I was minding my business tanning when an elk attacked me from out of sight. It caused my shortbow to slip from my grasp or so it said in the game messages. However I still had my shortbow in hand and managed to get off a couple sloppy shots before the bugger ran off. Lo and behold on the ground where I was tanning the shortbow that slipped from my grasp was there! So now I have 2 shortbows.