Through and through

[imhntn]

Sorry for my ignorance, but if you wait over night to look for the deer, can you still eat it?

In this cool weather, it will be no problem at all. The only problem will be if the coyotes find it before he does. Usually they will not but sometimes they find them quick. I saw a guy last week that found a doe within 2 hours of the shot and the coyotes had already eaten the side out of her.

 

[300WSM]

Well, i went back this morning and looked for a few hours, never found a drop of blood. I'm thinking this deer is probably still alive. Thanks for all the advice. I think i'll go back to my old thinking that bowhunting is not for me. I hate wounding animals and not finding them.

 

[bigcountryok]

Well, i went back this morning and looked for a few hours, never found a drop of blood. I'm thinking this deer is probably still alive. Thanks for all the advice. I think i'll go back to my old thinking that bowhunting is not for me. I hate wounding animals and not finding them.

Don't beat yourself up over this. If you did everything you could, and it sounds like you did, move on. It's tough and the fact that it bothers you proves you have a real respect for the animal.

DON'T LET THIS RUIN BOWHUNTING FOR YOU...... It happens...regardless of the weapon of choice. I hear of more lost deer from rifle hunting that I do archery (of course there are more rifle hunters). A bow is very lethal on deer and can easily make quick clean kills.

Remember natural predators and hazzards in the wild will leave more injured animals out there than we can ever think about. We do the best we can to treat the animal with the upmost respect and make clean kills, but the fact of life is it happens with us just as with any other predator.

I promise you, if you stick with it you will never regret it.

1) Practice practice practice. 2) Ensure your bow is tuned and you know exactly where your broadheads shoot (some fly different than field points) 3) ensure your heads are razor sharp 4) get quality heads don't go cheap this is the last place you want to have a questionable product. 5) Never take a shot you do not feel 100% confident with. 6) Always remember Murphy is alive and well.

Myself and I'm sure many of the other bowhunters here are willing to help you out with this and get through this. If you have any questions or doubts about your abilities or set up, don't hesitate to ask.

Hang in there. It gets better. I know how you're feeling right now and it is a huge low, but you'll redeem yourself in time. Stick with it. Good luck!

 

[ignerntbend]

It is possible to thread an arrow through a deer's upper body without hitting anything important. He could recover. I've been in this situation myself and it made me sick too.

BigCountry gives you some good advice. You made a good faith effort to recover the deer.
It's an impolitic thing to say, but Nature Wastes Nothing.
Coyotes need to eat too.

 

[dennishoddy]

It is possible to thread an arrow through a deer's upper body without hitting anything important. He could recover. I've been in this situation myself and it made me sick too.

BigCountry gives you some good advice. You made a good faith effort to recover the deer.
It's an impolitic thing to say, but Nature Wastes Nothing.
Coyotes need to eat too.

+1000 on this advice, and I have a personal story for this. A friend used the 30 yd pin on a 15 yd shot, and the arrow passed thru the buck and was recovered after the shot. It only had fat, and very little blood on it, and was missing a fletching.
The very next year a neighbor shot a buck that had some marks on it that he thought might have been cancer. While field dressing it, there was a fletching inside the cavity. The deer had been arrowed in the area above the lungs where there is nothing vital.

I'll have to look around, but I might have a pic of a buck I took about 10 years ago that I took. He was hanging in my shop after being field dressed when the skinning started. I do mine head up and before the first cut, I saw this big ugly leathery looking thing on its neck. I was going to toss the deer as I thought it was diseased or something.
I cut around it to see how far it had progressed, and to my suprise a lead bullet, probably a MZ slug fell out on the floor. I have a pic of the slug I'll look for.

I know its a long story, but deer can survive amazing damage, and survive just fine. Don't beat your self up over it. He may be out "doing a doe" as we speak

 

[tjones96761]

My brother shot a deer during rifle season in Kansas 3 years back. When skinning it out we found about 8 inches of an aluminum arrow complete with broadhead in the void just below the tenderloin and above the vitals directly through the center of one of the ribs on the entrance side and broadhead point stuck in a rib on the opposite side. No idea how long the arrow had been there (it was an old deer), but the skin on the entrance side was completely healed and scarred over, the bone grown back together.

 

[300WSM]

Thanks for the advice and support.

 

[Rolando]

Yeah, be careful reaching in those deer. Those broadheads are sharp.

 

[oneshotonekill]

The deer will most likely head downhill. He'll go near water and/or thickets. .

I have heard this my whole life and yet I have had at least 6 deer run straight up a flipping hill. It makes tracking very hard, it seems to cause less blood trail ( probably due to body cavity filling). Couple of days ago I happend to be watching one of the shows on VS and the hunter on there made the comment that he had always heard it but had seen several head up hill. Anyone else experience this? Not trying to call you out angsniper just something that has bugged me for awhile.

 

[bigcountryok]

I have heard this my whole life and yet I have had at least 6 deer run straight up a flipping hill. It makes tracking very hard, it seems to cause less blood trail ( probably due to body cavity filling). Couple of days ago I happend to be watching one of the shows on VS and the hunter on there made the comment that he had always heard it but had seen several head up hill. Anyone else experience this? Not trying to call you out angsniper just something that has bugged me for awhile.

Always heard it, but never seen it. I've had alot of deer run up hill after being shot. The deer I got last weekend ran to the very top edge of the gulley, died and rolled all the way back down to the bottom making for a fun drag.