There has been a fair amount of discussion lately about shot placement and the subsequent tracking job. I've decided to share the details of my doe kill from last month, so we can all learn from my experience.
A little background: for those of you that know me, it will come as no surprise that I am extremely anal about how my equipment shoots. Milo turned me on to bow tuning, and from there on out, I have spent countless hours fine tuning my equipment in preparation for the upcoming season. This year was no different, and although I wasn't prepared as early as I would have like to have been, I had my bow shooting darts and grouping field points with broadheads. I felt confident out to 50y with broadheads, but that confidence typically shrinks to about 30y when I actually step foot into the woods.
I'm shooting a Hoyt Spyder Turbo at 28.5" and 66lbs, and it's sending a 348gr arrow tipped with a Slick Trick Magnum at 298fps with a KE of 68.6. I realize this isn't the heaviest setup in the world, but up until this point, I had no reason to consider shooting something different.
Now for the story...
The Perfect Shot That Wasn't
My season had started off like almost every other, I had plans of harvesting a doe to get the "monkey" of my back and brush the cobwebs off before the good hunting rolled around. I had been running a camera in a shot I call the Berry Patch an it had revealed that there were does in there feeding morning and evening. On October 25th, I made my way to the Berry Patch for an evening hunt. It was warm and I was late getting in the tree, but I had the perfect wind and was going to shoot a doe if one gave me an opportunity.
At 5:20, I had a fawn come in behind me and begin feeding in the edge of the woodline. This deer would hang out in bow range the rest of the evening. Shortly after, I had a single doe pop out on the far end of the field and begin feeding in my direction. As she closed the distance, a second doe with two fawns came out of the logging road to my west and joined the lone doe to graze in the field. As they continued to feed my way, I started picking my windows out for a shot. The doe with the two fawns was huge, but I elected to take the head doe, as she was alone. As she approached 20y, I hit record on the GoPro, came to full draw, settling my pin, and watching as a blue Nockturnal buried right in the very spot my pin was placed. She mule kicked and took off on a death run, circling back around in the direction she came. I lost sight of her, so I wasn't sure where she had piled up, but I was positive I had "smoked her."
I sat in my stand for another hour before deciding to climb down and take up the trail. At the point of impact, I found where she had kicked up dirt, but there was no blood. Sweeping the field and the general direction she ran off in, I still hadn't found any blood. It was beginning to get dark, so I headed back to the Jeep to drop off my bow and dress down a bit, and grab a better light. As I came down off the hill, I noticed what I thought was a 5 gallon bucket on the far hillside in the field across the road. I didn't think much of it, until I stumbled coming off the hill and nearly bit the dust as I stepped into the township road. When I looked back up, the 5 gallon bucket was gone: was that a deer?
I began to get that sick to your stomach feeling, but told myself that there was no way that could be my deer. After dropping my gear off and grabbing a light, I went back up to the spot she was standing when I shot and started looking for blood again. I looked for over a half hour and didn't find so much as a drop of blood, not even the arrow! As I headed back to the Jeep to call for reinforcements, discouraged, I decided to take a walk across the road to that spot where I saw the white object earlier. I was dark now, and as I approached the area where I had seen it, I found a bed and a couple spots of blood. It wasn't much blood, but what was there was very mucousy. As I stood there in disbelief, I heard a deer jump up and bound off 20y or so just over the crest from me in a thin strip of brush. I know the words WTF came out of my mouth as I turned around and headed back to the Jeep.
I was absolutely destroyed; how in the hell did this doe make it 300y without hardly bleeding, and why in the hell was she still alive almost two hours later. Replaying the shot through my head, I began to question my shot placement. The only option was to back out and give her more time, so I headed for the house. On the way there, I called the wife and my BIL and told them I needed help tracking a deer I had shot. I pulled in the drive and they were both ready to roll, but I wanted to give her more time. I remembered that I had recorded the shot, so I pulled the card and stuck it in the computer, hoping to find some evidence of what had went wrong. I must've watched the shot a hundred times, but didn't see anything that pointed to a bad shot.
Here's the video (if you click on the settings tab, you can play adjust the playback speed)
[video=youtube;Al9GB2KnMS4]https://youtu.be/Al9GB2KnMS4[/video][/QUOTE]
At 9:30, we decided to head back out and pick up the trail. I told my BIL on the way out that if we bumped her again, we were done for the night and I would head back out to look for her in the morning, as it was going to be a cold night. We made it back to the bed and I showed them the blood, and we took off in the direction she had headed. There was no blood to be found. About 30y in from the bed, I hear a deer jump up close to the same area I heard the deer run off earlier in the night. I told the wife and BIL I was positive that was her and it was time to back out. My BIL wasn't so sure and wanted to press on. Going off my gut, I told him we needed to back out. I was worried though, as the deer was headed towards the property line, and decided to circle around and come down the line, hoping if it was her, we would push her away from the line. The plan worked like a charm and we heard the deer jump up and go 30y back towards my parcel. As we backed out, I told my BIL I was positive that was her, and that she was hurting bad based on how she acted. It was killing me though that she had suffered for four hours already and wasn't dead.
Sleep didn't come easy that night, as I was up almost every hour checking on the time. The next morning, I gathered my gear and headed back to the place where we had bumped her last. There was a nice vantage point overlooking a hillside full of brush, and I had planned to glass from there before backtracking and hoping to find more blood. As I scanned the hillside, I caught a vertical line that stood out, and realized it was a deer. She was bedded up tight to a bunch of downed trees right at the edge of the field. I decided to circle around from the field and verify she was dead, and thankfully, she had expired.
I was anxious to take a look at her to figure out where in the hell everything went so terribly wrong. I pulled her out of the brush and was immediately dumbfounded. The entrance hole was spot on, center mass just behind the right behind the shoulder, but the exit was not what I had expected at all...
Entrance:
Exit:
How the hell did my exit hole come out higher than the entry hole? I mean, I was 20' up a tree when I shot, and I was obviously clear of the shoulder. The autopsy revealed the back ten inches of arrow helped keep the holes plugged up, as it was still wedged in place. After removing it and her vitals, I discovered that I had put a complete hole in the very top of the nearside lung, and a single slice in the offside lung. Upon further inspection, I also found that I had dead centered a rib on impact. At first, I still wasn't sure how this all happened. Reflecting back now, I believe as the boadhead shattered the rib, the bottom portion of the rib was forced inside the ribcage, springing up, and changing the course of direction. At least that's the best I can come up with.
So, what did I learn from this crazy night? First, nothing is absolute, things happen beyond our control. I'm not sure I could have put that arrow in a better spot. Second, when in doubt, back out. If I hadn't followed my gut and we continued pushed that deer, I firmly believe I never would have found her the next day. There was no blood to be found, other than in the first bed I found, not even in the second bed. I also question whether a heavier arrow would have done the same thing.
A little background: for those of you that know me, it will come as no surprise that I am extremely anal about how my equipment shoots. Milo turned me on to bow tuning, and from there on out, I have spent countless hours fine tuning my equipment in preparation for the upcoming season. This year was no different, and although I wasn't prepared as early as I would have like to have been, I had my bow shooting darts and grouping field points with broadheads. I felt confident out to 50y with broadheads, but that confidence typically shrinks to about 30y when I actually step foot into the woods.
I'm shooting a Hoyt Spyder Turbo at 28.5" and 66lbs, and it's sending a 348gr arrow tipped with a Slick Trick Magnum at 298fps with a KE of 68.6. I realize this isn't the heaviest setup in the world, but up until this point, I had no reason to consider shooting something different.
Now for the story...
The Perfect Shot That Wasn't
My season had started off like almost every other, I had plans of harvesting a doe to get the "monkey" of my back and brush the cobwebs off before the good hunting rolled around. I had been running a camera in a shot I call the Berry Patch an it had revealed that there were does in there feeding morning and evening. On October 25th, I made my way to the Berry Patch for an evening hunt. It was warm and I was late getting in the tree, but I had the perfect wind and was going to shoot a doe if one gave me an opportunity.
At 5:20, I had a fawn come in behind me and begin feeding in the edge of the woodline. This deer would hang out in bow range the rest of the evening. Shortly after, I had a single doe pop out on the far end of the field and begin feeding in my direction. As she closed the distance, a second doe with two fawns came out of the logging road to my west and joined the lone doe to graze in the field. As they continued to feed my way, I started picking my windows out for a shot. The doe with the two fawns was huge, but I elected to take the head doe, as she was alone. As she approached 20y, I hit record on the GoPro, came to full draw, settling my pin, and watching as a blue Nockturnal buried right in the very spot my pin was placed. She mule kicked and took off on a death run, circling back around in the direction she came. I lost sight of her, so I wasn't sure where she had piled up, but I was positive I had "smoked her."
I sat in my stand for another hour before deciding to climb down and take up the trail. At the point of impact, I found where she had kicked up dirt, but there was no blood. Sweeping the field and the general direction she ran off in, I still hadn't found any blood. It was beginning to get dark, so I headed back to the Jeep to drop off my bow and dress down a bit, and grab a better light. As I came down off the hill, I noticed what I thought was a 5 gallon bucket on the far hillside in the field across the road. I didn't think much of it, until I stumbled coming off the hill and nearly bit the dust as I stepped into the township road. When I looked back up, the 5 gallon bucket was gone: was that a deer?
I began to get that sick to your stomach feeling, but told myself that there was no way that could be my deer. After dropping my gear off and grabbing a light, I went back up to the spot she was standing when I shot and started looking for blood again. I looked for over a half hour and didn't find so much as a drop of blood, not even the arrow! As I headed back to the Jeep to call for reinforcements, discouraged, I decided to take a walk across the road to that spot where I saw the white object earlier. I was dark now, and as I approached the area where I had seen it, I found a bed and a couple spots of blood. It wasn't much blood, but what was there was very mucousy. As I stood there in disbelief, I heard a deer jump up and bound off 20y or so just over the crest from me in a thin strip of brush. I know the words WTF came out of my mouth as I turned around and headed back to the Jeep.
I was absolutely destroyed; how in the hell did this doe make it 300y without hardly bleeding, and why in the hell was she still alive almost two hours later. Replaying the shot through my head, I began to question my shot placement. The only option was to back out and give her more time, so I headed for the house. On the way there, I called the wife and my BIL and told them I needed help tracking a deer I had shot. I pulled in the drive and they were both ready to roll, but I wanted to give her more time. I remembered that I had recorded the shot, so I pulled the card and stuck it in the computer, hoping to find some evidence of what had went wrong. I must've watched the shot a hundred times, but didn't see anything that pointed to a bad shot.
Here's the video (if you click on the settings tab, you can play adjust the playback speed)
[video=youtube;Al9GB2KnMS4]https://youtu.be/Al9GB2KnMS4[/video][/QUOTE]
At 9:30, we decided to head back out and pick up the trail. I told my BIL on the way out that if we bumped her again, we were done for the night and I would head back out to look for her in the morning, as it was going to be a cold night. We made it back to the bed and I showed them the blood, and we took off in the direction she had headed. There was no blood to be found. About 30y in from the bed, I hear a deer jump up close to the same area I heard the deer run off earlier in the night. I told the wife and BIL I was positive that was her and it was time to back out. My BIL wasn't so sure and wanted to press on. Going off my gut, I told him we needed to back out. I was worried though, as the deer was headed towards the property line, and decided to circle around and come down the line, hoping if it was her, we would push her away from the line. The plan worked like a charm and we heard the deer jump up and go 30y back towards my parcel. As we backed out, I told my BIL I was positive that was her, and that she was hurting bad based on how she acted. It was killing me though that she had suffered for four hours already and wasn't dead.
Sleep didn't come easy that night, as I was up almost every hour checking on the time. The next morning, I gathered my gear and headed back to the place where we had bumped her last. There was a nice vantage point overlooking a hillside full of brush, and I had planned to glass from there before backtracking and hoping to find more blood. As I scanned the hillside, I caught a vertical line that stood out, and realized it was a deer. She was bedded up tight to a bunch of downed trees right at the edge of the field. I decided to circle around from the field and verify she was dead, and thankfully, she had expired.
I was anxious to take a look at her to figure out where in the hell everything went so terribly wrong. I pulled her out of the brush and was immediately dumbfounded. The entrance hole was spot on, center mass just behind the right behind the shoulder, but the exit was not what I had expected at all...
Entrance:
Exit:
How the hell did my exit hole come out higher than the entry hole? I mean, I was 20' up a tree when I shot, and I was obviously clear of the shoulder. The autopsy revealed the back ten inches of arrow helped keep the holes plugged up, as it was still wedged in place. After removing it and her vitals, I discovered that I had put a complete hole in the very top of the nearside lung, and a single slice in the offside lung. Upon further inspection, I also found that I had dead centered a rib on impact. At first, I still wasn't sure how this all happened. Reflecting back now, I believe as the boadhead shattered the rib, the bottom portion of the rib was forced inside the ribcage, springing up, and changing the course of direction. At least that's the best I can come up with.
So, what did I learn from this crazy night? First, nothing is absolute, things happen beyond our control. I'm not sure I could have put that arrow in a better spot. Second, when in doubt, back out. If I hadn't followed my gut and we continued pushed that deer, I firmly believe I never would have found her the next day. There was no blood to be found, other than in the first bed I found, not even in the second bed. I also question whether a heavier arrow would have done the same thing.
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