As long as you had good intentions, which you did, don' t worry to much about it. Maybe you hit him good and he died shortly thereafter.

You did what you thought was right..........


If he was hurt that bad, I would have tried to end his suffering also.

Like I said,... I think you did the right thing. As a side note.... we had a badly wounded doe come into the woods behind our neighborhood on the Sunday after our gun season closed. This was back before we had the long bow season. Besides that we have NO SUNDAY hunting. The neighbors that found her knew I hunted and was the only one in the 23 house neighborhood with guns etc. ANyway, I called the DNR and told them about the doe. She' d get up and move when anyone got near her, but would fall or just lay down when she got 30 or 40 yards away. I said I could dispatch the critter with an arrow. DNR said, " we won' t come out. NO, you can' t kill the deer. Let nature take it' s course. I know it' s cruel but that' s the way we do it" . Well, I ask and they said no. Oh well, I don' t know how it happened but just before dark some how that deer fell on an arrow and died quickly.

You did what most people would do. I know I would have. The deer was suffering enough and in no way could you have added to it. Feel good knowing you did what you had to do. By not taking the shot would just deffinately prolong the suffering.Please keep us informed about the out come of the story.

I have seen a lot of three legged deer that were alive and healed doing very well.
I' m sure he was hurting but I' m sure about suffering. I don' t know what I would have done!

good luck

Because so many of you asked me to post the follow up here it is. I took my 10 year old son over there today and we spent three hours walking the property. At the sight of shot there was no blood or hair.

I think I missed but it is a field grown up with weeds and I did not find my arrow so I can' t be certain. We did check every blow down, honeysuckle thicket and briar patch on the property.

Just to clarify about the shot. 30 yards is the limit of my confidence level. Under normal circumstances I will not shot beyond that distance and really prefer to have them closer if possible. I would estimate this deer was 38 to 40 yards which is why I called the shot a " hail mary" .

I will be hunting on the property tomorrow. Hopefully I will get another chance within my comfort zone. Thanks for all the replies and encouragement.

Tag or not, with the DNR,s permission or not. In that situation I would put the animal out of its misery...or at least try. You did a good thing.

A big thumbs up to the owner of the arrow!

A big thumbs down to the cruel folks that said let nature take it' s course.......maybe one day they too will be suffering and begging someone to help them.

I gravely wounded a deer this year. I didn' t know it until I found her. I tracked her for just over 3 hours. I took one of her rear legs off just above the knee. t was within my comfort range. I have to agree with the majority of the people on here. While it isn' t impossible for the animal to survive with a leg taken off, it' s not common. Because I am a hunter I am also a steward of the land. A deer was hit by a car in front of my house this year. I called the police and waited an hour for the officer to show up before I killed it with my bow (used the bow because it was midnight and figured the officer' s pistol was less neighbor friendly.) Next time I will just handle it and not make the phone call. There is right and there is wrong. You were right.

David

Not sure if anyone has mentioned this or said this yet; but my opinion is that if you can ever get off a second shot, then you are justified. Or, if the animal looks like it has a fatal injury, then you can take any shot possible. Broken legs and stuff heal, deer usually live through a broken leg.

as far as deer living with broken legs......there was a 3 legged doe at our hunting property almost all summer long(probably from the previous gun season) Seemed like after the first cold snap it quit coming up by the house like it did every morning. We found a 3 legged skeleton and a chunk of doe with coyote written all over it... i think you did the right thing. Nothing should be made suffer. Even if you further wounded it, the coyotes will kill it faster, easier, and less painlessly for the deer maybe.