I sit in one of my Covert Hunting ground-blinds and watched four doe slowly feed my way. The four were feeding on Buck Ration as I prepared to make a shot on the largest of the group. I was self-filming the hunt, which adds a new element of difficultly to any hunt, but all was going my way. The deer were on camera, calm and completely unaware of my plans. The wind was light and in my favor as I wanted for the mature doe in the group to get in the right spot, giving a clear broadside shot. With her head down and feeding, I drew the Mathews without detection.
A 20-yard chip shot, I was relaxed and ready. Settling the 20-yard pin over her lungs, I squeezed the trigger on my Spot Hogg Wise Guy release. As soon as the arrow took flight, deer scattered in every direction. The target animal clearly took the arrow. I played back the footage on the video camera, and to my dismay, I could see the impact of the arrow hitting her high and mid-body. Not a perfect shot, not what I had envisioned.
I am a fair shot with my trusty Mathews Z7. Not great but better than average. I shoot year round, practicing during the off-season in 3D tournaments and the backyard. I can put my Black Eagle Carnivores into the bottom of a Starbucks cup at 30-yards nine out-of-ten times and not miss by much on the tenth shot.
This missed opportunity at that doe had my confidence shaken to its very core. I even said I was not going to bow hunt, will maybe not, but I felt like it. I checked everything and checked it again. The bow was fine; I could still hit what I was shooting at inside 40-yards. Why had I missed? Was I trying to “look the arrow” into the deer, not following through or had buck fever taken over in the moment of truth.
Nightmares followed for days if not weeks, what was I doing wrong? How could this happen? I watched and watched the video of the doe, seeking answers to the nagging questions. Studying the video in slow motion and adding landmarks to the video finally reviled answers, at least some answers.
In the video, you will see two red dots imposed by editing software. The dot to the left rests on the does back before the arrow is released. The idea was to see how far the doe moved downward after the arrow is released. The red dot on the right is where I was aiming (based on where the arrow’s path took it) after the arrow left the bow. You can witness, in slow motion, what happened upon release of the arrow.
For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. In this case, the doe bent her front knees as she prepared to run. This resulted in two very impactful actions taking place simultaneously. As she “loaded” her legs to run, her front shoulder drops down and forward. This resulted in her back also dropping and moving forward. As you can see in the video, her movement caused the arrow to hit her high and mid-body.
The slow motion video served to put my mind some-what at ease that I had mostly done my part, I had not made a bad shot, just had failed to put the arrow where it needed to be. I read on social media a lot about hunters that made less than perfect shots followed by want-to-be Fred Bear types being critical of the hunters shooting ability. Sometime it is not an errored shot; rather a failure to understand what happens after an arrow takes flight. It is my hope that this video will help others learn from my mistakes.
As for the doe, she ran about 40 yards before expiring; I had hit the top of lungs and the aorta causing a quick kill. I got lucky.
Moral to this story, aim low, always aim low.