Arrow only went in a couple of inches is he down

[MDbowhunter]

I need a little help. I shot a nice 8 pointer tonite at 40yrds hit him right behind his front left shoulder. The arrow must have hit some bone and only went in about 3-5 inches. He ran of thought I heard him crash down. I waited 40 min and walked to the spot of impact. There was no blood. I said I will leave him for the night. As I walked out to my house he was in the back yard. Something spooked him as I looked at him out the window the arrow was still in him he ran in to the woods looked like he was stumbling. Do you think he is down out there?

[dylanhutchinson]

yea i would be looking for him

[BruceBruce1959]

Don't let it get you down, those things happen we don't want that to happen but it does. Nobody can say for sure if that deer is down or not, Deer are extremely Durable animals even though it's been hit it may have been a muscle/fatty tissue shot which means the deer may not expire at all.
Many Deer are harvested during rifle and muzzleloader seasons and during processing broadheads are found inside of them.
The one you hit may or may not be down but you'll have to wait till morning to go look and find out. Good Luck to you

[MDbowhunter]

I plan to go look for him in the morning to see if i can find anything at least find my arrow for a start

what bruce said

[timberghost]

Giving him enough time to lay and expire is key here. When you do go look for him treat it as a hunt. Be quiet and try using the wind so that spooking him up and out to the next county won't be that much of an issue. I'm a little late responding but I hope you find him and Good Luck.

[timberghost]

Well what happened????

[MDbowhunter]

Well I went out at 6:30 this morning to the last spot I had seen him. I came up empty handed. I walked all over the of the woods and found nothing not even my arrow. It really gets to me but I am sure he is most likley alive and not getting chewed up by the crows and fox. I was looking for crows all day and seen none. I climbed up in my stand around 8:30 this morning after giveing up and when I turned to sit down I seen a nice buck at 60 yrds and the fox. I am off tomorrow and will give it another try. I have taken three does and a nice 6 so far. I have unlimited doe and 3 bucks I can get and the seaso goes to the end of Jan.

Hey timber ghost if you dont mind me asking what part of VT you from. Hunt a lot in Bennington County and trapped fishers at Bromley MT.

[BruceBruce1959]

Timberghost is in Western New York,
I'm in Vt., In a little village called Williston. I'm 110 miles north of Bennington.
I've never done any trapping but I have seen a couple Fisher cats this year.

Originally Posted by MDbowhunter

Well I went out at 6:30 this morning to the last spot I had seen him. I came up empty handed. I walked all over the of the woods and found nothing not even my arrow. It really gets to me but I am sure he is most likley alive and not getting chewed up by the crows and fox. I was looking for crows all day and seen none. I climbed up in my stand around 8:30 this morning after giveing up and when I turned to sit down I seen a nice buck at 60 yrds and the fox. I am off tomorrow and will give it another try. I have taken three does and a nice 6 so far. I have unlimited doe and 3 bucks I can get and the seaso goes to the end of Jan.

Hey timber ghost if you dont mind me asking what part of VT you from. Hunt a lot in Bennington County and trapped fishers at Bromley MT.

there is a guy in md that has a dog and they track deer if you need. can't think of his last name but i can get it. his first is holger and his dogs name is glocke. i pretty sure he does it for free and the joy of working with his dog. he recovered a real smasher the other day. bet it would gross in the 170's it had a double mainbeam.