Bad shot or tough deer?

[marksman13]

Shot a doe on Halloween morning. First deer I’ve shot with a bow in nearly a decade. I was hunting from a ground blind and she was standing broadside with her head facing right, very slightly quartering away. She heard me draw and had turned her head to look straight at me. I touched off the release and admittedly hit her further back than I would have liked, but honestly thought it was a complete miss. She showed no reaction to the shot. She just ran forward about ten steps, turned to run straight away from me and then turned back left to cross the same trail she was standing on when I shot her about thirty yards further away, blowing the whole time.

I was convinced that I missed until I recovered my arrow with blood and meat on it about ten yards past where she had been standing at the shot. Knowing I had hit her and thinking it to be a very marginal hit, I gave her about 45 minutes to lay down and maybe die before going to look for blood. I found zero blood at the shot location and the area immediately around it. When I finally did start finding blood I was 65 yards or so from where she was standing when shot and it was very light blood. I followed blood until it ran out, jumping her once in the process and saw her run away seemingly no worse for wear.

I spent another two hours in the woods looking for sign and never found any, so I finally called it quits and went back to the house convinced that I must have shot under her and just nicked her belly.

Well, she showed up on camera a few hours later sporting a hole in her side that is indeed further back than I prefer, but honestly should have killed her graveyard dead in pretty short order based on everything I know about deer anatomy. I should have at least lacerated her liver and probably should have gotten part of her lungs, especially her left lung as she was quartering away. This photo shows the entry wound two days later. There’s no blood around the wound. She’s feeding on acorns like nothing is wrong in the world. Color me baffled on this one.

 

[CoalCrackerAl]

Maybe you will get another shot at her. No vitals hit apparently.

 

[illinoisburt]

That is an odd looking wound for a broadhead. Since you cannot see the exit it's anyone's guess the path of the arrow. She may have turned or ducked enough that the arrow just passed under the skin without entering the body cavity. Strange things happen.

 

[41 Mag]

Yep they are really something. My close friends wife hit a nice buck similarly openingday of archery first weekend of October. We found blood and looked for it for two days, nothing found after about 50yds.

Back at it the week of Thanksgiving during rifle season, their son in law dropped a nice buck on the opposite end of their 1500 acres. When we got it loaded up itvwas evident that it had been hit by an arrow previously as it had the distinct + where the broadhead went in and out. Upon cleaning it we found that it had gone high on the entrance and just clipped the opposite top edge of the lung.

The lung had some scarring and was a bit misshapen, but had otherwise healed up, as had both the entrance and exit, less a bit of hair.

Then my oldest grandson hit this one, on the front left, high two years ago and she is still going on like nothing happened.

 

[H&Hhunter]

Question for the OP, we’re you using a mechanical or a cut on contact?

 

[giggitygiggity]

They are incredibly resilient. There is such a thing as “no man’s land,” wherein you can shoot a deer, have the arrow pass right through, but hit no vitals. I suspect this was the case in your situation. That deer looks like it is healthy and leisurely grazing. The good thing is that the deer will likely heal and recover just fine versus running off, dying, and never being found.

 

[marksman13]

Question for the OP, we’re you using a mechanical or a cut on contact?

Fixed blade. G3 Montec

 

[marksman13]

They are incredibly resilient. There is such a thing as “no man’s land,” wherein you can shoot a deer, have the arrow pass right through, but hit no vitals. I suspect this was the case in your situation. That deer looks like it is healthy and leisurely grazing. The good thing is that the deer will likely heal and recover just fine versus running off, dying, and never being found.

I’ve heard of the “no man’s land” theory over the years, but as primarily a rifle hunter, I’ve never personally experienced it. I guess I was a tad low for liver or lungs, but I’m really having a hard time comparing anatomy diagrams to that picture and seeing an arrow just completely miss everything that matters. Obviously it happened though. She’s still showing up to munch on acorns every day.

 

[H&Hhunter]

Fixed blade. G3 Montec

That negates my mechanical deflection theory…

 

[Kingcreek]

They can be incredibly resilient.
I shot a 3.5 year old buck 1 week ago. Huge body but a subpar squiggy rack.
When butchering, I found a scarred knot int he left shoulder blade. Further dissection revealed some hair and a piece of green blazer vane. I believe I shot the same buck last year from the same stand (very low hunting pressure area). Not only that but I shot him TWICE.
I hit him a little low and a little back when he jumped the string of my Mathews Legacy. He bolted out into the middle of a cornfield, stood around for awhile, then gimped back toward me to almost the same spot he was in before. It was getting dark and he wasn't silhouetted with corn stubble as he was standing under some trees. I wouldn't have shot if I hadn't already stuck him once. The first shot wasn't great but looked fatal.
I could see him but when I looked thru my peep all I could see were my sight pins and blackness. I bobbed my head with the peep until I was as sure as I could be and let fly. Heard the arrow hit. I waited almost 2 hours and a friend showed up to help. Both shots were broadside with 100gr Muzzy fixed. First shot was pass through with blood on the arrow. Never found the second arrow.
Tracked that deer for 4 hours, sometimes on hands and knees and never understood why we didn't recover him. a year later and a 3rd shot and he's in my freezer.

 

[HKGuns]

That is exactly why I won't bow hunt and simply wait until rifle season.

I don't want to wound the poor animal due to bad luck or lack of skill or whatever.

 

[H&Hhunter]

That is exactly why I won't bow hunt and simply wait until rifle season.

I don't want to wound the poor animal due to bad luck or lack of skill or whatever.

Of course just as many if not more deer are wounded with rifles every season. Archery is a discipline just like being a competent riflemen.

 

[FL-NC]

Weird things can and do happen shooting deer, and they tend to happen more often in the archery universe, at least in my experience. I have double-lunged a deer with 243 soft point and had it die in his tracks, but got a direct hit on one to the heart with a 30-30 SP and had it run about 100 yards. When I dressed her, the heart looked like a big flower.So why was the one that was only lung shot DRT, but the one with the exploded heart run 100 yards? I lung shot one several years ago with a fixed broadhead from a crossbow with a complete pass-through, and it seemed like all the blood and half the lung material that was in that deer ended up all over the woods, until it stopped. Never found her, even after hours of searching with a tracking dog. Sometimes you just don't know what happened or why.

 

[Hookeye]

The deer in the photo looks like the hole location would be a stomach hit.
Fatal, but not for a long while.
Wondering if that's the OPs deer or a different one.

 

[Kingcreek]

That is exactly why I won't bow hunt and simply wait until rifle season.

I don't want to wound the poor animal due to bad luck or lack of skill or whatever.

Not all states have a rifle season.
I killed my first deer with an arrow 40 years ago and probably something over 100 since then. Failure to recover is rare.

 

[d2wing]

You should not pursue the deer until it has time to lay down and die. The same thing happened to a guy I know this year. Lost a nice buck.

 

[marksman13]

You should not pursue the deer until it has time to lay down and die. The same thing happened to a guy I know this year. Lost a nice buck.

45 minutes is plenty if that shot had hit liver and/or lungs. I’ve never waited more than 45 minutes to go look for a deer. Obviously, it wouldn’t have mattered how long I waited in this case because she’s still eating acorns three days after I shot her in the original photo I posted.

 

[marksman13]

The deer in the photo looks like the hole location would be a stomach hit.
Fatal, but not for a long while.
Wondering if that's the OPs deer or a different one.

I’m hoping it passed between the stomach and liver and didn’t hit anything vital. I’ve seen some deer shot in the stomach, but never seen them eating afterwards which gives me hope that this deer is going to recover just fine. The more I look at it, maybe this arrow just punched through no man’s land. A lacerated liver would have killed her pretty quickly.

 

[Highland Lofts]

My friend shot a 8 point buck last deer season with my 343 H&R Handi-Rifle. Lung shot no more then twenty-five yards. Very little snow on the ground and very little blood.
I helped him track it. That buck went 780 yards before it dumped.
It went a long way before dieing.

There are the deer Ed and Mel shot last deer season.