Had a nice buck actually come by on the trail that caused us to put a stand there. Shot distance may have been 10 yards. Would have sworn he was perfectly broadside and it was a double lung shot - shot angle was pretty steep, though. He mule kicked then ran maybe 40-50 yards. Then slowly walked to a fairly steep ridge about 100 yards from shot. He took a few steps up the ridge and bedded. He laid there for 20-30 minutes. Raised his head every now & then & put it back down. Every time he put his head down, I assumed would be his last. Finally he gets up, takes a few more steps uphill, gets behind some trees and I loose sight of him. As it gets dark, I hear movement where I saw him last. Branches crack and leaves rustle. He can't be more than 15 yards from where I saw him last - but it is now dark and he is in the thick stuff.
Of course I want to turn on the flashlight & go check things out. But I realized that pushing him is probably the worst thing I could do. Got out of there as quietly as possible. Didn't look for arrow. Heard no more sounds as I backed out.
It seems like close is good, but I have no experience with shooting a deer with a bow at that sharp of an angle. Put an arrow through a doe that was right under my stand several years ago, but never found her. But then she only hung around maybe a minute before leaving for parts unknown.
Anyway, shot him about an hour & twenty minutes before dark. I feel pretty confident that he was still about 100 yards from where I shot him, when I left.
I've killed a lot of deer and hit them every where from neck to hip. Gut shot deer tend to leave the immediate area. Double lung shot deer (at least ones that weren't a steep angle) haven't gone far. Same for heart shot.
So I about have to assume I hit liver & maybe a lung? Or even just liver. I can think of a few I hit in the liver and all of them went farther than this, but I guess not a lot farther - and I didn't push them.
Anyway, anybody else ever had this happen? Did you find them & where had you hit them?
Fortunately, I can be out looking for him at first light in the morning. It'll have been more than 14 hours since the shot. Since he hadn't gone very far in an hour & twenty minutes - and he sure didn't seem to be able to climb that ridge - I guess I'm 'cautiously optimistic'.
But then, anything can happen & he could be miles away too!
Of course I want to turn on the flashlight & go check things out. But I realized that pushing him is probably the worst thing I could do. Got out of there as quietly as possible. Didn't look for arrow. Heard no more sounds as I backed out.
It seems like close is good, but I have no experience with shooting a deer with a bow at that sharp of an angle. Put an arrow through a doe that was right under my stand several years ago, but never found her. But then she only hung around maybe a minute before leaving for parts unknown.
Anyway, shot him about an hour & twenty minutes before dark. I feel pretty confident that he was still about 100 yards from where I shot him, when I left.
I've killed a lot of deer and hit them every where from neck to hip. Gut shot deer tend to leave the immediate area. Double lung shot deer (at least ones that weren't a steep angle) haven't gone far. Same for heart shot.
So I about have to assume I hit liver & maybe a lung? Or even just liver. I can think of a few I hit in the liver and all of them went farther than this, but I guess not a lot farther - and I didn't push them.
Anyway, anybody else ever had this happen? Did you find them & where had you hit them?
Fortunately, I can be out looking for him at first light in the morning. It'll have been more than 14 hours since the shot. Since he hadn't gone very far in an hour & twenty minutes - and he sure didn't seem to be able to climb that ridge - I guess I'm 'cautiously optimistic'.
But then, anything can happen & he could be miles away too!
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