Lost a nice buck..need help making sense of it
 

I'm in mourning. I thought I was an alright bow hunter, but maybe I've just been lucky in the past. I think I made a really dumb shot this past weekend.

This past Saturday I had just gotten my climber settled in when a doe followed by three bucks came trotting a q quick pace towards my tree. The doe went directly underneath me. The secon buck was real nice, a shooter for sure..and was coming at me at a quick pace.

just as the buck was about to enter my shooting lane, I grunted to stop him. He stopped too quickly and was mostly behind a tree looking right up at me, he was only about 10 yards from the base of my tree so I was confident I could place an exact shot at that range.

he was so close I was shooting down about 45 degrees, so I thought above the right shoulder and behind the shoulder blade would put it through both lungs. I let the arrow and fly and it hit exactly where I was aiming...here is a sketch of where I shot. The sketch makes it look a little too far back, the deer was probably even more quartering towards me. I felt like I was shooting down through the lungs kind of...


Make a long story short, I waited until next morning and after 6 hours across a quarter mile of tracking never found the buck. After we lost the trail amongst the forest floor coated with maple leaves. I took a break, then walked all the way to the lake another 1/4 mile looked in every thicket and grass in case he was laying there...nothing. I felt sick to my stomach.

Here are the clues to my mystery.
1) Arrow did NOT pass through, about 6-8 inches was sticking out and this broke off on a tree as the buck ran. This means 20 inches of arrow was inside the deer.
2) didn't find blood for first 70 yards. Then only small drips on the ground, never rubbed on anything off the ground. Even ran down rows of corn and never any blood on the stalks just dripped on the ground small drop every 10 feet. A few places blood was smeared on a corn stalk if he ran it over...but never on stalks when he was going down a row.
3) Some blood seemed dark, other seemed bright and watery..but could've mixed with melted morning frost.
4) Ran towards a lake.

I feel horrible, now I'm wondering what I was thinking taking this shot...it happened so fast, about 5 seconds from first seeing deer to shot. Now I'm 2nd guessing everything..and have since read the stupidity of a quartering towards shot. I just feel terrible.

Any hypothesis what I ended up hitting in the deer? Where was he bleeding from?

Feeling horrible in Wisconsin.
Nate

I feel your pain,had the shot set up,doe was going down,nicked an unseen limb and trailed her for eight hours never found her.The limb is no longer in my way and if I'd had a chain saw the tree wouldn't be standing.

sorry to hear that , Ive been there. from the angle you say he was at, a shot behind the shoulder would have given you a liver hit which is deadly but not ideal , they say the 1/4ering to shot is a no no but I quickly killed two deer this year w/ 1/4ering to shots but I hit them in front of the shoulder and i still only hit 1 lung.

You didn't say how high up you were, but I'm guessing at least 16 feet. With that said and considering the shot angle and short distance, you probably got one lung and the liver. Even though he was probably really sick, a rutting buck could go for miles like that. Hindsight is always 20/20, it happens to the best of us. As long as we learn from it...........it falls in the experiance catagory.

Thanks guys, it helps just to the tell the story and know people are listening. I'm struggling with not having any closure, I guess the best I'll get is to study the situation to learn as much as possible so it never happens again.

I think closure begins when you take one last look for the that buck. He's dead somewhere. I've taken several downward angled shots and have taken at least 10 quartering to shots and never had an arrow stick out; always getting full penetration.

Your problem is that you didn't make a bad shot, but there wasn't an exit hole. My toughest tracking jobs are almost always the ones where I shot on top of the deer and left no exit hole. When this happens, the blood flows in the body cavity and not out a hole.

From your description of where you said you hit it and not really where the X is at, sounds like you made a good shot. I say go take one last look just so you know inside you that you gave it every effort, then roll with the flow and keep on hunting!

Good luck to you.

iSnipe

The shot and angle you describe is a far lower percentange shot then broadside or 1/4 away. The best "sense" to take from this experiance is that lower percentage shots have a higher risk of failure - as you now personally know. Only you can decide what this means to yourself in future shot selections.

That's why I quit bow hunting. My 30-06 drops 'em every time.

If you are lucky a coyote will eat the broadhead.......I probably hear more hunters say that they "stuck one" rather than killed one. I also don't bow hunt anymore.

Could be that you hit higher than you think. You'll never really know until you locate that deer. I would continue looking if possible. Look near water, and also check less likely places like small patches of cover in open areas. Wounded deer will sometimes find a small bit of cover in an open field, so they can see if anything is approaching.

I dont know why people have to use these threads to suggest that archery tackle is not an effective means of killing game, it most certainly is. plenty of deer poorly shot w/ heavy caliber rifles are lost each year aswell. if you choose not to bowhunt thats fine ,but to suggest its because its not effective is disengenuoius.

I wish I could keep looking more. However I live 2.5 hours a way from this property. I will be heading back up this weekend, but it will be opening weekend of gun season, and most of the neighboring properties will be chock full of blaze-orange clad humans in stands and will not likely allow me to wander freely across their land.

I was thinking about printing out a flyer and distributing to all the neighboring properties saying to keep an eye out for this dead buck and offering some reward for finding it.

There should be dozens of hunters walking through the surrounding properties this weekend and seems to be the best chance someone will stumble onto the deer.

What do you guys think? if you found a dead buck with a nice rack on it and an arrow wound, and knew that a neighboring hunter had lost a deer the previous weekend bowhunting, would you respond to a flyer left in your mailbox to call that neighboring hunter? Even if you had never met him before?

Or would you just cut the rack off and keep it yourself. What should the reward be to make it worth someone's time to call me if they find the deer???

And I hear more of the gun hunters say "it didn't drop, so I know I missed it".

Recovery/loss rates for bow and gun are about the same.

If you ever have problems tracking a deer again, find a buddy with a deer dog. A buddy of mine shot a doe that left no evidence to track with at all. We decided to use a dog to track it and found it within six or seven minutes.

It's entirely possible the deer is still running does. I've shot my share of deer with either a broadhead or even a broadhead with part of an arrow still in it. I've also butchered deer where you could see where the pattern of a broadhead had puntured the hide with very little evidence of a wound in the flesh. The fact that the deer never bedded down tells me he wasn't as hurt as it may seem from the shot. A mortally wounded deer will bed shortly after being wounded. As to your flyer, I would definitely respond. I think we owe it to each other as hunters to be courteous and talk with each other. Enjoy each others success and failures and help each other out. That would mean returning a deer found dead when you know the person has been looking for it like mad. I hope you find your deer, but if you don't worry too much because there is always the possibility that it survived.

looks/sounds like there is a dead deer out there...get a blood dawg and wouldnt be a problem..next weekend, gonna need a good seasoned dawg to find that.

$50 is a good reward..i would call...times are tough and someone elses deer is no trophy, but $50 will pay fer my gas and be a good reward fer someone elses deer.

i agree with the previous statement that the deer is fillin up with blood and till it gets so full it will not pour out on the ground.

i have seen a deer mortally wounded not know it and continue to chase does for 200 yards and die w/o ever actin like he was hit..so i would go back out thursday or friday b4 everyone shows up and take a good look b4 rifle starts.

gl and dont give up...go take another look, take a buddy or a dawg or both and give er the ol college try!!:violin:

I have to agree about hitting higher then you think. Shot placement is high (IMHO) to start with. If the deer was looking right at you on high alert, he could get lower pretty quick. This would put the shot high enough to be unrecoverable or even still a live animal. Glad to see that you did not blame the broadhead or equipment for a marginal shot.

Best thing to do is learn from this experience and become a better bow hunter. As everyone on this forum has seen, deer are tough. He could still be out there walking around, why aren't you?

Well it worked out after all. My cousin shot the deer opening morning, he was up and chasing does.

Here is the mystery..the arrow entrance wound was WAY lower than I had thought I saw in my mind. It was in front of the shoulder and appears to have only gone in the brisket (sp?)

The buck was happy and chasing does, the wound was already healing.

It really bothers me that I was so confident I had SEEN the arrow with my own eyes protruding from the deers back??? What the...??

Either way I couldn't imagine a better ending to an otherwise terrible experience. Here is a pic of the buck.

I for one and happy with the results. However, what would have capped it off even better for me was to see the wound. Just curious, not morbid. LOL!

Congratulations to you and your cousin. To you for sharing your story and ultimately knowing the results and to your cousin for not choking like you did. LOL! Just kidding. To your cousin for getting your nice buck!

Take care,

iSnipe

I shot a deer my cousin arrowed two months earlier, he was all tore up. I told him the deer made it a half mile without us pushing and that he was fine. Broadhead fell out on the concrete while I was skinning him. I shot him a mile away from the bow stand.

I think he's sunken in the lake.

Good to see a nice outcome from this story! Sometimes your eyes tell your brain what it wants to hear which is why you may have thought you hit him lower than you did. If you get a chance, post a picture of the entrance wound after you have him caped. It would be interesting to see the penetration.

Its a good feeling to know that a deer you thought was lost and dead somewhere was still moving and able to be harvested. You learned a lesson and quatering shots and the deer was able to have another week of staying fresh before he went to the freezer. Now you just have to convince your cousin that if it wasn't for you slowing him down he never would have shot him! LOL!

I made a shot similar to that about 5 years ago...the deer in on the wall. The arrow had good penetration, but no exit hole as the broadhead hit a rib bone on the back side. With the height of my stand and the angle of the arrow, there was no blood trail. I saw the direction the deer had gone and more or less followed the trail of distubed leaves the buck had left. Good luck with your search!

Very well said!

I would say you hit him in the liver I did the same thing this year and if there is water nearby if he can get to it he might lay down in it or be around where the water is I found where mine layed down

Good post, I almost lost my 2008 buck with a bad shot from my 6.5x55 If he wouldn't have turned around and tried to get back to his bedding area I wouldn't have found him. bad shots are made, you just need to chalk it up to experience and learn from it.

"I thought I was an alright bow hunter, but maybe I've just been lucky in the past. I think I made a really dumb shot this past weekend."

Two things strike me. One, you saying maybe you have been lucky in the past? How so? On low percentage quartering to shots? And two, your mind must be playing tricks on you if you saw an arrow enter near his back, but in reality it hit low in the shoulder, front side?

I hope you learned a good lesson here.