stand is about 20 feet

range was 11 yards.

I hit him high behind the shoulder broad side shot.

FOB and lighted nock popped off  and up and went to the other side of his back.

he ran 30 yards, stopped and tried to lick his exit side wound. he walked around for 10 minutes came back in to 20 yards I drew but he turned away. he kept stopping to turn his head around to his wound on his exit side. At 20 yards I did not see any blood on entrance side

he walked beind some brush at 50 yards. I did not hear him walk away or fall.

Dont know if I grazed his back or hit him low enough to get an exit lung

sucks. first bad shot I have placed

still in the stand waiting. shot was about 0730 eastern

I have it on video so I should be able to see where it hit if I dont find him

I figure I will get down at 11 look to see if any blood on the arrow and go looking for him

Probably above the lungs and below the spine. Usually not fatal. It happens.
 
I'm sitting on the ground below my stand. It's full of yellow jackets and I just got stung at daylight. Ugh.

arrow made a very loud smack noise which makes me think it went through some ribs

No blood on the arrow, just 3 hairs stuck in the broadhead and a one inch long streak of flesh on one side of the arrow, the whole thing about the size of a pin.

a bunch of hair on the ground where the shot hit, a fair amount of blood on the ground where he was wandering around for 15 minutes before he walked away. The blood was only in that one spot about 8-10 places had blood, some a fair amount like this,








others just a drop like this.








. There was nothing to follow.

I went in every direction into the salt marsh for 80-100 yards looking for more blood and found nothing.

I don't even know what direction to go in.

Here is the hair. Seems like a lot of hair.






and about 3 more bunches of smaller size

You need a tracking dog. Lot of states like Mississippi and Louisiana have Facebook pages with volunteers who will bring a tracking dog to help if you ask. Not sure where you are.

Damn, that sucks.  I'd say you hit him good enough to make him bleed out.  If you stayed in your stand silently for an hour or more, he's probably around there somewhere.  I'd spend the rest of the day searching.  Sometimes when you're just about to give up.....you find a blood drop.

no blood on the arrow at all, so I think I just grazed his back. I watched him walk around sniffing the ground for 15 min.

I stayed in the stand for 2.5 hours after I watched him walk away, just in case.

He stopped bleeding. He wasn't running he was walking, so he should have bled more in 80-100 yards of walking into the marsh after walking around for a full 15 minutes before he left.

But I found nothing

MA. DOn't know if that is legal or not, never heard of anybody doing that around here, but I really don't think it was a fatal wound, just a cut across his back

Everything points to a cut across his back, non-fatal would.

I feel like shit, but I don't think I killed him. If I thought it was a good hit, I would still be looking for him.

Sounds like you did all you could...this is all part of the experience.

Lighted nock battery that hold in the FOB was bent, which is consistent with the arrow passing over his back, cutting up to 3/16 of an inch cut for a few inched ( slick tricks ) and only the bottom of the FOB hitting his back, electing the FOB and nock and bending the nock shaft as it came out. With that and no blood on the arrow, I am fairly certain I almost just missed him.

I should have practiced from a stand. First year I have hunted from a stand in 6 years. Have been hunting on the ground, but didn't plan on hunting from a stand, but did because this spot was hot with sign and the ghost blind was not good for it. I saw 5 deer here the day before.

Here is an update.

A hunting buddy has a camera about 100 yards from the stand I took the shot from.

He captured a bunch of pics of the small buck I shot at and grazed with the arrow. I didn't realize this was this much of a  a small buck.

You can see the scare on the left side behind his shoulder.








So he definitely lived, which is why I could not find him.

Awesome!

Not finding an animal after the shot makes you sick... but something like this lifts a huge weight off your shoulders.

I realize this is incredibly old, but its not like the archery section is hopping in here...but why do some guys shoot these deer?  Probably a 1.5 year old spike.  Maybe this is private land where the guy has a ton of deer or what not.  But I only hunt public land and it's infuriating to see tiny young bucks killed because "if it's brown it's down!"

Hopefully I'm just being overly critical, but I'm bored and waiting for archery season

Let people shoot whatever makes them happy. Not anyone's place to criticize, unless it is done illegally

We try to shoot QDM deer on our property, even though we understand we're too small to really impact the overall population in our area.
That being said, that spike is fair game for the following people who hunt with us:
- first time hunters
- archery hunters
- out of state hunters or those over 65 if they want
- me with a handgun

Its a trophy for those folks (and me if I can get close enough with a handgun) and I don't judge anyone who would take it. Instead I say "Great job for being in the woods!"

And maybe I'm just overly critical because I have fair hunting around here where people can pass on small bucks and not lose sleep over it.  To be fair, might have been the only deer he saw

I just always have a bad taste in my mouth from what I typically see around here

I dont shoot trophies, I shoot meat.

I also hunt exclusively with a bow, mostly on the ground without a traditional blind, in a salt marsh / woodland boundary that has no choke points on public land. I mostly pattern the other hunters.

Max shot due to dense foliage and briar is about 20 yards if I cut lanes.

I pass on does unless they are by themselves, and button bucks, But I see nothing wrong with eating a small buck in his second season. This is not corn country, this is woods hunting. There are no farms. I usually have only one shot opportunity per season. I see lots of deer. Having a clean shot inside 20 yards with a bow is likely a once a season opportunity. I dont use cameras or bait or licks or anything except some doe urine. It is challenging. especially from the ground, although this shot from from a strap on stand I put up because they kept coming in behind me.

I always teach any dog I own how to trail deer. They have found a bunch for me over the years. Comes in handy when there’s not much blood.

@Mach,

That makes a lot more sense, one opportunity per season would make it awfully tough.  As I said earlier, I was hoping that was the case.  around here "hunters" will just kill the first thing they see, a lot of them, and then piss and moan about no big deer and decreased numbers.

Wow I just saw this from 3 years ago.

Yeah I have yet to take a second shot during any season. Some seasons I have no clean shots. I only take shots that I have a high confidence of a clean quick kill in the kill zone. Years ago I let a 12 point monster buck walk at only 5 yards and then again at 12 yards because I didn't have a clean shot on him. The angles just never lined up for a clean vitals shot. Hard to believe at such a close range, but when you are on the ground and he is 5 yards away and looking directly at you there is no way to draw a bow.

I do see lots of deer but that are either too far for a bow shot through the briar or it is close enough but not too many vines for a clean shot.

The year before this one my only shot was on a small buck ( I thought it was a doe , he was mostly obscured by thick briar ) that was stuck on the other side of briar and some small downed trees that he would not step over. He came down a trail out of the salt marsh that I had not noticed and wandered back and forth looking for a comfortable way forward for 45 minutes. There was a an 18 inch by 12 inch horizontally oval opening in the thick briar that he kept walking past ( I measured it later ). Every time he approached that small hole of an opening I drew. I was on the ground 20 yards away. He walked past it over 20 times. I grunted each time and he never stopped. I thought I might be able to put an arrow through that small opening if he stopped in the right spot. Then he actually stopped in back of that small opening, I quickly judged that the opening was lined up with a double lung shot and let an arrow fly.  Arrow went dead center through the oval opening in the briar, and made a clean pass through both lungs and liver. He jumped, broke through the briar went 30 feet and collapsed DRT.

An hour later when I approached I saw it was a young button buck and felt bad. I never saw any antler or much of his head when he was behind the briar and had 2 doe and 2 buck tags, so I let it rip. I continued hunting for the rest of the season and never had another clean shot. That is typical around here. Lots of deer, very thick brush, no natural choke points and acorns everywhere. Where they come out of the salt marsh is anybody's guess. I choose to hunt the marsh / woodland boundary because everybody else hunts the established woodland where the trees are big enough for stands. I prefer no other hunters close by, no stands close by so this is where I go. It is much more challenging and I do pattern the other hunters and have seen other hunters and creating choke points that the deer go around. These guys have the same stands in the same spots years after years and the deer know where they are and most avoid them creating choke points for me. It is a great way to hunt, although very challenging. No trees big enough for stands, means I am out there by myself with a bow, on the ground and when I connect it is rewarding.