Njhunter1118

So I hunt in south jersey on a privant 40 acres. This morning, I took a shot at a buck that was behind my stand, at about 30 yards. Since it was behind my tree, I had to kind of bend out and aim out to the side. The deer was standing in mud and water, with a lot of thicket anf thorns in the area. It was about 6:10 when I took the shot, so early shooting hours. I believe my arrow went under the deer, but I am not 100% sure. I shoot a pse vendetta xs at 53 pounds. The deer took off, slowed down, looked back at me, snort wheezed, and hung in the area acting very curious and concerned. Didn't appear to be shot. Him and the 5 does ran off, and later when I went to track him, I could not find my arrow no matter how hard I searched. Absolutely no sign of blood whatsoever. So deer seemed fine, no arrow, no blood. I have up the search after about 3 hours. Can you guys help me out, give me some input?

early in

It sounds like maybe you didn't bend at the waist when you lined up on him? That's important when shooting from a tree stand.

MZS

If you did not see the arrow hit and there is no blood, you most likely missed. As far as not finding the arrow goes, I have had arrows miss the target and go into my lawn and I knew exactly where they hit, yet it took a while to find the arrow right in front of me - it is not hard to lose an arrow. 30 yds is a long shot (in my book) even if you have correct form. Contorting yourself like that would make for bad form. I find I am off if I even have to hunch down a little shooting from my ground blind cause the shooting window is too low.

Bullcamp82834

By your description of the deers behavior it sounds like you startled it but didn't hit it. Kudos to you for making a thorough search anyway.

olsaltydog

Yup agreed with the miss. On the arrow good luck finding it. If the deer was in water/ mud then it most likely sank in the ground. Have lost several arrows like that. If your gonna hunt in a swampy area i would recommend using metal arrows if losing them is a big deal. That way you can take a metal detector to the area and retrieve them.

FlDeerman

Yap sounds like a miss and the arrow buried in the mud.Good job making sure.

BUCKMARK

It doesn't take much to deflect an arrow, if it did hit a branch, it could have flown 50 yards past where the deer was. It has happened to most off us, very frustrating when you can't find an arrow to verify a hit or miss...