I worship at the feet of John Trout' s words.

The animal may or may not survive. It all depends on when you begin tracking the animal. He has been extremely accurate.

For One Lunger' s I refer to pages 80 to 83.

Some are and some are not recovered but it is possible for them to survive. Use the right tracking technoque and I think the chances of recovering your animal.

My mulie this year was a one lunger / liver shot. We recovered her in 264 yards. (by my GPS)

How do you know if you even hit one lung at all if the deer lives. Sure a deer can live alot longer if you hit it far back in the small of the lung. Just treat it like a liver shot let it bed for a long time.

I watch several things when I release the arrow. Where I think it hits, the reaction of the animal to the shot, and how it leaves the scene.

My doe this year . . . I knew that I hit high and the animal jumped, kicked, and ran hard about 20 yards then slowed to a walk. My partner said he thought I hit in the rump so as soon as she was out of sight we started trailing with the intention of pushing her slowly to keep her bleeding. Sixty yards up the trail we came across the blood trail: on the right side of the trail was a pool of bright pink blood with bubbles (the first indication of a high lung hit) but on the left side of her trail was a dark red blood (indicating a liver hit). After a bit of guessing, I concluded that I hit high in her right lung and the arrow exited through her liver. We tracked her to her first bed where she was down for the count but not out. After a few minutes I put an arrow into her heart putting her away fast.

During the field dressing it was obvious that the right lung had been hit and the liver showed how my broadhead and arrow had passed through the liver thus confirming my conclusion. My arrow had passed through high in the right lung, angling slightly and passed thtough the liver and exited through her left side.

Never did go back to find the arrow . . . a mistake I' ll never make again.

I hope this gives you a few ideas on how to determing your hit.

I highly recommend John Trout Jr." s newest book on trailing deer: Finding wounded Deer copyright 2001 Published by Woods N' Water, Inc. and Bookspan; ISBN 0-9707493-0-9. Studying this book is as valuable to this 40 year bowhunter as to a neophyte or anyone that fits in between. BTW - I got mine through Outdoorsmans Edge Book Club.

I am fortunate also to have his first work on the subject " Trailing Whitetails" now out of print. As a reference set the two are a super combination.

westaner, that is one of the problems with a single lunged deer. It will not necessarily bed or head for water like a gut shot deer will. It does not have that extreme sick feeling of a gut or liver shot deer that needs to bed down.

In reponse to the quesion, I believe that a pure single lunged has a chance to survive. Will it at 100%, no.

Dick, I just ordered Trout' s book on amazon. I am always up for some reading. Never too old to learn.

Dick-Cress,

I just wanted to give you a big think you for pointing out the Book " Finding Wounded Deer" by John Trout. It was a great reading book and I was able to compare experiences as well as learn from the book. John seems like the type of guy who will really tell it like it is without being afraid of critisism or pride as so many of us are.

If anyone has not read this book, I would highly recommend it. There are not too many books out there like this book. The book is intented for gun and bow hunting, but I would definetely say it dealt more toward tracking with archery.

Thanks again Dick.

Actually, I have both his books. Study them and every time you read through them you will learn more. I' ve gone to making 3" X 5" cards to carry and work on comitting to memory.