Happy Pappy

I grabbed this pic off the deer hunting section... this guy shot this buck yesterday
and found this arrow stuck in like this. Buck was chasing a doe when he harvested
it, so it must not have been hurting too bad. So to answer the question, yes, deer
have a hollow spot in them!They are tough animals...

Hotburn76

IMO that pic shows what I mentioned and others talked about. I think that arrow is above the spine and in the back straps of that deer. The anatomy pics and the one butcher cutting pic show how low the spine is, and to me it looks like that deer is shot above the spine. I think I tried to explain it, but I do not think there is a dead zone in a deers lungs, but I think people do not understand how low the lungs and spine is on a deer. One thing I read in here and on other forums is "the deer ran for over a half mile and we lost the trail" or stories of tracking a deer for a long time with poor blood and lost it after six hundred yards. I think they are examples of pushing a deer to fast and to soon. The last buck I shot I sat in stand for about half hour after the shot, and I knew it had crashed, but you never know. I then got out of stand and slipped out as quite as I could and left. By the time I tracked deer it was around an hour and a half later. That pics shows that a pass through does not equal dead deer, but also shows how low the lungs are. A nice size back strap is about four to five inches around. Then you have the hide on top and the ribs below, the lungs are low!

Hotburn76

Here is the link to Happy Pappy's pic with the story to go with it. There is some better explanations in here also. But there is stories of exceptions to the rules to! LOL!!

http://www.huntingnet.com/forum/tm.aspx?m=2456538&mpage=1

Happy Pappy

I think that's anexcellent picture... if I had shot that deer at that angle, I would have been pretty confident of the placement. I might of thought it wasa little high, but in my mind, that would have been a dead deer walking!
As far as trying to explain to folks the area we're talking about, that pics says it all. It also appears that arrow shot was from a ground blind or something similar. A shot like that from a tree stand would have angled low enough to get one of the lungs anyway.

Some might not believe this story and it's not exactly a crossbow topic... but I once shot a small 8 point with a Remington Copper Sabot 2 3/4" (Remington 11-87 fully rifled barrel with a 4x scope) when they first came out (early 90's) This buck had spooked w/ a doe from the next woods over and was standing in the middle of a field so nobody could sneak up on them. I estimated the shot at 150 yards (woodchuck hunting was my absolute favorite thing to do, so I was pretty sure of the yardage) I put the crosshairs 12" above his back and let one fly... drilled him in his armpit, just behind his leg. I let him sit for a while (20 mins - not really long enough, but I was young and excited) When I walked up on him he was just standing there like he just got done sprinting a mile. He couldn't catch his breathe, I finished him off, but upon gutting him, that bullet only went in there less than 8" as it had no power left and the pedals didn't open up, so he was quite "frisky" yet, with one lung still working fine. Like I said earlier.. they are a tough, amazing animal.

xbowbarry

There is no dead zone in the lungs but there is in the rib cage. I have witnessed two deer with holes on each side of the rib cage where arrows passed thru over the lungs and below the spine
I processed deer for 20 years so I knowthe anatomy of a deer.

xbowbarry

lemoyne

I have believed for a long time that a lot of the people who try neck shots and lose deer are shoting them where they thinl the spine is in the neck and are going over the top of it; this is commen in gun hunters and most of them wont believe you if you tell them where they should shoot for the neck shot. Lee

Cossack

Deer have a evolutionary adaptaion that enables them to shut down venus circulation to wounds thereby preventing blood loss. I can envison an arrow passthrough between lungs and spine, which didn't hit an artery, and was then plugged with fat and other tissue to prevent a sucking chest wound, as not being lethal given their ability to control bleeding.
Ironically it's my favorite rifle target on an undisturbed deer. Such a hit from a fast bullet deflates the lungs and disrupts the nervous system causing near instant death by shock with a minimum loss of edible meat.

Hotburn76

Barry, I hope you did not take my comment as people not understanding the deers anatomy to be directly at you, it was a general statement. As I said in my first post I think it can happen, but is rare and IMO the deer has to be on a exhale breath for this to happen. The rib cage serves only one purpose and that is to hold the lungs and heart. When fully inflated the lungs fill the cage entirely and when exhaling they can create a small area that could make a spot for a arrow. But I think this has to be a perfect shot type of thing. If it was easy to do then it would be more of a fact and hunters would be schooled on it and how to avoid it. But since it does not happen that much because of the low chances of it happening the is not a need for the education on it. What I meant by Happy Pappys pic is that to me that pic shows a shot above the spine. The area directly below that arrow is in one of the lowest dips in the spine and that pic looks like it is above the spine to me. I feel that alot of guys hit real high on deer and then think it is this dead zone when in reality they shot the back straps above the spine never even coming close to the lungs. Could a arrow skirt the top of the cage and nick the lungs, as said before by me, yes, but I think it happens alot less then people think.

But this all comes down to knowing your equipment and your game. I can say proudly that I have not wounded deer like that and not found them. I keep my shots close and I know where every arrow is going to go before it is released. I have missed only four times in the past when I first started hunting, once in a freezing rain hunt, CB was covered in ice, to excited to think about cleaning it off before shot. Oncewhen I hunted indown pouring rain, arrows stuck in dirt in front of deer, third was when hunting in hard winds and arrow missed cleanly, and once when I had a experience with the thumb on the rail! These where situations that I was not familiar with and learned from them. I have been lucky to not stick deer and not find. I think if more people took better shots these type of situations would never happen. And again this is a in general statement not aimed at any one ion this thread, but practice is thekey!

xbowbarry

No offense taken Hotburn. The fact that such an occurrance is rare but can happen is why I started this post. Keep the comments coming.

xbowbarry

Buckhunter46755

I also believe there is... first time I've lost a deer was this year. Shot a buck passthrough shot. Retrieved the bolt and it had good blood on it. But there was hardly any blood trail.... only found a few specks on blades of grass. me and 3 other guys looked for a little over 2 1 /2 days and never found him. Pretty depressing. I did get redemption this morning though. Shot a 7 pt drop tine with my ML for firearms season. Going to load him up on the trailer in a few minutes...I'll post some pics later on the Blackpowder forum....later

chris

chris