killzone area

[swamp_donkey819]

ok looking for a lil info, i know where the best spot to aim is on a deer is, been watching alot of hunting shows and they dont always hit in the vitals and still get the kill, what i was wondering is how far off can a shot be and still get a kill shot, is there a picture guide that shows where all the kill zones are or just pretty much vitals, cause ive had a solid lung shot and still never found the deer, but seen people shoot almost at the spine and the deer run then drop dead, any ideas or help or even just crazy non vital shots that still dropped a deer?

 

[Jackalope]

ok looking for a lil info, i know where the best spot to aim is on a deer is, been watching alot of hunting shows and they dont always hit in the vitals and still get the kill, what i was wondering is how far off can a shot be and still get a kill shot, is there a picture guide that shows where all the kill zones are or just pretty much vitals, cause ive had a solid lung shot and still never found the deer, but seen people shoot almost at the spine and the deer run then drop dead, any ideas or help or even just crazy non vital shots that still dropped a deer?

What you have to understand is.. They have the luxury of turning the camera off for the track job, and or editing out most of it. We don't know if it took them all night and most of the next day to find that deer, or if he only went 50 yards. ..

 

[swamp_donkey819]

very true, forgot about that, the lung shot i had i tracked her for 4 hours and close to a mile through the woods to the end of the blood trail, and there were sprays to where it looked like a masacre, thats why i was confused as to why i found so much blood and no deer with a good lung shot but watch others make way off shots and still get the deer.

 

[ohio mossy oak]

very true, forgot about that, the lung shot i had i tracked her for 4 hours and close to a mile through the woods to the end of the blood trail, and there were sprays to where it looked like a masacre, thats why i was confused as to why i found so much blood and no deer with a good lung shot but watch others make way off shots and still get the deer.

how long did you wait b4 tracking?

 

[hickslawns]

Take notice of the clothes they are wearing in interviews and after recovery. Many times it is the next morning. Another factor is these ranches they know inside and out. Tracked hundreds of deer on the same property. Many also hire out or own their own tracking dogs. Buddy in Texas was offered $30,000 for his dog. He gets a flat fee from the ranches he tracks at and often the hunter will give him a tip as well. Not uncommon to get $500-2000 tip from the hunter on top of what the ranch pays him. He turned down the offer on his dog by the way.

 

[Diablo54]

You might have only gotten one lung. Ive picked up a piece of lung in a bloodtrail only to see the blood peeter out 300 yards ahead. A spine shot will drop a deer but often times a second shot is needed. You could also see horrible Shots Where deer are recovered a hundred yards later. That would typically be from where a major artery had been hit. The most important part of tracking imo is the amount of time given to the animal before one starts tracking. There used to be a sticky, maybe it was on the dumbass site but it was very helpful especially for beginners.

 

[swamp_donkey819]

i shot her around 6 about 630 i went to track her and found nothing so my buddy came over about 8 and we was out till 1 in the morning on her blood trail till it ended and never found her i went back out the next day and tried to pick up where we gave up and still never found anything. yea i guess that would make sense when your on the property all year and have dogs lol hell all i had was a buddy and a flash light

 

[Diablo54]

i shot her around 6 about 630 i went to track her and found nothing so my buddy came over about 8 and we was out till 1 in the morning on her blood trail till it ended and never found her i went back out the next day and tried to pick up where we gave up and still never found anything. yea i guess that would make sense when your on the property all year and have dogs lol hell all i had was a buddy and a flash light

Were you running into bloody beds?

 

[swamp_donkey819]

i did make the mistake of tryin to sneak up the ridge a lil bit shortly after i shot her to see if i could tell which way she was running, my buddy said that might have spooked her and gave her that extra adrenaline boost to make it more farther then she would have.

 

[swamp_donkey819]

yea, like there would be decent drops then there would be like a pool of blood then drops for awhile then we found a dry creek bed that she crossed and it looked like someone gutted her then it went back to drops and a few more blood pools then my arrow and then just drops till we couldnt find any within a 40-50yrd radius of the last blood drop figured she lived through it if it stopped

 

[hickslawns]

drops till we couldnt find any within a 40-50yrd radius of the last blood drop figured she lived through it if it stopped

Was this a pretty thick area? If so, you might have walked right past her several times and never saw her. Sounds like you had some good blood pumping out of her. Amazing how you can walk right past them while looking for blood and miss a pile of fur in the thick stuff. lol

 

[CJD3]

Redcloud has posted some great pict's of the vitals in the past. Maybe he still has them.
I might add that its not just shot placement but the angle of the entrance and exit. Shots from a tree stand will penetrate somewhat differently (vitals) than from a ground blind.(dbl lung, heart/lung, liver, artery, gut...)
Even greater is the debate of an area across the upper back of a deer called "No Mans Land". (worthy of its own thread) Watching the deers first reactions as the arrow enters it will also give some clue as to the type of hit you just made. (this task can seem imposable as the adrenalin rushes into your system, the deer reacts to the shot and takes off... it can seem like a blur) but with dedication and time, it will start to come together. There are plenty of experienced deer hunters on this forum that will have something to add. I need to get some sleep but will check back later.

 

[RedCloud]

 

[RedCloud]

If you only catch a small portion of one lung, that deer will live. The debate about dead zone or as CJD3 calls it " No mans land " will go on forever but, I can tell you from my experience that it does exist. It is a small spot just above the arteries and veins that run along the back and the spine. A hunter has to hit this area just right to accomplish a pass through without hitting anything vital but it does happen no matter if it's a broadhead or a slug and the bigger the animal the bigger that zone gets. Make no mistake about it, deer are some pretty incredible creatures and can recover from some pretty devastating wounds.

 

[swamp_donkey819]

thanks for that picture redcloud, thats about what i needed. yes it was a pretty thick area where the blood stopped we combed it pretty good, but thats not to say that she could have been there dead and we didnt see her. the shot placement was at a quartering towards. she walked towards me at an angle, a slight angle at that. id say from that picture the arrow would have hit just above the heart, it wasnt a clean pass thru she had my arrow stuck in her for awhile.

 

[Schu72]

Like CJD3 was getting at, you have to realize this is a 3 dimentional critter not a paper target. The angle of entry has a lot to do with where to aim and if you hit the killzone or not. If the deer is hard quartering a way you would need to start back almost in the guts to get in the killzone. There are many artilcle out there about what angle to take and the ones not to and where you should aim to hit vitals.

 

[RedCloud]

The reason you may have lost blood could be the fact that a peice of fat blocked the entrance hole since it wasn't a passthru. With only one hole for blood to leak from it makes the tracking job harder IMO. How far after you found your arrow did the blood stop ? Almost bet the fat plugged the one and only hole. She may have filled up inside.

 

[swamp_donkey819]

id say prolly about 45 yrds or so after i found my arrow it stopped but it was a zig zaggin blood trail goin up a hill, my buddies uncle told me the same thing but said she might have layed in mud or something to pack the hole shut. the angle of the shot was real slight if shed been turned anymore it would have been a broadside shot, and she was only bout 25 yrds from me. i figured it would have smoked her but when she ran and i seen the fletchings sticking out of her i knew it wasnt a pass thru, im guessing i hit a rib on the other side and thats what stopped it maybe ?

 

[dante322]

the rule of thumb I tell my kids when I'm teaching them to shoot is to imagine the deer has a basketball in the middle of its ribcage. you want to hit the middle of the basketball no matter what angle you are shooting from. just dont miss the basketball altogether. aim small miss small.

 

[swamp_donkey819]

ive heard something like aim small hit small im guessing it has the same meaning, long as i dont have a shot like this one this year ill be happy, been practicing just about everyday