I used a spitfire mechanical for the firsttime this weekend. I shot a buck at 15 yards. I made a good shot up and down but it looked like i hit him a little to the right and into the front shoulder. The arrow got verry little penetration. He ran off with arrow sticking out. I trailed him for about 600 yards. He was bleeding but just drip drip. What went wrong? Think i hit him right in bone. It was like i shot him with a field point. Have yall seen this before?

Sounds like you hit him in the shoulder. Could you tell anything from the sound of the impact?

That's pretty impressive if you had enough blood from that type of shot to track him for 600 yards. Typically a non-pass through shoulder shot - mechanical or fixed-blade - will only give you an occasional drop of blood and is a tracking nightmare. Sorry to hear you didn't recover it.

the blood was hard to find but it would be a drip every foot or so. we were on our hands and knees. So would a fixed blade of had the same results? My friend shot a buck same day with same broadhead and hit him right on frontside and it exited his shoulder on the other and ripped him. Was this because i hit bone first and blades couldnt open? I am shooting an older parker bow that is only shooting 240 fps with a lite arrow. Every othe animal i have shot i had a pass thru with a fixed blade.

When you look at a shoulder bone not all parts of it are equal in resistance. You have that large joint where the blade attaches and the blade has a part of it that sticks out at 90 degrees to the main blade. Hit either of those directly and they can stop a fixed blade also.

When ever I have shot a deer in the shoulder blade in barely gets any penetration. But when I shoot through them and it hits the other shoulder blade it normally passes through. Don't know why. Maybe the inside isn't as hard. You probably would have had the same results with a fixed blade those shoulder blade shots are a killer! So close to your target but the arrow just won't penetrate! Sorry to hear!

Hard to tell without being there and seeing the deer, a number of things could have happend.

Look on the bright side, you still have that tag! Get em next time.

thanks guys,
you know how it goes being hunters too. I just kills me to loose one. especially when i dont get alot of opertunities.

is looking on the brightside that you still have a tag a good way of looking at it?

I guess i just don't understand when people loose an animal because of a bad shot that they just talk it up to part of being a hunter?

Game is lost! That is a fact except you are asking questions to figure out what may have happened,alot of people never say anything,and just blow it off.You have honor and would like answeres.We know theres chances of it happening and acknowledge the fact and do feel bad about it when/if it happens to us.Look at it as at least you didn't kill,tag and have it stolen from truck just to have antlerss cut and deer thrown in ditch!Lost tag,lost deer...total waste.

I am glad that duckncover is trying to learn from his mistakes but to simply say that "Look on the bright side, you still have that tag! Get em next time." is sad. if that is all this sport or animals mean to some people then they shouldn't be going.

You should go out there with every intention of shooting and recovering the animal. not with the thought in the back of your mind that at least you still have the tag

Okay, then you tell him what went wrong! You seem to know it all!

My my my...

Oh, what a response!!! You should be ashamed of yourself, tell when what went wrong. You know how easy it is!

Most likely not a lethal shot, have seen this before. He will be sore for a while but I would guess you will see him again, possibly at the same stand location. A buddy of mine on a hunt in south Texas hit one in the shoulder so hard it knocked him off his feet but no penetration. It was a nice P&Y buck, we tracked him after supper hoping to find him expired, instead we found him bedded down. We backed out without jumping him and resolved that we would let him lie until after the morning hunt and would surround him with hunters on the edges of the thicket he had bedded in. My buddy went in to retrieve or put another arrow in him if needed. That buck jumped up and blew past us like he had never been shot, I watched him for 600 yds as he continued to run off never faltering or losing a step. Deer are some tough critters. Hope he gives you another chance.

Pretty sure that this post is taking a turn in the wrong direction. I don't know very many people that lose a deer and don't think twice about it. Duckncover is looking for answers and trying to keep from making the same mistake twice and trying to find out if different equipment might have made a difference.

There is a great chance that you will get another chance at this deer. I shot one in the shoulder a couple of years back and my father killed it out of the stand three weeks later.

I personally don't think that it was the broadheads fault. As was mentioned above, there are certain spots on the shoulder that a fixed blade would not have gone through either.

Shot placement is critical and if you tracked it for 600 yards, I would say that you gave it a valiant effort to recover your animal. Good luck

Exactly.

bad shot is what is wrong...

To answer Bojango's question....it was a bad shot.

You made that a lot harder then it needed to be.

Just remember...if you gut shoot one this weekend.....don't worry at least you didn't waste a tag!

thanks everybody for your answers. I feel really bad about wounding a deer. I would rather not get a shot than make a bad one or loose an amimal. Tes we tracked it till we could go no further. I think that all bjan was trying to do is make me feel beter and give me confidence to get back into stand. I think that all hunters especially bow hunters. Have respect for game. I know i do. Most bow hunters spend endless hours practicing and preparing for the hunt. Thanks for the help just trying to avoid this kind of thing in the future!

He was trying to lift his spirits - not endorsing or sanctioning a "bad shot but still have a tag" attitude. Think about it.

I agree.

My question is, how many are you allowed to shoot and not find? is there a limit here?

For example, the county that i hunt in is a 1 buck county. which means i can only "kill", "harvest" one buck. But now Bojango has me wondering how many i can shoot and not find?

I may need to order more bolts for my crossbow!

Holy Smokes talk about not having a clue! NO ONE was advocating shooting a deer or letting it get away for the sakes of a tag. I don’t know one hunter that practices catch and release for the sake of shooting another deer.
He’s to be commended on tracking a deer for six hundred yards, I’ve done it and it sucks!

I was trying to say you’ll have another day ( this is how people learn), I shoot cull bucks to get them out of the population and I don’t consider it WASTING a tag. I’ve been bow hunting (not X bows) well over 40 years and have run across just about everything.

If you only knew what I do for up coming new bow hunters you would know that what I was not to take hunting lightly!!!!

There are a few on the site here to back up exactly what I just said.

BTW Deer.. the name is Jankowski not Bojango's, no need in trying to be cute!

I am pretty sure there are plenty of people shooting deer with guns and wounding them and not finding them. This has become very stupid. He tried to find the deer and probaly has a knot in his stomach and wishes he had the shot back. Maybe we should not share anything on here anymore.
And I think crossbow hunting is cheating.........