good luck finding him

Well I have some bad news. Couldnt find him.Man I'm bummed out! I went back today and climbed in my stand to visualize where I hit him. Climbed back down and started to look for the blood. This is my first deer soI didnt really know how thick and easy the blood would be to see....but sure enough within 10 feet of where I hit him there was blood on the ground, soI followed it in the direction of where he ran. So far, so good I'm thinking, this is pretty easy to see. Well I follow it another 20 yards and the blood is getting thicker. Awesome, maybe he won't be too much farther. Alittle farther and there are some thicker spots where it looked like he had stopped and bled out for awhile. Getting my hopes up and going farther I found my arrow with the nock end sticking in the ground. The arrow is also soaked in blood and some how he got it out of him. Anyways I follow the blood trail alittle farther and it seemed to get thinner and thinner until it disappeared. I crawled around on the ground tracing and retracing. Checking every little bedding area I could find along with the deer trails for any sign at all. My only other Idea was that he turned around and went back the way he came. So I started searching the other end again thinking he could have snuck back that way and gone off. I did find another couple piles of blood, nothing like these otehrs but I tryed to follow it also and checking all those trails again etc. Still no buck. I checked the small woodlot close to there thinking he might have made it in there and bedded too. Still nothing. I guessI dont know what else to try. The meat by now is either spoiled, the coyotes got him,or hes still alive. I dont know what else to try, thought it was a pretty good hit with all the blood and how quickly he bled after the hit. Just really disappointed to lose him... Guess I'll have to get out and try for another bigger one, was just hoping to find my first one and see exactly where the hit was etc. I hate to lose him....ugh!! Didnt even feel like trying again tonight for fear of having to try and blood trail over the old trail. With all the scrapes in the area theres got to be more bucks too. But I'll give it a day or two I think before I go out again....

That's tough luck, how big was he?

That is tough... I highly recommend you find someone that has tracked wounded deer before. My first year, the buck jumped the string and ended up witha shot that was up and back of target. Shot him Sunday morning. Left him til 2:00 and started tracking. FOund a couple large pools where he had laid but lost the trail.

Ended up searching til dark - no luck. Went back out the next morning with a good friend of mine - long time hunter. I showed him my findings and he took over where I could no longer find a trail. About 4 hours covering about 150 yards put us on topof an expired 130" ten pointer.

Hopefully you have some experienced friends you can call on. Believe me, some of these guys are part bloodhound.

I hope your search ends like mine. Best of luck.

You are probably shooting 250 fps or so...how did he go from broadside to frontal that fast?

Not sure if you already tried this but here goes: CIRCLE SEARCH: Start from your biggest sign and circle wide and close inward according to the cover you are in. He may still be there, don't quit. You owe it to the deer and all the hard work you put in to prepare. Give it a look. Best of luck.

Dude, keep looking no reason to quit after 3 hours. Do what Super said and find a friend to help. Don't quit so easy you may still find him.

I'm going to get some friends to help look. I did the circle search the best I could. But because of the area it makes it tough. The area he ran through is a narrow draw/dike with thick willows and cattail swamps on both sides. The draw is about 50-60 yards in length before opening into CRP land on one end, and the bean field with a small woodlot where I was hunting on the other end. Deer will funnel through the draw because its dry and dont have to swim the swamps to get across. So I searched the whole draw right into the cattails as far as I could on both sides. Then circled through the CRP. Along with all the other places I checked too. But I'll have to get some help to look further. The buck was a very nice looking 6 pointer. The rack wasn't huge but very nice looking deer. It will a great first deer if I can find it....

Keep your hopes up. The amount of blood on the arrow is a very good sign. Keep looking, I bet you find it. After you try your circle search also grid search, and check all water sources in the area. And don't be too surprized for the deer to try the unexpected like trying to cross one of those swamps.

I agree wiht water as well. Although my search has truned out to be fruitless, we did search every bit of water within the woods we hunting. In my past expieriences it seems thta the deer will go to water. Good luck and man I hate that for you. My kid is going throuhg the same thing. He is disppointed, but more for the animal than himself.