you and you can buy a tag and put yours on it. Party hunting is allowed here and we willwaste your tag on it; just don't have me over for dinner. HCH

RE: straight down??
 

Motownhonkey, your my new hero! 2 bigguns in 1 year-wow. They don't even come that big EVER in my neck of the woods.

For those of you surprised that they aired this shot, it was a recovery. Just think of all the shots we don't get to see because they ended in a non recovery.

As much as I love watching bowhunting on TV ( I'm addicted) I'm about 100% fed up with "great shot" on an obvious crap shot and " he went down righ there" when in the last frame he was tearing into the next county....ERRRGGG!

BTW I've taken the almost straight down shot on a smaller 40# pig once- sho was yummy;). Shisk-ka-bobed her to the ground. But then again her size didn't present much of a penetration challenge.

RE: straight down??
 

They were 2 seperate years Dave. These were just two that fell to that paticular shot. I have been blessed to shoot some nice bucks ( though alot of hard work and time was put in) I was just trying to communicate that big bucks hardly ever present themselves in a perfect senairo and there are other lethal shots besides the double lung. I do prefer double lung shots though.

RE: straight down??
 

I just assume wait for a good shot. My stats prove it to me(yes I keep track). I have in the past, and will in the futur take a chance. Just the way I am[8D]

46 whitetails killed

43-43 broadside or qrt away
2-3 straight down, lost a doe 10 years ago.
1-3 qrt towards, I tried this shot 4 times now and only recovered one. Which was last year and the deer in my Avitar. There was no "in the heat" shot. I know what I was doing and pulled the trigger. I watched him go down, I got lucky. I will say the deer I lost was because I rushed the track. I have learned to sit in the tree unless i see he deer go down. This shot were an issue, but it was my tracking caused the lost of an animal.

RE: straight down??
 

It's not a good or easy shot. The idea is to hit the spine, if you get the spinal cord at all,he'll drop right away,paralyzed, not nesesarily dead!Even just nicking the spine or major nerver will do it