Buck Hollow Sporting Goods - click or touch to visit their website Midwest Habitat Company

need some anatomy advice and consoling

LYON

LYON

PMA Member
need some anatomy advice and consoling !UPDATE! He's alive!

Hey guys I finally got the opportunity I've been waiting all season for. My hitlist buck Curly gave me a perfect broadside shot at 30 yards this morning. I was on the ground in a spot I've been seeing multiple deer move through lately and a doe brought him right to me. Its 7:45 right now, shot him right at about 7. I hit him a little high and in the shoulder. He ran about 100 yards and stopped for about 2 minutes then trotted up a hill, stopped again for 15 second or so and then continued on over the hill. He didn't look bad when he walked out of sight, wasn't limping or anything. The arrow broke off, probably 6 or 7 inches in him and the front 1.5-2" of the broken shaft had blood. Using a 4 blade buzzcut (hopefully it moves enough in there to take him out). Found a little area, baseball size, of blood where he stood for the two minutes. Dark red, no bubbles thinking muscle blood? I got out by going way out and around, wind was in my favor. He was heading toward a small brushy corner of this field. If he doesn't stop there its all open fields for close to half a mile unless he turns 180 degrees and comes back in which case it could get really interesting. I hope he bedded in that brushy spot. Sorry for rambling, but what do you guys think? With that broadhead and penetration is it enough to put him down? I'm thinking about waiting until tomorrow morning to look, don't want to but that may be best.
ticks me off! I shoot all year so this won't happen and my nerves get the best of me anyway. Thanks for the help.
 
Last edited:
Not good. From ground level I bet you just got muscle and bone, should recover if he is not in the last brushy area.
 
My bet is that you hit high enough that you missed the chest cavity. Your penetration is adequate IF it is into the chest. Sounds like your hit was not in the chest but above it. At 30 yards he may have started to drop causing your hit to be higher than intended. Been there & done that alright... Good luck searching but I'm not optimistic for you. On the other hand, if you don't find him, he will likely survive that hit.
 
Sorry to hear about that shot. Was the shot straight up from the shoulder or, or forward? 6-7" of penetration may be enough to get to one lung, but I think your reaction would have been different. You could be way up into the neck muscle or loin if up very high. Hard to tell how high unless you had it on video. Your decision to back out was a good one. You say allot of open fields, can you get help going back to have some people watch for the deer to exit across a field. Typically I have found allot of blood from leg hits, but you can follow them for miles and jump them up allot. I would be in stalk mode with an arrow ready for another shot. I hope that you get some luck and the broad head does more damage to help with the recovery. Kind of a catch 22. If you push it, that could help in causing more damage, but ultimately you may push it to the next county and never see him again. I would not wait till tomorrow, but go back around 2pm or so, and go slow at it untill you actually see the deer, and can get a good read on weather you have a fatal wound.
Good luck and keep us posted.
archery20
 
Last edited:
Probably will recover. Likely above lungs and forward, and spine dips down there. Id still look like crazy but no need to wait until tomorrow. Id go around 11-12.
 
Thanks all. The hit high but I don't think it was excessively high, just forward. You all know how fast that happens and without video its really hard to say where exactly the shot landed.
 
Hit a buck back on the 4th of Nov. high in the shoulder blade. Had 11" of penetration and really good blood for 50yards then nothing. Tracked all day the next day grid searched till exhausted then searched some more. Have seen him 3 times now limping around and have had pics of him as well. Deer can survive that hit but every situation is different.
 
I have killed a lot of deer from the ground..number 1 difference is blood. There won't be as much blood, especially on a non pass through. Even a lethal hit will show red muscle blood initially, so don't let that deter you.

You say you got about 7-9 inches of penetration. So I would guess if you hit high and a bit forward you either hit some vertebrae without severing the spine or through one side of the scapula. Spine dips way down up forward, under it is lethal above it he will recover....did the impact sound like a crunch? I would think you obviously had to hit bone with only that much penetration, so that's a big clue there.

Did the shot knock him down or make him "loopy" for a few seconds...that often happens on a vertebrae impact. Did he tuck tail and get out of there in a hurry or flag go up immediately?
 
slice and dice said:
I have killed a lot of deer from the ground..number 1 difference is blood. There won't be as much blood, especially on a non pass through. Even a lethal hit will show red muscle blood initially, so don't let that deter you.

You say you got about 7-9 inches of penetration. So I would guess if you hit high and a bit forward you either hit some vertebrae without severing the spine or through one side of the scapula. Spine dips way down up forward, under it is lethal above it he will recover....did the impact sound like a crunch? I would think you obviously had to hit bone with only that much penetration, so that's a big clue there.

Did the shot knock him down or make him "loopy" for a few seconds...that often happens on a vertebrae impact. Did he tuck tail and get out of there in a hurry or flag go up immediately?
Click to expand...

It hit bone. I heard the crunch. He took off like crazy but stopped for a couple minutes after about 100 yards.
 
Too often the old saying 'Hit them high, wave goodbye' seems to prove true.
You never know though, so good luck! I would also wait till tomorrow. If he is dead now, he will still be dead then.
 
Doesnt sound like you hit him in a spot where you need to give him until tomorrow to expire.. you either caught one lung or he is probably going to be ok. If you hit artery he wouldnt have made it 50 yds without problems.. other than lung, artery, or spine, there isnt a whole lot of anything else that will kill him in that area unless he dies from a slow infection... if i were you, id spend the rest of daylight today trying to do a spot and stalk to that brushy area he was headed.. if he's hurt badly, he will be laying there or in a fence row close by
 
Alright guys, I went home and proceeded to do some work in my basement, broke a water line in doing so and soaked my phone (which is my usual form of communication on here). So ill be hit and miss here on out....sorry. My plans for tomorrow are different than what I thought so I won't be able to go out until early afternoon. With that, I decided to go look a little bit this afternoon. My brother and I went out and started looking at the brushy spot from about 300-400 yards away. He was in there. We could see his head sticking up. A couple other bucks were with him and they ran off but we did not see him leave. We backed out and will not go back in until tomorrow afternoon. Good sign that he was bedded down, but if he isn't dead by now I'm losing hope. I'm hoping that I caught a lung and he's not going to leave that spot. I'll be taking my time walking up there tomorrow. Thanks for all the suggestions and help guys. Ill update tomorrow afternoon.
 
LYON said:
Alright guys, I went home and proceeded to do some work in my basement, broke a water line in doing so and soaked my phone (which is my usual form of communication on here). So ill be hit and miss here on out....sorry. My plans for tomorrow are different than what I thought so I won't be able to go out until early afternoon. With that, I decided to go look a little bit this afternoon. My brother and I went out and started looking at the brushy spot from about 300-400 yards away. He was in there. We could see his head sticking up. A couple other bucks were with him and they ran off but we did not see him leave. We backed out and will not go back in until tomorrow afternoon. Good sign that he was bedded down, but if he isn't dead by now I'm losing hope. I'm hoping that I caught a lung and he's not going to leave that spot. I'll be taking my time walking up there tomorrow. Thanks for all the suggestions and help guys. Ill update tomorrow afternoon.
Click to expand...
That actually sounds a little more encouraging! Maybe you will get lucky and he will bleed out real slow for you. Good luck! I thought it sounded like you hit above spine or Scapula at best. Wish ya luck.
 
If your brother has a bow tag as well, maybe you both should take a bow out and slowly stalk into that brushy area if he's still in there. It might give both of you a shot at him if he limps out of there.
 
Good call on backing out and waiting. I speculate he'll still be there in the same spot and hopefully expired.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom