A deer's reflexes never ceases to amaze me!!!!

Like the title says, I am in awe of what a deer can do in the blink of an eye! Last Friday afternoon, I was sitting in a stand at good friends ranch near Sonora, Tx. He took me to hunt and told me I could shoot does. I was happy for the opportunity to fill my freezer, as my season thus far has been less than stellar!

Anyway, we got out there Friday afternoon, and got in the stands by about 4:30pm. Not long after I sat down, a nice doe came strolling through. She got in a good position at about 13yds, seemed to be very calm, and I decided to take the shot. I had my string tracker on the bow.

I released the arrow, only to see it just clear the top of her back. I was really mad at myself for blowing such a good opportunity. I was looking for something to blame, and of course, my attn went to the string tracker. I cussed it a bit (even though I knew deep down that it was not the problem), and took it off my bow.

About 30 minutes later, a couple more does came through, and I ended up getting a shot at almost the exact same distance as the first one. I centerpunched this one though, and it only made it about 40yds, and was dead in about 5-10 seconds.

         

My suspitions were verified! It had to be the string tracker, right????

Well, the next morning I went back to the same spot, hoping I would see more does to shoot. I did see some deer, but did not get a shot. Near the end of the morning hunt, I was sitting in my ground blind, and I looked out the window at the cactus that my miss arrow had gone through.

Right then it struck me! It may not have been the string tracker or my bad shooting that messed up that first shot! It may have been the deer that did it!!!

As I stared at that cactus with the hole in it, my mind was telling me that there was no possible way that my arrow could have went over the deer, and yet through that cactus pad, but I had seen it with my own eyes! When I got out of the stand, I walked over and took a couple pics with an arrow as a reference. The arrow had gone thru this cactus straight to the cactus in the background at about the same height.

         

The long cut you see in the cactus pad is where I ripped the string tracker line out of it! I think the bug is drinking cactus juice from the cut.

         

This cactus pad was about 5' behind where the full grown doe had been standing when I shot. I measured with a yard stick to the mark on my arrow that lined up with the hole. It was just over 14" off the ground!

She ducked, and twisted, and matrix moved enough to get all the way under that arrow, SHOT FROM JUST 13YDS AWAY!!!!!!!

Just the fact that she could even recognize the sound and react at all, much less get all the way out of the path of the arrow just totally amazes me! If my calculations are correct, the arrow traveled from my bow to her in about 1/4 of a second! They are truly awesome critters, and events like that one make we wonder sometimes how we ever get any in our freezer!

Bisch

[TooManyHobbies]

They are pretty amazing animals.

Congrats on the doe. Guess she was a bit slow on ducking.

[DanielB89]

they're very impressive to say the least.  I had a similar thing happen to me a couple weekends ago.  I shot a doe at about 15 yards and upon release my "perfect" shot turn into a bad one.  Hit her high and back, long day, but did get her thankfully!

[Ethan Johnson]

I shot a spike on Sunday afternoon at 17 yds.  I watched my arrow go right where I wanted it, except the deer lunged forward and i hit the back hip.  Luckily I caught the femoral artery and had no problem finding the deer

[TexasTrad]

Congrats Bisch... I knew it wouldn't be long before you scored.

Is that a 4 blade broadhead hole I see...what happened  to the German kenetics??

I do wonder if the string trackers make more noise and cause a bigger reaction from the deer.

I have the string tracker bracket that you made for me on my bow but am a little afraid to try it

[Pine]

They are amazing , but on the flip side , how many have no reaction at all .    

[Doc Nock]

I've heard tell here I think, about deer standing broad side in TX and the shot entered the opposite side, indicating they'd turned 180* till the arrow arrived...that's quick!    :eek:  

I watched a series of DVDs on deer hunting where the video replayed all the shots in slow motion with a circle on the kill zone or a line on the back and you SEE how far a deer can drop with hyper fast bows of the "other" design...

Amazing... I aim for the heart and if they drop it's still good lung hit...but I still loose out often...

As it should be... how else would they survive?

[Michael Arnette]

Originally posted by Graps:
They are amazing , but on the flip side , how many have no reaction at all .      

No kidding!

Originally posted by TexasTrad:
Congrats Bisch... I knew it wouldn't be long before you scored.

Is that a 4 blade broadhead hole I see...what happened  to the German kenetics??

I do wonder if the string trackers make more noise and cause a bigger reaction from the deer.

I have the string tracker bracket that you made for me on my bow but am a little afraid to try it

I carry some Magnus Stingers with bleeders for hogs. They fly just as well as the GK's, and that just happened to be the one I grabbed out of my quiver. The doe I got was shot with an 1.5" wide GK XL broadhead.

I can assure you that the string trackers make more noise, and probably more of a reaction out of the deer. I have also seen thru use that the deer tend to go a bit farther after the shot with that string running thru them.

Bisch

Originally posted by Graps:
They are amazing , but on the flip side , how many have no reaction at all .        

The answer to that is NONE!!!!!! All you have to do is watch videos in slo-mo to prove that point. Even on shots where the hunter says "He never moved an inch!", if you watch the shot in slo-mo, they drop a couple inches or more.

Bisch

[Danny Rowan]

Way to go Bisch, I know Sonora well, grew up in Ozona and have a good friend, Randy Gillet who has a ranch near Sonora, inherited from his grandmother.

[Arctic Hunter]

I shot one a couple years ago from a stand at about 32-35 yards. It looked like the shot was perfect.

When I found the deer, the entry hole was 2 or 3 inches lower than the exit. The deer must have been at one heck of an angle as it ducked and leaned away. I didn't even really notice it at the shot.

Impressed me enough to take pictures of it.

[Pine]

I take it that you have never shot a double lung without hitting a rib .
A deer will sometimes just lift there head and look around , go back to eating and then just drop after a few seconds .
There was this one time many years ago that I had a shot that was a little over 20 yards , there was a big branch between me and the deer .
It intimidated me and I shoot low just barely missing the chest .
The deer turned it's head and looked at the arrow stuck in the ground .
I nocked another arrow and the deer looked at me and decided I wasn't going to get a second shot .

[johnnyk71]

Originally posted by Doc Nock:
I've heard tell here I think, about deer standing broad side in TX and the shot entered the opposite side, indicating they'd turned 180* till the arrow arrived...that's quick!     :eek:  

I watched a series of DVDs on deer hunting where the video replayed all the shots in slow motion with a circle on the kill zone or a line on the back and you SEE how far a deer can drop with hyper fast bows of the "other" design...

Amazing... I aim for the heart and if they drop it's still good lung hit...but I still loose out often...

As it should be... how else would they survive?

i also aim for the bottom of the heart. if they drop a tiny bit, it's a center-punched heart. if they drop more, it's a double lung shot. they ALWAYS drop at least a little at stick bow distances. i have yet to shoot over one since taking up this strategy, but i know the day is coming.

the 180 switch story was told to me by a buddy here who hunted Africa. dude shot a warthog with a compound. he told the tracker shot it in the right side. the tracker said, "no, you shot it in the left side". dude swore up and down that he was right. turned out, the tracker was right. the animal did a complete 180 AFTER the shot but before it hit, and the guy never even saw it.

[Sam McMichael]

No matter how many times we read about it or see it for ourselves, we are amazed that an animal can react that quick. What is even more astonishing is that some of the African animals are even quicker.

[Straitshot]

Bisch,
One season I had a very nice 10 point buck at less than 15 yards. I was standing on a 6 foot ladder I had set up in a heavy cedar. Everything was perfect. The buck was broad side, head down, front leg forward and a slight breeze from the buck to me. He had no clue I was there. I concentrated on my spot just behind his left front shoulder and just under the imaginary mid line on his body. I drew and released and as soon as the arrow left I watched the buck drop and literally roll away from me as if he were falling over. The arrow entered 1/3rd down from the top of his back, slid up the rib cage just under the skin, exited out the top of his back, and dropped about four feet the other side of him. He was gone in a flash none less for wear. The arrow never penetrated the rib cage because of his uncanny abilities.

Originally posted by Graps:
I take it that you have never shot a double lung without hitting a rib .
A deer will sometimes just lift there head and look around , go back to eating and then just drop after a few seconds .

Both the does I shot this weekend were double lung without hitting  a rib! Those northern deer must be something different. I have shot my fair share of deer over the yrs, and never had one stand there and then fall over!

Bisch

[Straitshot]

Bisch,

I did have a young fork horn years ago that I double lunged without hitting a rib act as though he did not realize he had been shot. After shooting him he just sort of looked around and slowly began walking off. He laid down within about 15 yards and died. It was a very windy day when I shot him and I don't think he ever heard the arrow release.

[trick00]

After 1 of my high misses I did some research and found some info that said after the initial reaction time to a noise, a deer can drop 8" in 1 tenth of a second!

[newhouse114]

I pulled this shot from a my video of the harvest. I shows the deers front legs splayed out at the moment of impact, my target ended up being about 6 inches below where the arrow impacted on a ten yard shot. Even though the the hit was high, the deer was down in 12 seconds.