Originally Posted by
MedMinded
I shot a deer with a muzzleloader this evening and was unable to locate it. I followed a pretty consistent blood trail for what I'm guessing was over a mile. It would be pools of blood followed by drops for a while, then pools again, and so on. I'm guessing I kept jumping the deer, but it was dark and so far off my hunting property I just kept after it hoping for the best. Eventually I lost the trail, but have no idea if the wound clotted or I just need to go back and look again during daylight. Since I shot it in low light, I have no idea where I actually hit it. I wasn't sure if muscle hits could bleed that consistently for so long? If so, I'm guessing that's how it traveled so far. The trail seemed to taper off the last few hundred yards, but it was after over a mile of a consistent trail. I just wish I knew if it was a lethal shot or not.
Deja vu. A couple years ago, a buddy of mine shot a smallish doe with a muzzleloader about 2 hours before dark. We attempted to track it too soon. I could not believe a deer could bleed as much as this one did and keep going. Went back the next morning. We were on a military installation, and the deer eventually ran into a restricted area. Never found it, but the trail was starting to thin out by the time it hit the restricted area--clotting I assume. While tracking we found a spot where it looked like the deer had bed down (big bloody spot). If we had backed out immediately, we probably would have found it in the morning. Harsh reminder about how to do things.