My Buddy and I have both lost a doe on great blood trails. What happened was I shot this big doe I let her sit overnight the next morning I find blood and (it was a shoulder hit) 200 yards of good bloodand then it started to get spotty alot of blood then nothing. Does this mean she was Clotting up? Well almost samething happened to my friend and he tracked his for 600 yards and then blood just stop. What are we doing wrong

It all starts with shot placement. If it's right, you basically have no problems. Muscle hits will clot quite quickly. BUT, deer do tend to run out of blood right at the end of their trail. SO, when the blood slows down, so should you. Just because you saw big drops and puddles before doesn't mean you have to stop looking for those tiny tiny specks. BUT, again, it all starts with shot placement. If that's good your job is usually easier.... but that's not to say things can't happen to make it hard. LOTS of BLOOD does not necessarily mean "GOOD" blood.

Hitting them in the shoulder, odds(IMO) are about 80% you will not find the deer. Yes it happens to all of us, me three shoulder hits, three deer never fond!!!

I lost the biggest 8 pointer i ever saw in the woods hunting to a shoulder shot. Got at least 10 inches of pentration, great blood but petered out after a couple hundred of yards...soooooo depressing to lose my best buck to date and so early in my bow hunting career.

I mostly disagree with the shouldar shot percentage posted above. I just happened to have this experiece on a big 9 pointer a couple weeks ago. Slightly quartered toward me. My shot was more forward than I wanted. The arrow blew through the shoulder blade, both lungs and did come out the other side. Not a total complete passthrough, but it got both lungs. He went 60 yards and expired. He didn't bleed all that well the first 20 yards, but it gradually got heavier and heavier till it was a steadystream.Unless its completely broadside and forward on the shouldar, its not that terrible of a shot.

The biggest things is, dont give the animal the half hour deal and go after him. Most likely, hit that hard, they will lay down not too far away. Give em a few hours then look for them. Treat it like a gut shot. You won't find all the blood in the world with this shot, but if you're smart about it, you can greatly improve your odds of finding the animal.

I agree with muzzy on this .Its not the shot you want but if it happens and you are using a good quality head as in thunderheads or muzzys you won't have a problem.Throw away all your mechanical heads and go back to basics so when you screw up you don't waste a deer!

Muzzy, shoulder blades and shoulder bones are two completely different things.Arrows are not designed to blast through heavy bone and still do their job. That's what lead projectiles are for. My advice is to stay away from the bone. Don't try to get that last inch into the sweet spot. 4-5" behind the shoulder is still a lethal hit with most often passthrough and good blood trail.

I've had this happen to me. Mostly a shoulder shot or low belly. Lots of blood and you think you will locate the deer in 5 minutes only to discover the trail goes dry within 50 yards or so. Just happened to me last fall on a poor shoulder shot.

I hit a spike last week and experienced the same problems. I hit him a little high and forward up in the shoulder. My arrow penetratred to the fletching. I gave him about 1.5 hours and slowly/quietly started my search. I found no blood where he stood when I hit him in fact I found no blood fo about 40-50 yards. Once I found the blood there was a ppretty easy trail to follow for about 70 to 80 yards and then the blood stopped.....nothing! I then retreated for about another 2 hours before returning.

I started looking in small circles where I last found blood expangind about 3-4 feet each rotation.............nothing. I then expanded my search out about 100 yards in all directions.........nothing.

Having success in the past with a shoulder hit, I was confident that the deer was dead, not finding it was what makes me sick. In a matter of inches, you can have success or heart sinking failure....[:@]

I haave to agree w/ BGfisher........4" to 5" behind the shoulder is best. It allows a little more room for error!

Read past post, most deer that were lost were shot in the shoulder. I bet if we went through and picked 10, at least 8 were shot in the shoulder. For as the Muzzy and thunderhead comment I lost all three deer with Muzzy. I only have a 27 in draw and back then I used to light an arrow. The big 8 I shot last week I went right through the Heart and stuck my Montec 125 right in the shoulder blade. It did not blow through. My neighnor just shot a buck in the shoulder last week, saw him Saturday Morning with a slight limp, but chasing does. Just for the record on I am 42/3. All 3 were 100% my fault I got cocky and careless.
I am not saying a shoulder can not be fond, saying if there is one spot I do not want to hit, 1 is the shoulder, 2 is the guts.