I went into work early on Friday so I could leave work early. My plan was to go to a farm that I haven' t hunted yet this year, and mark a tree to hunt for the next morning. I got to the farm around 3P and quickly found ALOT of buck sign. Scrapes, rubs, ect. I marked 2 trees for the morning and decided to go ahead and hunt until dark. I was in the tree and set up by 5P. I forgot to mention that I checked the weather before I left work and the forcast had no rain in it until Saturday evening around 7P. So, anyway, at 5P on Friday, I was set up. At just before 7P, and nice 8 point walked in from behind me. He was relaxed and was eating accorns. He was headed directly toward my tree. At about 4 yards, he started acting spooky, but I could tell he had no idea why. He couldn' t see me, or smell me. The wind was in my favor and I had good cover. I guess he just had that feeling. At this point, I got nervous. I knew I had to make a decision. If I let him to another step or two, he' d be directly under me and I' d have no shot until he passed me. At that point, he would have a good chance of smelling whereI climbed the tree. If I shot him where he stood now (4 yards, facing me) I could shoot just behind the shoulderblades and get the lungs, maybe the heart , liver or spine. The more he stood there, the spookier he seemed. I decided to draw and take the shot. I' ve take that shot before and had good results with it. I took my time and put the pin right behind the shoulder blades, on the spine (I was pretty much shooting right down on him). At the shot, he stumbled, and ran into a blowdown, then continued running for about 30 yards and stopped and then walked away. I never heard him fall. I waited about 15 minutes and climbed down. I had a passthrough with lung blood on it. But no blood at the site of the hit. I followed his tracks to the last place I saw him, but didn' t find any blood. I did find some clear liquid splattered here and there and a chunk of something. I' m not sure what the chunk was, but it looked like lung.
I decided since it was getting dark, it wasn' t supposed to rain until the next night and the temp was cool, I decided to come back in the morning with a friend to track him. WELL, it was a long night!! I woke up at 4A to find that the weatherman had been wrong. It was pouring down rain and continued to do so until about 10A. We searched for bllod, but of course there wasn' t any. It had washed away. We searched around the entire ridge until 2:30P, but never found this deer. I firmly believe I hit 1 lung. I firmly believe the deer is dead. I believe I had a good chance of finding him if the blood trail wouldn' t have been washed away. I can' t believe I can' t find this deer. We searched everwhere and ran out of places to look. We looked in blowdown, thickets, rockpiles, ect. The only place we couldn' t search well was a huge waste high grass field. You could literally trip over a deer in this grass and never know what it was. There were multiple places where it looked like something entered the field, but we couldn' t find anything.

Ok, guys let me have it!! Tell me how the shot was low percentage!!!

I' m sick inside. This is the first deer I have ever hit with the bow that I couldn' t find and it was a nice one. 14-16 inches wide, nice tall tines.

Slice

Well, You asked for it

It is not a good shot - you will Never hit the heart with that shot - you have a 3 or 4 inch window to at the best hit one lung or the liver. A double lunger will almost never happen with that shot. You are almost guaranteed a long tough track nomatter how well you hit the spot you are aiming for. It is best IMO to let them walk - and take your chances.

I hope you find him, and good Luck

My 1st question is that it looks like you went out friday to find a spot for saturday morning. I also see that you are from PA. Well...The PA season didn' t start until Saturday morning.

How were you hunting friday night?

We all learn from our mistakes..... An inch or 2 over and he would of dropped in his tracks and this post would have had a happy ending...

Next time wait for a better shot...

1st- A heart shot is possible with that shot. I did it last year on a doe on the opener.

2nd- I live in PA but hunt in MD. MD opened on Sept. 15th.

Very low percentage shot. Wait till he moves out farther and take a broadside or quartering away shot. Much larger target area for a vital shot then.

I have to agree w/ rack on this one. Let him walk by, if he smells you, he smells you, if he doesn' t, then there' s the opportunity for that double lung shot.

For 1 you made a shot at a bad angle. If he was facing you, you don' t have a shot. 2 he had become spooky, and thats also a time for disaster. You seem to feel you could' ve made that shot work. But your results show different. So now all you have it coyote meat in the woods. Why risk such a shot, it' s very low percentage. I hope you learned a lesson, and think twice about it next time. A single lung shot chance simply means he still has 1 lung to live and breath on. Deer can go an awful long ways on a 1 lung hit, they are ALWAYS low percentage, risky shots period.

I can understand folks starting threads like this to ask for trailing help or other advice, but why is this one here? To brag about drawing blood, despite a poor shot selection and a lost deer? What kind of thing is that to brag about?

I sincerely hope this place doesn' t turn into the Wounding Forum again this year.

Awful lot of high and mightys on this site.