because I missed a ginormous 10 this morning. At least I hope I missed him because I never could find my arrow. Unlike bama however, I was not content to simply miss, I had to do something really stupid. 1st arrow I've released at a deer in 2 seasons and I blew it pretty bad but what I did after was even worse.

So just like they always seem to do me, I'm looking one direction and when I turn around there's a deer in front of me. I'm slammed with that adrenaline I get anytime I see a deer while hunting, plus the extra adrenaline I get when they sneak up on me like that. As I'm reaching (almost jumping) for my bow It's dawning on me "wait a minute, that was a buck", which releases more adrenaline. At this point I'm pretty amped up but after I have my bow in hand and look back up to see what sort of buck, that's apparently when I lost my mind. I can't really explain my mental state at that moment because I've never experienced that before and don't really have anything to compare it to, maybe the tilt-a-whirl at the state fair. It should have been a perfect situation. He wasn't in a great big hurry just slowly walking, stopping, walking, broadside. I remember thinking immediately "30 yds" but I didn't put the range finder on him. I draw but there's something sticking up over his vitals, probably just a stalk of tall grass right in front of him. I should have shot right then and there but I waited for him to move to a better opening. While I'm waiting I start thinking "is that really 30 yds? Why didn't you range him? You've got to range him!". So I get indecisive about the shot because he keeps moving behind stuff and because I'm second guessing the yardage. I finally let off when he moves behind a dead tree, grab my range finder, guess what, he's at 30 yds. I'd held at full draw for a long time so after he moves from behind the tree I actually have a little trouble getting redrawn. Now I'm really feeling pressured to get the shot off. Oh yeah did I mention that I'd been shaking uncontrollably since the moment I saw exactly what sort of deer he was? For the first time he turns quartering away and I don't want him getting any further away so I let fly. I have no idea where the arrow went, I didn't see it in flight and couldn't find it later. The deer just did a little skip hop and stopped about 10 yds away, unbothered. He's just wandering along so I grab my grunt call but I can't see that he ever even looks up. So I'm watching him wander around getting further and further away and here's where I get really, really, stupid. I picked up those infernal rattling antlers and go to work. Well about 5 seconds of that and there he goes running up the hill. My only hope is that he just heard it, didn't like it and took off but didn't see me. He didn't run full out, just sort of loped. I don't even remember seeing his white tail.

I really feel sick about the whole thing.

Here are the questions.

Given his reaction, is there any reasonable possibility that I hit him? I don't think so but I searched for my arrow for about an hour but couldn't find it.

How soon can I get back in the tree? In the morning?

That sucks

I feel your pain bud. I have not stopped thinking about what I did wrong. I just keep replaying it over and over in my head. Looking back on it I have realized my mistakes. I rushed the shot and never got to my anchor point which I have practiced time and time again at home. I went home yesterday and practiced for about an hour and my bow was spot on. Buck fever got the best of me and I've accepted it. Don't beat yourself up about it. Just get out there and keep trying. If he was walking away after you grunted I can understand why you rattled. You were trying anything you could to get him back in range. I don't know if it's right or wrong by I would have done anything to get him to come back also. Maybe we should start a buck fever anonymous program lol. Were you at cahaba?

When I was a kid I started dove hunting with a 12 gauge automatic. Burned a lot of ammo and killed only a few birds. My dad made me switch to a single shot 20 gauge. It made me slow down and aim.

The best way I have found to over come adrenaline blindness when bow hunting is to practice with one broadhead on a deer type target. Put the target in the woods or behind a tree if you can.

Learn to pick a hair and make that one shot count.

Also I have killed 100 deer with a bow and never owned a rangefinder. Just saying.

Well, how many have you missed?

Three

Well, sounds like a miss but I will say... one time, I shot a doe right at dark with a bow and she went back to eating. After dark I went to get my arrow and found no arrow and blood. She went about 50yds and laid down and died.

Knowing now that you did hit the deer, I'm saying pretty confidently he is not dead. I can't think of a situation, or recall a personal shot, where a substantially hit deer reacted that little. Quartering away, over 30 yards distance, white hair, sounds more than reasonable that the shot was low, very doubtful you get white hair with a core shot and minor reaction by the deer. Fletching may have come off before or after it hit the deer (hit something else).

However, it could've been a low gut shot, exit slightly forward and pulled gut through hole. Heck, I don't know man...

Shot a doe one afternoon at 20 yards feeding in a greenfield. Arrow went in on one side between ribs and exited other side between ribs. Deer took a quick step forward and kind of shuddered and went back to eating grass. I started questioning in my mind what I thought I saw, convinced myself that somehow id missed a 20 yd wide open chip shot and was getting ready for a second shot and she started wobbling and fell dead. Super sharp broad head and didn't hit a bone. I don't think she ever even knew she was hit. After that little incident, I will not leave til I find my arrow and/or at least walk out everywhere I saw the deer as it was leaving looking for blood.

Please don't take this the wrong way, why would you feel pressured to take the shot? if it doesn't feel right don't take it. Please take a little advice from an aged bow hunter only, let technology off set the aging process....lighted nocks are GREAT!!!! As are safety harnesses!!!!

Felt pressure for a several reasons.

1. I had watched him cross broadside in front of me from my 11:00 to my 2:00. When he reached my 2:00 he quartered away from me at 30 yds and was about to step out of my confident range heading up the hill. I did not want him to go any farther.

2. I had not taken the shot that was presented when I first drew. That was a mistake.

3. When I failed to take the initial shot, every time he stopped while passing in front of me I thought there was some little something or other obscuring him just enough to keep me from shooting.

4. The first 3 reasons really all add up to the same thing, I feared I was out of time and had to shoot then or not at all. The shot was absolutely legitimate in my opinion. 30 yds quartering away is about as text book as you can get except for maybe 30 yds broadside which is why I should have shot earlier. The first time he stopped I think in hindsight the only thing that was in front of him was a stalk of broom sage or some other tall grass and it was right up next to him as I recall. Looking back I don't think it would have altered the shot.

5. I had held drawn for so long the first time that I was a little fatigued and had slight difficulty redrawing and didn't think I would be able to hold long so I probably rushed a little more than was necessary.

6. My freezer was and is empty.

I hope you're right and you may well be. I really don't think he's gut shot. There was nothing on the broadhead except the hair. Of course I've replayed this a thousand times in my head and I keep coming back to the idea that my aim point was where you would aim for a broadside shot and not for quartering away. Maybe because he had been broadside the entire time until the last moment when I shot. I think it may be entirely possible that I hit him where I was aiming but because he was quartering away the arrow passed from right behind his lower shoulder and out through his brisket without touching his lungs or heart. I'm not certain if a deer's anatomy allows for that scenario but I think it might. I do know that I didn't simply cut him because there was blood on the shaft as far as where it snapped off just below the fletchings.

The thing I still really have trouble reconciling in my mind is where the arrow ended up because the deer was to my right, quartering away showing me his right side. I found the arrow a good 5 yds to the left of where I'd shot him. It was lying on the ground 180* from the direction of fire with the broadhead pointing back at the tree it had been shot from. The arrow had a clean break just above the fletchings which have yet to be found. From where the arrow was found there is a large dead tree directly in line between the arrow and where it was shot from. Arrows do goofy things but I can't imagine how it got to that location oriented the way it was, given the angle and direction of fire.

Sir I respect your candor and honesty and the fact that you have replayed the event over several times in your mind, in my opinion this will only make you better moving forward

Deer do some weird things when shot. I killed a big 6 point the other day. 20 yards broadside, hit him a little high but on a steep downward angle. I ended up one lunging him but when I shot, he ran about 20 feet and just stopped and looked around for a second, I could see blood pouring down his side though. Then he turned and trotted down the hill and stood there for a while and then ran about 40 more yards and died. I've killed several with a bow though that just stopped and started walking to their deathbed. I did always see blood pouring off them though.

Does bust out like their on fire when stuck but a mature buck seldom looses his composure even when hit. Probable because they been stuck in battle.

I shaved a hat full of white hair off a nice nine one evening. He ran about twenty feet, blew and walked off. Found good blood at first. Got my hopes up but it faded out pretty quick. Tore the place up looking for him. A month later I saw him slipping thru the same area heathy as could be. Their tough.

Two stories I'll always remember...

Buddy shot a very wide buck one morning in early bow season, said arrow stuck in shoulder but looked deep. We trailed for hours, never found him. Later that season another guy we leased with killed that deer with a gun, wound had healed over and the broadhead and about 3" of aluminum arrow were still in the shoulder blade. Had a growth forming around them.

I shot completely through a high-racked 8pt on the opening afternoon of bow season one year, sounded like I hit a ripe watermelon. He ran off like his hair was on fire, crashed over every bush in sight, I heard him run out of sight and splash the creek (then silence). He's dead in the creek!!!! Wrong. Never found him. Later that season my uncle killed him on a food plot on the land across the dirt road from us, my shot was just beneath the spine (high), apparently missed anything vital. Deer still had hairless sores on both sides, but otherwise looked completely healthy. As a sidenote, we had gotten pictures of that deer literally daily for two months, but NEVER got a picture of him again after that day I shot him. I was 101% certain he was dead, even told the story as though the shot was a perfect center punch (which I learned it wasn't).

I would say if you shot him quartering away and hit him, he would have bounded away or some kind of a reaction. I've shot one deer many years ago with a bow that I had a pass through on and the deer just kind of flinched and kept eating acorns. About 30 seconds later she starts to get wobbly and just falls over dead. I don't see how a quartering shot up into vitals would have that effect.

Dr. B