# Jumping The String?



## Captn C (May 21, 2004)

What is your worse "sting jump hit"?

My worse was a doe (18 yards shot) that had just got to the feeder...nice broad side..head turned away...good release...prefect entrance just behind the shoulder...half way between the top and the bottom...

As that doe bailed into the brush...I recalled seeing something sticking out of the top of her back...I thought to my self it must have been a stick or something she kicked up while leaving though the brush and went on to tracking (after a little wait). I found the broken arrow, it broke just short of the fletching. The blood trail was not what I expected, but easy to follow...when I found her she was still alive, but weak...so I waited a few minutes till she expired.

The "stick" I seen was my arrow sticking out the top of her back...seems when she went to leave she was able to fall away from me for the arrow to exit between the top of the off shoulder blade and the spine. The arrow only got one lung good and missed the off side lung.

The bow was not all that loud...this was pre-limb saver gear. It was at the time one of the faster bows around. It was a Martin Maverick set at 70lbs...not sure what the speed was but at that time it was pretty quick.

Same bow, but a nice 10 point that would still be close to a personal best if he did what I expected him to do...same season as the doe above. He was walking about 20 yards from my stand...I fully expected with him being an older deer to be moving at the shot so I held right on the bottom line of his chest. When I released he never moved and my arrow shaved a ton of white hair off his brisket just behind the front leg! He just stood there looking around, then turn around and walked off the way he came in.


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## igo320 (May 17, 2005)

Arrows don't always come out in the same line they go in. Hit a shoulder or a rib just right and the arrow can almost do a 90. At 18 yards most will not move enough to make much difference with any bow.


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## Leemo (Nov 16, 2006)

aim small, miss small is my theory, I try and aim low(the heart area), if the deer ducks down, I still hit the lungs, that's what happened Sunday morning, deer was at about 22 yds., ducked a tad bit and still caught him in the mid. section, clean pass through double lung.


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## TXPalerider (May 21, 2004)

Just don't aim too low. I shot a doe last year that never moved on the shot. Shooting from an elevated position the arrow entered low on the left side right behind the shoulder and exited on the right side right where the hair changes from brown to white. She jumped and ran, looked around a bit and basically went back to eating. Maybe 5 drops of blood total. Obviously, I hit nothing of significant importance. I watched her mill around the area for good half hour before it got too dark to see.


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## TXPalerider (May 21, 2004)

This one gave it her best shot last year. But at 10 yards, she couldn't quite get out of the way. 

At the shot, she went down and leaned away from me and the arrow lodged in her spine. I know it doesn't look high enough to be a spine shot, but, I literally had to break vertebrae to get my broadhead back.


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## Captn C (May 21, 2004)

TXPalerider said:


> This one gave it her best shot last year. But at 10 yards, she couldn't quite get out of the way.
> 
> At the shot, she went down and leaned away from me and the arrow lodged in her spine. I know it doesn't look high enough to be a spine shot, but, I literally had to break vertebrae to get my broadhead back.


I bet the reason it looks like a bit low but still got the spine is because she started to roll away from the shot like the one I shot a few years back.


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## Captn C (May 21, 2004)

igo320 said:


> Arrows don't always come out in the same line they go in. Hit a shoulder or a rib just right and the arrow can almost do a 90. At 18 yards most will not move enough to make much difference with any bow.


I have seen that to some degree, but not a 90...the arrow was too long for that two have happened...this was only about an 80lber...the arrow would have had to bend to made out the back on a deflection, because the fletching would have not enter the body by the time the broad head was exiting the top of the back. Our deer are hunted (and not ust by people, we have a huge population of yotes) and spookie would be an under statement...especially around the feeders.

Come to think of it...if you have a deflection though the ribs it would go either forward or backward...not up...just a thought...


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## PiratesRun (Jun 23, 2004)

We video all our shots and it is amazing to watch in slow motion how much they can move in such a short period of time. Figure 20 yard (60 feet) shot and a bow shooting 300 feet per second. Truely amazing.


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## Captn C (May 21, 2004)

PiratesRun said:


> We video all our shots and it is amazing to watch in slow motion how much they can move in such a short period of time. Figure 20 yard (60 feet) shot and a bow shooting 300 feet per second. Truely amazing.


 I read or seen in a video that to beat a deer at 20 yards the arrow speed would have to be just over 600fps!

I'm not sure why our deer are so spookie we don't shoot that many (roughly 15 deer per 8,000 acres), but if the feeder goes off while a deer is close to it...that deer is GONE for the day. The lease is thick and coyotes are hard on our fawns.


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## gulfcoast200 (Jun 26, 2004)

I tried to shoot one siiting on the atv one day at the lease while she was looking at me, her back bone was a foot under the arrow and I aimed low. As far as out of a stand in normal hunting conditions my doe last weekend didn't duck but turned away on the shot and it caught her behind the last rib and came out her opposite side shoulder. It wasn't a bad hit just not where it was supposed to be. As far as bucks I've shot 3 and none of them have ducked to the point that it made any difference in the shot placement.


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## Captn C (May 21, 2004)

I'm sure everyone has seen the videos where the arrow nearly hit the deer in the head?

I had one do that down in Beeville in 1988. I was shooting a Bear recurve at that time...68lbs at 28" it seems...any way she ducked and the broad head hit her just behind the curve of the back edge of the jaw bone...pretty much jugular veined her.

It was the third encounter we'd had...the 1st one I missed her, the second she busted me drawing for the shot. I Was hunting a water hole without a feeder so I'm sure she was always nervous every time she came to water.


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## Chunky (Oct 15, 2006)

Speed does not matter, as stated above...no bow is fast enough to reach before the deer reacts. So what do you do???

I keep my bow quiet for one thing, and I pick a low spot for another....however...
It's my opinion that the most important thing is to watch the deer and only shoot when the deer is relaxed and not ready to bolt. Never, ever shoot at a deer that is looking right at you. Learn the deer's body language, notice the ears, is the tail wagging, are they picking up corn, are the muscles tense...these are the things to look for. One rookie mistake is to shoot too quickly, most of the time the deer will come in on full alert, but if you wait a few minutes they will settle down and start eating and milling around. People get to anxious to shoot and want to get that arrow off as soon as possible. 

I find it much easier to draw and shoot if you wait a bit. It also gives me time to compose myself and prepare to make a good shot.


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## Whitecrow (May 26, 2004)

Captn C said:


> I read or seen in a video that to beat a deer at 20 yards the arrow speed would have to be just over 600fps!


Actually, your bow would have to shoot over 1,100 fps, which is roughly the speed of sound.

Chunky has the 411 on what to do. An alert deer can certainly make a good shot into a bad one. 
I shot a spike Sat evening that tried his best to screw up my shot. A bobcat was in the area and all the deer were going nuts. He was stomping and blowing like crazy. He was broadside at about 20 yds. I aimed low on the crease behind his shoulder and shot. He spun at the shot and the arrow entered about 3 ribs back and broke the offside shoulder on exit. Only got one lung, but he didn't go far. A lot of movement in .2 of second, that's for sure.


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## Trouthunter (Dec 18, 1998)

*This One Ducked Just Enough*

Got a shave is all.

TH


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## Screeminreel (Jun 2, 2004)

Not sure exactly what happened to the doe I shot last Saturday. She was relaxed, standing broadside, I was relaxed and not the least bit excited. Got drawn, and went through my mental checklist, counted the pins for correct range, and slowly squeezed the release. The hit appeared solid, waited around 30 minutes then checked the initial contact area. Found excellent blood on both the ground and the arrow, quietly left the area for over an hour to go eat supper, change clothes and such. Returned with drizzling rain only to loose the trail some 50yds or so later. Still had blood up to that point but when it stopped it stopped and was no more. Plenty of canopy where she headed to keep the rain off. Looked until almost midnight, called it off and came back at daybreak on Sunday morning and looked the area over very good till around noon. Never found anything further than the last drop. 

Similar thing last year opening weekend, shot a small buck, appeared the shot was good. Found the arrow with green slime instead of bright blood. 6 of us looked for over three hours and didn't find anything other than a few drops of blood at the impact site. The deer was finally located that evening after seeing circling buzzards. The shot went in right between the shoulders, and exited just in front of the left ham. I was holding low on his right shoulder at 20yds. He was facing to my right when I released. Obviously he ducked to his right at the shot. 

I have to say that all of the practice and getting ready for the season has left me with a pretty bad taste. Might be me or simply bad juju, but I don't like loosing a deer for any reason especially when I cannot determine why.


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## Swampus (Sep 1, 2005)

Chunky said:


> Speed does not matter, as stated above...no bow is fast enough to reach before the deer reacts. So what do you do???
> 
> I keep my bow quiet for one thing, and I pick a low spot for another....however...
> It's my opinion that the most important thing is to watch the deer and only shoot when the deer is relaxed and not ready to bolt. Never, ever shoot at a deer that is looking right at you. Learn the deer's body language, notice the ears, is the tail wagging, are they picking up corn, are the muscles tense...these are the things to look for. One rookie mistake is to shoot too quickly, most of the time the deer will come in on full alert, but if you wait a few minutes they will settle down and start eating and milling around. People get to anxious to shoot and want to get that arrow off as soon as possible.
> ...


Very good advice Chunky---Give ya some more green but gotta spread some more first Hombre!--That is the way Daddy taught me as a young hunter also.

I stalked up on a buck in LLano in 75'--13 at the time with a Fred Bear Kodiak--Good 8 in a draw eating "Pe-Cans"--drew back--he looked at me--went back to munching down on them nuts--let it fly and he hunched down to the ground touching the ground with his belly--arrow passed right over his back--I was sick--guess he was not "Relaxed" enough. Tough lesson for me--Dad laughed--Good times!

swamp


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## TXPalerider (May 21, 2004)

Something that I have started to notice is, if a deer has it's head down, its back drops farther (lower) quicker than a deer with his head up. Their body movement is not being counteracted by the momentum of their head being pulled down. (Did/does that make any sense? ) Also, deer that are alone react faster than deer in groups.

At least that has been my experience.


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## Captn C (May 21, 2004)

TXPalerider said:


> Something that I have started to notice is, *if a deer has it's head down, its back drops farther (lower) quicker than a deer with his head up.* Their body movement is not being counteracted by the momentum of their head being pulled down. (Did/does that make any sense? ) Also, deer that are alone react faster than deer in groups.
> 
> At least that has been my experience.


I agree 100% I post that in a thread a sometime back and didn't get many positive reponses...but it makes alot of sense to me...I like to wait for the deer to pick its head up to watch one of the other deer moving around the area.


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## Chunky (Oct 15, 2006)

I never thought about do they go down farther when there is up or down...that is something I will pay attention to in the future, makes sense though.

I do agree that deer in a group are always calmer than individuals, herd animals...strength in numbers.....of course in that senerio you also have a lot more eyes to fool when moving.

Screeminreel...you said the shot was solid. Do you know exactly where the arrow hit.

I am not saying this happened to you, but there have been a few times when things happened so fast I was wrong about what actually did happen. I would have bet you a thousand bucks one time that I missed a doe at Baker in Rocksprings. I saw the arrow in the air on the other side of her. In fact, it had passed through her neck and then she had spun real fast creating the illusion. She only went about 30 yards. I saw a buzzard land over there and got up to investigate. 

Another time, I would have bet the farm that I shot a doe, but she fed right in front of me for 30 minutes with no holes in her...I can only guess that I shot just under, but it did not look like it to me at the time. 

Of course on the other hand, I have shot a couple of deer that should have been dead, and can not explain how they survived the hit. I saw the wound after the shot with the animal still alive the next day.


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