ORIGINAL: chucker34
Thanks guys. I appreciate all the open and honest feedback. I would agree GMMAT. Finding it quickly would have been best. I did not expect the rain to move in as quickly as it did. That helped goof things up pretty quickly. Davidmil, I found the arrow piece about 20-30 yards directly behind where she was standing. Regardless, I will head our again this weekend to see if I can find the other half lodged in a tree or wherever.
nodog, if it were a direct hit, do you think she would have snapped it off somehow? Or that it bone or something so hard that it shattered?
Yes. The reaction of the deer is what I'm going on. When a deer jumps and kicks at impact it's a hit. If it just hunches up and goes off slowly it would be a gut shot. If it just goes off after being startled it's a miss. The reaction of the deer is a very important factor in evaluating the shot.
Daughter found an arrow for me that I could not, this spring from a very similar situation. The bucks reaction though kept me looking and after about125 yards the blood trail opened up. The arrow that I could not find was about 100 yards down the trail. It had not gone clean through but hung up. The shot was steep and the arrow must have impacted the ground before going all the way through.It was on the money. The blood trail up untill the arrow had exited consisted of a few drops. It was a faucet after it fell out. The deer was about 300 yards out. Tough old boy considering the size of the hole in his chest.
It's easy toget all turned around when getting down from a stand. Sometimes it's good to get back up and use a radioand directanother guy through where you last saw thedeer. My brother and I have had good success this way, but you have to take note of as much info as you can. I've carried a junk arrow, painted brightjust for slinging at the last spot.
I would do what I could to recover the deer up to a point. After that I would *not* do anymore. No reason to ruin future hunting. 24 hours in warm weather would be past that point.