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Neck shot deer with a Bow?

55K views 46 replies 42 participants last post by  bigbucks170  
#1 ·
Question is will a neck shot deer live or die? No need to get hateful just everyones thoughts I say no it will live unless it drops on the spot. This is not a gun shot question just with a bow!
 
#3 ·
I believe yes anything can happen but would you find the deer? Could also get some type of blood posion also and die. more along the lines of a few hours dead or suffer dead?
 
#6 ·
There is a lot of muscles in the neck. Where there is muscle there are veins and artries. I would believe a shot in the muscles would kill quicker than one in the wind pipe plus there would be blood to follow.
 
#10 ·
ive shot 3 deer in the neck.. not the shot to take.. found 2 of the 3 all have ran.. one ran a long ways befor dieing and lost blood pry about 100yrds into the trail.. other one ran 20yrds up hill then fell all way back to where i shot him.. but i shot one down threw the neck under me and he ran off and never found him. DONT RECCOMEND THE SHOT! but yes it can kill them all depends what is hit
 
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#12 ·
not a yes or no question... depends on a lot of different factors; actual shot placement, angles, etc. Way too much room for error to purposly shoot a deer in the neck with a bow IMO.If you hit the spine it will drop right there, if you catch the esophogus it might live for hours or days and then die, if you hit the artery it may run 100 yards and die, if you hit muscle it may live or it may die a week later...etc.
 
#16 ·
It depends on what is hit. One of the guys in my club, who is no longer a member I might add, purposefully shot one in the neck last year because it was the only shot he had. The arrow hit the back of the deers neck on the left side and came out on that side. The deer was trailed for many hours with a dog and never found. We got a picture of the buck a 5 days later with a nasty oozing wound on its neck. The wound looks like it would have gotten part of the esophagus. I never got another picture of that deer so my feeling is that it died of starvation but I can not be sure. If you get lucky and hit the carotid or the spine they will surely die but that is a shot IMHO that should never be taken because too much can happen.
 
#18 ·
Many factors play into it. Personally seen it happen because an artery was hit. If artery was missed, who knows, maybe, maybe not. Not an option in my book as a way of taking an animal, but things happen that result in situations like these. You can only hope that it does so the animal won't suffer, but many factors contribute.
 
#19 ·
First doe I shot last year was an accidental neck shot, Arrow deflected off a limb on the way to her and the Grim reaper WTS blew her wind pipe and artieries up. I was heart broke until I saw the red garden sprinkler coming out of her neck as she ran across the field and started doing the "spin of death" Needless to say I was lucky and if could go the rest of my bowhunting career without making a marginal shot like that again Ill be a happy man.
 
#20 ·
The first nice buck i shot with my bow, was shot in the neck. definitely not on purpose. was shaking like a leaf and pulled the shot
incredibly bad. i hit an artery in the neck and the blood trail was followed with a brisk walk. Incredibly easy to see.
however, i would not take that shot ever, even with a gun. way to much room for error. a neck can be incredibly lethal
if put in the right spot.
 
#22 ·
My ex hunting partner took a neck shot with his bow because he got trigger happy. Stopped following that deer after 50 yards due to "lack of blood". So I went out to put in a serious effort. 9 hours later still no deer.

After the spring thaw, found a deer carcass about a mile further back on our property. Had his arrow mixed in with the bones. Deer most likely died from infection.

Needless to say that was one of a few reasons, but he no longer hunts here.

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk 2
 
#24 ·
Depends!!!!When I was 14 I shot a pope and young in the neck on porpose because thats all he gave me to shoot at. My buddy killed a nice doe the week earlier by hitting the jugular it only went 40 yrds. After 2 1/2 miles of tracking I gave up on my buck. My neighbor ended up shooting it during shootgun season a month latter and couldn't believe the healed broadhead wound through the middle of the bucks neck. I was shooting 1 1/2 Spitfire. I'll never do that again unless the deer is like 10 yrds and facing me.
 
#25 ·
Seems to be hit and miss.. the only one i ever hit in the neck I never found nor was there much blood but the arrow was still in him. plus i couldnt even get on the property next to mine to look. I still say shoot for te vitals but bad things happen and a hit in the neck can happen. I just figured it would not kill a deer after my experience.
 
#26 ·
In the pic below where the leaf is on the deers neck is where a broadhead exited. The entrance was directly on the other side and just a bit higher. I estimate the clean and healing wound was two weeks old. I looked this deer over closely and I have no idea how the arrow passed through without mortally wounding the animal!!! I did a minor autopsy and the path the arrow took was obvious but obviously healing cleanly. I killed this buck chasing does......... If I saw an arrow enter a deers neck in this location I would swear it would go down quickly either because of severely damaged vertebrae or a severed artery(s).

I can not remember if the arrow went over or under the neck vertebrae.

 
#28 ·
Did this 15 years ago, the buck jumped my string and the arrow went in-between the spine and arteries which is all muscle. This was down right disheartening to say the least, seeing the arrow sticking out of his neck on both sides, BH on one side and feathers on the other side. Fortunately the buck managed to pull the arrow out and live to see another year. I would not intentionally aim for the neck since the target is to small, if you do not hit the spine or arteries everything else is muscle and in a rutting buck that's alot of neck.