Missed Opportunity

[juniordo1]

I got out again with my bow last Friday. Right at dark, two does came out 20 yds in front of me but I couldn't get them to stop until they were too far away behind me. As I'm watching the does behind my stand I hear a snap from behind me. I turned to find myself face to face with a big buck (8+) and he's looking right at me. I froze and waited for him to make his move. Much to my surprise he takes a couple steps towards me and then turns broadside. He wasn't in the clear so I waited, still frozen. He stepped into what I believed to be a clear lane and I drew back and let fly. I watched the arrow hit, but it didn't pass through and hit back a little farther in the diaphragm area than where I expected it to hit. Of course he took off and I heard a big crash so I thought he piled up. Since the arrow didn't pass through, I waited a full two hours before looking for him. He didn't bleed for about 75 yards and then I found some nice patches. I also found the arrow where he crashed through the brush. The arrow appeared to have penetrated about 12 inches. I lost the blood trail that night and we couldn't figure out where he went. Saturday I went looking again. I picked up his trail by luck and followed it for 1/4 mile. He never laid down and the blood trail had some clumps of heavy clotted blood.

This was the first time I've ever attempted to kill a deer with my bow, in my second year of bowhunting, after 30 years of rifle hunting.

Re-tracing my steps/actions, I saw that there were three little twigs in my arrow's flight path. Is it possible/likely that a little twig deflected the arrow? Does hitting a twig scrub off a lot of arrow speed, hence no pass through?

This is the third deer in 30 yrs that I have hit and not found but every one is heartbreaking to me as I hate to have them suffer. The experience was a rush that I will not soon forget but I've got me talking to myself.

[Scoot]

junior, it's impossible to answer most of your questions. Could the arrow have hit the twigs? Sure. Did it? Who knows. If the shot felt good and you are pretty accurate at that range, it very well may have. Hitting the twigs could have taken off some arrow speed, but it's not likely that it impacted it too terribly much, in terms of speed.

Regardless of the details, sorry to hear about the bummer outcome. I lost my first hit deer in 26 years earlier this season and the thought of it still gnaws at me. Not fun.

[Deitz Dittrich]

a twig can slow the arrow and deflect it yes.. How many pounds are you shooting and what is your arrow weight?.. .there may be more to not passing through? My guess is this deer is down.

[96trigger]

Junior, I feel for you. Sometimes, it happens, it has happened to me. You have to move on. He may live, he may die. I'm not sure where you think you hit him behind the diaphram. That would mean a gut shot. If you got red blood, I would think you got some kind of rib. I'm just not sure, but shake it off, and get back out there. Live and learn.

I also agree I think this deer is down somewhere. I am thinking if he was quartering away from you, you hit the oposite shoulder and that was why you never got a pass through. 12 inches of penetration should kill him, not to mention all the cutting that broadhead did while it was stuck inside him when he ran away

[archerystud]

Welcome to bow hunting!

Whenever people ask me the difference between hunting with a bow and a gun I always tell them that there is MUCH more to consider with a bow when making the shot. This is compounded (whether you shoot a compound or not ) with the adrenaline rush that is going on while you are shooting. This is the challenge that I LOVE about bow hunting.

In nearly 30 years of bow hunting I've seen many people who are great target shooters but have trouble shooting deer.

What kind of angle did you have on the deer? Is it possible you hit the back leg on the far side? With a newer bow and anything over 50 lbs, if you do hit in the middle of the body you should get a pass through, except maybe for hitting the spine. My first guess is that you rushed the shot.

Try coming up with "a system" of steps before you shoot. And then make sure you do that when shooting at a deer.

My system is this: anchor, peep, pin, deer. First I line up my anchor point. Second is that make sure I'm looking through the peep. Third is find my CORRECT pin. And lastly put that pin on a spot on the deer. I won't shoot until all of these are done.

If you have a chance over the winter I suggest shooting in some form of a winter archery league. It is very good practice for handling the pressure situations similar to hunting.

My old club used to do a shoot off at the end of the year. One year I had to shoot on the same bale as a VERY good shooter. He was normally a much better shot than me but I beat him by 10 points that day as he had a much tougher time handling the pressure.

Good Luck the rest of the season!

[DonBo]

Even if a deflected arrow does not lose speed it is now not flying straight towards the target, that is it may be going at an angle, or sideways if you will. Definetly enough that a passthrough may be unlikely.

Not all deer hit by an arrow are dead deer. If you followed for 1/4 mile without it laying down and reduced blood sign along the way, it may very well survive. We hope so. Keep your ears open while in the area. IF that deer is down you may hear crows on the carcass.

[juniordo1]

Deitz, I am shooting a PSE Stinger set at 57 pounds with Cabelas Carbon hunters - 9gpi (28.5")with 100 grain G5 Montec broadheads.

[juniordo1]

96Trigger, The arrow and blood trail show only red blood with no signs of a gut shot. I was just thinking diaphragm area because I drilled a buck with my rifle in that area before and he died with heart and lungs intact without scrambled guts. I agree 12 inches would suggest dead deer.

[1eyeReD]

It should be down somewhere. I hit a twig stickin out halfway between me and my deer earlier this season on a bonus tag doe in the south. Stabbed it right in the diaphragm as well. Came out the other side near the hind quarter... I waited over night and came back to find her bedded and stiff about 150 yards from my location right on the path that I set up on. Like yours, the blood trail didn't start til later. In fact, I barely saw spots because it was pretty much a gut shot.

I tend to believe if it's a really tiny and flimsy twig that is no more than a few yards from the animal, deflection isn't as bad. If it's a twig that is closer to the halfway mark between you and your quarry, the arrow can be deflected just about enough to make a bad hit or completely miss. As for loss of speed, I'm not sure. But here is what's for sure.. If an arrow is deflected, the arrow is no longer flying straight. Not only is it off the original flight path, it's also flyin' with an "effed" up angle towards where it has been redirected. If you've seen bad paper test results... You'll have an idea of what the arrow is doing in flight after deflection. An arrow that is fish tailing may hit the target with the force going straight forward, but the arrow is entering at an angle..

Sorry about you not finding your deer. I feel your pain, man. Your sleep will eventually come back.

1eR

[juniordo1]

Archerystud - Great tips! I actually took a half second to close my eyes and re-open them before releasing because when I drew back everything was so clear I thought I must not be looking through peep.

I was shooting downward from a 15' ladder stand but the angle wasn't that steep cuz the ground rises where he was standing. He was almost touching my 20 yd tape.

In the fading daylight, the deer appeared to be broadside. If he was quartering away, it was only very slightly.

I use a a single pin sight and I am a very accurate on the range. I know range doesn't equal real-life but my anchor and peep alignment were perfect on the first try. I even bent at the waist to make sure I didn't screw up shot angle.

It is entirely possible I punched the trigger and that gave me my horizontal deviation but in practice punching usually results in vertical devaition for me.

[Wensel]

Junior

I feel for you, if you bowhunt this will eventually happen to you.

Ach St gave some great tips, the last 5 seconds before you shoot a big buck will make or break you almost every time.

The only thing I'll add is the G5 Montec is a nice head but in my opinion, you need to sharpen them b4 you hunt with them.

Another thing I have done, is at Sunset I'm done, the fading light shots are hard, I practice them all season but its just tuff (sp) to hit them dudes near dark

Good Luck on the next one, to add to Archery Stud, Aim Small...Miss Small

[FISHINGURU]

i had a small twig no bigger then a toothpic deflect my arrow 2 feet to the left and totally miss a nice big 10 pointer..the arrow was going straight to the vitals at 25 yards and the twig was so small i couldn't even see it....i actually thought i hit this buck perfect..he ran up over the hill and i hung my bow totally stoked about going to find him...i waited an hour before i got down to go look at where he was standing...when i got over there i seen my arrow totally clean and not even on path from where i was shooting from.

i was totally confused until i seen the tiny twig cut in half....that year i was shooting the lightest arrows made that year and also had on some super light muzzy's like 75 grain.....i was caught up in the speed hype...i learned my lesson there...a heavier arrow and broadhead would of blasted right through that little twig.

i was happy atleast i didn't wound him with that horrible deflection...i know how you feel when you hit an animal and can't find it...i hate it...i feel guilty thats why i don't wing shots...someone else might of found him with all the hunters in the woods now....better luck next time!!

[archerystud]

Since you think you hit in the middle of the deer I would guess you hit a branch which got the arrow to wobble. At that point entry angle and everything is thrown way off.

You should have gotten a pass through if you hit the middle of the deer unless something else happened.

I can only recall 3 times in which I didn't get a pass through. Two of those were quartering away shots in which I hit the shoulder on the far side of the deer.

The other one I hit the near shoulder joint and got literally no penetration. My aluminum arrow actually shattered on impact and it sounded to me like someone shot a rifle off in the woods. The ironic thing on this one is that I could not carry my bow while tracking (special hunt in Park, New Ulm). Low and behold the doe gets up 10 yards away from me and stands there broadside for about 15 seconds, and I don't have a bow to put her down. That deer did live to see another day however as I saw her later in the year.

[juniordo1]

archerystud - I know I hit in the middle of the deer. I watched him run away with rear end of arrow sticking out. The image is burned into my brain. I instantly felt that no pass through was not a good sign. I fully expected a pass through with where I hit him. This one will haunt me for a long time but I'm even more determined to get back up in the stand and make one count.

[92python]

He may have headed for water bedded down and died. I know it broke off but was there any blood or gut smell on the arrow?

[juniordo1]

92python - there was only red blood on arrow with no gut smell.

[juniordo1]

I'm still dreaming about the big boy.

I saw some deer out of the same stand but never got a shot the rest of the archery season. I was sitting there one November morning freezing my butt off when some deer came crashing through the swamp where the big boy came out. They stopped (out of sight) and snorted, grunted, and crashed around on and off for 1.5 hours. I heard a deer coming through the swamp from the other direction and it was working its way towards the deer I had been listening to. When that deer got within about 30yds of the deer I was listening to, a big stamp and a snort came from the brush and the deer that had just arrived took off. I can't say for sure what the deer were doing but I think I was listening to deer mate!I think the deer that took off was a small buck. The other deer left by way of the swamp a few minutes later.

I hunted bow, rifle, and muzzy but this year I have a big batch of tag soup.

I took my bow out the other morning when it was below zero and hammered the Black Hole about a thirty times. My groupings were tight as ever but they don't put meat in the freezer. My setup is still dialed in and already I can't wait for September!