So, your quietly easing along down a logging road in some mature thinned pines, headed to a stand down on a creek. Suddenly, you catch a glimpse of a form on the woods floor, downhill 40 yards in front of you, just as the road bends off to the left. You freeze, realizing the form is a deer. It's a doe and her head is facing downhill away from you and the wind is quartering from your forward right. You carefully nock an arrow from your quiver and slip your release on, while keeping one eye on the unsuspecting doe lying about 10 feet below your elevation just 40yds away. You take a few more steps toward your intended target and soon have closed the distance inside 20yds and the deer is none the wiser. You draw placing the 20yd pin slightly low of your aim point. Where should that aim point be??? Remember, the deer is below you, facing away and your staring at its curved backside. For illustration purposes use the pic below and picture yourself just beyond the fallen log in the background and uphill 7-8 feet. Where's your shot?
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Middle of the body @ the back of the rib cage.

I'm not shooting that deer you mentioned.

Hmmm...That's exactly what I thought too.

Before I tell the rest of the story...I want to hear some other thoughts on the topic.

Toughie there. If I was after a doe, I'd stand there til she stood up.

I do my best to wait on it to stand and stretch. If I wait too long, toss something to its side to get it to stand and be ready.

Back of the head at 20 yards.

j/k

Probably wouldn't shoot unless I knew where the cavity was.

I would wait for her to stand up. Might make some sort of soft noise to get help that along, maybe just stare at her really hard.

At 20 yards Id put one in the back of her head.

this.

Well you guys are pretty smart... I had never encountered a shot on a bedded deer before, but I thought I had analyzed the shot in 3D and could pass through the lungs and possibly spine her if I aimed top of her back just aft of the rib cage. I would have thought with my trajectory the arrow would exit bottom of the chest cavity aft of the brisket. I was wrong!!! I stood there 10 minutes (seemed like 30) giving her an opportunity to stand up, bolt, something, and not once did she even look my way. Anyway, I settled in and took my shot...sounded like I hit a 2x4. The deer jumped 5 feet into the air and bolted down hill to my left with half my arrow sticking up through the middle of her back like a CB whip antenna with a green glowing tip. I got a good look as she jumped into the logging road I was walking down 30ys away. She continued downhill and I heard her hit the creek, then she bent to the right and proceeded uphill on the opposite bank. I never heard a crash it just got quiet and I figured she had topped the next hill, maybe 150yds away. Well, I backed out and decided to give her some time. Came back about an hour and a half later and looked where I had shot her. It was 18yds from where I had stood. No blood, no hair...nothing. I went to where she jumped in the road and no sign there either. I followed the path she took to the creek and found where she crossed, but again no blood. I began thinking that since the arrow did not pass through that the cavity would have to fill before it started coming out her nose, but after 150yds to the creek it ought to be showing up soon. I crossed the creek and began a fanning search uphill and bending to the right. I spent over 2 hours on that hill and covered over 250yds past the crest of it (well over 500yds from the shot) with out finding a trace of anything. I even went back the next day to go over it again-nothing. In hindsight, the best I can figure is that my arrow narrowly missed the spine and probably only got a piece of one lung and buried into the off front shoulder, which was tucked up under the bedded deer. Moral of the story: Don't shoot a bedded deer.

Its hard to say I wouldnt have shot but the best thing to do would be not shoot until it stood up.


A deer can cover alot of ground in a hurry. I imagine that with nowhere for the blood to come out it got to far away before blood was showing much.

I need more patience in these situations myself, heck I have a hard time making myself take that extra second to think things through. Usually make more mistakes.

I don't know how deep your creek is, but did you look close in the water?

My son shot at a 14 point buck at Otter Slough in Missouri that was bedded and missed the deer of a lifetime.

You have to "see" the path thru the deer the head will take and adjust yer exterior hide hit accordingly.

I killed a big old seven point onct that was bedded at 49 yards with a hot doe. He was almost broadside and slightly above me. I ranged him, held low with the 50 yard pin(compound days) and hit him low, angling up. He struggled to his feet and fell, so I put another one in him. He never got back up.

I killed an 1800# Eland in Zimbabwe from a bad angle. He was bedded under a lone tree at 150 yards. 45 degree angle away to the right. Body "rolled" over towards me. I hit him just in front of the right hip, 3/4 way up the body. Bullet found in front of left shoulder. LOTS of penetration, gun was a 375H&H. Eland raced to his feet and was gone, made 200 yards and down running.

Sounds like you got too close to the backbone and buried up in a rib where it meets the backbone. You probably got 4 to 5" of penetration. She will live.

I would have drawn and then softly grunt or something to stand her up. Never would taken the bedded shot. Too many unknown variables.

i have learned it don't take much to get past the ribs.I too bet she is alive.

X2-Dan:)