I shot at a nice buck last night standing broadside at 32 yards. When my son and I got to my arrow it had hair with black ends stuck in the blade of my Spitfire and fatty looking stuff for about the first 3-4 inches on one side of the arrow. Then it was pretty much clean for about 15 inches except a small speck or two of blood. Then two of the vanes had blood on them and some fat or meat pieces but the other vane only had a short streak of blood on it. We trailed blood for probably 600 yards just small drops here and there and every now and then 5 or 6 drops all together but we never found him or saw him again. I have been bowhunting seriously for about 8 years and have blown through quite a few deer. The question I have, is there anyway that arrow could have went through the deer or did I just cut him on his back? The shot looked high like maybe he ducked some. The shot should not be fatal should it? Everytime I went through a deer that arrow was covered in blood no matter if you gut shot or not.

sounds like a brisket clip to me.

Yea sounds like brisket or a skim. With one feather clean this sounds logical.

I would guess you just made one buck much smarter

I think you shot the top of his back as there are no black hairs on the brisket. most hairs on the brisket are tan arent they.

The shot looked high because my son thought I shot over him. I had ranged it at 32 or 33 yards from 25 feet up in my stand but I read where the true distance is from the base of the tree to where he was at. So I was probably aiming a little high and I think he ducked some too.

As for me I always sight my bow in from the stand using the rangefinder so the angle from the base of the tree to me doesn' t matter at all. just use your range finder from your stand and sight in your pins. I have one at 25 which is good from 0-30 yards and my other is at 40 yards which I have never used.