dumb founded

[RNC]

Amazing what a deer can do isnt it? My brother shot an 8ptr on opening night of the 2007 season. He said the shot looked great low in the chest and just behind the leg. It was about an hour before him and dad started to track it. At times they had an easy to follow trail and at other times there were on hands and knees with flashlights. They eventualy found part of his arrow. It was about 7" of shaft and the fletching covered in blood. They eventually walked almost on top of the buck before it got up and staggered off. At that point they called it a night and we all went looking for it the next morning. Some 20 man hours later we still didnt find another drop of blood or the deer. Just over a month later we got pictures of an 8ptr and it sure looks like hes got wound marks made from a two blade broadhead on both flanks right where my brother said they would be. The mark on the right flank is a little higher up then the one on the left flank also. No way to be 100 % sure its the same buck but we believe it is.

[schlupis]

the deer I shot was no 170 class buck but a nice doe. I shot her with a 300 win mag and watched her run off followed the blood trail and found pieces of her shoulder blade on the ground. heard a noise saw her standing with another doe 60 yrds away so I shot again she ran off I watched her run into a tree get up and head for the swamp. found tons of blood where I shot her a second time blood to the tree and then nothing dont know if she made it to the swamp and sank just disapeared..

[Legnip]

A couplethings could have happened. My Mother shot an 8 pointer a couple years ago. I found decent blood and bone. She hit him in the front shoulder, but low. One of the front legs were broken, but the hit was low enough that the lungs were missed. I tracked the deer in snow for 1-2 miles in the snow with blood the entire time. I hit swamp water and scrub brush and lost the trail.
 
Last year I shot a big 8 pointer that was quartering toward me. I put it close to the heart, but he was walking and the shot went between the shoulder and the ribs. Luckily I had a second shot that where he was stood broadside. The initial trail had tons of spurting blood, but I doubt that I would have gotten him if I didn't get the second shot in.

[PrairieShadow]

I'd say one of three things happened.
 
1. Your shot wasnt where you thought it was. I had this happen on a 140 class buck my first bow season @ about 20yds. My eye saw my arrow disappear into the bucks ribcage right on the money. but when i got up their i found my arrow stuck in a pine tree just beyond where the deer had stood clean. After further investigation i found a branch about 3ft in fron of the deer that had a nice clean braodhead blade cut in it and my eye couldnt adjust fast enough to see the deflection i guess. Maybe something to this extent happened to you but you still hit the deer??
 
2. Someone stole your deer. I hate to say it but there are lots of so called hunters that would be more than willing/happy to claim someone elses 170 buck.
 
3. Knomes. These pesky little critters may have did it.

[ILBowhunter]

[quote]ORIGINAL: PrairieShadow

I'd say one of three things happened.

1. Your shot wasn't where you thought it was.

 
 

I agree.  Many bowhunters, myself included, are sometimes mistaken as to where the arrow hits as well as the orientation and/or movement of the deer when the shot is taken.  I killed a deer that I would have sworn was perfectly broadside at the shot only to discover the arrow angled back in such a manner that it was clear the deer was quartering to me when I shot.  On another, I could have sworn I saw and heard the arrow hit, but found it in a large oak tree about 2 ft beyond where the deer had been standing, free of blood.  I still don't know what happened, but either I shot high or the deer jumped the shot.

I have gotten to where I do not trust my eyes, or the eyes of my hunting companions, at the moment of the shot.  The first thing I want to do, besides waiting for 30-40 minutes after the shot, is find the arrow, and I'll search and search for it before trying to take up the blood trail.  Occasionally the arrow is carried off by the deer, but in the vast majority of cases I find all or part of the arrow within 10 yards of where the deer was standing at the shot.  An arrow with blood, hair, and some tissue on the broadhead with only a bit of blood on one or two of the vanes or feathers may result in a relatively strong blood trail, and even some puddling in a bed.

[lawdog]

i'm new to the forums, so i'm a bit late on this, but i had to write because of a vaery similar situation.  in 2000, i arrowed a brute of a buck - figured to be 140-150" 8pt at last light in early november.  he was only 15 yards away and the shot looked beautiful.  the arrow was covered in bright red blood, looked like the perfect double-lunger.  i got the tracking crew together and we began following a very heavy blood trail.  we were excited, laughing, joking, and admitedly celebrating (quielty) as we followed the one foot wide bllod trail through pines.  when it started to seem like we had gone a lot further than i anticipated, i got worried.  then the blood slowed and the buck changed directions.  moments later, it opened wide up and we came to an area a little less than 15x15 feet wide where you couldn't put your hand on the ground without sticking it in blood.  everyone was excited again and i turned and said, "lets leave."  my request was met with comments that the beast was just ahead and we would have him soon.  against my judgement, we took up the trail.  it was still great, then good, then ok, then marginal, then difficult, then nearly non-existent.  we marked the spot and came back the next day.  we found only two more drops of blood, each spread out about 80 yards from the last.  we got a dog in there as well, but came up with nothing.  jsut two years ago, i shot a doe at 10 yards facing me (i've practiced the shot thoroughly).  i missed the heart by about two inches and got one lung.  that doe easily went 150 yards leaving a constant two foot wide SOLID blood trail before she died.  so... the only thing i can believe at this point, is i simply only hit one lung on that buck.  he died somewhere, and it's a terrible shame i know, but no one intends to shoot a deer and have that happen.  that's my experience with one-lungers.  maybe you hit exactly where you thought, but only caught one lung, especially if you say the shot was low in the lungs.  that's my theory.