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Deflected Arrow Ham Hit

Nontypcl1

Nontypcl1

Member
About 4:00 this afternoon I rattled/grunted in a nice 160-170" 10pt. As he was trying to circle downwind of me he stopped at 30yds where I thought I had a clear shot thru an opening in some branches. Well long story short, my arrow grazed the branch I was trying to shoot under and veered to the right and hit the buck in the hind quater with a loud crack.:( The arrow only penetrated 6" or so. I figure I must have hit the femur or hip joint. The buck ran about 5-10 yards and the slowed to a slow walk and went approx. another 30yds before I lost sight. A few seconds later I heard no more foot steps. About 2 minutes after that a 150 class buck came along where I last saw the buck and starred down into the drainage where I thought the buck may have stopped.

After about 45 minutes had passed I decided to get down and check the area where the buck was standing when I shot. I found lots of bright red blood, much more than I'm used to from a lung shot. I didn't look much more than 10ft from the point of impact, then packed my stuff up and snuck out.

I guess my question is; did I do the right thing by backing out and where does the femoral artery run on a deer and how long would it take them to bleed out? I'll be back out there first thing in the morning stalking the blood trail in case he is bedded and still alive. I feel absolutely terible about the shot placement and know I have a long restless night ahead of me. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have some pics to post in the harvest forum.

Also, I was solo filming this hunt as I usually do. When I got home and wathced the tape, I found that I had only got the buck walking in and then in all my excitement I had the camera aimed about 5 feet to the right of the buck as I readied for the shot.:o I've filmed a couple doe kills this year but man, when the pressure is on solo fiming can be tuff!
 
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I've heard of a lot of guys finding the deer that get hit in the rear area as you're describing. Good luck!
 
I'm betting you hit it with as much blood as your describing. You did the right thing backing out. Good luck. Take a look at this image tell us what you think.


1078-skeletalcirculatoryand_organs.jpg
 
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Sounds like you got the artery with that much blood. Also the other buck staring in the drainage is a good sign. Either he bedded down there or he is piled up there. Good luck in the morning and cant wait to see the pics.
 
He's dead. My ole man is notorious for this shot. Kills them just as fast as a lung shot. Goodluck! I can't wait to see him!
 
The good news is...he's either dead...or he's got a very sore buttocks. The very first deer I shot (over 25 years ago now) had this exact hit. It went in the woods and worked the arrow out by rubbing on a tree, and was dead in less than 10 yards. I also had a friend who shot a big buck and found an arrow burried in it's hind-quarter that was probablly 2 yrs. later.
 
In 25 years of bow hunting I've had this happen twice....the last of witch was just two weeks ago! Both times the buck traveled 50 yards or less and was dead within 90 seconds! If that much blood was found...I'm sure he was dead before you left your tree!
 
I had a very similar (almost identical) situation happen 3 weeks ago and the buck died 60 yards from the shot, blood everywhere on what looked like a terrible deflection. I know the feeling, it's terrible....

Good luck and let us know how it turns out.
 
I agree with everyone above. The deer is either stone dead or going to be fine after a couple days. When you go back in take it very slow to where you saw that 150 staring into the ravine, he'll probably be right there.
 
Just got back from looking for the buck I shot. When I first picked up the trail it was very promising. It looked as someone had painted the forest floor red for about 50yds and then rather quickly diminished to the point I couldn't find anymore. I continued on in the direction I thought he was headed and got to the property line and began to walk down the fence row to see if he might have tried to get across. Sure enough I found blood again and quite a bit of it. The blood then diminished again until I came across a spot where the bottom strand of wire was broke and there was a lot of blood where he had crawled under the fence. I then set down my bow and crossed the fence to pick up the trail. I followed the blood down a ravine and part way up another and lost it again. I looked all over for more blood and couldn't find a speck so I continued in the direction he appeared to have headed. After walking to the top of the ridge I looked around for a minute and didn't see any blood. Just then as I was glassing the area and the drainage below I spotted him and he was still alive, arrow still in him. He stood up about 45yds from me and if I had my bow I would have been offered a fairly easy follow up shot. It was obvious he couldn't run and I was amazed he was still alive with the amount of blood I had found initially. As he began to walk away I ducked down and watched him through my binos as he headed for a hedge tree thicket.

I backed out after I lost sight of him and headed back to grab my bow and call the landowner. After given the ok I headed back in with my bow to see if I could get a follow up shot. He had bedded again right where I thought he would. I very cautiously and as a quitely as I could approached the thicket and then saw him at 60yds thru some brush. He got up again and hobbled off with a very bad limp. He appeared very weak and was much larger than I innitailly thought. Turns out instead of a 10pt he was more like a 14-15pt and close to 180+. I lost sight of him very quickly in the thicket and decided to try to find blood. After an hour of searching with no luck I headed out with a nearly overwhelming feeling of dissappointment and defeat.

So now here I sit at somewhat of a crossroads with no idea of what to do next. The area he is in is about a 1000 acre solid chunk of timber full of countless ridges and valleys. The land is split up into 4-5 different property owners with a large number of bowhunters who would probally be quite upset if I went trouncing around in there during the middle of the rut. My first plan is to call the couple landowners I know how to get in touch with and find out who hunts the area. Hopefully I will be able to talk to them and let them know what happened and have them keep an eye out for him. With a lot of luck maybe someone will come across him dead or maybe see him alive and well and be kind enough to give me a call.

I think he will die from the shot but wouldn't be too amazed if he makes it. You just never know with a tough old buck. So thats the story, sorry for the long post but I'm pretty dissappointed to say the least. I wish I wouldn't have ever taken the shot. That would much better than to have something like this happen. As my wife said, "that poor deer is out there suffering". And that is the last thing I ever wanted to happen.

Anyone have any thoughts on what will become of him. Think he'll make it through with only a new battle scar, or is he doomed to die a slow unfortunate death?
 
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I would call around to everyone you know that hunts that woods. You could get lucky and either get permission to look around or one of the hunters could happen to come across your buck dead. This just happened to my dad last night. On the way to his stand he came across the buck we were after laying dead with an arrow wound in the butt. It was probably 4 or 5 days dead. He finished his hunt, called the dnr for a salvage tag, then we made a few phone calls to the neighbors to see if anyone had shot a buck that they could not find. Of course right away one neighbor says he butt shot a buck on sunday and searched for 2 days with no luck. We were more than happy to leÞ him stop by and claim his trophy. Wasn't easy to let go of that rack but it was the right thing to do. Maybe you might just get as fortunate as this guy was.
 
Acquired permission to walk about 300acres of that timber and covered it thoroughly today. Took all day ridge after ridge saw 2 other giants and massive rubs all over. No sign of the buck I shot though just a little blood around the area I last saw him. A couple of guys were hunting the property next to where I was searching so I respectfully stayed clear. However my gut feeling is he is in that section. I will come back after getting permission later in the week when no one is hunting.

I figured out saturday afternoon when I went to shoot my bow that a strand on my string was broke. Took 1 shot at 30yds and completely missed the target 2 feet right. I shoot almost everytime before an afternoon hunt this time I didn't. I hadn't shot in 2 days. I guess that rules out a deflection. Headed over to the archery field and sports and mark assured me that it was most likely the cause of the poor shot. Adjusted sights and back to shootin darts. I guess I will be shooting everytime before going out from now on.
 
Hopefully he is in that other section.. Did you get a new string for your bow?? Or just adjust the sights?
 
BrewCrew said:
Hopefully he is in that other section.. Did you get a new string for your bow?? Or just adjust the sights?
Click to expand...


The only downfall of him being in that section is that it is somewhere around 500 acres of timber. The strings were winners choice and brand new in sept. Couldn't see spending another $100 for a string so I adjusted the sights and I'm back to shootn dead on out to 50yds.
 
If you want I may be free this week to give you a hand searching. PM me if you could use another set of eyes. Otherwise, best of luck with the search, I know it's the worst feeling knowing you can't do anything...
 
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