Help!!! Ideas on tracking & finding a deer. Details included.

frog5533 · 11-15-2007, 08:21 AM

I know this is a specific situation and I don't have pictures of the blood but any thoughts would be useful. Last night my buddy shot a big 10 point whitetail at about 5:15 pm. He hit him in the shoulder and the arrow stayed in him. The buck evidently circled back around and my buddy put another arrow in him. He isn't sure where he hit but he knows that he did. I quizzed him a bit after he calmed down and he thinks it was a little far back so I'm guessing he gut shot him. We waited until 7:00 pm because he had found a big patch/pool of blood where the buck had stopped. Anyway, we found a very good blood trail and followed it down into the bottom of the creek and he grunted at us. It sounded gurgly like his throat was full of blood so we decided to back out and wait a bit longer for him to die. He grunted a second time but we had our flashlights off and stayed still and he didn't move at all, at least not enough for us to hear any movement and the bottom was covered in dry leaves.

Anyway, we backed out and didn't go back until 10:30 pm and went back to where we had stopped. We followed theblood trail, still very good, until we found the broken off arrow. From that point the blood started to slow and we ended up getting on our hands and knees to find little tiny spots about 10 feet apart. We seached until midnight and couldn't find him and then we went back out this morning at 6:00 am and searched an hour & a half and had to go to work.

Questions for any and all to answer because I am new to archery. I just shot my first buck last Sunday (I posted him on here because I was pretty excited

):

1. Should we have pushed that buck to make him continue bleeding or was backing out the right thing to do?
2. The broadhead should still be in him. In your opinion is this deer dead and we justneed to find him?
3. Blood was bright red. If hit him in the shoulder and let's say the gut, wouldn't he still die overnight?
4. It was about 20 degrees last night, would the wound sealoff if the arrow is out due to the cold?

Remember, this archery business is pretty new to me so these might be stupid questions to some of you but I've only had one deer kill with my bow so I don't know all the answers. Any advice would be appreciated before we head back after work tonight.

Thanks,

Ty

GMMAT · 11-15-2007, 08:25 AM

Did you find the second arrow?

Did you read the thread about recovery at the top of the page?

frog5533 · 11-15-2007, 08:31 AM

GMMAT,

We didn't find the other arrow and I have not read the thread about recovery. I will do that right now.

Ty

virginiashadow · 11-15-2007, 08:31 AM

That deer sounds DEAD. The reason why the blood might have stopped is because something may be plugging the wound exit. GO BACK today and find that deer. Mark the last place you found blood and before tracking...think of how that deer travelled. Was he travelling in a clearly distinguished pattern toward something....was he seeking water? Follow the creek on both sides in opposite directions for 400 yards...YOU will find him by that creek I bet in a tangled mess, maybe even under a laydown. Go slow and value every bit of evidence you find.

shadow

Vabowman · 11-15-2007, 08:39 AM

How far did the firstarrow go in? The second arrow should have produced even more blood. How far have you tracked him? Backing out is always good, you should have just backed out the first time and let him go all night, not go back at 10:30. I know, it's hard, especially if you have to work, but if it is cold enough, it would be fine to go back in the afternoon if you can. It would seem very hard for a deer to survive 2 shots. The amount of blood should be prevelant. Good luck, and if you have to get down on yours knees to look for blood and/or pray, then do it!! Go get him!!

frog5533 · 11-15-2007, 08:50 AM

GMMAT,

That thread was great and it makes me think we should have waited longer to go in.

Vabowman,

The first arrow looked like it went in aboutfour to six inches. That might be an overstatement because if it had gone in that far it would have probably taken out something to make him die quicker. The broadhead was broken off and there was blood, that had probably drained or smeared, for I'm guessing eight inches.

We tracked him for probably 80 yards to 100 yards. It's hard to tell because we were in the dark.

Vabowman · 11-15-2007, 08:53 AM

Ok, that's not that far. That's good. I shot one last night right through both shoulder blades and out the other side, she ran 100 yds and dropped. If he hit the deer in the gut or liver with the second shot, the deer is dead. How far did you go this morning tracking blood?

rybohunter · 11-15-2007, 08:58 AM

The recovery thread would have helped you immensely. Your FIRST time looking for the deer should have been the next morning.

Hopefully you can still get out and do grid searches to find hom, as he is most likely dead.

frog5533 · 11-15-2007, 09:04 AM

Vabowman,

We still couldn't find anymore blood from where we stopped last night and marked it. We left an arrow there so we will have to try again to see what we can find.

frog5533 · 11-15-2007, 09:07 AM

rybohunter,

I wish I would have looked read that thread before. That was very useful and I'm going to show all my hunting buddies. It was a miskake and hopefully we will just have to comb every inch of that property now. This is the biggest buck he's shot and by the description sounds like one that would be a wallhanger. We won't give up. Thank you for the advice.