portable ladder

Bad news, fellow bowhunters. I hit a nice 2.5 year-old thick-beamed 8-pointer, I didn't concentrate on the rack, once I saw it was big enough to be a shooter, I focused on making my move. He came in with a yearling 6-pointer, I don't know if they just happened to meet at the scrape at the same time or if they came in together. Anyway I had some tinks out and I gave a soft bleat with the can and here they come, the big boy comes in on a script, just before he gets to my shooting lane at 15 yards. I draw my bow and bleat with my mouth MEAAA, he takes 2 steps and stops behind a forked maple sapling. I have a 3 inch window just behind his left front leg. I debate the shot, squat down and get a good look and let her fly. Thwack- drilled him, it happened so fast but my arrow might have glanced off the sapling or I might have hit high, reguardless, The arrow hit about 2 inches below the top of his back and about a half inch behind where his leg meets his body. High and forward. The arrow only penetrated about 5 inches, he turned and bolted, not limping, not stopping till he hit the overgrown powerlines, took a couple heavy bounds and was gone. I gave him 2 hours and began the track. A few clumps of hair at the sight of impact, brown with black tips, body hair. 50 yards down the trail a few specks of blood, about the size of the top of a pencil eraser, bright red. 5 yards down a few more drips, the size of dime. A couple more yards and I find the 5 inches of broken arrow with my muzzy 4-blade. Looks to be a small piece of muscle tissue and bright red blood coated lightly on one side, no bubbles. Broadhead still straight, not bent from hitting bone. 5 yards down the trail the back half of arrow, bright red blood. I don't know if the arrow broke, fell out and he kicked the back half while running, but it was strange that I found the broadhead part first on the trail, since it was not a passthrough. I find a few more drips and then nothing, a half hour of thoroughly inspecting and we find a couple pin specks of blood, then nothing at all. I spent 6 hours checking every trail, bedding area, creek, and pond. Nothing. I hope the big guy made it. I am pretty depressed, but after checking some deer anatomy diagrams, it appears I may have hit the shoulder muscle, the broadhead is out of him, he wasn't limping. If I would have hit the spine, the lungs, or the main artery down his his back, he would have bled pretty good and went down. I believe they call the area on the body where I shot this deer, no-mans land. A part of the body on the deer that is usually non-fatal. Hopefully, he will just be sore for a couple weeks and heal up nicely. I really feel horrible, do you think it was a fatal wound? A long post I know, but I have been replaying it in mind all weekend. The last thing I want to do is wound a deer. I pray he lives to see many more days in the woods.

jerry606

Sounds like you missed all the important stuff. Baring some sort of really bad infection, he will probably heal up.

3ptbuck

sounds like the no-mans land. ive unfortunately had a couple of those but depending on the angle of the shot it may have caught the opposite lung. even that wouldnt be a definate fatal shot though.

MNpurple

I hit one the exact same place 2 years ago, and he immediatley ran down hill and i was able to follow a very faint blood trail for about 300 yards. I left him overnight and came back the next morning only to discover he had climbed the inside edge of a rock quarry wall. I couldnt make it up the same path he took and I figured if he can make it up that and is willing to do it. He should be ok

badshotbob

Really hard to say. As pointed out, you may have clipped the opposite side lung depending on the angle/distance of the shot. If you hit the opposite lung, chances are he'll expire. If not, chances are he'll be ok. Whitetails have an amazing will to live and are tough critters. I've also read that whitetails kick out a chemical when injured that takes away all pain. Haven't researched a ton on this so I'm not an expert, but I suspect this helps heal non-fatal wounds, such as this one.

portable ladder

thanks for the info, i was in a 12' ladder stand, and he was about 15 yards out, since i squatted at the shot, the angle was not severe, the arrow pretty much hit horizontally, hopefully, it missed the opposite lung.