# spine shot ?



## player4x4life (Aug 21, 2006)

i went out yesterday evening . on my way to my honey hole i noticed a few spots of blood on the the trail. then i noticed one of the other guys that hunts the property is climbing down from a tree stand . so instead of missing out on the only day i will probably get to hunt this week , i decided to try another location . its a good spot but not untill it gets cold out because of the kids playing on the property. anyways i got to the tree and got my stand hung , got all ready and within minutes i had several small bucks eating the crab apples next to me , then i seen a good doe coming in . i decided i would go ahead and shoot the doe , i drew back and she was at my 40 yard marker eating off that tree. as i pulled the triger i herd something behind me but it was to late the deer tried to duck the arrow but my arrow hit it in the bottom of the spine right behind the front shoulder . the doe feel to the ground imeadiatly layed there probably five seconds and got up and walked away . i thought the deer would stay down , but the kids got louder and it made it back to the thicket . i looked for blood but there was none . the i looked for the deer . being that i new it went into the thicket . i searched the thicket over and couldnt find it, i plan on going back out tomorrow to look it . do you guys think i will find it or do you think it will live. i can only look for about an hour and a half in the morning . should i start by looking by the water source in the area.?


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## Lundy (Apr 5, 2004)

Hard to say. The fact that she walked rather than ran away gives some hope.

If she was actually hit in the spine she probably would never have been able to get back on her feet. If the arrow went just low of the spine there isn't anything there but tenderloins.

Did the arrow stay in her or pass through? There had to be some blood. 

I am really sorry about your experience and I wish you luck in your recovery.


I am really not trying to be preachy here but I must make one comment take it as you will. 40 yards with any bow at any deer is very risky. Even an arrow traveling at 300 FPS takes .4 seconds to impact. Sound and a deer reflexes are no where near that slow. Maybe, just maybe, your story may help someone else from living the same experience.

Good luck


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## M.Magis (Apr 5, 2004)

Just a guess, but I suspect you may have actually hit her in the shoulder blade. A high shoulder blade shot will drop a deer immediately, but as you saw, they will get back up quickly too. If that is the case, she'll recover quickly. If you can find your arrow, that may tell you alot. You hopefully can tell how much penatration you got by where the arrow broke off. I've had it happen to me twice. The first time on a big bodied buck at 30 yards. He dropped and got back up. Bled profusely for 200-300 yards and then nothing. I went back and checked my arrow and learned that I got 3.5" penatration, including the broadhead. Far from lethal. I still looked the entire next day but never found any more blood. The next time was on another big bodied buck, at 25 yards. He also dropped, but stayed down long enough for me to slip another in him. The original shot was stuck in the shoulder blade, never penatrating the body cavity. Without the second arrow he would have been gone. If you did hit the shoulder blade, rest assured she will be fine. But, be certain before giving up.


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## player4x4life (Aug 21, 2006)

i could actualy see the arrow and like i said i believe it was in the spine , i have killed many deer with my bow at longer distances . i actualy prefure to shot from 30 to 40 yards . because this is what i practice everyday . two years ago i killed a drop tine buck at 53 yards . yes thats right fifty three yards .(if i can find my picture i will post it.) anyways , i know the precise spot where the deer was standing and you can see where it fell and rustled the leaves . but no blood . this is the first deer i have shot with a bow and had to worry about it being wounded . or possible dead somewhere.


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## Lundy (Apr 5, 2004)

player,

I was not for one second doubting you or your equipments ability to shoot extremely well at longer yardages.

The unfortunate fact is that deer don't stand and wait on the arrow to arrive like a target. There will be scores of stories like yours on the hunting websites this fall, there already are at least a dozen that I know of. Most all share one common theme.

I hope you find your deer.


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## Pure river (Sep 12, 2005)

There are enough deer in this state, and enough opertunities for a shot that no hunter in any given situation should EVER need to or feel the need to shoot at a whitetail over 25-30 yards.

I as well am not doubting your abilities or equipment...but this story speaks for itself!!


PR.


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## CHOPIQ (Apr 6, 2004)

If it was a spine shot, that deer would have dropped on the spot. Like Lundy said, if you were a little low then nothing more than loins. Still we owe it to the deer to go and look for it, especially with kids nearby, I wouldn't want a small kid to find a deer in their backyard with an arrow sticking out of it. Good luck in your search.


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## Shortdrift (Apr 5, 2004)

Forty yards is ten too far.


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## player4x4life (Aug 21, 2006)

i certainly agree that alot deer wont just stand there like a target . because if your closer than 20 yards yes i believe they can here the shot. this is why i prefer the longer shots . this is the first deer ive shot with my bow in the last 10 years that i havent found in the first 10 minutes of the search. when the deer is at a longer range and is just grasing they dont here the shot, and at point of impact only run a few feet and stop for they have no clew what hapened , 90 % of the time i watch them drop within 25 yard of where i shot them. and im on my way out to look for it now . i will post later if i find it or not.


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## Lewis (Apr 5, 2004)

Are you saying that a Deer cant hear your bow let off at 40-50 yards?


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## TheSonicMarauder (Mar 9, 2006)

some say william tell had 3 sons... the one you always hear about was only 30 yards away  jk...im so rusty at shootin a bow i probably couldnt hit a bear from 10 yards but taking something down at 53 yards is a heck of a shot in anyones book.. i mighta payed to see that  that dear yer talkin about though seemed to have had the worst amount of bad luck that day.... id rather die then have an arrow anywhere near my spine eek


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## Pure river (Sep 12, 2005)

they could hear a gnat fart at 100 yards!!!

wow...you learn something new every day!!!


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## M.Magis (Apr 5, 2004)

I think we're getting a bit off topic.  Though longer shots aren't as common in Ohio, they are almost the rule in some parts of the country. They can be made well in the right situations, but the goal now is to determine what happened. Can you point out where you think you hit her?









Above the spine and there's nothing but backstraps, though the deer probably wouldn't drop, but it's possible. Below the spine and again, the deer probably wouldn't drop, though again it's possible. You should get quite a bit of penatration below the spine. The arrow should either cut the main artery running under the spine, or the top of the lungs. The amount of penatration you saw should be able to tell you if you hit here. If you got very little penatration, you either hit spine or shoulder blade. At 40 yards, it's very possible a spine shot deer would get up, depending on exactly where the broadhead hit. Whether spine or shoulder blade, the deer probably isn't hurt too bad. If you see that you got quite a bit of penatration, keep looking.


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## bkr43050 (Apr 5, 2004)

My guess would be top of shoulder blade on the hit as well. A broadhead going into the spine would most likely result in at least partial paralysis. The fact that you didn't get through with the arrow would indicate that you hit bone and the next most likely thing is the shoulder blade. I suppose you could manage to hit the spine and not result in paralysis but I can not imagine the deer walking away in the manner that you described.

Personally I would never trust all of the elements of the shot to be perfect enough for me to shoot at a deer at 40+ yards. Like Kim said, an awful lot can happen in the time that the takes to get there. Since sound travels faster than the speed of light and the fact that your arrow's velocity decreases at it reaches that distance that makes for a considerable reaction time.

Speed of sound = approximately 1100 ft/sec.
Distance to the deer = 120 feet
Sound will reach the deer in just over 1/10 second.

Arrow speed = 300 ft/sec (guess although it would not keep that speed the whole way and therefore this is an agressive estimate)
Time for arrow to reach the deer = >4/10 second.

That gives the deer 3-4 tenths of a second to react to what it hears. Of course if they do not hear the string then this all does not matter but many alert deer seem to twitch at all abrupt sounds in the woods.

I feel like I can hit fairly well out to that distance with my bow on a target but I don't choose to take that risk with a shot on a deer, particularly when you add all of the other things in that can go wrong. (wind driftage, hit a twig, misjudge distance by a bit, etc.)

I do hope you are able to retrieve the deer but I have stuck a shoulder blade a couple of times over my 20+ years of hunting as well and I can tell you that I came up empty both times. Both times the arrow location was similar to what you described. 

I would search for blood sign in the sight line of travel and if that produces nothing I would do as you suggested and search any creek beds or water sources nearby. If she was hit bad she would have at least visited those spots. Good luck to you. I know it is never easy accepting when you lose a deer.


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## bkr43050 (Apr 5, 2004)

TheSonicMarauder said:


> some say william tell had 3 sons... the one you always hear about was only 30 yards away


I busted a gut on that one Sonic.


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## BassBlaster (Jun 8, 2006)

Your experience is a perfect example of why you don't take shots that far away. There are just two many things that can happen at that distance. A small limb just big enough to change the direction of your arrow becomes invisible at 8 yards when looking through your sites.


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## player4x4life (Aug 21, 2006)

i went this morning, and found the deer i was looking for . the only problem was its not deed . in fact it was wright back in the same area i had shot it from . on my way to my 40 yard marker i noticed a deer grazing . upon looking threw the binoculors i could see where the arrow was . the arrow is broken off closer to the body. im suprised the deer didnt rip it out. and i think a deer is less likely to here me release my bow at fourty yards . than at 15 yards .


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## Lundy (Apr 5, 2004)

Hope you can get an opportunity to take her.


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## Papascott (Apr 22, 2004)

She will be the most desired doe in your woods. Bucks will look and think about the the freak with the wild body piercings. She will be on all the bucks hit list

Scott


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## Lundy (Apr 5, 2004)

I killed a buck many years ago during the gun season that had a crossbow bolt still in it's back. The hunter that shot it apparently was in an elevated stand and shot at it while walking straight away from him. The arrow was beside the spine, severely angled forward and didn't do anything except hit the loins.

It did have massive infection around the arrow, but id not seem to effect the deer, at least not yet. the first thing I saw when he was coming through the woods was the bright red fletch sticking out of it's back. I shot him to finish the job someone else had started.

I have also found two broadheads in deer that I have taken over the years and another deer had 3 blade broadhead entrance and exit holes in it's neck long since healed over.


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## bkr43050 (Apr 5, 2004)

Kim,

Your story sounds similar to one from a buddy many years ago when he was a youngster. I recall a large heavy bodied buck that he shot that had one lodged up in his back and also had a neck wound from a shot. Deer can be very resilient at times to recover from wound like those. However, it still does damage a lot of meat in most cases.


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## Lewis (Apr 5, 2004)

I shot a nice 9 point one year while bowhunting.
It had a perfect 4 blade broadhead piercing through its right ear and a nice chip out of the rack!


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## flypilot33 (Feb 9, 2006)

I shot an 8 pointers 3 years ago, and while skinning it we found a big ole thing of puss on its spine. Well inside of that was a broadhead lodged in the bucks spine. But it was running around just fine and healthy acting.


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## player4x4life (Aug 21, 2006)

i was out earlier today doing a little bit of squirl hunting . while hunting everytime the wind would blow i could smell something very foul . so i decided to follow the smell . about an hour latter i had found the remains of the deer i shot last week . the coyots had a field day with it but my arrow still was hanging out of the spine . i had to unscrew my arrow from the tip for the broadhead is stuck in the spine . this is enough to make a person want to stop hunting.


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## Lewis (Apr 5, 2004)

I hope its enough to make you pause and think about shot selection.


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## WISH IT WAS YOU (Jul 25, 2006)

ya i think it dead if you even cut a little bit of the spine it a goner hope you can find befor the coyotes can ohh coyotes did git it ohh sry keep hunting these thing happen some times


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## BuckEyeBigBuck13 (Oct 7, 2006)

my first bow kill i shot in the spine and he droped and we paralized he was trying to pull himself with his frount legs soo i dont think u got all the spine if she got up and walked away maybe a nerve or something..
Dan


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## saugeyesam (Apr 20, 2004)

i know this if off the subject but about 10 years ago my dad and i and another friend were on our way home for lunch one day we had a big doe trot across the road in front of us when she got to the burm on the otherside she turned and looked at us well my dad stopped and as we were looking at her she had a shaft through her mouth sticking out either side she walked of the road and layed down we watched her for a few more minutes while she layed there she kept shaking her head we drove up the road to a farm house and told them what we had seen so the farmer followed us back and she was still laying there but somehow she got the shaft out of her mouth i looked at her through the farmers binoculars and could see a hole on either side of her face. just as we were getting ready to leave two guys come out of the woods on the other side of the road and asked if we had seen a doe shot in the face with an arrow we showed them where she was laying well she must have decided she'd had enought company cause she got up and trotted of . it seems one of the guys had shot at her at about 35 or 40 yards out but didnt see a small limb hnging in his arrows flight path well i guess the arrow grazed the twig deflected and hit her in the face we walked down after she left and retrieved the guys arrow.



on a personal note , i use three pins on my bow one at 10 yards one at 17 yards and one at 25 yards and thats as far as i'll shoot ive have never even practiced a shot at further than 25 yards most of my bow killed deer have been at 15 yards or less ive taken a few at 20 yards and one right at or maybe a yard under 25.


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## saugeyesam (Apr 20, 2004)

one thing that ive noticed from watching videos and from my own personal observations, is sometimes deer will jump the string when fired at with a bow, however when you factor in arrow speed and what not at 25 yards or less your arrow is there bye the time they really have a chance to belly down and bolt now once you pass that "magical" 25 yard mark then you find yourself in a similar situation as our fellow hunter here. and as far as them not hearing a string release at forty yards well maybe you should read up a bit on a whitetailed deers sense's and the advantages and disadvantages of each one a deers ears and nose are his main defense systems then the eyesight last. they can hear and smell things you and eye cant and if i can hear a string go off at forty yards i know a deer can probably hear one at 80 or a 100, now im not downing anyone hear who shoots past 25 yards but dont underestimate a deer's ability to hear and react to sounds just because you think they are unaware of whats going on.


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