First kill!

[jrdolall]

It looks like a decent shot though a little low. I am always amazed at how long a deer can live after a marginal shot and I have two suggestions.
ALWAYS give a deer at least 30 minutes to an hour unless you see the animal laying there and it is not breathing. If you had given this animal an hour after you found that she was no longer laying in the original spot then she would have bedded down and bled out fairly quickly.
ALWAYS be prepared for a follow up shot. Have that bow loaded and ready as you track an animal. I have seen a deer stand up and look at me from 20 yards in just this situation.

The shot placement does not look that bad but, obviously, needs to be better. Range is the most important factor in archery and a 5 yard mistake can cause this to happen. You need to either limit your range(mine was 30 yards when I did a lot of bow hunting) or get a range finder. I don't care how good you are standing in your yard shooting at a known distance, if you misjudge the distance in the field you will be a bad hunter.

Congrats on your first deer though! I have plenty of bad memories over my 40+ years of hunting. I had to put a deer down with a knife in a situation similar to this and it was no fun.

 

[caribou]

Well, it took till post #15, and then I saw you actually learnd your lesson; Dont go out with out a knife.

The rest comes as it does, its Hunting, not harvesting and your trying to kill an animal, it aint gonna wait like wheat.

You done good,, and im sure it will get easier over time. The Key to getting a wounded animals is the persistence you showed, as well as you judgement that all that blood wasnt just a slight flesh wound.....

Going hunting? Bring self and knife, the rest is debatable and variable.

 

[Trent]

1. You suck at hunting and you let an animal suffer.

2. I call bs that you killed a deer with your bare hands. No human man is strong enough to kill one with his bare hands.

You're certainly entitled to your opinions. Even if they are quite rude.

The deer was down, I finished it with my bare hands. Cut off the oxygen supply by closing the throat, and that was that. Not all that hard, really. Shook me up a little.

It would have expired on it's own soon enough. It was weakened by blood loss and the two lungs I opened up with the initial shot.

Would have been a lot quicker with a knife, a little messier, maybe.

 

[black_powder_Rob]

Trent you don't have to defend yourself, you are new to hunting and are entitled to a few mistakes. Just make sure you learn from your mistakes (sounds like you did). As far as letting the animal suffer, your shot placement was okay (took out both lungs), probably could have been better but hey stuff happens. Cudos to you for not giving up and retrieving the deer.