Full Disclosure - Bad Shots - Lost Deer

[nchunterkw]

Last year I posted a bunch of data (over 500) showing how far deer travel after being shot. All of those deer were found. I think we could all benefit greatly by discussing those times when we shot and hit a deer but did not find it. So many variables surround these situations and so many questions but maybe we can glean a thing or 2 from each other if we're honest and non-combative. Maybe a BH really is a piece of junk even though you like it, maybe just the opposite. Here's the parameters:

Bow used
BH Used (type/wt)
Arrow used (shaft/components/total wt)
Shot distance
Where was the deer hit (best honest assessment)
What was the blood trail like?
Description of the encounter

[vixenmaster]

MXB320 Spitfire 85gr 1 1/4" arrow GTII total wt. 378gr,2"Blazers helical. Doe 20+ yds double lung , pass-through. Recovered with-in 60 yds.
405 Matrix 2" swhacker 100gr, arrow BEE 385gr wt. 2" Blazers helical. Buck shot 20+ yds double lung pass-through. Recovered 130 yds est.
MXB320 Spitfire 85gr 1 1/4" arrow GTII total wt. 378gr, 2" Blazers helical. 26 yds shot pass-through, took out left lung. Shot 2nd time 15yds Toxic sheared 2 blades. Took out right lung, recovery about 300 yds.
355 Matrix Hammerhead 100gr 2" arrow BEE 385gr wt.2" Blazers helical. Doe 47 yd shot pass-through, liver n right lung. Recovery est. 120 yds

[Waif]

Been a long time ago.

Here goes.
Root recurve bow, around 37 lb. draw weight.
Easton 29 inch 2117 if recalled correctly.Game getter seems likely as one sheared that year inspiring xx75's to follow.
Bear razorhead. probably the 125 grain.
Shot distance about ten yards; seated on ground.
Shot was between shoulder and brisket from frontal position.
Bent broadhead and deflected off brisket. No penetration much beyond broadhead depth.
Deer rocked on to two legs then bolted carrying the bleeders that sheared off.
Arrow fell at the young bucks take off. A couple dime sized spots of blood ,a couple tiny drops then none.

Still a shot I don't want. Even had a close range rifle shot doe stolen that went about 250 yards . She died without being shot a second time but shoulder was separated/broken at impact and might have been bone fragments damage to a lung that killed her.

[Drew]

Last year was my first year hunting with a crossbow. I was using a M355 with 20" Zombies and 125gr Slick Trick Mags. Took a shot on a broadside doe at 23yds but used my 30yd chevron. Hit high, above lungs just below spine. Doe ran 60yds and was down, I was thinking woo hoo first doe. She got up ran another 100yds and down again. Got up a third time but by then it was too dark to see.
Collected my brother-in-law and we began the tracking. 5hrs later on hands and knees the whole time, blood drop by distant blood drop we still were no closer to her. She had gotten onto land we were adamantly told to stay off. I even called a deer tracker with dogs. It was the tracker that told me he had been called out many times for deer hit high above the lungs that just cannot be recovered and end up surviving. Sadly not being able to pursue any further due to the tree huggers not allowing us on their land and hearing a pack of coyotes yipping like mad closed the deal.
Hearbreaking. I was bummed for wks after that incident. Stupid mistake to make. Now I make sure to have some kind of landmarks and memorize the yardage to them. I also run through a mental check list prior to the shot that I practice even when just target shooting to ingrain it. It allows me to pull out of the moment for a second or two before the shot to ensure what I am seeing is really what I think I am seeing (buck/doe/yardage/background/intervening twigs/arrow path). Seemed to work for me this year. Both deer in the freezer think so too.

[nchunterkw]

Did you push her or did she get up on her own? Treestand or ground?

[galamb]

Will start with "I'm almost certain I hit her, but having doubts as time goes on".

A few seasons back (maybe 7 or so) the doe caught me by surprise, I had pretty much given up for the morning (somewhat after 9am) - had poured a coffee and lit a smoke and hung my bow up on the hook above my head.

Both hands were occupied and didn't have the bow, was in a 12' ladder stand.

Doe walked in right in front of me at 8 yards and simply stood still, perfect broadside shot.

Clenched the smoke between my teeth, was holding the coffee between my knees and slowly retrieved the bow and lowered it onto the shooting rail.

Bow - Horton Legacy 175 with Horton's 3 dot red dot scope

Bolt - 20" Horton Bone Collector (carbon) tipped with early model G5 Tekan (smaller chisel tip), 100 grains

(think) high lung hit - could clearly see the point of the shoulder through the "tube", placed the top dot (I think) at what I thought was the mid-line between the shoulder and the belly line and pulled the trigger.

(the bow shot accurate target before and after the shot)

heard "a hit" - sounded like a 2x4 striking a rug hanging on a clothesline (dating myself with that analogy)

No blood, no arrow recovered (and looked for over 2 hours just for the arrow) - even strung sting from the stand on "possible" trajectories to where the deer was standing - followed the tracks of the dear which were visible clearly for 300 or 400 yards (slightly mucky wet ground) and then just "nothing".

Two of us searched over a two day period, with zero signs of anything.

My mind plays tricks rethinking it - starting to wonder if I used the "wrong dot" and put a 35 yard dot (my dots were 15/25/35) on an 8 yard deer and the "whack" I thought was a hit was maybe the arrow, which had sailed high above her, burying itself so deep into the soft/mucky ground that I couldn't find it - so a clean miss.

The not knowing bothers me almost as much as the thought of a deer that later fed the coyote's. So really hope it was a "bad shot" that missed, but still think that I must have hit her???

[tomasw1]

This year I saw a doe at 30 yards perfect broadside. Made the shot, seemed good but a little low. Gave it an hour and checked the arrow. 18" BEE with a 125gr Spitfire Maxx out of an M380. Arrow had some fur and looked like some smeared fat. Small smear of blood on one of the Blazers. No blood on the ground. Looked for over an hour and finally found first blood over 100 yards away. First hundred yards of tracking seemed good. Not a lot of blood, but consistent. Around 150 yard mark drop size started to dwindle and become much further a part then nothing. I track blood trails with a GPS and later found that I had searched about 900 yards before giving up. She was the 2nd deer I've ever shot, I'm still pretty upset.

[racking up points]

I've had my share. I'll tell about a disappointment I experienced this year.

Treestand, 42y shot, 18" zombie, 390gr, muzzy 3-blade, M380, early season

A stud 8-pt appeared out of nowhere in my shooting lane. I had time to range him and verified that my shooting lane was clear of branches and it certainly was. I have always ascribed to the "take your shot when the first good opportunity presents itself" philosophy. He was relaxed, wind was in my favour, he was broadside so I let it fly. I got that good hollow thud you get from shots in the boiler room. I remember losing sight of the arrow in my scope but my lumenock appeared to enter the deer where it counts.

But it couldn't have. I had great blood for the first 75 yards, then 100 yards of specs, then nothing. A friend and I scoured the woods and he was nowhere to be found. We never jumped him because he never bedded down.

Upon Inspection, the arrow passed through but oddly, it lay on the ground exactly where that deer was standing with the BH pointed at the tree I had shot from. I remember thinking, "That's odd."

He never showed on trail cams again and we didn't find his skeleton during the season. He certainly did die but I could not retrieve him . . . Makes me sick to think about it.

But I learned from this. I really should've been more patient. He could have came in closer for a chip shot and if not, I'd have had another crack at him as the season played on. I learned that at that distance, 42y, a lot of bad can happen, even with a fast bow. I don't think I'll extend my range on whitetails past 35y anymore. I'm also switching the FOC, a wide cut expandable, to hopefully help on marginal hits.

[nchunterkw]

I've done many of the same things others are posting.
Vortex, CE Maxima Hunter, 150gr Slick Trick

I was on the ground in a ghille suit in a beech blow down with leaves still on it. I was totally invisible. A doe pops out of the thicket and runs straight in to what I think is 10 yards. Then it turns broadside and look back to check it's backtrail. Perfect! I raise the bow and decide I need to shoot it in the heart (from listening to others talk about better blood trails with a heart shot). So I do. Seems like a good hit. As it runs I can see blood right behind the leg, or actually where they leg would be if it's standing straight. Must have had that leg a little forward. It runs about 30-40 yds then stops. I am waiting for it to fall over - then it just trots off. I wait and start looking. The arrow is long gone, but there is a lot of white hair and some blood. Then a decent blood trail for about 100 yds. She took off into a property that was previously logged - everything 6" and up with all the limbs and treetops left behind. Me and two buddies tracked her completely through that property and then across a cut bean field. One 1/4" drop every 3 feet or so. Then I lost it in the fence row. In the bean field the trail meandered all over the place like it was just milling around eating. Total tracking distance was around 600 yards. When I looked for the arrow and found the exact spot she was in when I shot, turns out she was 15yds not 10, so I hit low. I aimed low and hit lower. Prior to this I always aimed for midline of the body, tight behind the leg. Should center punch the lungs and give some margin. But I got cute because I thought my bow was so accurate yada, yada, yada. Since then I always try to aim for the center of the lungs. Had I done that, my yardage estimate error would have made no difference.

[Canuck Archer]

I shot an 8 point buck this year in the late season. Looked like a good shot about 4 inches behind the elbow and mid body.
I used a razor trick BH and gave the deer some time before I started to track.
There was minimum blood as I shot it from a ground blind and so both holes were level.
I wound up getting liver and nothing else.
If there would not have been snow on the ground, I'm convinced I would have never found the buck.
The combination of shooting him off the ground plus a poorly placed shot would have resulted in a lost deer.
He went over half a mile with no stopping. I found him in the one and only bed he made.
Bucks are tough critters.
Not faulting the broad head by any means but I am going to try a larger cut head.
I normally hunt from tree stands in the early part of the season and having that lower exit hole helps a lot in recovering marginal shots.

[nchunterkw]

Canuck - I wonder if a treestand would have mattered. I hunt a lot on the ground and generally have good blood usually right from the start. I did shoot one this year though quartering to and the exit was behind the diaphragm (no stomach though). Intestines plugged the hole so the blood was sparse until about 30 yds, then OK. My thought is that since deer have blood pressure they will make a trail no matter what. But I'll give you that a bigger cut head might have stopped him sooner since it was a liver only hit. I had a similar hit on a buck many years ago with a Rage 2 blade from the ground. Got the red carpet treatment but he still went about 100yds.

This is a great example of why I started this thread. 1" or 2" closer to the leg and you don't even post here because you blast both lungs and he goes ~50yds. Good post.

[vixenmaster]

I have had several deer in the past that ran a long ways after bin shot well. I had 8 pt about 18/19 yds, shot him with Spitfire 100gr both lungs n pass-thru. Booger ran an est. 180 yds from shot. Shot a 4 pt that went 130/140 yds Spitfire 100 gr both lungs pass-through. Shot a 5 pt 6 yds from me Spitfire 100gr pass-thru went est. 90-100 yds. They were all dead. Things happen & jus no way to explain it other than the Will to live!

[Drew]

=> nchunterkw, I was in a tree stand when I shot that doe. I stayed in the treestand and watched both times she fell down and got up. The second time two other does came over to her and hung around until she got up again and trotted off. We found where she had bedded down in the rushes next to a small pond so we may have pushed her from that spot but that was a good 4hrs later. I had no choice as waiting wasn't an option. The area we hunt is thick with yotes.

On a side note, the buck I got this year was a pure heart shot at 35yds. The shot was from a tree stand. I hit lower than intended due to a 6' drop in elevation I didn't take into account. The deer walked past my bait pile and was moving toward the same pond mentioned above. The ground drops rapidly here over the course of 20 lateral yards relative to my stand. The additional elevation change dramatically changed the angle of the shot so instead of top of heart bottom lungs I got all heart. It literally went in between left front leg and sternum and came out 8" behind right front leg just over sternum. Damn lucky. That deer still ran 150yds full out too.

So in my mind "arrow path" is even more important to consider just prior to the shot. Not just where to hit on the entry side but where the exit needs to be to cause the most damage.

[nchunterkw]

I have had several deer in the past that ran a long ways after bin shot well. I had 8 pt about 18/19 yds, shot him with Spitfire 100gr both lungs n pass-thru. Booger ran an est. 180 yds from shot. Shot a 4 pt that went 130/140 yds Spitfire 100 gr both lungs pass-through. Shot a 5 pt 6 yds from me Spitfire 100gr pass-thru went est. 90-100 yds. They were all dead. Things happen & jus no way to explain it other than the Will to live!

Mike - I know it. That's why I started this thread. So just thinkin' on this a bit. How sharp are the Spits? I know I have had a lot of sharp BHs in the past and then I got some Slick Tricks. WAAAAYYY sharper than anything I've ever bought out of the package. Maybe that has something to do with it. You know how when you cut yourself with something really sharp how you barely feel it and it like never stops bleeding, versus cutting yourself with something rough? Dead is dead and 100yds is not all that far to blood trail, but could it be that STOOPID sharp blades help put them down faster? There are a lot of other variables to consider as well, I know. Just thinkin out loud.

[vixenmaster]

We have been talkin about this fer some yrs now. The Spits were sharp, but they are Mech. & i was shootin Vixen's-lower poundage! Now evey deer i shot with a crossbow this yr was a faster model & most BH's were Mech. cept the one. So what do we really knowed about BH's killin deer ? No the deer fer the most part are easy enuff to shoot thru. Some jus want to live when shot, they have Heart/Drive that desire! I believe the bigger the cut jus takes the wind out of their sails! Once i get these test BH's nmy older Spitfires used up. I will be usin 2" or bigger cuttin BH's