Some deer hunters call it a “dead zone” or “dead space.” Some call it “no man’s land.” Most say it is an empty space located below the spine and above the lungs of a deer, and some talk about completely different locations. Is any of it real? No matter what you call this mysterious void or where you think it is, there’s an easy way to see the truth with your own eyes the next time you field-dress a deer.
I learned this trick from Dr. Tim Lewis who wrote about the “dead space” in his book, Tales of Trails: Finding Game After the Shot. Following Tim’s advice, I looked inside the rib cage of the next deer I shot, seeking the fabled “dead space.” I took the photo you see below.
See that column of heavy bone that dips down into the chest cavity? That’s the spine. It sits low in the chest while the ribs curve upward from it. The lungs completely fill the arch on either side all the way up to the ribs. So, the spine actually dips down between the lungs a little. Tim described the arches of the ribs in this cross-section view as looking a little bit like the top of a valentine heart.
Seen from a broadside view, the spine and lungs actually overlap a little. There’s no gap. There’s no empty space. There’s no air. It’s extremely unlikely for an arrow or bullet to pass below the spine in the forward chest region without hitting lungs. But since this simple debunking of the “dead space” isn’t enough for the most ardent believers, let’s look at additional arguments as well as five reasons Tim says hunters cling to belief in the dead space.
No Air in the Chest
Some people seem to imagine a deer’s vital organs bouncing around freely inside a roomy rib cage, capable of dodging arrows and bullets. When presented with the structural problem I just showed you above, they say things like this actual comment from our social media: “When [deer] exhale and the lungs deflate, there is an empty space.”
Your doctor has entered the chat. Your doctor will tell you that a deer’s lungs, just like your lungs, completely fill the chest cavity because they are held there by a vacuum. They don’t withdraw from the ribs when a deer exhales. The ribs and diaphragm move instead to create the pressure that pulls air into the lungs and pushes it back out again. Do you know what your doctor calls it when air gets into the space between your lungs and your chest wall? A “collapsed lung.” It’s not a normal or good thing, as I’m sure you know.
When we handle deer lungs while field-dressing deer, they often seem shrunken and small. That’s because they’ve literally collapsed. You introduced air into the chest cavity with a bullet or arrow. Before air entered through this wound, the only air in the chest was inside the lung, which fully filled the rib cage.
Above The Spine?
Among other social media comments we get on this topic, several people say this “dead zone” or “no man’s land” is above the spine. It’s certainly possible to hit above the spine in the chest region, because to many people’s surprise the spine slopes downward toward the front of a deer’s body – as you can see in the anatomically correct cut-away target shown below.
But that’s not an empty space. It’s just the backstraps, which is only muscle. If by “dead zone” you mean a “miss,” then okay, I can agree. If you hit muscle anywhere on a deer – backstraps, lower legs, hindquarters – without hitting vital organs, you missed. It wasn’t a clean miss, but you missed the lethal area nonetheless.
Lethal Hits
I’m not saying arrows or bullets that hit high in a deer’s heart/lung area are 100% lethal. There are always rare exceptions given all the variables such as angle, range, movement and more. But if you hit a deer in the heart/lung area and can’t recover it, you can’t blame an empty space in the deer’s chest. Either you didn’t hit where you think you did, or something unusual happened. Here’s an excerpt from Dr. Tim Lewis’s book that is appropriate here:
“Because a deer’s lungs fill virtually all the space in the chest not occupied by the heart, blood vessels, or airways, it is nigh to impossible for a broadhead to pass through the chest without cutting lung tissue. There is no void or dead space. The reasons for the unrecovered deer that perpetuate the myth are several and probably vary with each case.”
Yet, the empty space still has its believers, and our social media comments prove it regularly. In his book, Tim outlined five possibilities for the steadfastness of belief in empty spaces in the chest cavity.
5 Explanations for the Dead Space Myth
First is lack of awareness that the spine drops low near the neck instead of following the horizontal line of the back. A rearward hit could go below the spine and hit lungs, while a forward hit at the same level could pass above the spine and hit only muscle. Look again at that photo above.
Second, Tim points out that the lungs taper toward the rear, presenting a higher, thinner, smaller target. It’s possible to perceive a “lung” hit that actually misses or grazes the tips of the lungs – a hit that is less likely to result in a quick recovery.
Third, the arrow didn’t hit where the hunter thinks it did. Tim admits his own eyes have been fooled many times. Hits he thought were in one spot actually landed somewhere different. A hunter convinced of a vital hit who never recovers the deer might wonder about empty spaces.
Fourth, the blood from a high lung hit might pool internally, leaving little or no blood trail. “The lack of a blood trail could leave a hunter to conclude the lungs were not hit despite seeing the good shot,” writes Tim.
Fifth is a psychological reflex. As Tim writes, “Nobody wants to believe he or she killed a deer and was not able to recover it.” An imaginary empty space helps us believe both that our shot was accurate and the deer will survive.
Where to Aim
Let me summarize this as clearly as I can: There’s no empty space in a deer’s vital area between the spine and lungs where your arrow can pass without hitting either one. Forget the complicated anatomical explanations, because there’s a simple way to see this for yourself. All you have to do is look inside the rib cage of the next deer you field-dress.
Nevertheless, shot placement on deer remains an important subject of ongoing discussion, and it should. It’s the most crucial question in hunting ethics. It’s the crossroads at which all your hunting preparation and scouting efforts can turn toward success or failure. We cannot put too much thought into where we aim on a deer. For excellent guidance, I urge you to watch and share the following video by my NDA colleague Kip Adams.