any advice would be great?

[huntman]

Went out this afternoon with a friend. He shot a large large buck around 3:00 at a fairly close distance 10 yards but some how hit a limb. The bolt hit the buck in the shoulder and he ran with the arrow in him. Because we weren't sure of the shot we waited till about 4:45 before going out to look for any sign. My buddy described that after he shot the deer it ran 15 yards then stumbed forward. The blood was very little it looked like someone had sprayed red paint out of a can. We recovered the arrow at about 40 yards from where the deer was shot. The arrow had only penetrated about 3inches. The blades on the broadheads where bent and blood covered. The blood only got a little larger every 50 yards or so. The most blood we found where was it looked like he had bedded but even there the blood was the size of two credit cards. I'm fairly sure this deer was hit in the shoulder we looked for 300 yards and then the blood dissapered. Will this buck survive? Should i take another look in the morning. I have this sick feel in my stomach that i haven't done all that i can to recover this animal. Anyone have any suggestions?

[kendo kid]

I have been down the same road. I would say with 3 inches of depth he will be sore and may have a limp for the rest of his life but I would anticipate he will survive. Cold weather will minimize infection possibilities. Try feeding him some corn and see if you can get a picture of him coming into the feeder. Then take him out next year.

[STEELWORKER]

i feel your pain also bud. i hit a nice doe the first week of archery with my exomag it was a perfect quartering away shot at twenty yards, it looked like a great shot until i found the arrow..it was broken off and only 15 inches of the 20 inch laserII lay on the ground, the other piece she carried away and i never did find her. sometimes these things happen and i think i was just a tad to far forward with my shot and hit the shoulder blade. it still haunts me ..i hate not recovering these animals----STEEL

[chris4570]

huntman,

Last year, I took a very low percentage shot, frontal, knowing it was the wrong thing to do. I contemplated giving up hunting because I felt, and still do, terrible for wounding a deer when I should have let it walk. The deer dropped immediately at impact, but then gained it's footing and took off. With the help of my friend, we tracked the deer the best we could. The first blood was 75-100 yards from where the deer was standing. After several hours, and the "aid" of his dog we ran out of sign. We did manage to find the arrow, minus the broadhead(still firmly lodged in the shoulder).

A couple weeks later my friend saw a deer walking around with a noticable limp. This year, there was evidence(rubs), in the exact same location where the deer had been last year. So it seems quite possible the deer made it. Deer have been known to recover from broadhead wounds. I've seen pictures of field dressed deer with broadheads stuck in the shoulder, where the broadhead is completely covered with scar tissue. My friend is a veterinarian and he says it is possible that the deers immune response could actually push the broadhead out. I'm not sure of the exact biomechanics, but I trust he knows what he is talking about. So if your friends broadhead has already fallen out, the chances of recovery seem quite good.

Having that sick feeling is a good thing! It shows that you and I imagine your buddy, want to make the quickest, most humane kill possible. Sometimes it doesn't work out that way, but we learn and do our best to do better the next time around. I learned my lesson!

[Newbi]

Several years ago, I had a similar experience on a nice bull elk, with a recurve bow. Deflected off a small twig about 4 ft in front of him and hit him smack in the shoulder. There was a loud thwack sound and he was off and running. I got good blood for about 50 yards then it became a drip here and there. Found the broken arrow about 100 yards further into the track, about 4 inches broken off. My hunting partners and I spent the next 6 hours following the small drops of blood, until a thunderstorm came in and washed out everything. I felt awful, but assummed that since he was not bleeding and he headed up hill all the time that he was not mortally wounded. I was right. Saw him 4 days later a couple of ridges over. Through the binocculars I could see that he had a noticable limp, but was keeping up with his harem of cows and was bugling like nothing had happened to him. I never caught up with him, but I am sure that there are a lot of elk still up there that are carrying his genes.