How much blood does a deer have in it?

kodiakhuntmaster · 10-24-2008, 12:19 AM

This morning, my neighbor asked me to help him track a buck he shot but couldn't find. The shot was a pass through at 40 yards,showed me the arrow and it didn't look like a gut shot. He said the deer didn't react to the shot, it just walked away. He tracked it several hundred yards before getting me (when the deer crossed onto another neighbors property that I have permisson to hunt).

Here's the thing I don't understand... It was the best blood trail I have ever seen. It was steady, wide, and very consistant. The blood was bright, and in places had bubbles. Not bright like pink, but certainly not dark. From the trail, it looked like it was shot by a .300 win mag. I kept telling him, that deer had to be right around the next bend, because deer just don't have that much blood in them, but this thing appeared to be spilling gallons. And the trail went just like that the whole way. It traveled for probably a mile, and then, 2 hours after the shot, we jumped the buck. It started raining hard, and he marked where the last blood was, he's going to look for it tomorrow.

So I guess I have two questions, how much blood does a deer have in it? And where in the world can you hit a deer that drops that much blood, but the deer lives for over two hours?

AK NIMROD · 10-24-2008, 12:37 AM

in bowhunter education they say 100 lb deer has 100oz. it is suppose to correlate but i'm no expert on that.
a little blood looks like alot, very often there is just few ounces of blood in couple hundred yards. in my book if alot of blood and animal is not within 100 yards it is probably a muscle hit not ( immediately) fatal. animals are very tough and survive most of these muscle hits,
i have helped track 2 bears and 1 caribou that had great blood trail multiple blood beds, best example was big bear left overnight. 200 yard trail easy to follow beds got closer and closer to point of bloody beds on opposite sides of large tree. it was assumed by all three of us the bear would be dead, by the blood trail we were following. We saw the bear walk away slowly. hunter could not get second shot. never found bear, when video was reveiwed , arrow hit at quartering away angle and too far forward around shoulder blade, probably never entered the chest cavity. we figured it was just a muscle hit and bleeding stopped during night as animal rested and left no blood trail next morning. other animals were also non fatal muscle hits bleeding stopped over night. hits like that should be pushed as to keep bleeding going...easier said that done when dark.
friend of mine was attacked by wounded deer at night while tracking and ended up with busted ribs. could be alot worse with animal like a bear.

kodiakhuntmaster · 10-24-2008, 12:50 AM

Thank you, Sir,

I found a quote online that said the same thing, that a deer would have about an ounce of blood for each pound of body weight. So a 160-pound deer would have about 5 quarts of blood (since there are 32 ounces in a quart). It sure looked like a lot more than that though. The arrow had blood all over it like it had passed through the vitals or another large body section, maybe a rear leg hit?

GMMAT · 10-24-2008, 02:48 AM

Go get a tablespoon of milk.....and spill it in your floor. That'll show you what a little blood can look like.

You never did say if the guy got on this deer's trail right away. Did he start tracking right after he shot it?

rybohunter · 10-24-2008, 04:58 AM

Idon't know how much blood they have, but I do know a little bit of blood can LOOK like a ton.

im ocd · 10-24-2008, 05:05 AM

I read somewhere if a deer loses 3 quarts it's done.

GMMAT · 10-24-2008, 05:52 AM

Quote:

I read somewhere if a deer loses 3 quarts it's done.

That's an astounding amount of blood to lose (almost 100 ounces). Most does would bleed OUT here with that amount of blood loss....lol.

I wasn't kidding about the tablespoon of milk. Drop that on your kitchen floor and see how shocking it would be to find that in the woods.

mauser06 · 10-24-2008, 06:01 AM

the others are right....a little bit of blood on the ground looks like a lot more than it is....

instead of milk, take a gallon of red paint in the woods...it'll take you a longggggg while to make a realistic blood trail and get rid of that gallon of paint lol...

i dont know what to tell you about the hit...not enough info for me...definently go back and search later...good luck!

TreednNC · 10-24-2008, 06:14 AM

3qts is 6 pints.......good grief, a human would passed out by then lol

kenman · 10-24-2008, 06:26 AM

From Rob's 'recovery' thread:

"A mature whitetail carries roughly 8 pints or 1 gallon of blood in their circulatory system. They need to loose roughly 2.4 pints of blood to go into shock and not recover. Think about this, we give a pint of blood when we donate, that does not affect us. One pint of blood is alot of blood on the ground when spread over a couple hundred yards. Something to think about."