# The dark side of bow hunting



## davycrockett (Apr 9, 2005)

Every bow hunter knows the feeling he/she experiences from harvesting a whitetail. Unfortunately I experienced the other side of this scenario yesterday and it isn't a joyfull one. Long story short I put an arrow in a nice 8 pt yesterday morning. The shot was high behind the shoulder at 32 yds. After 30 long minutes I climbed down from the stand and looked for blood and found nothing. I backed out and waited for 5 long hours until I got some help. 5 of us looked till just after dark and found no blood whatsoever and no deer. The only clue we found was 4" of the nock end of the arrow with tracer still blinking broken off 20 yds where the deer was shot. There was blood on broken end and a little on fletching.I assume I managed to stick the arrow between the lungs and backbone. The thing that's eating me alive was we weren't able to find ANY blood. I didn't sleep for crap last night so I was out first light this morning trying to find anything. I found a little more hair where the buck was shot but that's it. I have other obligations at noon so I am calling it a day. I have vacation on Monday and was planning on hunting and the rut is definitely firing up but I may have to walk away from the woods for a few weeks. To add salt to the wound I have trail cam pics of the buck!

Golf is a good walk spoiled - Mark Twain


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## 9Left (Jun 23, 2012)

that sucks man, i feel your pain... but i dont think id give up lookin just yet.. If ya shot high , and the arrow didnt pass through, obviously, thats the reason for little to no blood... suck even more that your time is limited for searching too... i hope you recover your deer..good luck to you


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## VitalShot (Feb 10, 2012)

United blood trackers is a site that has members who run blood tracking dogs. There are a few of us in Ohio. That sounds like a hard deer to track but don't think it is impossible. I am a tracker from Winchester Ohio 


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## Lundy (Apr 5, 2004)

Sorry you haven't found him yet.

Was he quartered away at the shot?

How long is your arrow? Crossbow?

I'm guessing, by what you have said is that the arrow hit the off shoulder and stopped penetration, leaving the 4" still sticking out on the entry side that you found.

You said the shot was high behind the shoulder. You mentioned maybe you hit the area above the lungs and below the spine. They area you are talking about does not exist, the "no man's land" is a creation of somebody somewhere, but the top of the deers lungs are at the top of the rib cage and that is where the spine is, there is no space.

You could have hit above the spine but that wouldn't explain why the arrow didn't pass through. And it would not have broken off just 4", it would have been hanging out of both sides.

My GUESS is that you hit high in the lungs with a quartering away shot, the arrow lodged in the off shoulder and prevented a pass through. 

You have only one hole in the deer and it is high and is partially blocked by the broken shaft. The entire chest cavity would have to fill with blood before reaching that high entry hole and then escape around the shaft. Not a good scenario for leaving a good blood trail.

It sucks for sure, I hope you find him.


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## alpine5575 (Jul 22, 2006)

Don't give up just yet, he still might be dead out there somewhere. Lack of blood doesn't mean it was not a lethal hit. I would gather some friends and start searching all the thickest nasty stuff you can find, especially near any water. My buddy shot a buck a couple years back during a complete downpour, it rained all night, so no chance at finding blood. We knew the direction he went and we just started looking. We were about ready to give up when I told my buddy i wanted to check one more area, it was a thicket on the edge of a strip mine, I jumped the buck out of his bed, he ran about 100 more yards before we finally got another arrow in him and put him down for good.Had we given up, the buck probably would have died where he was at, and become coyote food. Give it your best shot trying to find him, if you don't at least you know you gave it your all.

Good Luck !!


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## bmiller (Apr 19, 2011)

Exact scenario for my wife yesterday evening. Hit the buck high behind front shoulder. Absolutely no blood. Looked for four hours last night and two this morning. Just gonna watch for buzzards now. Was shooting grim reapers in a crossbow. Kinda wondering if it opened. Really disgusted that we can't find any blood. Makes me sick to loose a deer no matter what size but it was her second and biggest for her ever. She just started hunting a couple years ago. Really sucks bigguns.


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## buckeyebowman (Feb 24, 2012)

You have to also consider the idea that the buck may not be dead. My brother in law told me about a hunting show he saw where Lee Lakosky shot a buck high in the shoulder. He was, of course, pissed at himself for blowing the shot, and said that the buck would not die. That it was not a killing shot. Same scenario, absolutely no blood to be found. 

Long story short, he killed that buck 2 weeks later! The wound in it's shoulder was healing nicely, and the buck was out running does! Remember, they're incredibly tough animals!


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## Lundy (Apr 5, 2004)

Different scenario however, The Lakosky buck had no penetration and did not hit the lungs.

This deer is carrying around a shaft and broadhead in him and was hit behind the shoulder.


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## Eric E (May 30, 2005)

If you only hit one lung from the angle, they can go a long way... Like everyone said, with no exit hole and being high, there may not be blood. Look for a tracking dog.. Even check craigslist...

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## davycrockett (Apr 9, 2005)

A few more details maybe not all relavent. I'm shooting a 65 lb compound and28" 340 carbon arrows with 100 gr fixed 3 blade broadheads (brand names left out intentionally lol) The buck was broadside. The woods we searched is about 20 acres of a 50 acre section. My folks own the 20 and a neighbor owns the rest. A creek basically divides the two and we searched the stretch of creek thinking he went to water. I couldn't search any more today due to other obligations but plan on getting out tommorow. My hunch is he made it on to the neighbors to the south being there is a thicket on the south end of his woods. I would like to canvas his woods but don't want to bump the deer out of his woods being he is as passionate a bow hunter as I am. I may have to have a talk with him tommorow. Thanks for the words guys. I guess I've been fortunate to have recovered all the deer I've shot up to this point. This sucks!


Golf is a good walk spoiled - Mark Twain


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## fredg53 (Sep 17, 2010)

This is the problem u say 32 prob longer get em in closer see it all the time 

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## Mushijobah (May 4, 2004)

This is unfortunately quite common. These high shots....probably above the spine. No spitting or coughing up blood is a bad sign if there is no drip blood. Good part is the deer could survive. This is happened to me three times during my hunting career. Horrible feeling.


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## Mad-Eye Moody (May 27, 2008)

There is a surprising amount of space between the lungs and spine. I have a book called finding wounded deer, and the author talks about that as well as the idea that a deer shot in just one lung can live for days. Learned a lot from that book. I'll no longer shot down on a deer with a bow.

Sorry to hear about your buck. It has happened to me a couple times.


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## davycrockett (Apr 9, 2005)

fredg53 said:


> This is the problem u say 32 prob longer get em in closer see it all the time
> 
> I ranged deer @ 32 yds with laser rangefinder. I practice shooting from an elevated stand in the summer @ this distance. This was not out of my comfortable range. Just a bad shot on my part. Thanks.


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## 9Left (Jun 23, 2012)

Mad-Eye Moody said:


> There is a surprising amount of space between the lungs and spine. I have a book called finding wounded deer, and the author talks about that as well as the idea that a deer shot in just one lung can live for days. Learned a lot from that book. I'll no longer shot down on a deer with a bow.
> 
> Sorry to hear about your buck. It has happened to me a couple times.


there is no "space" between the spine and the lungs.. M.Magis made a post of this on another thread.. showed an XRAY of a cross section of the deer... shows it plain as day..theres no space there...certainly not enough for a broadhead to slip through and not hit something vital.. but you are correct in that hitting only one lung is very possible, and probably not lethal either


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## Mushijobah (May 4, 2004)

There is space ABOVE the spine. So a high shot could easily go through backstrap and not lung or spine.


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## sdkohio (Jul 26, 2008)

I am sure I am preaching to the choir, but remember if you ranged him at 32 from a stand it was probably more like 27. The distance that counts is the distance from the base of the tree to the deer not the angle distance. Good luck, we all have those things happen. Learning from it is the important part.


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## VitalShot (Feb 10, 2012)

The angle will shorten the distance. 


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## Mad-Eye Moody (May 27, 2008)

Fishlandr75 said:


> there is no "space" between the spine and the lungs.. M.Magis made a post of this on another thread.. showed an XRAY of a cross section of the deer... shows it plain as day..theres no space there...certainly not enough for a broadhead to slip through and not hit something vital.. but you are correct in that hitting only one lung is very possible, and probably not lethal either


You are correct. I was typing faster than I was thinking. I meant the top of the back. I hit a buck in wv high and dropped it with an arrow two weeks ago in its tracks. Couldn't believe how low from the top I hit it and still broke the spine.


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## buckeyebowman (Feb 24, 2012)

Lundy said:


> Different scenario however, The Lakosky buck had no penetration and did not hit the lungs.
> 
> This deer is carrying around a shaft and broadhead in him and was hit behind the shoulder.


As far as we, and the OP, know. It's amazing how you can think you hit a deer in a certain place and, upon finding it, or, seeing it again later still on its feet, discover that your perception was a bit off the mark. Even slo-mo footage on the hunting shows can be foolers. Many times it's, after a longer than anticipated tracking job, "Wow, I hit him higher (or lower, more forward, or farther back) than I thought." 

Don't get me wrong, I admire davycrockett's persistence in trying to recover this deer. If the deer actually is dead, and he is unsuccessful in recovering it, that's a genuine shame. But, it's probably happened to even the most conscientious bow hunter at least once.


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## Guest (Nov 5, 2012)

The good news is....high hits in that area can be very survivable. So, you never know...he may make it!


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