By John Eberhart & Chris Eberhart:


Assuming your arrow passed through the deer, check it and the ground for the following clues to where the deer was hit:

1. Blood with small air bubbles in it indicates a lung hit.

[/b]The ideal shot is a double lung shot. There should be good blood at, or very near, the point of impact with a pass-through shot, and even without a pass-through, there should be ample blood for a quick recovery. This animal will rarely make it farther than a hundred yards and should be very easy to trail. Lung shot deer should expire within sight of your stand.

A straight down or severely angles shot in which you are aiming at the lungs will probably enable you to hit only one lung. In this case, the deer should be allowed more time to expire. The blood has to fill the shot lung and then flow over into the good lung before there is nay chance of the deer dying.

Deer can live with one good lung, just as humans can, and unless your arrow passes through an area of lung where there are large arteries, they often will survive. Try to shoot farther back in shooting a high angle at the liver to go around this potential problem.

The center of the lungs should always be your target area with a good broadside or slightly quartering away shot. Lungs present a much larger target area than any other vitals, thus leaving some margin for error. The heart is a very small target that is partially protected by the shoulder blade and leg bones. Even though Dart systems and 3 –D targets give you more points for heart shots, aim for the lungs on the real thing.

If you hit the heart, you almost missed. A double lung shot deer also will expire faster than a heart shot deer. A lung shot deer actually drowns from the blood filling its lungs, which does not take much time. A heart shot animal runs until it pumps all the blood out of its system, which in many instances will take the animal twice as long to expire.

2. An abundance of thick, coagulated (thick or syrupy) blood usually means that a main artery (jugular, femoral, liver, heart) was hit. [/b]
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If a main artery was hit, you should have a great deal of blood from shot site to expiration site. A high entry without an exit hole with a heart shot would be the only exception.

3. A good blood trail but not a tremendous amount of blood could indicate a meat hit or small artery hit. Without an obvious pass-through, this could mean just about anything.

[/b]A flesh wound or meat hit more than likely will not kill a deer. However, any time you hit an animal, you must make every effort possible to recover it or discover whether or not you killed it.
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4. Gritty green or brown substance mixed with small amounts of blood indicates that your arrow passed through the stomach or intestines.
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Way too many animals are lost to the dreaded gut shot. If you know you have made a gut or intestine shot, quietly get out of your tree and get our of the area, go to dinner, read a book, or go home and fix that leaky faucet. This deer must be given plenty of time to expire. Do not even walk in the direction the deer went for at least four to eight hours, depending on the whether. If it’s cold enough that the animal will not spoil, give it even longer.

5. A mixture of stomach matter along with quite a lot of blood indicates a hit toward the back of the rib cage, which probably caught both stomach and liver. This shot should leave one or two blades on your broadhead duller than the rest from hitting a rib. This could also mean a stomach, liver, and lung hit if the deer was quartering toward or away from you when you shot.
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A liver hit deer will get sick very quickly and not travel very far before bedding down, usually not much more than a hundred yards. This deer should be let alone for at least four hours. Unlike a gut shot, a liver hit will eave a substantial blood trail for some distance. If you push a liver shot deer in which a large artery was not hit, the blood trail will eventually stop. This will make recovery very difficult. If you jump a deer shot in the body cavity at any time while trailing him, stop, mark the spot, and give him a few more hours to expire before resuming your search.
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6. Roughed up or dull blades indicate that bones were hit. This is important to note with a questionable stomach and liver hit.
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A solid bone hit such as a shoulder or knuckle without any penetrations will not kill a deer. You should make every effort possible to recover your arrow and do enough tracking and sign reading to make certain that you did not penetrate into any vitals. If you discover any sign that you may have mortally wounded a deer, it’s your responsibility to do everything possible to recover it.
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7. Tallow (hard animal fat) on the shaft more than likely means a high hit along the tenderloin, a brisket hit, or a high hindquarter shot. Though tallow is generally not a good sign after a broadside shot, it does not mean much with a severely quartering shot or a shot from a high angle.
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