High Shoulder Shot

Well, I wish I was typing up a story with something to back it up.

Sunday night I was out in the treestand praying a good buck would walk by and to my surprise at 4:15 I have a nice 8 pt (130-135″) come out of the thicket about 60 yards away. Over the next 5 mins he slowly makes it my way and is walking directly to me. When he got to 20 yards, I came to full draw, at about 15 yards, he decided to turn toward me instead of staying on the trail. I would’ve shot earlier but I had tree branches and brush in the way so I couldn’t shoot. When he cleared past the tree at 10 yards, I was confident that I could tuck the arrow right behind his shoulder and made the split decision to shoot before he walked under my tree.

Now, before I get bashed by some on a close quartering-to shot, I have made this same shot before and have killed all 3 deer by shooting in almost the exact same location. The previous 3 were all within 10 yards of the tree and my arrow has had a complete pass through until Sunday.

Well as the title states, I pounded his shoulder and only got about 6-8″ of penetration. Of course it had to rain all of Monday morning and that left “0” in the blood category. I did find my arrow about 120 yards away and it had broken off with the broadhead still inside him.

In all my years of bow hunting, I haven’t shot a deer in the shoulder before and didn’t realize the “plate of armor” that exists to protect the vitals.

We did a grid search of every 20-30′ feet on the 40 acre piece and came up with nothing. I went back yesterday and looked some more without any luck.

Just a reminder to the rest out there chasing MR BIG. Stay away from the higher shoulder shot or let the deer walk by and shoot him after he passes by your tree. It’s tough to stay patient and also hold the bow at full draw without getting busted but knowing what I know now, I would rather have the buck walk or run away without getting a shot than to wound and potentially kill without recovery.

I’ve played the event over and over in my head and came to the conclusion that the downward angle at which I shot was the difference maker and had he been out (let’s say) 20 yards the results would’ve been different.

I’m not real happy to share this on the site but it’s the reality we face as bow hunters and learning from others from personal experience is a great teaching tool.

Good Luck and shoot straight…. just not a high shoulder shot.

Everyone who has hunted long enough will have 1 or 2 of those Moments that they wish they could have back. Its not always easy to make the best decision in the heat of the moment, Always much easier to rethink it after when things have showed down. Don’t beat yourself up to bad. As you said live and learn. Hopefully your lesson will give others a reason to re-think the decision when they are in the same situation.

Get back on the horse Gobbler…it’s just part of the deal.

The fact that you’re upset about it, shows the level of respect you have for the animal and our great past-time.

As you know, we’ve all been there and we all learn from our previous mistakes. I attempted a very similar shot on a big doe a few weeks ago and had almost the exact same result.

Deer are tough animals and if it’s any consolation that deer should be around next year for you to get another crack at him.

That’s a tough one Gobbler and believe me I know how you feel!

I would venture to say that I usually learn a more valuable lesson about shot placement, when I lose a deer (assuming I was able to tell where the shot was) that when I kill one. The lessons are always tough, but I have learned to take fewer questionable shots than in the past.

I watched Greg Ritz make a “questionable” shot the other night on Hunt Masters. Which led to a shot Lee Lakosky messed up on a giant at 20 yards. Lee’s buck lived after hitting him high in the shoulder. He was lucky to harvest the giant later on. Greg never found his deer. A 150+ giant.

I’ve had bad stuff happen to me before. I hate it, but it happens. I look at it this way. Stuff happens to everyone!

Had buddy make an identical shot on a 170″ giant named Zombie last year. A 20 yard chip shot, but stuff happens. He drilled it in the high shoulder and proceeded to chase it for the next 3 days. Ended up getting pictures of it 1 week later and we have pictures of it this year, and have seen him on the hoof. All “Zombie” has to show for it is a bump on his shoulder.

It’s kind of a Catch-22, you hope they die from a shoulder shot, but if they don’t die within a day or two, you hope they live.

I put a camera out over looking a couple of scrapes right on the main trail in the area I was hunting. I’m pretty sure that I will get him on camera sometime in the next couple of weeks (if he made it).

It sucks, but it happens. Every bow hunter will experience the sickening feeling of losing a deer (I have) There’s always hope with getting on another buck. You have a great late season spot this year and i’m sure you’ll soon regain the confidence

It happens to us all man , get back on the horse and rock one