Cousin wounded a buck that was coming every couple days to my feeder. Last time he was seen was 7 days ago which was two days after being shot. Crossbow with a 125gn magnus stinger at 20 yards. Noone has seen him in person to gauge how he's moving.

Top set of arrows are entrance wound and bottom set are what we think is the exit. Basically looks like it entered behind the shoulder and exited just in front of the same shoulder.


Good chance of still being alive or good chance he died from the wound or coyotes?
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They are pretty tough.

No doubt on that. It's just going from appearing fairly often on camera to nothing in the last 7 days is a bit concerning. Noone around us hunts during archery season so unlikely to have been shot by someone else.

My B.I.L. shot a 153" 8 point that was running a hot doe all over a corn field.  Moved just fine etc.  He dropped it off at our processor that night and got a call from her 2 days later to say she couldn't process the deer.  It was absolutely FULL of infection from what looked like a .223 wound.  He's a Dr. and could not believe that deer was alive, much less able to chase to breed.

That buck is still alive, albeit very sore.  Probably laying low to heal up for a few days.

Most likely alive...unless infection sets in. Deer can definitely survive with one lung. I hit a 160" 3 years ago, one lung that came out breast area, a neighbor shot him the next year and he was getting around fine. Probably alive unless he was in rough shape and ran into a bunch of 'yotes. Not much going on there unless you hit an artery, probably had bright blood, but not a ton of it due to it basically going through muscle.

Definitely should have Texas bullseye'd him at that extreme angle.

He swears it was only slightly quartering away but yeah, the shot path says different.

Yup... I'd have gone more centered, a bit back. Basically just the near side of the spine. Should catch at least one lung and maybe heart. Off to the left a bit and it should at least be belly-crawling from a broken spine.

Deer is either going to be fine, or die of infection. That's a pretty nasty wound. Hope it fights the infection instead of having the slow painful death.

Good chance he’ll make it.

@Berger24

what is 'Texas Bullseye'?  THX

Right up the butthole.

@Dueskid, @Texaspyro is correct, butthole bullseye. It's like a frontal shot on an elk, should kill em pretty quick.

Poor blood trail, splatters gut juice over everything, no room for error.  10/10 would not take the shot.

Yup. No way I'm going to deal with gut shot on purpose.

I'd much sooner put one in the back of the head/neck.

I'd much sooner let one walk than gut shoot one on purpose.

I learned my lesson on gut shot with a 12ga slug  heavily quartering to. 3" shell at about 20 yards. It ran about 10 yards and fell clean over.

In front/near shoulder, bounced off the rear/far ham. Jellied everything north of the diaphragm.

Wasn't prepared for a gut shot, but was pretty close to the house. Threw deer into a wheelbarrow and dealt with it at the house. By the time I got home, it had guts coming out the front quarter. I just completely trashed that quarter.

Never again.

I'll take the shot again, but it's going into the neck at that distance. Might not kill it instantly, but it's not going very far when the head is attached by just skin.

I hope to never be hungry enough that I ever consider shooting a deer from an angle where it can possibly gut shot.

Cant tell if serious or not ?
Have you ever Elk hunted ? Frontal shot is stupid

Well he didn't survive. Cousin found him today while squirrel hunting. Been dead at least several weeks as the skull was picked clean of meat and skin.

Ended up being a 13 point with 4 brow tines. 3 on one side.

Odds are pretty good..

more than a decade ago I made a somewhat similar shot.  Due to the ground blind and the hillside, the deer was actually above me, quartering away.  I launched a 125 grain muzzy broad head at him, found no blood, never saw the shaft again...

Two years later, hunting within sight of the original location, I hammered a decent mature buck.  On going to retrieve the meat from the processor, I see a whole ribcage on top of my boxes of meat.  Processor is all "look at this".

The original archery hit was on target.  Instead of punching through the ribs, I suspect my read on the angle was wrong, and the deer was quartering away a bit more than expected.  Perhaps it turned some.  the broad head tracked OVER the ribs, under the skin and left a very visible old scar track.  It continued up and slammed into the vertebrae, burying itself in the 'tab' at the top of one vertebra, where it was now fused in place.  Damned deer carried that broad head in his spine for two years...