I had my first BIG Deer encounter with a bow on Columbus Day at 9:10am. My guess is he would have scored 150-160". I was hunting in a blind with a strong South windI was positioned at the North side of this really thick hedge row that's about 60 yards wide and 400 yards long andknew the farmer was going to be cutting beans this day. Sure enough the combine got the deer moving, I had about 15 does run within 15-20 yards of me, but I knew this spot was a BIG Buck bedding area, so I held back. Sure enough I spot massive antlers running right at me, he's following a big doe, and she's the ONLY one who stayed in the timber, all the others were running the edge of the field. So she gets a mere 3-4 yards from me, I am already at full draw, she stops, stares at me, then "blows" which cause him to lock up at 8-10 yards. his vitals werepartly behind some brush and a smaller tree, so I placed my pin a little closer to the shoulder not wanting to hit the tree, I hit myrelease and my arrow goes even a little more right than I had hoped and slams into his shoulder. he spun around,it took all of 2 jumps before my arrow fell out. I picked my arrow up and only the broadhead had blood on it, I wanted to vomit on the spot. We looked around for 4 hours and never found a single drop of blood. I still can not believe I didn't get any more penetration then that at 8 yards and 68 pounds draw with my Muzzy 100gr. I can't shake that memory out of my head, I've had 2 dreams about it since then. It's a horrible feeling that I don't want anyone to experience. I am 99% sure that the deer is going to be just fine, a little sore for awhile, but he will live. I choked big time, and also learned a life changing lesson, WAIT until he's completly in the clear before I hit my release. I almost didn't want to tell this story, but it's like therapy for me, the more I talk about it, the less it hurts. Sorry for rambling.

Sorry to hear about your story. I had 2 bad experiences this year already with 2 does that I wounded. I gut shot one and never found her and the other one I hit a little bit hit and tracked her for about 4 yours and about 500 yards and she went into a hay field and couldn't find any blood in the hay. I still feel really terrible and I think about it everyday of how I should of waited for a better shot. One was quartering towards me that I gut shot and other was broadside at about 28 yards. I haven't wounded a deer for like 5 years with the bow now. Got really down on myself for it but all you can do is have more patience and have confidence in your next shot.

Hopefully you will get another chance at him during the rut.

Good Luck!

I like the strategy.

It sounds like you didn't choke, you just got off a bit on your aim in all the excitement.
At least it sounds like the buck wasn't mortally wounded. Hopefully you will get a crack at another
one later this year.

I bet this doesn't go 10 pages.

What do you mean by this?

Man, that sucks. The good thing is that you are fairly sure the deer will be OK and you learned from it. Hopefuly, you will get another chance.

Good luck.

dont worry man it happens to the best of us you just got to get up and keep fightin'

Keep up he good fight teammate. Next time he's down.

You must have hit right in the big of the bone in the shoulder for that to happen. He may be ok, just keep going out and keep a eye open for him. A guy at work was out his first year during archery and he was not schooled the best on range. He drilled a doe right on the shoulder and the arrow broke off right at the B-Head. only blood on very end of arrow just like yours. I think it was his cousin or father in-law shot the same deer six weeks later during gun season and when butchering the deer found the B-Head lodged in shoulder and he said the deer was acting just fine, no sign of injuries of infection on meat. He may end up being ok.