My first archery buck this past fall was a bad hit. At 7:00 am, it came walking up a road under my stand and stopped broadside at 20yds on the money. When the release broke, he evidently tried to duck the arrow but it caught him square between the shoulder blades, and out his lower abdomen just in front of his offside ham.
At impact he was nearly knocked off his feet, and about two feet sideways. He took off somewhat peculiar running into and through the small trees and brush. I knew it was a good hit, but wasn't sure just where. After 15 minutes of quiet, I eased down to find the arrow covered in the unmistakable green stuff. At this point I had no idea of how a lower lung shot could have resulted in this sort of hit, so we waited several hours before tracking him up. He made it to adound 70 yds from the initial hit and laid up in some 6' tall weeds, where we walked within feet of him several times but didn't see him. There was only three drops of blood along the whole way, and after some of the stuff I went through could have easily been mine. We did find him with the help of the buzzards late that evening, but with the 89 degree temps and them doing what they do best, all I managed to salvage was the tagged horns.
The broadhead opened up an almost 3" hole throught he spine and hide, blowing vertabre and muscle apart as it went through. When inspecting the inpact and exit wound it was a wonder he made it one step much less as far as he did.
IF your aiming for this shot, DON'T. It is a makeable shot, however it wil not be reliable and will result in most cases of a very long tracking job and/or as previously mentioned a slow agonizing expiration of the animal. Stuff happens like in my case and I am sure others, but the best thing is to wait for the broadside shot that will allow you to put the arrow into the vitals directly.
