the buck ducked

last night in Oklahoma I had a buck cruising through quickly. I had to grunt stop him before I was even full draw 1 step from woods. thought I had a good shot, placement was good horizontally, but looking at me entire time he must have ducked hard and I hit him high. it was solid hit with a thud he kicked hard and sprinted out heard him breaking limbs a ways.

unfortunately as I feared with that high shot there was no blood or not enough I could find. I was able to track kicks for awhile and after dark I found my lighted nook and arrow about 150 yards. it had been almost complete pass-thru and running by a tree it pulled rest of arrow out exit side. Blood from tip to fletchings.

even having the exact spot he was at the bloody arrow I couldn't find a single drop of blood.

I'm in trouble without blood as this is thick stuff you can only see 10-20 feet and there are so many crossing game trails it is hard to guess which way he went.

Aren't blood dogs illegal in Oklahoma? If not, anyone know anyone?

What do you think the probability is of that being lethal shot?

Any other suggestions finding him besides next time aim low when you have to stop a buck?

'O' marks the hit.



blood end to end.

Don't think they are illegal in Oklahoma.

Looks like you it the void area between spine and lungs. Even if you hit lungs it takes the lungs feeling up with blood to get a blood trail on a high shot. Same issue I had on last year's mulie but I was able to track the track

no luck with the track, it was obvious for about 100 yards hard kicks. everything covered with leaves and rotting pieces of wood with no leaves on them start looking like kicks. I did track 2 different armadillos last night, wasted about hour on that. they were leaving a good trail and thought maybe it was the deer dragging.

based on this quick look up they say tracking is illegal.

http://www.unitedbloodtrackers.org/state...7&itemid=10

Were you shooting from an elevated stand or on the ground? If on the ground that's probably not a lethal shot. If you were elevated enough you could have caught the top of the lungs. Either way, without blood your basically gonna have to get lucky to find him. I don't know if dogs are illegal in Oklahoma or not, but if you can I would get one out there. Good luck.

it was ground blind, I think pass thru was flat.

is that a lethal shot though?

Find someone with a young bird dog and take them quail hunting. Young dogs haven't learned to ignore deer yet and I have found several this way.

Start making circles after the last blood or tracks. Keep widening the circles till you are at your boundary fence. Look for tracks and blood up high off the ground on vegetation.

Also a quick check if you have any water close by.

I hate to tell you this but I had the same thing happen a couple of years ago. Shot at a buck from a GB at about 30+ yards and he dropped right before the impact. Similar tracking job as yours with minimum blood found. Lost him that night but got another chance two weeks later at a feeder. I could see the wounds on both sides of him and knew the rack. I anchored him that night and based on lining up the wound marks with an arrow, I would have sworn I got the top of both lungs. Since he was heart shot that night, I pulled out the lungs and was surprised to not see a single mark on them. The center-line of the arrow was 2.38" from the bottom of the spine (measured with another arrow in and plumb bob). I have always wondered if his lungs dropped too when he dropped.

Best of luck in finding him or hopefully getting another shot at him.

From a ground blind I would say that hit was above the spine and non lethal. I've had a few duck into a spine shot but luckily haven't hit above.

Rob, sorry to say that I made the same mistake three years ago. Just about the same distance, from the ground, and same area for the hit. There was blood on the arrow, a few drops on the ground, and I was able to track for about 250 yards. The blood trail stopped and the tracks settled down to be undetectable. The deer was spotted in the same area several times later, with the through-and-through wound, but I didn't get another shot. Based on antler configuration, he survived at least another year. I was using mechanical heads... after that I switched to fixed.

why? because a smaller cutting diameter would have changed this outcome?

interesting, I just looked at a deer anatomy diagram and I didn't know the spine drops down so much more you go forward.

I was using fixed. I tried Rages for a couple years, I will always use fixed going forward, but in this case I don't think it mattered.

agreed, it was just un unfortunate shot location.

Exactly, a large 2" cutting mechanical may have landed him that deer with a misplaced shot.

or more likely it wouldn't have been a pass through and I would have found the bright green beacon nock still sticking in the deer!

I have killed several deer with a bow, but there are guys on here much more experienced than me. if you have to stop a deer and he's looking at you, do you aim low?

My cuz shot one in about the same spot the other day.. he was in a ground blind and got clean pass through.. got the deer back on camera a week later

arrow looked the exact same as that also

I've done that exact thing. Never got another pick of my buck, but my neighbor got one of him eating corn a week or so later before he vanished.

I'd say 65-35 he's alive given the info you gave. Flesh wound, hope it doesn't get infected and he'll live.

I switched to fixed because the mechanical blades didn't deploy... maybe a different brand would have been better. Easier to switch to fixed than test on live animals.

My neighbor has shot several high like you did (2 that I know of anyways) and they survived, well they did until I shot one of them with a .270. Found the arrow broke off in him, stuck in 1 shoulder blade and under the skin on the other side.

I shot a spike last year in that void zone just above the vitals and below the spine. Rage extreme 2.3" clean pass thru. Had him on camera 2 weeks later with scabs covering the entry and exit holes.

Yes aim low at heart . Because when they react they drop down for more power to get out of there...But it's best to wait til they turn head forward obviously.
If your sure that's the spot you hit then it's probably a dead Deer. But, just above that is a void area.
Also, the spine like you mentioned is above not below the shot.

I thought that, but if you look diagram of deer's anatomy the spine is far below arch of back by shoulders, further back spine is up there top edge.

Either way no spine, no lungs. Either above or below the spine.