Here are a couple of take aways from this video and the one prior where he shoots the buck straight on in the neck and loses it. First, he states in a recent video he is shooting lower poundage now and maybe that was the cause of the failure. I believe he stated it was in the 50 to 55 pound range.
Frontal neck shot. I've taken that frontal neck shot a few years ago at 8 yards and it worked (that time). I was shooting a light arrow and an expandable. The shot was perfect, and things worked out for me. The arrow ended up in three pieces. The buck died quick, but I now see that I rolled the dice and got lucky. Would I do it again with that setup? Personally, no. It could have easily gone the other way. In the video, when he is talking about the temptation to take that shot in the heat of the moment, he says he talked himself into it and you can tell he regrets it. This is a guy with a lot of experience and has shot a lot of deer and he talked himself into an iffy shot when he says he should have waited. What does that say about a new hunter who is shooting light and fast and sees a good buck under less than perfect broadside conditions? Then there are the arguments people make about shot placement. Dan is a good shot. The distance was like 10 yards. Just after the shot he believed he nailed it. Only after reviewing the footage later does he decide the impact was off.
My experience is that under real world hunting conditions you cannot count on accuracy to save you when that is all you have going for you. I practice all year long and I can and do blow perfectly easy shots in the woods. Seasoned hunters talk themselves into taking marginal shots in the heat of the moment that they would not advocate taking under normal conditions.
The spine shot in this video. Dan passes on trying to make a rushed shot as the buck appears suddenly in the first opening at about 20 yards. That was a great call and shows Dan is cool under pressure and is thinking ethically about the shot and his ability to make it quickly. Then Dan realizes the buck is moving toward a second opening. He states he tried to range the second opening, but his range finder had nothing to register off of. He guesses it to be 30 yards. Then he says he knows he has about a 3 inch drop from 20 to 30 so if he aims on top of the vitals the arrow should drop into the lungs or heart. He makes the shot and them comments he did not get a pass through since he hears the arrow hitting branches as the buck runs off. He considers the shot a slam dunk until he finds the arrow and it is basically only missing the broadhead and inert and a half inch of shaft. Later in the video he states he followed up the tracks (no or little blood) and bumped the buck out of its bed. I've never seen a Wisconsin buck in the flesh, but they have to be bigger than the little Southern deer we have around here. I would not expect that hit with a light arrow to break one of our bucks' spines.
I've hit deer in the spine with light fast arrows a few times. These were 90 pound on the hoof Southern does. In these instances, the shot was off from where I intended to hit, and in the few cases it happened I got lucky and they dropped and that allowed for a coup de gras. I hit a big Ohio buck high in the shoulder near the spine with that same light fast arrow setup and he stopped it cold and jumped/rolled off a 160 foot very steep ridge into the Little Scioto River. I was amazed the fall itself didn't kill him. I never saw him again but the farmer we were leasing the land from that year reported he saw the buck a week later and it was chasing does. That was the end of light fast arrows for me. The next time I had a big Ohio buck in front of me was a couple of years later after changing over to a heavy set up with single bevel broadheads. I had used this on quite a few deer prior and knew its capabilities. When the buck presented a broadside shot at 12 yards, I shot him through both shoulders to anchor him. He never took another upright step. His front legs collapsed, and he pushed himself on his nose with his hind legs upright 20 or so yards off into a creek and died there seconds later. The broadhead went through the onside shoulder, crossed the body and cut the offside humorous bone in two. I know things go wrong all too often. Will a heavy, high FOC arrow always bring down the deer under all conditions? No. This is the real world and strangely animals don't want to die. Does it give me the best chance of reaching the vitals when things go wrong and the arrow hits something hard inside the deer? Yes.
Like I said before, I'm not knocking Dan. I have a huge amount of respect for his hunting skill and his integrity for showing the video and not sweeping it under the rug like I assume some TV or internet celebrities might do. You can tell he feels terrible about it. What I would like to see is a discussion about penetration and maybe a change in his setup to a slightly heavier arrow and broadhead configuration. As much thought as Dan puts in to scouting, stand design, stick design, buck behavior, etc it amazes me he seems to ignore the elephant in the room. If he had a stand that creaked or popped on him at the wrong time and it cost him two good bucks in a row, I have zero doubt he would take that stand completely apart and get to the bottom of the problem. And if he had to, he would build his own stand to fix that issue. Why not question the only part of the whole system that actually makes physical contact with the deer, the arrow and broadhead?