Need some help on arrow placement!

[First-light]

Well I was out from 9 until 2:30 searching. Didn't find. a thing. Unfortunate but it happens. 15,000 steps, ticks on me, briars suck and I'm done. I did my part trying to find it. Hope to see it again in the near future. I'll be ready to hunt in the am. Thanks for all your help!

[Lawdwaz]

7 hours ago, phade said:

Shoulder hits where arrow is in or broken off in deer. Low hits on chest cavity. Those two primarily stick out.

Moog has one on the wall that is very vivid in my mind that pushing was the right call. Super low shot where I think he got one blade into the bottom of the heart and that deer was still alive several hours later and we covered quite a distance until we could put two stalks on him and get shots. He ran out of gas after being jumped from the first bed and allowed the second stall to be much more close.

Shoulders are the ones most people will push on IMO.

 

Things could go very wrong on a deer that isn't loosing much blood by pushing but, as always.....YMMV.

[LET EM GROW]

Late to the game but i think you hit his backstraps. The way the arrow is angled, would go par with little bright blood on arrow and zero on ground. They typically drip a little quickly then nothing. and tend to act like wth was that that hit me. And he may come back through again.. Ive had that happen as well.  

Sorry for not finding him.. 

My brothers been tracking his buck for 2 days now. The arrow has 12" penetration, organ tissue and dark blood on shaft. looked like a single lung liver hit... Couple small dark pools of blood. Buck bolted, stopped, then walked away rough looking.  called the dogs.. and the dogs couldnt even take the track past last blood.. i dont get it.  

[suburbanfarmer]

On 11/10/2022 at 12:38 PM, LET EM GROW said:

Late to the game but i think you hit his backstraps. The way the arrow is angled, would go par with little bright blood on arrow and zero on ground. They typically drip a little quickly then nothing. and tend to act like wth was that that hit me. And he may come back through again.. Ive had that happen as well.  

Sorry for not finding him.. 

My brothers been tracking his buck for 2 days now. The arrow has 12" penetration, organ tissue and dark blood on shaft. looked like a single lung liver hit... Couple small dark pools of blood. Buck bolted, stopped, then walked away rough looking.  called the dogs.. and the dogs couldnt even take the track past last blood.. i dont get it.  

IMHO

Dogs only help if the deer is dead, if its up and moving, dogs will push it even more.

[LET EM GROW]

On 11/11/2022 at 3:40 PM, suburbanfarmer said:

IMHO

Dogs only help if the deer is dead, if its up and moving, dogs will push it even more.

True, but some shot placements require the animal to be pushed to exhaustion if you want to recover. That's why its the hunters responsibility to pay best attention to the hit, the shot angle, the deer's stance, the deer's reaction, the penetration, and the deer's moves how and where after the hit.. etc They all give clue on to where(Organs) the deer is it.. and make a decision there. There are hits that any good dog tracker will tell you the deer must be pushed(Single lung hits). I've had the pleasure of calling a dog to track my buck that didn't go 100 yard sin thick golden rod. It taught me a lot, and we still keep in touch over the years still. There are certain hits that require pushing the deer to weaken the animal and there's others that require time to expire as they should in bed #1-how ever many.. 

[suburbanfarmer]

12 hours ago, LET EM GROW said:

True, but some shot placements require the animal to be pushed to exhaustion if you want to recover. That's why its the hunters responsibility to pay best attention to the hit, the shot angle, the deer's stance, the deer's reaction, the penetration, and the deer's moves how and where after the hit.. etc They all give clue on to where(Organs) the deer is it.. and make a decision there. There are hits that any good dog tracker will tell you the deer must be pushed(Single lung hits). I've had the pleasure of calling a dog to track my buck that didn't go 100 yard sin thick golden rod. It taught me a lot, and we still keep in touch over the years still. There are certain hits that require pushing the deer to weaken the animal and there's others that require time to expire as they should in bed #1-how ever many.. 

In the heat of the moment sometimes our eyes play tricks.. I could have sworn I shot a doe too far forward and then saw it drop in 30yds. The shot was in the V , some how my eyes/brain saw it hitting way forward  

[First-light]

After sitting in my stand a few times reliving the shot I think it was just below spine above lungs. It only went in 7' and hit the other shoulder. I think he is chasing right now. I hope to see him again!

[jjb4900]

I made almost the same exact shot on a doe several years back…with 7” of penetration, your not likely to hit any vitaIs, especially if the shot is on an angle. I captured her on a trail camera the following year with a scar right where I had hit her.

[wolc123]

31 minutes ago, First-light said:

After sitting in my stand a few times reliving the shot I think it was just below spine above lungs. It only went in 7' and hit the other shoulder. I think he is chasing right now. I hope to see him again!

I’m thinking just above the spine, in that thick area of back strap behind the shoulder.  We have the debate every year on this site,  about that magical area below the spine where an can pass without striking lung. 
 

I say “magical”, because that’s make-believe.  There is no such place, because the lungs reach all the way up to the spine.  Most folks don’t realize how thick the back straps are above the spine, just behind the shoulder.  
 

I think your buck ducked at the sound of the arrow release, resulting in a higher than expected hit, and that arrow went over the spine.  Did you get the broadhead back ?  I only suggested pushing right away, if it was still in him, because that might have  continued cutting and increased blood loss.  
 

It it did pass over the spine, then he definitely has a good chance of recovery and is very likely still chasing.  I killed an 8-pointer one time, that suffered such a hit.  I found the mechanical broadhead and a few inches of shaft, inside the hide on the back side, when I was skinning him.  

I killed him with my shotgun on opening day of gun and the arrow wound looked to be a couple weeks old.  I trimmed out and discarded 3 or 4 “qestionable” looking chops, in the region where the arrow passed thru. 

That morning, a group of 6 or 7 antlerless deer came thru earlier, and I killed the largest of them, with a shoulder blade shot using my ML.  The others just kind of milled around aimlessly for a couple minutes, lacking their leader.  I only had one doe tag, so I had to just watch. I did have my short, open-sighted smooth-bore Remington 870, up in the stand for backup, and I still had my buck tag .  

The 8-pointer, and a smaller 4-pointer showed up on their trail  about 5 minutes after the others dispersed.  The 4 would have been a chip shot, as he stood almost under my stand.  The 8 was standing next to the doe carcass, about 75 yards away.
 

Naturally, I went for the bigger one, even thought it was pushing the effective range of that smoothbore.  The shot was true, and he dropped almost on top of the doe, also struck in the shoulder blade.  

I later regretted not killing the healthy looking, much closer 4-pointer instead, when I had to trim out that pussy meat around the arrow wound.  

[First-light]

6 hours ago, wolc123 said:

I’m thinking just above the spine, in that thick area of back strap behind the shoulder.  We have the debate every year on this site,  about that magical area below the spine where an can pass without striking lung. 
 

I say “magical”, because that’s make-believe.  There is no such place, because the lungs reach all the way up to the spine.  Most folks don’t realize how thick the back straps are above the spine, just behind the shoulder.  
 

I think your buck ducked at the sound of the arrow release, resulting in a higher than expected hit, and that arrow went over the spine.  Did you get the broadhead back ?  I only suggested pushing right away, if it was still in him, because that might have  continued cutting and increased blood loss.  
 

It it did pass over the spine, then he definitely has a good chance of recovery and is very likely still chasing.  I killed an 8-pointer one time, that suffered such a hit.  I found the mechanical broadhead and a few inches of shaft, inside the hide on the back side, when I was skinning him.  

I killed him with my shotgun on opening day of gun and the arrow wound looked to be a couple weeks old.  I trimmed out and discarded 3 or 4 “qestionable” looking chops, in the region where the arrow passed thru. 

That morning, a group of 6 or 7 antlerless deer came thru earlier, and I killed the largest of them, with a shoulder blade shot using my ML.  The others just kind of milled around aimlessly for a couple minutes, lacking their leader.  I only had one doe tag, so I had to just watch. I did have my short, open-sighted smooth-bore Remington 870, up in the stand for backup, and I still had my buck tag .  

The 8-pointer, and a smaller 4-pointer showed up on their trail  about 5 minutes after the others dispersed.  The 4 would have been a chip shot, as he stood almost under my stand.  The 8 was standing next to the doe carcass, about 75 yards away.
 

Naturally, I went for the bigger one, even thought it was pushing the effective range of that smoothbore.  The shot was true, and he dropped almost on top of the doe, also struck in the shoulder blade.  

I later regretted not killing the healthy looking, much closer 4-pointer instead, when I had to trim out that pussy meat around the arrow wound.  

Good info. So above the spine there is probably 4 inches of thick backstrap? Now this was a big old boy. Yes broadhead in him. No blood trail at all nothing. Be interesting if someone shoots him. Alkl my neighbors know about it and the broad head in him. 

[LET EM GROW]

10 hours ago, suburbanfarmer said:

In the heat of the moment sometimes our eyes play tricks.. I could have sworn I shot a doe too far forward and then saw it drop in 30yds. The shot was in the V , some how my eyes/brain saw it hitting way forward  

Yep We've all been there.. In the heat of that moment, between the eyes, the brain and heart it can really get you thinking. lol. 

[LET EM GROW]

1 hour ago, First-light said:

Good info. So above the spine there is probably 4 inches of thick backstrap? Now this was a big old boy. Yes broadhead in him. No blood trail at all nothing. Be interesting if someone shoots him. Alkl my neighbors know about it and the broad head in him. 

The spine drops low behind the shoulders. around 4-5inches down from the top of a deer's back behind the shoulders is dead square in the spine. Above that is a backstrap hit if it didn't drop on impact, and if below the spine (didn't drop on impact) your into the lung(s) liver spleen or other organs depending on how far back it was hit.. 

The spine comes back up higher towards the back as you reach the hind quarters..  

[DoubleDose]

15 hours ago, suburbanfarmer said:

In the heat of the moment sometimes our eyes play tricks.. I could have sworn I shot a doe too far forward and then saw it drop in 30yds. The shot was in the V , some how my eyes/brain saw it hitting way forward  

Completely agree!  Two clear examples.  1) Hunting partner shot at a deer broadside from the ground.  Arrow got deflected and he said it ran off with arrow sticking out of its rump.  We tracked hoping to find his arrow.  Had a decent blood trail and eventually found the deer.  The arrow actually never hit the rump.  It hit the opposite rear leg inside femur and severed the femoral artery.  The fletch being near the rump made it appear that is where the impact was.  2)  I shot a deer broadside from the ground; aiming at the front leg crease.  Saw the arrow bury up to the fletch back near the abdomen.  I instantly saw it as a gut shot. Watched the deer run off and drop/pile-up 15 yards away.  Without me realizing it, the deer moved and was actually quartering away.  Arrow hit liver, diaphragm, lung, and heart.