# Hit the Spine



## Boston30 (Nov 14, 2006)

Thought i'd share a story with everyone. My buddy(a first year bow hunter) sent me a text yesterday morning to let me know he shot a nice buck and wanted help. I asked him if he made a good shot and he told me the buck fell in it's tracks. Right away i knew he hit the spine and would need a followup. I relayed this info to him but by the time he could stand a shoot again, the buck staggered out of shot distance. We took up the trail right away, figuring that he'd be severely disabled, but he had taken off.

The buck was down for 15 minutes, motionless, and he just figured it would expire. Unfortunately, we searched for hours and over 1mile of blood trail. Found the arrow and only got about 3-4" of penetration. I'm thinking he burried the arrow in the shoulder and got a bit of the spine to put it down right away.

He is really kicking himself for not putting another arrow in the big boy. Another Lesson learned the hard way!


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## littleking (Jun 25, 2005)

with the cold weather, a day or two in the field should not hurt, dont give up!


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## Fishstix (Aug 16, 2005)

Yeah...I would get back out there and look for that buck.

A similar situation happened to my dad. This was probably back in the early 1980's. He had 3 nice bucks come running through during shotgun season and shot and dropped the biggest one. He was so excited, he jumped off the tree limb he was perched on. When he hit the ground, the buck jumped up and took off. He never did find that buck and he still kicks himself when he tells the story.

Good luck finding that buck! Hope you find him.


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## ezbite (May 25, 2006)

i agree, get back out and look.

first deer i killed this year i hit back in the spine, i didnt really have a good shot and it was starting to move away. i know better, but took the quarting away shot. she went down right now and started crawling away on her front legs. i took another shot as soon as i could get the crossbow cocked while up in the tree stand. not easy to do without falling out. anyhow, in the excitement i missed and lost a bolt in the process. i climbed down and moved within 10 feet to finish the job.. i dont think i really needed to put a second arrow in her because there was a LARGE amount of blood on the leaves by now and she laid her head down like a dog does before it sleeps on its belly and never moved again. first time i ever had to take 3 shots at a deer.


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## Boston30 (Nov 14, 2006)

Here's an Update. The deer that my buddy spined is still alive and kicking. He saw the buck this weekend in the distance. He has a little limp but otherwise fine. 

It's still hard to believe that he lay there motionless for so long and then makes a full recovery.


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## Hetfieldinn (May 17, 2004)

Deer can take a licking and keep on ticking, that's for sure. Hopefully someone will get another shot at it next year.

I shot a twelve point two years ago. When I went over to it after shooting it, I noticed a broad head sticking about an inch out of the side of it. While field dressing it, I pulled it out, and it had about eight inches of arrow shaft still in it.


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## Fishstix (Aug 16, 2005)

Het...was it a fresh wound? Had it healed already? Was any of the meat infected? Just curious.


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## Hetfieldinn (May 17, 2004)

It was healed up. There was an area about the size of a quarter missing hair with an 'X' shaped wound on the entrance side, and the flesh had grown hard about two inches around the exit side. The deer appeared fine up until I put my red on it.

There wer no infections or tumors anywhere on the deer.


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## Fishstix (Aug 16, 2005)

That's pretty incredible.


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## flypilot33 (Feb 9, 2006)

The buck I shot in 2003 had a broadhead and an inch of arrow buried in his spine. He was walking around as normal as any other deer. I didn't notice it until we were caping him. The broadhead was surrounded by a big gross glob of....yeah well you get the picture.....not pretty.


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## Guest (Feb 1, 2008)

It's amazing how much these animals can take. All animal evolve over time, pretty soon they might become bullet proof!!


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## c. j. stone (Sep 24, 2006)

My wife says they inevitably will learn to use weapons, rise up and turn on us poor hunters!(PETA Member-mail man must have a laugh when we get PETA and Hunting mags in the same delivery! He wouldn't laugh if he lived here!! PETA people call Hunting, "Murdering"!) Jeez.....


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