Sorry it took so long to update but working midnights, then tracking, then sleeping, then church and now back at work. Anyways, I did not find the deer. But this was one of the most unbelievable insane tracking jobs I have ever been on. Even with an inch of new snow down the blood trail was pretty easy to follow. Tracks were close together and it never seemed to run except maybe the first initial 20-30 yards. I do believe the reason we didn't find it was because of coyote's. There were yote tracks everywhere. First off we followed good blood for about 3/4 of a mile before it finally started bedding. We found a total of 18 different spots where it bedded down. Most of these beds all were within a couple hundred yards of each other. In this area I thought we would find it because the blood trails were circling and crossing paths all over the place. This is the last area we saw blood nearly 1 1/4 miles form the point of impact. From here we fanned out in all directions and found nothing. In this particular were a number of ravines with deep thick cover on them. Besides this area being loaded with deer tracks everywhere it was very difficult to remain on the right trail. I don't believe I have ever saw a deer drop so much blood and not be able to find it. Obviously this deer was being pushed by coyotes and I feel it is dead somewhere close by where we ended our search. I do believe if it weren't for the coyote's we definitely would have found it. I was definitely confident in the shot I took and made and the sign we saw was indicitive of a good solid hit. I just didn't realize the problem with the coyotes is as bad as it is. This will definitely make me think twice about shooting a deer again late evening at least in this particular area.
Last edited by ManofTheFall; 12-18-2013 at 08:38 PM.