RE: How much blood does a deer have in it?
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.