c903

6ptsika

I don' t think anyone' s arguing it doesn' t happen, just that there' s no " hollow" spot, and if you hit right behind the shoudler and don' t recover the deer, one of two things happened.
1) You hit over the spine. This is just about every time someone says they didn' t get a pass through, and the blood trail stopped after a little ways.
2) You hit under the spine, but never learned how to properly trail and recover a deer.

This topic is almost as bad as the numerous threads I read every day on these boards about making a " perfect" shot, but not recovering the deer.
Once again, you either didn' t make a " perfect" shot, or you can' t track a deer.
People need to stop making excuses for bad shots, they happen to everyone eventually, learn from it, don' t blame some mythical " hollow" spot, or your equipment, for that matter.

badshotbob

Don' t know if this helps but I hit a deer from a tree stand at 20 yards, the hit was high and passed through under his spine just over the back of the lungs. Decent blood in the snow for 80-100 yards, then nothing. I tracked the deer through the snow by following his tracks (which wasn' t fun as he used trails that had many tracks in it going both directions). On my hands and knees, I came to the deer nose to nose - he was just too week with the loss of blood but was still alive. Would he have died in a few hours? Who knows. Point is, the arrow passed through under the spine and didn' t hit lungs and seemed not to have hit artery (seems like he would have been dead long before I caught up to him if it were an artery).

I' m not sure I buy into that magical spot in the deer that gives them 9 lives or whatever, just bad shots and good shots. Tracking is part of bow hunting though - learn it, love it. Get your deer.

nny243

Bob, if you didn' t hit an artery, and didn' t hit the lungs, why would the deer be weak from loss of blood? What' s bleeding? I would guess you hit the very top of the lungs. That would take a long time to put it down.

Todd1700

If that was the case then as nny243 said What put him down? Did you poisen the tip of your arrow? Trust me if you had missed both lungs and all arteries he wouldn' t have been on the ground when you found him. There are two shots responcible for this MYTH. First is the shot that goes over the spine. There is a lot more space between a deers spinal column and the top of his back than most people realize. Put an arrow above the spinal cord and there is simply nothing lethal up there to hit. You will get lots of superficial bleeding but no dead deer. And second is the high lung hit. This shot usually takes longer to kill a deer so they run farther before they die. This shot also gives you a higher than normal exit hole so the blood trail may be poor or virtually nonexistent. Combine slower death with poor bloodtrail and you wind up with a lot of lost deer.

vikingvictory

I was always taught to aim behind the front leg.Looking at the diagram I will never hit the heart shooting behind the front leg.Are you sure this diagram is correct?The shoulder bone seems to be very high in the diagram.
As far as a hollow spot,I don' t believe in it.If you hit a non vital spot the chances are the deer or any animal will live.

rcd567

As far as hitting a deer high, not bleeding much and not recovering the animal, I' ve got the T-shirt. Been there, done that.[:@]

As far as these deer pictures some of you are posting...where did you get it? Out of what book?

Dacotah

Disputing the anatomy pics now? Sheez... never say die. lol

Read the post, you' ll find the original website.
Not good enough? How about Whitetails.com? http://www.whitetails.com/anatomy.html
or maybe International Bowhunters Education Program
http://www.nbef.org/deer_java.html

mez

The anatomy picture is correct. Not sure where they got the pic but it matches what I was taught and the pictures in my anatomy books. The top of the shoulder bone in all animals extends to nearly the top of the back.

rcd567

Dacotah,
Not doubting the pictures, actually thought they were pretty cool and wanted to show them to my step son. We' re just getting him starting in Archery and Bowhunting and think these will be beneficial. Thanks for the links. Actually he' ll be Bowhunting next season. That gives him a year to get used to his equipment and lots of practice.