Bad day...

[olypen archer]

Well today sucked. I have been trying to get my 15 year old neighbor on his first archery deer. I set him up this morning in the same blind I killed my deer out of this year. He called me an hour later to say he had arrowed a nice doe. Needless to say I was extremely stoked for him. We gave her about an hour and started tracking. The first sign of trouble was when we found the arrow about 10 yards from where he shot her. The broadhead had some hair and one blade was a little scuffed. The shaft had no blood or fat on it. He thought it was a pass through as he saw the arrow still flying after he hit her. I found a small drop of blood about 25 yards away. Then the torrential rain started. We looked for the next six hours with no more sign found. We did jump up a doe that might have been the one he shot. It appeared to be fine. The only thing I can figure is that he shot high shoulder and the arrow nicked her across the backstrap. We went back and paced off the shot at 23 yards. He put his 30 yard pin on her. I'm sick about it. We did all we could today and will go look again tomorrow after work. Not how I invisioned teaching someone to hunt. We had a long talk about ethics and not giving up today.

[norsepeak]

It sux, but it is also a very good lesson.  That is part of hunting, he can learn from this and understand that sometimes it happens and all you can do give it 100% effort to recover that animal.

[wildweeds]

Dogs are a beautiful thing.Whether its lawful or not in the case of wounded game that leads to waste I'll take the ticket for using one every danged day of the week.

[724wd]

sounds like a scrape across the back to me... she'll be fine!

[7mmfan]

Yep, based on what you've described, it doesn't sound like anything vital was hit, or even close to. She'll have a nice little scab on her back. She's already back to business as usual most likely.

[olypen archer]

The kid headed back out right after school today. He saw his doe in almost the same spot he shot from yesterday. He said he was positive it was her. She winded him and trotted off like she was fine but definately educated. Best case ending to yesterdays adventure.