Gryan

OK, here is the picture. Hope I get points for going to the truck and finding someone who could put it on a computer.

picture

This picture doesn't show too much but look at how low the holes are. Clearly, they are below the spine. Had I taken a picture of the inside of the chest cavity, at the top of the ribs, below the spine, ON BOTH SIDES< there was a completely healed broadhead mark. I picked at it with my fingers and I couldn't lift the edges.

Incedentily, the entrance wound was about 1" or so higher than the exit wound. Treestand? Maybe downhill? My own "no-mans land" from back in the day, I was in a tree stand and the arrow passed through. I don't go as high as some of you guys though. Unless the deer is right below me, I have only a couple of inches of difference betwen the entrance and exit wound.

So for what it is worth.

Greg

jhalfhill

My cousin killed a bruiser 2 years ago which had a total of 3, yes 3 broadheads located around the lung area. One of those were facing away from a lung as if it had blown through it. Maybe it just moved around in there over time. I have no idea how this deer survived but it was perfectly healthy when he killed it.

Gryan

OK, here is the picture

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...n/IMG_1262.jpg

Greg

Gryan

Jeese, that first picture is horrible. Someone delete it it is way too big.

Anyway, in the link in the second picture post, I am holding apart the hair of the exit wound on the deer. Notice that the healed wound is only slightly higher than my killing exit wound. (bloody spot to the right) My shot that killed the deer was from the ground and right on the money. The deer is hanging from it's hind leg and the spine is to the left of my fingers. Around the top of the deer to the left, is the healed entrance wound. BOTH below the spine. Just not clearly in this picture.

Greg

HNI_Christine

Gryan, do you have a picture of the rib cage? It looks to me like that scar is too high to be through the chest cavity??? Hard to tell with out seeing it in person.. and I'm not saying you're wrong. It just looks too high in that picture.

Anyhow, back to the question. In my opinion.. (and I have a pretty good handle on physiology)... There simply is no 'void' below the spine. In fact, if you shoot right under the spine, you'll hit the dorsal aorta.. which will drop a deer in seconds.

I do believe that one lunged deer do sometimes live. (deer have great physiologic compensation mechanisms) Also, I've believe that some double lunged deer can travel great distances if the arrow hits them just so. A double lunged deer usually drops quickly because of massive blood loss, not because it suffocates like a lot of people think.. If, for some reason, the part of the lungs hit are not very vascular .. and.. the arrow hole does not cause a double pneumothorax (collapse of both lungs) then the deer is going to go a long ways. Could it live? Nothing is impossible.

Still, just because it goes a long ways.. or even survives.. does not mean there's a void. There is no empty space inside a deer.

Gryan

Sorry, no inside pictures but I do have, I think, pictures of the inside of the hide. I'll check. I assure you, there was two healed cuts between the ribs on both sides.

We don't all have to agree.

I know that two deer that I have harvested have had arrows pass through their chest cavity earlier in the same season that I shot them. They both looked completely normal coming in and they both died when hit in the right place.

Just like I don't believe bucks become completely nocturnal, we all don't agree with the void. Maybe it isn't a void at all. Maybe there is a "place" filled with something other than lung tissue, arteries, and such.

Greg

Mathewsboy

That looks pretty high to me too, but its a hard picture to look at.. wierd angle too..

And for MNPURPLE "There is that fairly wide area behind the shoulder blade where there would be some room between the actual spine and the cavity"...

There is NO void between the spine and the cavity there.. what the heck , are we looking at two different pictures...

http://home.mn.rr.com/deerfever/Anatomy.html

Leverdude

I shot 2 deer this year that hit a little high, right under the spine & they both dropped in sight, maybe 15 to 20 yards & they were down. Dressing them I found I had cut the fat vane just under the spine & out thru the far lung on both deer. They were filled with blood from cutting the vane. Now I dont know because I'v never seen the insides of a living deer but it sure looks like if I hit any lower then I'da got a double lung & any higher I'da got the spine. I cant figure out where this void would be. I think sometimes a shot can go over the spine & fool us. I cant count the tmes I'v been sure of my shot placement only to find a hole where it wasn't supposed to be. Its hard in the field to be sure where your arrow hit. Deer move, angles are misjudged, chit happens, but I dont believe theres an empty place in a deers chest.

Bartz_25

Ok question from a newbie. Do you guys aim right in the middle of the chest cavity. or lil low or right behind the sholder? I have a 3d target with removable vital. I've been just aiming right in the middle of the vital piece.

MNpurple

I can sure see what the others are saying. The diagram on here def. shows no void area below the spine or above the chest. Maybe it depends on how the deer is standing, etc.. But I know I have hit a no-mans zone, lol. If it hasn't happened to you, well then that is a good thing, and I hope you dont get to see where it is, because it means a wounded deer. it happened when I was young, and I dont want it to happen again, thats for sure.

Bartz, a center chest hold in the middle of the chest cavity should be good (basically right behind the shoulder). This gives you a little leway, up, down, left or right. Personally, i dont have the fastest bow in the world, so I always aim for the heart area, expecting the deer to duck (jump the string). By aiming lower I still hit them in the lungs if they duck, and if they dont duck, then I hit the heart.