deer tracking story.

[cammogunner]

hey guys i thought i would post this and maybe get some info at the same time the other day me and my hunting buddy were hunting public land here in mo we got there well before daybreak and we got sat down in different spots on the place at around 8 am i saw a doe and after some time waiting for the right shot for a little while she gave me a broadside shot at 20 yds so i put it a little way behind the shoulder and released an arrow and sure enough she kicked like a mule and was of to the races so after waiting a few mins i called my buddy and told him what hapend and asked him to meet me at the halfway point between our spots and when i saw him about ten mins later we started tracking we had found good blood and it was hot and heavy and the arrow was covered in blood and then all of a sudden the blood stoped and there were just little specs the size of pin heads and so we got down on our hands and knees and crawled around for 2 hours looking for more blood we never found much more so we figured she had to be close by so we beat the bush looking for her but never did after 4 hours of looking so we left we think she died in the prarie a ways from where i shot her but we may never know but my question is what do you think went wrong if you guys have some input on this i would really appreciate it

 

[WestKentucky]

Sounds like you pushed her. If you let a deer lay down and luck it's wounds it will die. If it bleeds almost out and gets spooked then it will run again on pure adrenaline and leave a very sparse blood trail. Unless you see the deer drop, give it 30 mins for a good shot, an hour for any questionable shots. You may have hit too far back as well if you hit behind the shoulder. Depends on how far back you hit. Always aim at the point of the shoulder for broadside shots.

 

[LUCKYDAWG13]

all most had the same thing happen last weekend my son shot a doe in the middle of a field hit her in the middle of her chest she ran in to the woods
this was at last light and there are lots of coyotes were we hunt. so i went to were i saw her last to look for blood. back and forth up and down the field edge
then i saw just a little blood marked the spot went into the woods a little more
she got up and ran vary little blood and watery almost clear.my son
had a L E D blacklight in his backpack. we use the black light for fishing
it makes glow in the dark fishing lures glow longer. i told my son to but a
flashlight in his backpack thats what he grabbed. my son is 15 this is his
first deer. any way he shined the blacklight on the blood and it just lit up
found his deer about 50 yards away

if a deer is shot and runs give him time to die and keep a $9 black light from
wall-mart in your bag

 

[cammogunner]

yea i must have pushed her to hard thanks for the tips guys it sounds like i should wait 30 mins-1 hour i will be in the same spot on thursday hunting again so i will remember that

 

[gspn]

First let me say that I admire your tenacity and willingness to put in a lot of time and effort to find that deer. MANY people would've quit long before you did.

I started a thread a while ago on tracking wounded animals...I thought it would be good reading and serve as a text book of sorts for hunters who haven't yet honed that skill. It's good reading...here it is:

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=761416&highlight=tracking

 

[red rick]

Last year I had a similar experience . I shot a buck with my muzzleloader from about 30 yards and he took of like he wasn't hit . I could not find any blood at first , I was walking back to go sight my gun in , when I saw a piece of meat on a cider tree .

I had to do like you did and get almost down to my knees to see a few speckles of blood . Sometimes I could not see any blood , but would see a pile of ants on a leaf that had blood on it .

When I would lose the blood , I would mark the spot that I last saw blood with a orange ribbon and then look in 3 directions , starting back at where I last saw blood until I found more blood or the deer .

I was luck I found my deer , he ran back to his bed and died .

I almost gave up 3 times , it was so thick in there .

 

[351 WINCHESTER]

About 10 years ago my youngest son shot a small 6 point with his m/l shooting a patched round ball. When he shot the deer was broadside and when the smoke cleared the deer was gone. I heard the rb hit so I knew he hit him, but we never found any blood. We looked for about 2 hours, making wider and wider circles when he found it. There was no sign of a gunshot. When I lifted his tail I saw a drop of blood. I guess the buck bolted after the shot and the rb entered his rear end. Strange things happen when hunting, but we were very grateful for finding his first buck.

 

[cammogunner]

thanks gspn i take the life of any animal i shoot to be sacred and so i like many hunters including yourself do our best to find the game we shoot. that was an interesting article as well. i love to hear about how fathers have taken there sons since a young age it means at least one more person will stand up for our sport.

 

[PapaG]

I used to wait 30 minutes on a bow shot deer, assuming a good hit. Now I wait at least 45. If the weather is cool, no rain forecast, I might wait til morning. 30 minutes is half a lifetimes, 45 is two. Trying to sleep overnight before tracking is next to impossible but I figure I owe the deer that much. Deer that lie down and "go to sleep" generally taste better than those pushed to death.

 

[cammogunner]

i would have to agree with you there papag i would say the deer just running on pure adrenaline would taste nasty

 

[buck460XVR]

Hard to tell what went wrong without being there. Did the blood stop after the arrow was pulled or did you get a complete pass thru. Sometimes a deer will tsop and backtrack along the same trail so blood looks really heavy and then just stops. If this happens you have to go back along the trail and have someone else walk of to the side looking for where they jumped off. Muscle hits and high shoulder shots will bleed heavy and then quit, many times resulting in non-mortal wounds. Could be the hit was low and internal fat closed the wound after a short distance. One needs to be careful in their haste and excitement not to disrupt the blood trail so one can go back and look for other clues if the trail is lost. Too many times the person tracking walks right don and thru the bloodtrail making it difficult to go back on. How long I wait depends on the hit. Sometimes you hear the deer go down. That generally means you don't have to wait. A solid hit to the heart/lungs means a deer wil be dead before you get down outta your tree. A close examination of your arrow and the initial blood should tell you what kind of hit you probably have. If you have any doubts at all, you need to wait an hour, minimum. If you think it's a gut shot, you need to wait four hours or overnight. If that amount of time don't get you a dead deer or a second shot, odds are the hit was not mortal in the first place.

 

[cammogunner]

hey buck460xvr in reply the arrow stayed in her for 30 yds and then some how fell out thr arrow was covered in blood and we did backtrack hope this helps a little

 

[Davek1977]

Now, I'm not a bowhunter, but I've always understood it best to wait to pursue a wounded deer. I'll go directly after a deer I see fall on the spot, but if I get a good hit, and the deer doesn't drop, I am in no hurry to pursue it. If its evening, I may make note of my surroundings and return to collect the deer come morning. A wounded deer, even one hit well, can cover an amazing amount of ground, and WILL do so if pushed. Wounded deer that aren't pushed generally lay down and eventually bleed out, making recovery a fairly simple task.

 

[BudgetBucks1]

I recently shot a doe with my bow and it went 400 yards before it expired. I have hunted a long time and have never seen one go more than 150 with a hit directly to the vitals but for some reason this deer had wings. The blood trail was great for the first 150 yards and after that it slowed to a trickle. I hit the deer about two inches behind the shoulder and and it went straight through to the other side exactly opposite of where it entered. It was a perfect lower lung shot just behind the top of the heart. Best shot I have ever made with a bow and the longest one has ever ran after being hit. I have no explanation for it except that like humans some deer are just plain tougher than other deer. Don't let this experience deter you. If you bowhunt long enough it is bound to happen. Good luck with the rest of your season.

 

[cammogunner]

cool story budgetbucks thanks for the advice and good luck to you too

 

[futurerider103]

Last year was the first deer I have taken and I took a left handed shot from about 20ft up in a tree. I knew the shot to be good but she took off like I didn't hit her. I waited for her to come through the small patch of wood and into the clearing but didn't happen so about 5mins later in jumped down from the tree and went to the spot where she was when I took the shot but to my surprise there was no blood at all. I started making 10-15yd zig zags but didn't see any blood. I went out 100yds then turned back thinking I guess I just missed. I turned to go back to my tree and I seen something that looked like a white bag or something so I walled to it and there she was. 1 drop off blood out of her mouth. I hit her higher than I thought (I think I didn't account for the declination shot). She was hit just being the shoulder in the spine from a little over 100yds.


She had the last laugh though as I was getting her on the trailer I was rolling her and bam here came a flying hoof from left field right to my head.(she was dead it was me rolling her that made me hit myself really)

 

[swampcrawler]

Luckily iv never had one run out of sight, and the older guys that prefer lung shots which usually result In a runner never want to go find their own deer, so once they drive out and come get me or my dad they have had plenty of time to lay up. Like others said, If it's not bang flop, give it some time.

 

[Sun Tzu warrior]

About 4 years ago while bow hunting in Illinois, two of the guys I hunt with arrowed bucks. I helped with the search. The blood trails were very much like you described. Both deer were hit in the chest, just above the vitals, and below the spine. The reason I know this is one of the bucks was killed by the same hunter during the shotgun season, wounds almost completely healed. The other, was killed by that bow hunters wife during the shotgun season, and still had the fletching missing from the arrow in his chest cavity. because of that fletching, his wound hadn't healed, but was festering. The shotgun season was 3 weeks after the arrows hit their mark. Did you smell the arrow? It is also possible that the deer turned at the sound of your bow and you hit guts, which plugged the hole in her side. I shoot deer in the liver with my bow, they usually are DRT, as the one pictured did.
STW