mounded coulndt find

You mean "wounded right", that's a bummer. He may have survived? Tough call, then again he may have died also. 50/50 ??

Nope. Not if you hit where you think you did. If you didn't hit the spine, you got the lungs. There is no void between the lungs and the spine. You either hit one or you hit the other. Did he run uphill at all?

With that said, it's more likely that you hit behind the lungs and diaphram. That would be a high shot in the guts. More than likely he's down. Find the nearest water. If he's gut shot that's where he's headed.

I talked to a guy that made a similiar shot on my last hunt. I found his deer 2 weeks later 700 yards uphill from where he shot it.

He stayed down low thinking the deer wouldn't run uphill. Never found a drop of blood either. Here's a pic of what was left of it.

My guess is that he hit high behind the vitals. If he had hit lung that buck would not have run uphill.

Check out this link showing the anatomy of a deer. Notice that there is no space between the lungs and the spine. I suppose you might have hit muscle above the spine, possibly forward of the shoulder.

Did you find your arrow? That might give you some more insight.

http://www.deerhunting.ws/deeranatomy.htm

I thought I'd throw my ($$) in. I agree that if the shot was inline with the lungs and high you had to have hit something vital, but if the shot was further back he might have chance. A few years back my uncle killed a bull in AZ that had been shot above the guts and below the spine. The wound apeared to be a couple weeks old and the bull seemed to be doing fine. He had a harem of cows and was rutting and bugling. I have also heard the general rule that if an animal is wounded it will run downhill. I think this is usually the case but I have seen wounded animals head up hill several times. 2 years ago I was with a young man when he shot a doe through both lungs at 125 yards with his 30-30. She turned and ran uphill for almost 200 yards before going down. So anything is possible. If you think you gave finding this buck your "all" that's all you can do. These things happen you just gotta stick with it.

I don't know for sure about deer but with elk there is a dead spot between the lungs and the spine like Jon said. Its hard to tell if he'll live or not.

"JBird" wrote:I don't know for sure about deer but with elk there is a dead spot between the lungs and the spine like Jon said. Its hard to tell if he'll live or not.

I can't find where Jon said that.

There is no "dead spot." Look at the anatomy photos. You will either hit the spine or the lungs. If your arrow enters high inside of the diaphragm, you'll either hit lungs or spine. If your arrow goes into the diaphragm, you have a dead animal (eventually).

If you hit high outside of the diaphragm it's possible to wound the animal and not recover him. Again, check out the photos and you'll see what damage is caused by a high hit behind the vitals. A gut shot animal will take several hours, possibly a day or 2 to die from his wound.

It's also possible to hit high ABOVE the spine directly above the vitals and just hit muscle. Most animals will recover from a muscle wound.

"mark jones" wrote:
It's also possible to hit high ABOVE the spine directly above the vitals and just hit muscle. Most animals will recover from a muscle wound.

I had this happen with a Whitetail about 5 years ago. He was seen about a week after I shot him and appeared to be doing well besides a slight limp.

well i tracked him for almost a mile then it wwent up hill into some nasty country but i oculd not tell exactly where he went just before it started up hill because the blood trail just ended i searched hard but just had no luck one guy seen the buck run past him and he said what i thought just under the spine and right above the vitals i think i may have clipped the backbone alittle but not sure i had one broken blade on my broadhead and it did not pass clean through i found the arrow about thirty yards from where i shot! i seen the arrow sticking out after the shot so i am pretty positive of where i hit.

I said on an elk there is a dead spot between the guts and the spine.

Here's a couple picks of bucks that seem to be gettin' around just fine after being hit.

Not saying that infection can't set in and kill them later on but both of them are up and about.

wow those are some crazy pics Hawk. thanks for finding them

JBird

And I'm saying that elk and deer (and antelope, moose, caribou, etc) don't have a void (dead spot) between the spine and the lungs or the spine and the guts. It's not anatomically feasible.

In the photos that hawk posted, both of those arrows appear to be too high. They also appear to be out of the kill zone (too far back). If they were within the diaphram both of those bucks would have an arrow in their lungs. As it is they both appear to have an arrow high in their guts.

We can agree to disagree on this one. There is the camp that believes in the void and then there's the camp that doesn't. We both know where we stand on this issue.