Anyone ever had this happen?

[PChunter]

I was hunting on Sheffield WMA (bow only) in Paulding co. and had a nice buck come in on me 10 yards from the stand. I couldn't draw b/c he was so close sso I had to wait. His head went behind a treee and I drew back, then he stop with just his neck clear of the tree and looked right at me. I took the neck shot, and though I had a good hit, but when i got out of the tree I found that I had just grazed the bottom of his neck. There was a blood trail that a blind man could follow for about 300yrds, then I stoped. Do you think that the buck lived or died?

 

[11P&YBOWHUNTER]

Hard to say...if he died it was probably from infection and would be a few days or weeks before it happened. I doubt it though. Deer are tough critters...look for one with a scar this year.

 

[GA DAWG]

I'd say he died. Saw one on a hunting video shot in the neck like that.He bled out and went a LONG WAY.They let it lay over night.

 

[letsgohuntin]

I've always figured with that much blood loss they probably die.

 

[bigun31768]

check this out my bother shot this deer several years ago.look at the neck he didn't shoot it there he shot it behind the shoulder.while coming out of the woods we saw some guys that hunted the land next to us one of them had shot it the week before.he was shooting a 30-30 and had trailed it on to our land and lost the trail.
bigun

 

[PWalls]

Shot one with a 30-30 in the neck one time. Grazed the jugular. Deer ran forever. BackTracked twice on its own trail. Didn't find it that night. Found it the next morning. Luckily it was in the low 30's so no problem.

I would not take that shot with a bow.

 

[gadeerwoman]

Low in the neck is a very iffy shot. Unless you hit the major blood vessel it is not going to be a lethal hit. But a neck shot in the middle of the neck with a high powered rifle will drop them in their tracks. If I have a good angle and am within 65 yards and have my old sears lever action 30-30 in my hand, I'll take the mid neck shot every time. I know that gun is dead one and it's never let me down yet with this shot. Now my other couple rifles, I won't chance it unless it is a close shot. I'll go for lungs with those rifles just cause I'm not as comfortable with them as I am my old reliable girl.
For a new hunter, I would never recommend a neck shot.

 

[Twenty five ought six]

Only deer I've lost in 40 years was a neck shot at point blank range (10 yds or less) on the ground with a 25-06. Deer turned 180 degrees and ran away. I guess I was more surprised than anything and didn't try for a second shot.

Anyway got an excellent look at the exit wound and it looked just like the wound in bigun's post. We tracked the deer about 3/4 mile. It would cough up a bit of blood, bone, and ground up acorn. I'm talkng a drop, then 30 yards, another drop.

We found a body in the spring that we assume was the deer about 200 yards from where we stopped looking.

I've read that such wounds are inevitably fatal, because the wound will eventually swell and suffocate the deer,