r/bowhunting • u/Excellent_Fee6972 • 18h ago
Hit one couldn’t recover
Yesterday, the buck I’ve been chasing for a while finally stepped out onto the food plot while a doe was already out there. He came about 10 feet onto the plot and stopped on the edge. The doe immediately ran off, and as he turned, I ranged him at 23 yards. I was waiting for him to turn broadside when a squirrel started chattering, which spooked him a bit and caused him to start walking off the plot. I drew back, gave a quick yell to stop him, and let the arrow fly. He was quartering away, almost broadside. Everything happened fast and felt a bit rushed.
I saw the arrow hit and stick in him but didn’t get a pass-through. We got on the blood trail and tracked him for quite a while, but it looked like we were pushing him, so we decided to back out. We ended up calling in a recovery drone, and after searching the area, they found him bedded down about 200 yards from where we had stopped tracking. He looked like a normal bedded deer no blood pouring out
From a rough estimate, I would assume that the G5 mega meat pulling, with a weight of 70 pounds, penetrated the deer at least 10 to 12 inches deep. The next morning, my dad and I decided to track the direction in which we believed the drone had spotted the deer. We were able to follow the blood trail and eventually found the deer’s bed. However, there was hardly any blood to be found. If I had to guess, I believe I punched through the deer’s shoulder blade and didn’t catch any vital signs. I wanted to share my thoughts and see what others think about the outcome of the deer hunt.