Neck Shot

[cybball]

Friday morning, I was in stand and rattled in a very nice 8 point. He was walking straight at me in a picked bean field. He turned broadside at 30 yards and was going to head downwind, so I decided my best shot was at that moment. I grunted and he stopped, so I released my arrow with my 30 pin on the money. My arrow then hits him in the neck right behind his right ear. He ran off and circled to the east in the beans and dissapeared behind a tree lined fence row. I waited an hour and got down. I could see where he was and where he ran in the picked field, as there was still a little frost on the ground. There was no blood, anywhere. I tracked him until he ran from the beans and into a small area of switch grass and then pasture. Absolutely no blood. My arrow hit hard. Sounded like I hit a log. The arrow was sticking out of his neck when he ran off with only a few inches of penetration. I'm shooting a Matthews Outback at 70 lbs. I was using a 100 grain Wasp Jackhammer expandable. I searched the area blindly. Walked through all the thick stuff and drove with my truck throughout the pastures. No luck. Any ideas? Do you think this would amount to a muscle hit with the buck surviving? I'm sick about the whole thing. Don't know if I hit a small limb, or if I pulled right to see the impact. I shot all summer to avoid this. Good grief. I'm sure he's coyote bait by now if he did die.

 

[Ghost]

Got a pit in my stomach just reading your story.

I can't understand with the description of the hit that the buck didn't drop on the spot. The lack of penetration tells me you hit the neck vertebrate. I would have expected a pass through with only a muscle hit. And the lack of blood means you didn't hit any major arteries in the neck.

I would make a couple more good searches of the area. It still sounds fatal to me.

Any neck shots should be left without tracking for the day as they should bed if not pushed.

This one went 125 yards in 1997, but I also hit the major artery in the neck.

Sorry I'm not much help here, I'm stumped! Good luck and I know how you feel...it happens!

 

[Iowa1]

I can tell you of three deer I have shot in the neck. The first was a buck back in about 1980 that was only eight yards away. Everything was blocked by trees and bushes but the head and neck, and he was looking right at me sitting on a bucket in a ground blind... busted. I was drawn and I had two choices, let the recurve down and give up on the buck or take a neck shot. I let the arrow fly and it zipped right through the neck. I blood-trailed him for over a mile in the snow and then the trail was covered with freshly falling snow. I am convinced that it was an ill-advised shot but the buck survived.

Another time my shot hit a twig and deflected into a buck's neck. He bled like a stuck pig for 75 yards and died as if he had been double lunged.

The third one was a doe. I shot her across three rows of corn in the neck just below the head. The shot was from a distance of about eight feet. She dropped like a sack of flour and never moved anything but her eyes. She was paralyzed. I had to put another shot through her heart to finish her.

I am not proud of any of these but what happened to you could have been any of these scenarios. I hope you find him but my best guess is that it was not a fatal hit.

 

[cybball]

Yeah, I'm stumped. It hit solid as a rock. It made that unmistakeable sound of bone. When he turned, the arrow was sticking out just below his ear on the right side. Arrow was slightly tipped up from me being about 20 feet up at 30 yards out. I would have thought it would have dropped him in his tracks too. I just don't get it. Yes, horrible shot. No, not where I wanted it to go, but it did. I'm still sick. I have to work all week, which means looking in the dark. I may listen for coyotes. By now, the meat is wasted but I would like to find him and the arrow to see what happened. By the way, it was the largest deer I've shot too, which makes it somewhat worse.

 

[DOUBLE LUNG]

Good luck finding him. I am not sure what you tell you.

 

[teeroy]

you said he went into CRP? go pheasant hunting, see what the dogs find

 

[Shedhuntermd]

I did a neck shot years ago. When we found him he was named " Stinky "

 

[cybball]

He has to be dead. I just can't imagine hitting a deer in the spine at the base of his skull very solidly and have it live. Just by the sound alone I'm convinced. He ran off tail up and headed to a fence line where pasture begins. He most likely either jumped the fence into the pasture, or took a right down the creek line. This weekend I may do just that, Teeroy. Take my son out bird hunting down that creek and see if we can "wind" him.

 

[Nebraska_hunter]

If your gonna go out at night might as well take a dog with you. When my dad shot his deer and it ran off we waited about 2 hours and looked for him. We brought the lab just in case. Looked for over a hour and if we didnt have that dog we pry wouldnt have found him. The buck was pried into 2 evergreens and looked like he got stuck and died. But give the dog a shot and see what happens!

 

[cybball]

I think technically using dogs is illegal in Iowa. Now, if I hunt pheasants and the dog happens to find him, then he does, I guess.

 

[IA ML'r]

speaking of trailing wounded deer with dogs If I were a member of IBA or WU I would be asking them why they haven't gotten the DNR to allow leashed dogs to be used for tracking.

 

[cybball]

Well, thought I would update my post. My son and I went out last weekend to check some snares we have set for coyotes on the farm I hunt. Crazy enough, my arrow I hit the buck with in the neck was laying 15 feet from one of my snares. It was 100 yards past where I last saw the buck run, but the same direction. Not sure how I never found the arrow the day I looked for him. Well, the arrow is in perfect shape. Not broken, and the fletchings look good. Obviously it's been in the weather long enough that blood washed off, but it looks like it went about 4 inches deep. The blades on the expandable are even in good shape. It's got a little bloody goo under the blades. At the point where I found the arrow, he would have jumped a fence and ran into an open pasture (part of the reason I never found any sign). My new gut feeling is that the arrow quickly fell out and he did fine. At least I hope that's the case.