kill_it_n_grill_it

One of my good buddies shot his first bow buck on the 13th about 10 minutes before sunset. He said that he came in nose to the ground completely broadside to him, and he wasn't slowing down. Well he let out a grunt and stoped him for a brief second. He let an arrow fly and he new that he hit him. Well he said that when he took off and turned he could see an arrow halfway up his boddy stickin in him about 3 inches. He called me and said that he was gonna let it sit overnight and i told him that it was a good idea because everyone on the forum says if your not sure, wait, and if your still not sure, wait even longer. Well we went out to track him at first light and about 40 yards from where he shot him we finally found blood.. The blood was fire engine red and a decenct amount of it. We followed the trail for about 60 yards then we found absolutely nothing... We were on hands and knees looking for about 2 hours looking for the next spot of blood. We found nothing!!! We decided to follow some trails that it looked like he could have taken but we found nothing. We are in iowa so we have every right to go onto someone elses property to find a wounded animal. We combed every bedding area that was around and found nothing... We searched for about 3 hours and came up with nothing, not even his arrow!!! There was one fence that we did not cross because it was a brand new barbed wire fence and our boots kept slipping whenever we tried to cross it. What is everyones opinion on this shot? Will it live? I forgot to metion that some of the blood that we saw was splattered like someone squirted it.. Any help would be appreciated....Thanks!!!

Mathewsboy

Well, if the arrow was only sticking in him 3 inches.. HES LONG GONE.. sounds like a shoulder hit. sorry.. but thats my Opinion

extreme1

You stated that it was dark red blood and splattered a bit,trailed the blood for 60 yards and nothing,sounds to me like a front leg shot or possibly a lower chest shot,probably not hitting any vitals.I would say he would live through this ,but he will be one sore buck for awhile.Curious,did you find any hair around the blood?

Gryan

Meat hits, including shoulder hits are usually brighter red blood. The fact that it took sixty yards for the blood to hit the ground indecated that the blood took some time to get out, possible running down the leg. Sixty yards can be covered in about 2 sec. by a deer runnign full throttle. When I've hit bone, they take off like a shot. The blood splatter is because the deer was running. All the splatter tells you is what direction the deer was going.

Good job on the backing out and not tracking right away. A good decision but the deer sounds like it wasn't hit in any vital area. 3" penetration isn't much so I'd vote for the shoulder,leg bone hit.

Greg