Originally Posted by
Champlain Islander
I too would guess he missed. I have killed a bunch of deer with a bow and can't recall one time that I didn't hear the hit. That telltale thwack always tells me I hit it. I have on occasion had very little blood and no visible hair that I found but an arrow hitting a deer will always leave something at the site. In all likelihood he could have missed high and the arrow deflected away from a branch. I never had a hit deer blow at me.
I've had them take off running, stop and blow and look behind themselves to see if they are followed, then take off again.
Blood trails can be iffy, sometimes the drops of blood are tiny. Sometimes there is more on the leaves in the brush than on the ground.
I'm really not good at tracking, iffy eyes, they just aren't as sharp as they used to be. My Dog on a long leash will follow the tiniest blood trail by scent. In fact Deer blood often drives many Dogs a little nuts and holding them back is a chore.
Some of tracking is experience, the likely outcomes, the Deer hunkers down and hides, it takes off as far and fast as possible, it heads for deep cover or my favorite is it doubles back on itself. An old timer explained that double back thing, if a Deer is in strange territory the only safe place it knows is where it just came from.
I go to the last sighting and start searching in a fairly tight spiral outwards, that way you cover all the possibilities. I've found some Deer by tripping over them, they can be way close, in a slight depression in the grass and be almost invisible.