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- Jul 31, 2002
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My brother was down from up north for the weekend, and while visiting my folks, he wanted to get out in the deer stand for a little while.
He and my dad just went bow hunting for elk in Montana a few weeks ago, (actually, dad drew a tag while my brother didn't, so he just went along as scout/pack mule/camp cook) and he bought all kinds of new gear for the excursion. New bow with carbon fiber arrows, new outfits & boots, GPS unit, range finder, knives, the whole shebang. So since he didn't actually even get to use half of it for his big trip out west, he seemed real eager to get out in a stand for a good test run.
He had only been sitting out there for an hour, and had already seen about 10 does running around him, when one stepped out from under some brush only 10 yards from his stand. It was steeply quartering towards him, so he lined up his pin on the top/front of its shoulder, between the spine and top of the actual shoulder, and released. He said he saw the green fletchings through his sights, going straight where he had aimed, and heard a loud "THWACK". The doe took off running east, and then he saw her through the brush, run in a circle and head back west further back.
He called me at about 5:15, saying he needed a hand tracking her. I was at my folks visiting after getting off work, and spending a little time with my wife and daughter for the first time all week. But I got the 4-wheeler & headed out to find him. I walked up to his stand, and he related all the above in great detail. He found his arrow back about 10 yards away from where he shot her, but had walked around without finding a single drop of blood.
The arrow was laying on the ground pointing the opposite direction the doe had run, as though it had gone all the way through & fell/got pulled out. The fletchings were bloody, also indicating this. He said the blood was a bit bubbly before it dried, (I immediately thought lung shot from the bubbles, but he said it wasn't quite as bright red as I thought it would have been.) and I could smell rumen contents on it, but the head smelled like bone, and had a few flecks of bone fragments on it. This puzzled me a little bit, 'cause I thought any sign of fresh bone should have been wiped off the head upon exit. (The head was in perfect shape, by the way. I really, really like these new broadheads he got.) Upon further examination we did find traces of gut contents smeared on the shaft. This would make sense since the arrow should have exited low on the far side just in front of her flank, passing through the guts in the process.
He was worried about not finding any blood, but I said I didn't expect to find any with that shot. The entry hole would have been high enough that blood wouldn't run out, and the exit probably plugged with intestines when the fletchings pulled through.
Since the sun was going down, I told him we'd better get moving. Just as we turned around to head out, there was another doe less than 15 yards away that must have been watching us the whole time, and she took off. He started following where he thought he saw her go, but I veered off on another route that just seemed to make more sense to me. We "tracked" westward at least a hundred yards, and I kept going toward where I thought she would have gone, while my brother was 75 yards further north of me still following another route.
After another 10 minutes or so, I spotted a brown lump ahead of me! I got my brother's attention, and he crept over. I pointed her out with my bowie knife, and his face lit up. I stayed his celebration momentarily, and told him to get his bow ready just in case, but that was unnecessary. Once we established that the doe was dead, the back slapping began in earnest. This was the first deer he's ever got with a bow & arrow.
He called his shot about perfectly; the entry was maybe a few inches further back than he thought (or rather, it hit exactly where he aimed, but he should have aimed a couple inches forward to hit the heart), but it did take out her lungs, and when we rolled her over we found that the exit did indeed plug with intestines, accounting for the lack of blood trail. We also found something else- after passing through her body, the arrow still had enough steam to break her hind leg bone just below the body line where it's close to the surface. (!!) That would account for the loud popping sound he heard, and the smell of bone & fragments on the arrow head. (Rib bones & spine should be cut cleanly like green wood, and would not fragment. But the leg bones are MUCH harder and shatter/fragment readily.) There never was any blood trail, and the gentle air movement was going the wrong direction for me to smell her, so there was more luck involved than anything in finding her before sundown.
He was quick to give me credit for the tracking job, but I was quicker in complimenting him on the shot. It was only two years ago when I got my first deer with a pistol after years of dreaming, so I can relate to how this moment must have felt for him. His wife got several pictures of him posing with his bow & the doe, and the smile on his face was genuine.
He and my dad just went bow hunting for elk in Montana a few weeks ago, (actually, dad drew a tag while my brother didn't, so he just went along as scout/pack mule/camp cook) and he bought all kinds of new gear for the excursion. New bow with carbon fiber arrows, new outfits & boots, GPS unit, range finder, knives, the whole shebang. So since he didn't actually even get to use half of it for his big trip out west, he seemed real eager to get out in a stand for a good test run.
He had only been sitting out there for an hour, and had already seen about 10 does running around him, when one stepped out from under some brush only 10 yards from his stand. It was steeply quartering towards him, so he lined up his pin on the top/front of its shoulder, between the spine and top of the actual shoulder, and released. He said he saw the green fletchings through his sights, going straight where he had aimed, and heard a loud "THWACK". The doe took off running east, and then he saw her through the brush, run in a circle and head back west further back.
He called me at about 5:15, saying he needed a hand tracking her. I was at my folks visiting after getting off work, and spending a little time with my wife and daughter for the first time all week. But I got the 4-wheeler & headed out to find him. I walked up to his stand, and he related all the above in great detail. He found his arrow back about 10 yards away from where he shot her, but had walked around without finding a single drop of blood.
The arrow was laying on the ground pointing the opposite direction the doe had run, as though it had gone all the way through & fell/got pulled out. The fletchings were bloody, also indicating this. He said the blood was a bit bubbly before it dried, (I immediately thought lung shot from the bubbles, but he said it wasn't quite as bright red as I thought it would have been.) and I could smell rumen contents on it, but the head smelled like bone, and had a few flecks of bone fragments on it. This puzzled me a little bit, 'cause I thought any sign of fresh bone should have been wiped off the head upon exit. (The head was in perfect shape, by the way. I really, really like these new broadheads he got.) Upon further examination we did find traces of gut contents smeared on the shaft. This would make sense since the arrow should have exited low on the far side just in front of her flank, passing through the guts in the process.
He was worried about not finding any blood, but I said I didn't expect to find any with that shot. The entry hole would have been high enough that blood wouldn't run out, and the exit probably plugged with intestines when the fletchings pulled through.
Since the sun was going down, I told him we'd better get moving. Just as we turned around to head out, there was another doe less than 15 yards away that must have been watching us the whole time, and she took off. He started following where he thought he saw her go, but I veered off on another route that just seemed to make more sense to me. We "tracked" westward at least a hundred yards, and I kept going toward where I thought she would have gone, while my brother was 75 yards further north of me still following another route.
After another 10 minutes or so, I spotted a brown lump ahead of me! I got my brother's attention, and he crept over. I pointed her out with my bowie knife, and his face lit up. I stayed his celebration momentarily, and told him to get his bow ready just in case, but that was unnecessary. Once we established that the doe was dead, the back slapping began in earnest. This was the first deer he's ever got with a bow & arrow.
He called his shot about perfectly; the entry was maybe a few inches further back than he thought (or rather, it hit exactly where he aimed, but he should have aimed a couple inches forward to hit the heart), but it did take out her lungs, and when we rolled her over we found that the exit did indeed plug with intestines, accounting for the lack of blood trail. We also found something else- after passing through her body, the arrow still had enough steam to break her hind leg bone just below the body line where it's close to the surface. (!!) That would account for the loud popping sound he heard, and the smell of bone & fragments on the arrow head. (Rib bones & spine should be cut cleanly like green wood, and would not fragment. But the leg bones are MUCH harder and shatter/fragment readily.) There never was any blood trail, and the gentle air movement was going the wrong direction for me to smell her, so there was more luck involved than anything in finding her before sundown.
He was quick to give me credit for the tracking job, but I was quicker in complimenting him on the shot. It was only two years ago when I got my first deer with a pistol after years of dreaming, so I can relate to how this moment must have felt for him. His wife got several pictures of him posing with his bow & the doe, and the smile on his face was genuine.
