for the past few weeks ive been seeing a 3 pointer under my tree stand but have always passed him up. well moneys a little tight right now so i decided to go for meat over trophy. i heard something in the woods thismorning so i hit the bleat call and he came running in as usual with his nose to the ground grunting like crazy. i drew back and put my pin right where it should be. i leaned forward so i wouldnt hit my bow limb on my leg cause i was sitting. the tree stand ladder bent as i was shooting and my shot hit high. i let myself out of my saftey harness and dropped myself to the ground. i tried fixing my tree stand while i waited on the deer. i found a small piece of lung and lots of hair on my arrow. only 1 blade was left on it. one of the others broke and another must have fell out. i followed the blood trail as long as i could and then it just stopped. i searched every square inch of the woods i hunt and he is not in there. the rain washed away all my blood. im going back tonight to see if the coyotes are howling and to try again with one of those blood lights. to the best of my knowledge he ran across a field and onto some posted land. i asked the land owner for permission to track it but the told me i can go to hell. i even offered to pay him and give him all the meat and the head if he would let me track it but still no luck.

It really sucks that you had such a bad string of unlucky occurances happen at one time!

I would have to say that your chances of recovering the deer are two; slim and none.

You might have had a better chance of recovering the deer if you had let it sit overnight, then recovered it in the morning. Most times, a hit deer will run until they feel the need to lie down. Then they'll lay there until they bleed out. But if you start tracking too soon, you'll push the deer from its bed, then adreneline will kick in and the deer can go a long, LONG way.

It sounds like you did all you could, but with an uncooperative and hostile land owner, your hands were tied.

The first thing I would do is take all the broadheads of that brand that you have and throw them somewhere that nobody can use them! If one head did it, they all will and its the easiest thing to fix. Even if you found the deer, would want to be field dressing it with the blades in there? Losing an animal stinks, so I do everything I can to avoid it. I have tracked a whitetail spike a measured 1 1/4 miles that blew out a piece of lung as big as a nickle, we were lucky to find it, but it ran the whole way in the relative open, spraying blood the whole way. If you only got one lung, the deer may not even have died. Ditto on the not following them up to soon. I have left deer for hours and found them not at all stiffened up and I have helped guys track deer for MILES that in all likelytood, could have been found within a couple hundred yards if not chased to soon.

I have lost two archery bucks in my life....

It absolutely sucks. There is just no way to sugar coat it.

Yup, we've all been there if we hunt enough. Good advise on losing the broadheads, and waiting a long while before beginning to look for them.

the chef

You know what happened, and know what to do next time. Best medicine is to get out there as quick as possible. I also had a lost animal this year with the bow, a young Impala ram. It was on my own land, so losing it was so much the more a sad affair!

Let us know what happend with the next one!

well i drove to town and got the parts to fix my tree stand while i waited for it so about 2 hours before i started tracking. ive never had to track a deer before. i sat in my stand yesterday morning and saw him chasing a doe like nothing had even happened to him. he did have bloody spots on his upper back but appears to be fine until he gets close again. sadly they were muzzy broadheads. i usually use montec g5 broadheads but i won these in an auction for a benefit so i figured id try them. ive broke bones on animals including putting an arrow through both shoulders on a buck before with the g5. i was still able to use the broadhead after that shot too.

It always hurts to loose one, because you feel like he's somewhere dead and that it was a huge waste.

Two years ago I shot one high and couldn't find him and thought, "what a waste" but that same year, during gun season, I shot him with a rifle and he didn't get away.

Upon examining him, I found where I had hit him with the arrow and it was healing nicely. He certainly would have made it. But my shot on him with the bow was higher than yours--it had hit nothing but muscle. I wouldn't have thought a broad-head could hit lung and the deer still live? However, they can do some pretty amazing things.

I've been fortunate to have lost only two deer, that I hit, in my many years of bow hunting.

Animals and arrows can surprise you. Also the bowhunter is the last person to believe on where and arrow hit. I think our brains tell us what we want to believe or there is just to much adrenilin at the time of the shot. A lot of those shots that were just a "little high" are actually above the spine. Lots of animals that are hit high in one lung survive just fine, I've seen them weeks later. I use heavier bows that a lot of hunters, BUT I have found that both lungs AND an exit wound, make for short tracking jobs. I have tracked a few animals for miles and recovered them, but man it is nice to see them drop!

A couple of years ago a friend shot a small 5 pointer with his bow, the deer was directly below him(bad shot placement) he never recovered the deer. He started talking about shooting a heavier bow etc etc etc... i told him its all in placement. Well a couple of weeks later another friend and i were rifle hunting, we jumped a buck and my buddy shot him. As he was dressing out the deer i said how did a stick get in the cavity, only to realize it was an arrow.There was a slight scar on the deers back and the broad head was uncompassed in cartilidge.This was only about a month after this deer was shot and the arrow was in the lung. Deer are amazing in their ability to survive, i place em right up there with the cockroach

the farmers daughter hit the deer with her truck this morning. hes dead now but it looks like he was healing fine.

quote:

Originally posted by craveman85:
the farmers daughter hit the deer with her truck this morning. hes dead now but it looks like he was healing fine.

Did you get the deer?

nah a bit too smashed to be eaten. however i did save the guts for my coyote hunting. i put the guts in a big sled in my freezer with a rope in it. when i want to use it i drag it in a big figure 8 for several miles with a snowmobile and then sit with it at the intersection. i once got 14 coyotes one night with this technique. for the week i ended up with about 30 coyotes and a dozen foxes. i also get pigs blood from butcher and pour it as i drive around.