What did I hit?

[warmer]

In my whitetail stand this morning for the first time this season. Rattled in a buck. Had him at 22 yds. My shot was high, not a pass thru, I could see the fletchings as he ran away. Looked to be right under the spine, but I am shooting from 25' in the air and hoped to get the offside lung.
We had blood, bright red with bubbles, after about 75 yards of tracking. Found the arrow 200 yards from shot.

This is where I get confused. The broadhead and first 10" of arrow have no blood. But the rest of the arrow and the fletchings are completely covered in bright red blood with small bubbles. We tracked for 2 hours and had excellent blood from 200yards till about 500 yards and then the blood slowly disappeared. We lost blood about a mile from the shot.


Did the broadhead nick a lung or did I hit something else? Headed back out to start over from the beginning with fresh eyes.

 

[8andcounting]

U clipped top of lungs ... no blood on first part cuz it went down and then after ten inches or so hit lung . My guess at that high is that u hit only one lung - I think that deer could live . How long did u wait before looking for him?

 

[homers]

How long did you wait before tracking him? With that much blood and adequate time to let him bed down and bleed out, seems like you could find him. I don't know since I wasn't there but that's my thoughts on it.

 

[8andcounting]

How long did you wait before tracking him? With that much blood and adequate time to let him bed down and bleed out, seems like you could find him. I don't know since I wasn't there but that's my thoughts on it.

Agreed . I'm guessing u didn't wait long enough and bumped this deer which I why I think your screwed . Hey I've done it too ! But seems once u bump them you can kiss them bye bye

 

[dcopas78]

I'd guess high lung as well, as in just a clipping shot.. I had a real similar hit on a heavy 8 pts with lots of stickers and junk a few years back. Waited 2 hours to track. Start tracking, with lots of blood. Got about 150 yards in to tracking and glassed him up laying about 50 yards away. Started to approach him and saw his rear foot move. I froze and waited. After about another 2 hours, he got up, wobbled a bit and walked off like nothing happened into private property I didn't have permission to access. Made me sick. I figured he'd go in there and die. I saw him about 3 weeks later perfectly health. They are amazingly resilient animals. My guess is he will survive if he doesn't get some other side effect from the injury.

 

[3855WIN]

At best, one lung. Maybe no lung at all. Hope you find him, but sounds like he got away.

 

[warmer]

Thanks for the help everyone. I gave him 2 hours before we started. Went back with 2 more guys and started at the beginning. We were able to pick up blood for about 200 more yards and found a spot that he laid down. We found couple small spots of blood when he started moving again and then lost him. Just like a fart in the wind. Nothing. I hope he survives, but I don't see it with all the blood he lost.

 

[8andcounting]

Thanks for the help everyone. I gave him 2 hours before we started. Went back with 2 more guys and started at the beginning. We were able to pick up blood for about 200 more yards and found a spot that he laid down. We found couple small spots of blood when he started moving again and then lost him. Just like a fart in the wind. Nothing. I hope he survives, but I don't see it with all the blood he lost.

You'd be surprised ...... they can lose a lot . If u didn't get both lungs which I don't think you did I think he will heal. I've made the exact same shot before and I shot him 2 months later during gun season healthy as a horse

 

[beagle001]

Tough critters. Do everything right and it still doesn’t work out. Actually part of the reason I lowered my setups a few feet (I’m also gaining a fear of heights)
If you didn’t puncture the diaphragm, and did only get one lung, he’ll probably make it. Not sure if that is easier to swallow or not- I’ve been there and it SUUUUUCKS

 

[Exhausted]

There was an episode of Randy hunting mule deer with archery equipment. He hit a deer with what looked like a decent shot. The deer laid down at times, slowly wandered away at times, and even did the death wobble where they start to lose their balance and fall over, but didn't fall. Randy chased that deer for something like three days and by the end of the second day (the day after it got shot), it was basically acting completely fine. It was one of the craziest episodes I've ever seen. He was shooting from the ground and I can't believe that deer lived.

 

[BRoth82]

I had the same thing happen to me on Saturday, bow hunting with my kids in a ground blind. My shot was high and could see the arrow sticking out as he ran off with his tail down. I gave him over an hour before starting, I never found very good blood just brush marks on the blades of grass. We found half of my arrow about 60 yards after the shot, never did find the other half with the broadhead. He went on a straight line walking for .4 miles (OnX tracking) never laid down once then he turned 90 degs, and went .38 miles before we lost the very little blood we did have. In total we tracked him .78 miles and maybe had a cup of blood the entire time, never did find him and I'm convinced that he's fine since he never bedded and didn't loose very much blood. It sucks to loose one, but brush it off he could still be alive they are crazy tough buggers.

 

[OhHeyThereBen]

I've seen deer survive with complete pass throughs in that area. They are tough. I wish you the best of luck with finding him. There's nothing that makes me more sick feeling than an animal I'm responsible for injuring.

 

[NYSKIER]

Good luck finding him and if you don't hopefully he's still alive. I shot a giant about 4 years go which fell 3 times in front of me and the ran off pouring blood which I never found. Blood eventually peetered out and I was hunting in Jersey near a lot of houses so I was unable to even grid search after I couldn't find blood. It's always tough to lose an animal but hopefully you get another chance