It just keeps getting better and better!

[DaddyPaul]

After having to work most of the weekend during Jeanne me and a buddy finally got out yesterday afternoon for a sit. His spots are under water so he hung a stand beside me to film my hunt. After about 1.5 hours of sitting looking at each other we had three does come in. They acted a little nervous and the biggest kept looking back. I told Bobby that a buck would be along shortly. Well after about 10 minutes, no buck had shown up, and we decided it was time to make one of them a "movie star". The biggest doe was now at 23.5 yards from my perch, a mere chip shot for a master archer like myself. I looked at Bobby one last time and he gave me the "green light". I drew my bow and placed my 20 yard pin slightly low of an imaginary horizontal line that cut the deer in half. I was amazed at how calm I was after watching them for so long, seemed like I was working instead of hunting. I touched off my release and proceeded to slip one about 2 inches below the top of her back. I immediately knew the chances for recovery were slim and my heart sank. We watched the deer for the next 25 or 30 minutes as she resumed feeding with the other deer and left our area. Needless to say I wanted to blame some type of mechanical problem on my shot as I know where I had the pin and the shot went off just right, no flinch, no punch etc...We got down and looked for about 2 hours to be positive the deer didn't lay down. I am still thinking to myself what did I do wrong? Is my bow shooting a little high all of a sudden? NOPE! We watched the video frame by frame on Bobby's camera. This doe at a distance of 23.5 yards ducked I guarantee you 8 inches if she moved a muscle. My bow only shoots 270fps but is quiet as they come. It never ceases to amaze me what these animals are capable of. If I can get some help in doing it I will try to put up a clip of the deer ducking the arrow, I just wish she would have ducked about 2 more inches and I would have completely missed. She ducked and spun so fast the arrow went through her almost as if I had shot her from the ground. It is amazing to watch the shot on video. Sorry for the long, long post.

 

[Jeff Phillips]

DP - It's happened to me too!

I was TRYING to shoot a doe several years ago at 20 yards. I was on a steep ridge about 15 feet tall and she was walking the funnel between the ridge and a creek. The tree she was passing had my 20 yard tape on it. I aimed center just behind the shoulder. She ducked, the arrow stuck into the tree, and she broke it when she raised back up to run.

They are amazing critters!

 

[Jim Thompson]

Sounds like a tough loss. You say she continued to feed after being shot? How long?

Jim

 

[mpowell]

i had a deer duck my arrow a number of years ago. never touched her. she literally bellyed out under it! that old bear grizzly bow wasn't exactly the fastest in the world back in '89!

 

[DaddyPaul]

We watched her and the two other deer that were with her for about 30 minutes after the shot meander through some thick planted pines. The last place we could see her was about 350 or 400 yards from the spot where I shot her. They also picked up another deer somewhere along the way. We looked as best we could given the 1.5 feet of water between evey row of pines where she went. I figured a dog would be worthless with all the other deer. Lastly my arrow had what appeared to be "backstrap" meat and very little blood on it. I shoot white wraps and white vanes so it was pretty evident that it was a muscle hit. She dropped and rolled her body in such a way that on the video it appears the arrow went through her as if I had shot her from the ground, not from 30 feet up a pine. The blood we found was all dark red (no pink or frothy blood) and it quickly petered out to mere drops. I hope she is alright, I have been sick all night.

 

[Junebug]

DP,
I did that once. All I got was a patch of hair. There was some waxy fat on the arrow shaft but no blood at all. I figured it must have barely went under the hide. The doe (1 of 4) took 2 big jumps, stopped, and eventually FED away.

Junebug

 

[Trizey]

DaddyPaul- Last Friday night, the same thing happened to me except mine was a clean miss.

On the way in I noticed an area that is tore up with tracks and raining white oak acorns. I decided to set up about on the edge of the field and thicket. At 7:25 I see a deer cross the creekbed headed straight for me and then turn parallel with me and head towards my father. I sit back down and about 10 minutes later I look up and I see a nose poking out the edge of the thicket. I stand up, get turned, nock an arrow and wait. It's a 3 pointer and I wanted to let it walk, but I could already taste the tenderloins. He goes on alert to something in the field...I wait and as he puts his head down I draw. As soon as a see the relaxed tail twitch, I sqeeze the trigger. The deer jumps forward about 3 steps and kind of hides in some head high weeds. I'm thinking he's hit good and doesn't even know it. Then he walks right back over and starts feeding. With about 5 minutes of daylight left my father walks over to me while I'm still in my stand and finds my arrow. The only way I missed that deer was shooting over his back and I believe when he pushed off he ducked the arrow.

 

[cowboyron]

It would be my guess that she will survive the shot. I'm not going to get in to along story but my dog came home after being shot and when I seen the wound I thought for sure she would die. After looking at it good It was alittle high , who ever shot her was aiming for the goody basket. Had it been alittle lower she would not of made it back. She survived the nite and took her to the Vet. Vet said she was a lucky dog ....clean pass thru inbetween the spinalcord and the vitals.

 

[cowboyron]

That was strange though with the angle of your shot. I remember you saying in another post you hunt 30' up. :

 

[DaddyPaul]

Ron I fully agree with the angle theory. Until we watched the video frame by frame I couldn't help but feel I had to have taken out the top of the offside lung. In the video the deer not only drops but kinda rolls her spine away from me. The arrow appears to go through her backstrap at an angle like I had shot her from the ground! I don't have a clue how to even begin to post a video clip nor would my machine probably be capable of doing it, but it is pretty wild! I am fixin' to get serious about it, starting this afternoon. Nothing would make me feel better than to see her this PM or better yet shoot her this PM and show y'all a picture of her!

 

[gordylew]

I have also noticed on alot of deer I,ve shot from a high angle that the enterance hole and exit will be level. dont know why!

 

[BowFan]

I recall the video, "bowhunting October whitetails", I think, where they were filming the shot of a doe less than 20 yards away from a elevated blind. They froze the frame before the shot and drew a line under the bottom line of the doe's belly and then slow motioned the video as she dropped completely below the line on the screen at the sound of the shot and the perfectly shot arrow passed over her back cleanly missing.

Amazingly quick nerves.

Sounds like you didn't leave her to die, and you got an amazing video DP! If she went on to feed for another 30, it didn't sound like she was suffering either.

 

[cowboyron]

The only thing I can think of to why the arrow does not follow it's angle of trajectory. Would be upon impact on a large muscle such as the backstrap it tense's and contracts changeing the path of the arrow. : What'da ya'll think.....make any sense.