the void doesn't exist - its a wives tale

That is, unless you have personally experienced the "void".

Using the same diagram Rob linked, check out where my buddy hit a deer as shown by the red dot.



At 25 yards from a 18' tree stand, deer broadside, my buddy hit this buck in the spot shown above. The arrow had some blood, but mostly hair and muscle. We tracked pin spots of blood after leaving the area for several hours which dried up quickly. Never found the buck.

The week after I was hunting from this same stand and here comes the buck he shot. I know it was the same buck because my buddy described him as a small four point with a front right limp. It was him. He turned broadside and I saw a black circle about the size of a quarter where he hit him, as shown on the diagram above. He was fine.

If you hit that buck in the same area, he will more than likely be fine.

If your buddyindeed hit the deer where the red spot is he hit dead center of the spinal chord. And you wouldn't have had to track it at all. Trust me ifyou hit one in the spine they won't go anywhere. I guarentee your buddy hit above the spine. As people mentioned earlier the spine is lower than most people realize. Trust me I have hit two deer in the spine this year and they drop instantly.

Nah, it wasn't above the spine. I've dropped deer in their tracks by hitting them in the spine - between that and butchering them myself, I know where the spine is. The hit was lower than the spine, that is the amazing part of that hit. I saw the scab and it couldn't have been a spine hit. I never put much stock in the void myth, until I saw the scab on that buck and where it was.

Well here is the deer...I hope I get another shot at him.

C

I still don't believe in the "void" however, it is possible to hit the lungs and not kill the animal. I wouldn't have thought this but as we grow, age, we learn. I've learned that is possible to lung a deer and not kill it via a book I'm reading by John Jeanenney "Blook Tracking for Finding Wounded Game". In it they show autopsy's of deer, more specific doe with broadhead scars on the lungs. IF you don't deflate the lungs and you don't cut enough blood vessels to bleed them out which broadheads need (hemoraging), the deer can live. That's the case with the "void" area. Your still catching lungs but the upper lobes have less blood vessels and if you don't deflate them or bleed them, they'll heal. You have to catch at least one lung, spinal cord or bone when hitting that red dot area. Now behind it/high, somewhat a void though your clipping the diaphram, or high in front and if you miss the aertery, it's a flesh wound...

the void does exist i personnally experienced it this year while hunting in ill. shot a nice eight point 130 class buck. Hit him high in shoulder above the #3 shot in the diagram. the buck was shot oct.16 and would still be alive today had a hunter not harvested him the week before the ill. gun season. So i believe there is that area where a deer can be shot and still live to see another day.

Yes, there is a spot between the backbone and lungs that if you hit it you will not recover the deer. It's a very small area (an inch higher and they're spined, an inch lower and it's double lungs) but I experienced it for the first time a few weeks ago. 30 yard pin for a 20 yard shot (rookie mistake) and hit in a line right up from the back of the shoulder but above the vitals and below the spine. When I saw the arrow go through him I hoped I caught the femoral but no such luck. With the slight downward angle I caught the top of one lung on the far side (as judged from the blood). Had a decent blood trail in the snow but watched him mount a doe an hour later, get chased away from a second doe by a larger buck and then run up over the top of the mountain like he was never hit over 2 hours later. I'd say he bled out about a pint on the ground and maybe half that again into his fur on both sides total 1.5-2 pints before he dried up. The arrow was covered with a slight bit of blood and a lot of fat. He survived long enough that I couldn't find him again but I doubt he'll make it through the winter. As far as all meat and no blood on the arrow with dark hair, I would agree that the arrow went above the spine. It's hard to go below the spine at any downward angle and not hit at least one lung which would show blood.

I give up![&:]

the only void i know of it the shoulder.......trust me it ownt go through that[:@][&:][8D]