Shoulder hit, one lung, long blood trail....found him!

[Bowhunter57]

This buck came in behind my treestand, was renewing the scrape he'd made and was thrashing the overhead branches. Meanwhile, I'm standing as far out as I can on the edge of my treestand...backwards, arching backwards, trying to get a shot off before he takes off. I stretched as far as I could without falling (had my full-body harness on) and took the best shot he was going to offer.

The loud "crack" let me know that I'd hit the shoulder and he scrambled outta there. I watched as he ran and wondered if I'd hit the offside or onside shoulder. :confused: I gave him 45 minutes and started to pick up the trail.

The first 40 yards was nothing, but scuffed leaves, then I started seeing spots of blood. :) The blood increased to splotches with bubbles mixed in the spray. At this point, I knew I had a lung hit. The bubbly blood trail went on for approx. 130 yards, then went to just drops of blood that led into a picked bean field.

Approx. 700 yards across the bean field led to a corn field. At this point it was 2 1/2 hours since the shot, so I started to shine my flashlight into the standing corn stalks...only to see a pair of eyes with antlers staring back at me. :p He bolted further into the corn, so I backed out and came back in the morning.

The next morning I found where he'd bolted and as it turns out he ran another 170 yards before crashing in the rows of corn. :cool: Learned a lot with this blood trail. A bad shot, but the RazorTrick I was using did enough damage to allow for a good blood trail that led me to him. :)

This was on Oct. 12th...Columbus Day.
Good hunting, Bowhunter57
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v410/Bowhunter57/LeafyCamoBuck3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v410/Bowhunter57/GreenCamoBuck3.jpg

[GF.]

So what happened with the arrow?

Was it lodged in that shoulder sticking out, or broken off, or passed clean through, or....???

Just curious about the depth of penetration, so any/all detail is of interest....

Bow poundage?

Shoulder blade hit, or upper leg bone (humerus)?

quartering-to angle, or more broadside?

will hit you with more questions as they pop into my head :D

[GF.]

Nice buck, BTW!

And well done to have tracked him down. Interesting that he lasted a couple of hours, but then folded up in pretty short order after you jumped him...

Looks like you hit him in the thinner portion of the scapula... If drag on the shaft kept it from blowing through, you'd kind of expect the head to do a mix-master job on the inside of his rib cage, so I'm perplexed...

Did the arrow back out of the entrance? Seems like it would have to have all but bounced out of there not to do more damage.

Hmmm....

[Bowhunter57]

GF.,
The shot was 12 yards from a treestand. I was leaning backwards...as far as I could to get the shot because he was behind my tree. I was going to hang from my tether on my full-body harness ;), but he stepped to the left enough for my to take the shot without over extending myself.

At the release of the arrow I heard a loud "crack" and he bolted off into the distance, through the woods. I couldn't see if I'd hit the onside or offside shoulder, so I decided to give him some time. I waited 45 minutes before taking up the trail...and going very slowly.

The first 30 yards showed nothing but scuffed up leaves...then the dirt was kicked up where he'd made a hard right turn into the trees. (He was running down a logging trail that was inside the woods.) At about that point I started finding blood sprayed droplets...and then big splotches of bubbly blood, more sprays and this went on for another 120 yards.

I knew I'd hit a lung, but was guessing that I'd only gotten one lung, due to the onesided blood trail. I found my arrow about 60 yards into the blood trail...fully intact, but the corner of the main blade was broken off. I was suprised that there wasn't more broadhead damage, since I'd hit such a hard/large bone. Even so, I had approximately 16" of penetration, showing blood up that far on the shaft.

As the buck exited the woods, he started leaving just drops of blood and about every 80 to 100 yards there would be a large splotch of bubbly blood. This went on for approx. 700 yards across a cut bean field. He was headed toward some standing corn fields. There was a point in the bean field that I had to throw some dirt clots at a skunk to get him off of the same blood trail that I was following. :rolleyes:

As the blood trail faded I walked ahead to the corn fields. I seen nothing that indicated he went anywhere other than in the corn. I couldn't find any broken stems, scuff marks on the ground, leaves turned over...nothing. I shined my flash light into the corn stalks, only to see a pair of eyes with antlers looking back at me. :p This was 2 1/2 hours after the shot. He bolted at the flashlight, so I backed out and came back in the morning.

The buck had made one more charge after I left and ran about 170 yards into the corn before collapsing. Very tough buck! There was blood on the corn stalks all the way to where he finally fell. :cool:

This is where I found him.
Good hunting, Bowhunter57
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v410/Bowhunter57/CornFieldBuck.jpg

[Bushman]

Instead of a tracking dog, I enlisted the help of a local skunk to help track the deer.:D Great story. It reads like the arrow was not pulled through to the other side. Some of that lung blood could have come from the nose and mouth area too. I've heard way too many the one that got away stories from one lung arrow hit deer. Way to go staying after that one.

[Twanger]

Yep... Great follow up and very nice deer!

[TJF]

Congrats on the buck and tracking him down !!

Tim

[DaveHawk]

Good Job 57 Congrats