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Dead space?

killer buck

killer buck

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I went out tonight to get rid of some does. It was a picture perfect night, this doe came into about 14 yards from my stand. When I shot she ducked it a little bit and I shot it a little high. I thought I spined her but she didn't drop. I looked back at the footage and it looks like a spine shot, but she didn't fall like a spine shot instead she ran off. I tracked her for awhile the blood sort of stopped, so I went and looked where I saw her last before it got to dark. I couldn't find anything. I heard there was a dead space in deer. So I was wondering is there a dead space in a deer because I thought I got one lung, but there was barley any and the blood stopped so I dont know. Ill try to find her tommorow moring. I just hate not finding a deer. What do you think my best bet is?
 
If I had to guess, I'd say you backstrapped her. There is no "dead spot". The spine sits much lower then most people think. Get after it tomorrow again. Good luck!
 
If I had to guess, I'd say you backstrapped her. There is no "dead spot". The spine sits much lower then most people think. Get after it tomorrow again. Good luck!
Click to expand...

:way::drink1:
 
There is no dead spot. If the shot looked high and you can't find her you probably shot right over her spine. Nothing but meat there. I shot a doe high 3-4 years ago and had good blood for 300 yds or so then nothing at all. I seen her a week or two later with an entrance and an exit wound and she was fine. Milling around under my stand like nothing ever happened. I let her walk the second time. Figured she deserved to live after that...
 
You can say all you want about a dead spot but I know for a fact there is a spot you can shoot a deer below the spine and behind the diaphragm, and not kill them because there are no vitals. It happened to me. I do not think you can do it from a treestand though. The arrow has to pass through on the level. You don't have to call it a dead spot if you don't want but I got a complete pass through and found the buck the next day... chasing does with dried blood caked on both sides of his body. I have heard others talk about this too.
 
I know it exist also, One year I shot a doe with a 270 at 40 yards, The shot was high, She dropped and balled like a baby. I walked up to 10 yards trying to decide to shoot again or not. It could clearly see the wound about 4-5 inches below the top of her back. She looked at me, stood up and jumped into the brush! I heard her WALK away. I was so shocked I was stunned and could not get off another shot.
She could not have balled like that if the bullet penatrated much of her lungs. I scout every inch of that area shed hunting and am 100% sure she survived.
 
The spine dips down as it approaches the shoulders near the neck. Anatomically impossible to not hit the lungs below the spine in the cavity. BUT...many deer have been found weeks later, a few that have been seen by farmers falling over WHILE chasing does, that had this type of shot and finally succumbed to their wounds.

Although the lungs may "just" be clipped, they can go a LONG way. As far as your shot killer buck..I think you hit ABOVE the spine as many above have stated. The spine is much lower than many think and backstraps won't kill her barring and infection etc.

Just my two cents and I was taught of the "void" when I started hunting and through grad school, biology, dissection etc, learned the anatomy and realized there just wasn't a space there at all. This isn't to say they won't live longer than expected though and be hard if not impossible to find.
 
Here is my two cents on "the dead spot."

I agree, above the guts, behind the diaphram and below the spine. There is not much in there.

Now, above the vitals infront of the diaphram and below the spine is a different story. You put an arrow through there same kinda deal. Your not going to get alot of blood, becuase of the entrance/exit hole. The animal is going to make it quite a distance however they are going to die eventually becuase the chest cavity needs to be air tight for the diaghram to flex back and forth and the lungs to compress/decompress. Not to mention they will probably fill the chest cavity with blood internally and die from that aswell.

Im might be totatally off in right field but thats what I think :)
 
4003-deer-vitals2.png
 
Hit em high and Wave bye-bye, Hit em low and down they go. I dont think there is a dead spot in a near but there is a lot of non vital areas. A hit in a non vital area wont kill a deer right away. May be days down the road due to infection of loss of blood.
 
I stalked this 145 class buck bedded with a doe, laying by a fence in the CRP field and when I got close, he stood up. I was ready for the shot and as I drew, he turned towards the fence and got ready to jump it. That pause gave me just enough time to settle the pin and hit the release. The instant I shot, he went to jump the fence and the arrow hit him just below the spine and about right at the farthest back point of the liver in the photo above. It was a complete pass through and there was pretty good blood on the arrow but not a lot.

The other side of the fence was a plowed field and I watched him run out of sight with the doe about 1/4 mile away where he went over the crest of the hill. I drove around the other side of the section and looked at the other side of the field to see if he had fallen before he got to the road but he had not. I covered the road and the ditches looking for blood and I found two sets of tracks that I think were theirs crossing the road and going into the soybean stubble to the north. But there was no blood in the tracks. I could see a lot of that section and I glassed it really good for the next hour and then decided to come back the next morning and start walking the drainage ditches in that section.

At daylight I found him chasing a doe in the next section to the north (about two miles from where I shot him). Through the spotting scope I could clearly see that he had dried blood caked on both sides of him, but he looked non the worse for wear. I am pretty sure he was shot during the shotgun season about three weeks later.

That's all I know. To me, that's a dead zone. You can think what you want.
 
That's not a dead zone, that's just meat! That's like calling the deer's hind quarters a dead zone. No...that's just meat and you'r not going to kill them shooting through meat.
 
I understand what your saying Iowa1 and don't mean to argue with you but you say you hit him below the spine. How do you know you didn't hit him above the spine. You can't really be positive unless you found the deer.

I thought I drilled the doe I shot a few years ago. I always believed in the triangle too. Now I know I probably just hit her above the spine in the meat. Even when I seen her a week later with two scabbed holes I thought she should have died. Now I believe there can be 6" maybe more of fat above the spine.

This thread has some great pics.
http://www.archerytalk.com/vb/showthread.php?t=949623&highlight=dead+spot

Here's one my hunting buddy killed two years ago. Some unlucky bowhunter shot just a little to high...
jacksscrape002.jpg
 
Yes I found the deer. Read the entire post.

As far as a triangle goes, I doubt if there is anything to do with a triangle. This area may be just large enought to fit an arrow between the liver, the blood vessels and the guts. I just know I hit it. It was in 1987 and I remember it like it was yesterday and I can clearly see it in my mind's eye right now. That's how heartbreaking it was.

The pic you posted looks like it may have been a scapula shot.
 
That shots two high for a scapula shot. The spine actually dips down and goes between the top of the shoulders going down the center of the neck. Looks like nothing but a meat shot to me.
 
Depends on the angle Scottonbuck, if you were 25 feet in a tree to the left of that picture you could easily hit the scapula through that hole. It could have also hit the area where the ribs meet the spine and not penetrate the spinal column. All depends on the shot angle and there's no way to know without knowing the shot angle.

One thing's for sure. There's probably a very confused bowhunter out there wondering where his buck went.
 
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