RE: Wouldn't have believed it if there weren't pics
 

I believe it was over the spine especially the entrance. But pretty darn close on the exit.

RE: Wouldn't have believed it if there weren't pics
 

Wow! That's amazing. These are some remarkable critters we chase after each year and each year we learn something new!

RE: Wouldn't have believed it if there weren't pics
 

What great story and a lucky deer. It will be interesting to see if he survives this year, what he eill look like next year.

RE: Wouldn't have believed it if there weren't pics
 

Those pictures are really amazing. It looks to me like the shot went above all of the organs. I don't see how those scars could be anything but a arrow wound.

Also, this injury should not do anything to his antler development.

RE: Wouldn't have believed it if there weren't pics
 

If you look at any diagram of the vitals of a deer, you'll note that there cannot possibly be a "void" on a deer - check out this one for instance:



You hit the spine or the lungs, right?

Well.... I have personally shot a deer under the spine not quite midway back from the shoulder and never recovered the animal. My buddy two years ago made the same shot on a deer and we never found that one either (the red dot in the above pic marks those two shots). What makes these two stories amazing though is that both deer were seen two weeks later with exit wounds on both sides - walking around, eating, and appeard to be perfectly healthy. So I wouldn't doubt those scars were from an arrow.

They do have a tenacity to live. Amazing critters.

RE: Wouldn't have believed it if there weren't pics
 

Nah, I didn't hit that deer, it's a buddies bait pile photos. I'm sure he'll have pictures of this deer next year.

I put an arrow through a doe this year, just behind the diapragm and just below the spine...I have never seen blood pump so far out of an animal. She looked like a hose spraying blood 2' out of each side of her. There has to be a major artery just below the spine taking up some of that 'void' space.

RE: Wouldn't have believed it if there weren't pics
 

To me it looks like it was quartering away when he took the shot. The arrow deflected off one of the spine bones and went up and came out above the front shoulder.

RE: Wouldn't have believed it if there weren't pics
 

my buddy hit one the same way we gave it 2 hours...we tracked for 4 hours and had blood the whole time. We gave up and he's gonna hopefully find it tonight....but that picture made me change my mind about him finding it.

RE: Wouldn't have believed it if there weren't pics
 

There is a major artery that runs just under the spine almost the entire length. By accident, I hit a doe there a few years ago. I was fortunate and she ran about 50 yards, stopped and just tipped over dead. The scars on that buck look like it would have lead to it's death by know, but it seems to be recovering fairly well.

RE: Wouldn't have believed it if there weren't pics
 

Them bucks are tough. Must not have hit anything vital. He shouldn't have shot that buck anyway unless it was his first buck.