looking for some help

[wjay1552]

Hi i have browsed this sight many times but today was the first time i felt the need to post. This morning my brother took a shot at a buck. He insisted he hit it good but in my opinion he shot with to little light, without out a clear shooting lane. Needless to say after three hours of searching the only thing that we found was hair one piece had skin attached to it, it was roughly the size of a dime(the skin that is). I figure that he shot high on the deers back, or skipped the broadhead off a branch and only gave it a real tight shave. did all we could to recover but had no luck no arrow no blood thanks for your time and i will appreciate all opinions and feedback

[Doc]

Well, we all know it happens even under the best of conditions and the best of marksmanship. However, if there really was too little light, that is a bit harder to understand. I have never seen legal shooting times where there was too little light.

As far as the adequately cleared shooting lane, that is something that experience will teach over time. People laugh at my shooting lanes because they are cleared out completely and often look a bit overdone. However, I have had deflections caused by some of the tinyest things that I would have sworn couldn't effect the flight of an arrow. Now I take no chances, and pre-season preparation of stands means that nothing is left in the shooting lanes.

Relative to the "high shot" comment, I've had some unhappy experiences with that too that involved perfect shot execution, but lighting quick reflexes of deer. That phrase, "jumping the string" is certainly no exaggeration. It can happen and does happen and can turn a perfect shot into a high hit or even complete miss over the back of the deer.

Doc

[wjay1552]

thanks for the response i should have phrased the question better but what im really interested in is the piece of flesh on the hair i should have taken a picture so others could see it. is it possible that skin could be taken off on a clean shot or is that something that would occur by just grazing an animal? And it was within legal shooting time he was in some evergreens (plus i can only go by his recollection of what happened, whether or not the arrow was deflected or the shot was true is a matter of opinion) Thanks for your input

[Cabin Fever]

Wish I could offer some help, but I'm puzzled myself. Did he see where the arrow hit or just feels that it was a good shot? Was there much hair or just what you found the skin attached to? The lack of any blood and no arrow has me wondering the arrow may have been buried it the shoulder itself?

[wjay1552]

No he didnt see where the arrow hit he said he felt steady so thats what i meant by good shot. there was a good amount of hair atleast a handful clean cut with no blood on it. idk  me and him only have a three bow seasons under are belts, with fairly good results each year and being ethical responsible hunters not knowing the outcome of this particular hunt has been driving us nuts. Best case scenario now is he sees this deer again alive and well and maybe gets another crack and if not atleast it wasnt killed without being recovered

[Larry]

no blood on the arrow he just took some hair

[Isles323]

NO blood trail and a dry arrow normally constitutes a miss. The deer may have ducked down on em also. The only advice i could give would be to ask other hunters in the area if they've seen or harvested a deer with the damage you described previously.