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About Kent Staubus
Expertise
Nearly 30 years` experience hunting upland game, big game, and waterfowl in the Upper Midwest and many college level classes in biology. I can answer questions about hunting with rifles and shotguns, and how to hunt mule/whitetail deer, antelope, pheasants, quail, ducks, squirrels, and rabbits. I can also answer questions about outdoor clothing for cold climates. As a licensed therapist, I have helped handicapped outdoorsmen.
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You are here: Experts > Recreation/Outdoors > Hunting/Shooting > Hunting > shoulder hit deer ?
Hunting - shoulder hit deer ?
Expert: Kent Staubus - 10/23/2009
Question
Hi kent just hit a 5 or 6 point deer from directly overhead into the shoulder almost straight down my first hit with a bow I hit very close to where I was targeting. The spot I had offered to me a spine hit would have been nice but the arrow hit to one side and after reading a few posts i think i should of aimed a few inches behind the shoulder any how my arrow penetrated it a little less than half and stuck in the deer he jumped and took off like a bat out of hell. I had good sight from my stand he ran around in a large circle stumbled a little through a thicket and into a small clearing on a pipe line with lots of thick brush around he was still moving pretty good at about 130 yards of running that I could see he was heading for a ridge above a small valley that he came from it was just getting dusk and i knew enough to just get out of the woods for awhile went back in a couple of hours with a mag light no blood went and purchased a red/green light and found one drop where I last saw him continued
slowly as I could being my first bow deer was not finding any blood just followed my nose down a game trail along a ridge in high thickets around found the arrow about 250 yards from my stand and about 300 yards of traveling distance for the deer the arrow was wet about a third of the way up and only two of the three rear deploying blades opened very small amount of tissue and even less blood but some meat and hair on broad head and fairly bright blood for as little as there was I pulled out and decided to weight for morning ,the game trail split 5 yards after the arrow find down a steep passage to the valley he came from or straight on the ridge he was traveling I get the feeling he may be down but might be overly optimistic two questions does this sound like a mortal wound and how long will game meat be good for
if I find in the morning temp is between 40 and 65 in the north east here thanks glen
Answer
Hmmm. There's a chance you didn't hit much inside the deer and the arrow lodged in the breast bone. The problem with shots that go straight down or straight to the front is it's possible the lungs will be missed. Odds are the deer is dead, but hitting it on top means little or no blood trail. If the deer went 300+ yards, that suggests it wasn't a real solid hit. Can you search the area with a dog? It might find it. As to how long an ungutted deer will still be good, it does depend on temperature. If it's 65 degrees, not very long. I'm going to guess and say maybe six to eight hours. The guys at your local meat locker would have a better idea, of course. The critical temperature is 40 degrees, from what I've been told. Earlier this month I shot an antelope and the guys at the locker told me it would hold overnight (45-50 degrees) if it was well iced down and no sun shining on it. BTW, this is the second question I've received this month about problems with spring blade arrows not opening, and a deer being lost.
Good luck!
Kent in SD
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