Brisket shot-DEAD or ALIVE??

[Pathfinder101]

"hunched up" usually means liver-shot...  good luck.

[woodswalker]

Get back out here and find that deer. 

IMHO that was a poor choice of a shot...quartering AWAY yes, quartering ON...NO 

That deer is likely within 200 yards of where you last saw it...and PROBABLY less than 50 yards.

Start by quartering the area and walking it down in 3 foot swaths.  A deer tucked into a bed in brush or tall grass can be invisible from 5 feet away.

Good luck.

You need to decide if you are going to notch your tag or keep hunting.

[Goldeneye]

How did your recovery search go today? 

[washelkhntr]

Yea, did you find that deer yet?  This Island is not that big.... KEEP LOOKING!

[Shootmoore]

Patton how did the search go?  I live over by Woolley and have Fri, Sat and Sunday off if you still need help looking for that deer.  While I am not a pro hunter, I am a mantracker and have been to several tracking schools.  If you can talk to the property owner, you can tell her I am L.E. and will not be hunting but just to help locate the deer.  Trail will be pretty cold by this weekend but I would be willing to give it a shot.  I always believe in either making sure the deer is dead or I missed.  It once took me 3 days and another arrow to keep that record alive.  Trail will probably be beat up pretty bad but PM me if you want the help.

Shootmoore

PS, this is not just a Bullshooter post, I would be glad to help, besides it gives me a reason to get out in the brush instead of splitting firewood.

[patton1]

I went back out at about 2pm yesterday after work, walked as much of the woods as I could around where we found last blood.  I was out there for about 2 hours (that is all I had before I had to pick my son up).  No dead deer!  On the way back through I jumped a buck and a doe from under my stand.  They just sort of snuck off real quiet and slow.  He looked liked the one I shot but I can't say for sure.  Most of the bucks that i have seen there are easy to tell apart.  I'm hoping it was him because it is a fairly small piece of property and the deer don't seem to travel very far away.  It might be wishful thinking but I'm hoping he is still alive.  There are also a lot of coyotes around and I thought maybe I'd find hair or some sign of them finding the deer before me, but nothing.  I'm going to try and give it another go this weekend. If I don't find anything then I am going to get back in my tree stand and see if maybe I can get another sighting of him.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed.  I know I made several mistakes with this guy, hopefully I can make up for it.

[woodswalker]

Keep after it...

You going to hunt afterwards? or call it and notch your tag?

[Houndhunter]

i dont get why some guys are saying no on the quatering to you if all of you that have said it was a bad choice to take the shot said it will be dead within 200yrds and probably way less , i know its not the best but if your close enough i now a guy that has put his time in shooting can put an arrow where it needs to be and will be plenty to get the job done . good luck on finding your deer patton1

[bow4elk]

i dont get why some guys are saying no on the quatering to you if all of you that have said it was a bad choice to take the shot said it will be dead within 200yrds and probably way less , i know its not the best but if your close enough i now a guy that has put his time in shooting can put an arrow where it needs to be and will be plenty to get the job done . good luck on finding your deer patton1

It's not that you can't kill or hit vitals with that shot but depending on the angle, it's lowers your odds for quick/humane kill and it raises the odds that you'll hit upper leg bones.  Liver and gut hits are 100% fatal.  Liver within 2 hours; gut can take up to 10 or possibly longer.  Most animals will not travel very far after an arrow enters their body cavity IF (very important IF) they are not bumped from their first bed.  Hence the 200 yards reference.  A gut shot deer will likely bed within 100 yards if suitable bedding cover is nearby and stay in that immediate area until expiring.  They may get up and rebed but it will be in a small core area, usually 10 sq. yards or so.  This isn't a rule, just a general pattern.

It's true that frontal shots and heavy quartering on shots can quickly kill game.  But they are not high percentage kill shots and should be avoided.  It's all about ethics.  You should simply wait for a broadside or quartering away shot angle to get the best margin of error on your shot placement and increase your odds of a quick/humane kill.  The reward is a very short blood trail Stevie Wonder could follow and/or watching your animal stumble and fall within sight.  So, why take low probability shots?  Hope to get lucky?  Uh, no.  I don't care how good you are on paper or targets.  Try as you might, you can't control all the variables in shooting at game animals.  So it's best to take high percentage shots out of respect for the animal and to reduce wounding loss.

[popeshawnpaul]

That shot is fine when it works.  When it doesn't you get flack about it.  Kind of like going for it on 4th down.  If you make it you are a hero and if you don't your dumb for trying it.  I've killed plenty of deer with a slight quartering toward me shot.  That wasn't the problem here so I wouldn't worry about the quartering issue.  It's just that you hit low and too far back that is the problem.  You have to hit them where you aim as silly as that sounds. 

That being said, I'm always amazed at what some deer survive in terms of archery wounds.  That clean slice can close up and be ok some times.  Good luck on finding him.

[squeeze2drop]

hey patton dont worry man, its not like youre TRYING to wound the animal and leave it, some of the people on here think they are god himself tellin people when to shoot and what to do, look longer than 6 hrs? its an animal for cryin out loud not BIN LADEN, and dont give me the speech of how its wrong, i already know, i missed a buck this year, and have wounded animals that i had to track down, and i luckily got to finish them off, people need to stop tellin others what a good shot is and isnt! whats a good shot to you might not be to others and vice versa, he asked for advice, not a bunch of idiots tryin to make him feel bad!! as far as notching your tag? thats all up to you patton, you owe it to yourself to do what you feel is best, and not worry about what anybody else thinks!

[NWBREW]

squeeze,  Patton did not ask for advise, he asked what do you think. You must not have read all of the posts on here. Many people have offered to help. I am sure patton is aware of the fact that if you ask peoples opinions you will get them.....good or bad. I don't believe that there are a bunch of idiots trying to make him feel bad. Just opinions. I have always said ....don't ask what I think if you don't want to hear it.

Patton, I'm glad you went back out to look and I hope that  the buck you saw yesterday was the same one you shot at.    Good Luck.................Brew

[squeeze2drop]

I agree, but again, there is no point in tryin to make somebody feel bad, or tell them to think about whether to notch their tag, its nobodys decision but his, he didn't ask if he should tag out or not

[patton1]

Thanks everybody for your advice and opinion. Squeeze, thanks for the back-up.  I knew I was going to catch some flack for my shot choice.  Like I said, I haven't got to hunt in last couple of years due to other commitments. I'll admit that I got a little buck fever and probably got a little over confident.  I almost didn't post all of this because I figured it might stir up the pot a little.  But I knew what to expect.  Everybody is entitled to their opinion whether I agree or not.  I like any advice and/or opinion because one way or another it helps me learn.  I don't agree with a lot of things that other hunters do but anyway you look at it, we are a dieing breed.  I probably shouldn't post this!!!!!  But I will continue to hunt because I paid $45 for a tag that in my opinion shouldn't cost half that, if anything at all.  In MI you can get 2 tags for about $30 and you can Hunt archery, then rifle, then muzzleloader, then back to archery.  I chose the archery here because of the amount of time and I'm on an firearm restricted island(ie rifle).  I dropped the ball and I know it, I've learned a thing or 2, I feel horrible for the way it went down, but I will fill my tag and put meat in the freezer.   

[fly4fish]

Keep looking I guess.  Please do not be misleading.  This is part of hunting, not just bow hunting.  My uncle shot a whitetail last weekend low in the briscket with a 270 short mag.  It left a lot of blood for a while, then none.  My brother went back the next day to look for it and saw a buck he thought he wanted to shoot so he did.  Ended up being the briscket shot buck running like it had not been shot at all.  Loosing deer happens all the time regardless of what weapon is used.