how to fin wounded deer
 

I was just wondering how far wounded deer can go. I shot a doe in the morning and hit high, we looked for it for 4 hours and and never foung it. We found my arrow and it wasnt broken. The blood trail was really weak and didnt show any signs of a good shoot. In the after noon i shoot a six point buck and hit really high. The arrow broke of in side of the buck, but there still wasnt a good blood trail. Im a good shooter but under pressure i get really shaky. I dont want this to happen again is there any way to prevent this from happen again?
Thank James

RE: how to fin wounded deer
 

In my opinion(and please dont take this as a slam) you should have spent more time looking for the doe before shooting another deer.I have personally trailed them for nearly a mile before finding them,dont be afraid to get down on hands and knees if you must,there is always some sort of sign left behind,it may be the size of a pin head but it is there.I suggest taking only one person with you to keep from obliterating what sign is there,mark what you find with toilet paper to try to get a line on where its heading. As a last resort start making ever bigger circles from last sign checking all thickets ,blowdowns,draws etc. They like to hide good when they know they are going down,also check earby water holes,sometimes they head for water.Please spend tomorrow (all day if necessary) trying to recover your two deer. Try to get ahold of someone with experience tonight to help. Some states allow the use of dogs for game recovery,check into this.Maybe your local warden can put you in touch with someone with deer trailing dogs.Good luck and be persistant. Might take some peroxide in a spray bottle with you to confirm blood spots(blood will make it fizz.

RE: how to fin wounded deer
 

You wounded 2 deer in one day. That is bad, really bad. Shooting at alive animal is obviously much different than targets as you have seen. You have 3 options: 1.Get better at tracking so you can find the deer you shoot, 2. calm down and actually make an efficient killing shot 3. stop hunting until numbers 1 and 2 and second nature for you.

Some things are true whether you believe them or not.

RE: how to fin wounded deer
 

First, most bowhunters track their deer way to quickly. Always give a good shot one hour or even two. If its not a good shot or your not sure, give it 6,8 or 10 hours before you try tracking at all. If its in the evening, just wait till morning. You can't push the deer at all.

Four hours isn't much when looking for a wounded deer. Get some more people to help and spend the whole day (10-12 hours). You said your blood trail was weak. Weak is one spot the size of a pin head every 25- 30 yards. But your deer needs to be dead first or you'll just push it. Thats why waiting is so important!

You wanted to know how to not have this happen again. Go shoot from your stand (practice), and set limits on how far you'll shoot. Maybe it will be only 10 yards! Set your limit where you have 100% no problem with perfect kill shots.(even if your shakey) Last follow my advice on tracking.

Start over from square one....Good Luck!

PRACTICE....PRACTICE....PRACTICE......SUCCESS!

RE: how to fin wounded deer
 

I highly recommend this book [he may have a new one out]. I got the following information and reviews from Amazon.com. I also think Outdoorsman's Edge Book club has the newest book available but they have revised their website and until I get a new membership number I can't check the availability of Trout's newest book on trailing wounded deer.

Trailing Whitetails
by John Trout
Publisher: North Country Press; ISBN: 0896211096; (January 1987)

Must reading for the serious whitetail hunter., November 23, 1998
This book is loaded with facts about whitetail behavior, in addition to addressing the serious questions a hunter asks him or herself after they fire a shot. It took me 35 years and forty-five deer to learn only half of the strategies for understanding deer reactions after the instant the trigger is squeezed. While a factual presentation, this book is easy and interesting to read. Makes an excellent and unusual gift to the advanced hunter who already knows the "basics".
-0-
Trailing Whitetails by John Trout Jr. is the best book on the topic of recovering wounded deer that I've come across. At my NYS Bowhunter Education classes I recommend it as a "must read" for all beginning bowhunters. I have given many copies away as gifts. After 30 years of bowhunting for whitetail deer I still find myself refering back to this important book.

Bowhunter

RE: how to fin wounded deer
 

all the advise you have recieved is good,the only thing I can add,is to get someone that has hunted and tracked before to teach you or you go with them and learn from them.

I am not a hunter I am a whitetail population reduction specialest

remember keep your back to the sun, your knife sharp, and your powder dry.

RE: how to fin wounded deer
 

Last year my brother shot a deer with his muzzeloader, a 100gr charge with a 300gr XTP in a sabot. My brother and i looked for 2 hours after waiting 1 hour for her to die, then my brother left for the purdue football game, and then he was going to return later. i spent the next 5 hours looking in the general direction that the deer went. there was no blood trail at all. not even at the impact point. there was no exit wound and the strange thing was no blood came out of this deer at all, no blood on the deers fur at all, just a perfect entrance wound and the bullet stopped against the rib cage on the other side.
well any way i found the deer in a creek about 300-400 yards from where she was shot. you have to stick with it a long time. try looking at natural boundaries that a wounded deer cant get thru, in my case it could get a steep 8' bank on the other side of the creek

propmahn
you can never have too many guns

RE: how to fin wounded deer
 

The doe I shot this year, was a high shot and did not pass through. It took out the heart and stopped against a rib. She bled plenty inside, but there was absolutley no blood trail. I was watching and listening until she was out of sight. Just seconds later I heard her go down in the brush. I could hear her calling to her 5 sisters that were nearby, then she quit. I got to where I had last seen her and started searching from there. I found her against a tree about 30 yards further along the trail.
So, keep looking they are both out there somewhere. Like has been said, try to get some more experienced tracking help. Good luck James.

The best of luck in all your hunting endeavors!!!

God Bless,
Dave

RE: how to fin wounded deer
 

Wait four hours on a liver hit and ten hours on a gut shot before tracking. Use a tracking dog. They can turn your 2-4 hour search into a 15 minute recovery. For high hits above the vitals and below the spine...you're probably screwed.
L & O

RE: how to fin wounded deer
 

All good advice.....I think time is the most important aspect. You have got to give the animal time to die without pushing it and you must spend plenty of time looking for the animal.

Volunteer your help on tracking jobs with other hunters. Tell them you are new to tracking deer and you want to learn. Most will be more than happy for you to tag along since you will be another set of eyes and another back to help drag. Tracking is not easy and the only way to learn is by doing it.

RE: how to fin wounded deer
 

I am pretty sure I did the same to the last buck I hit (Monday night). We looked for 1.5hr and found nothing. The next morning I spent an hour and then found the blood trail (Field shot, then ran 200yds). Tracked the blood trail for another 2 hours (another 200yds). He headed back into ravines and wild thickets, crawled under logs, into brush, for acres. Found the sleep spot (2ft of bloody leaves) and then nothing. Figure he was wounded and I drove him off the next morning searching. Bummer. After hours of tracking and random searches, I gave up, I was too mentaly and physically shot to go on. Like 5 shot, I figure I will smell him out there this week.<img src=icon_smile_angry.gif border=0 align=middle>

Sometimes takes a couple of hours sometimes to find the blood trail particulary if you are a shakey hand (like I am also...that was my second kill, first was opening Monday) cause you tend to &quot;forget&quot; exactly where it went, and where it turned into the woods exactly, and where the arrow went afterwards when you are &quot;sure&quot; you saw it go down.

I shoot pratice all the time, but it is so different from actually releasing on a deer. I can outshoot my more experienced bros on the foam deer everytime, but they can do much better in the woods with 5 or so kills each and many years experience. They know where they hit it and where it went.

My friend shot his first buck 10 yrs ago. He and one of my bro's looked for 4 hours that morning and sat down on a log to rest and put his bow behind him. When he got up he turned to get the bow and see's the rack on the ground...and the buck was behind him on the ground, it had crawled under the downed tree right up to that spot on the trunk.

RE: how to fin wounded deer
 

Thanks guys for all the advice. Is there a possibility of clotting in the blood? I went to look sun and looked again for 7 hours and notinging. I was also hunting public land and theirs always hunters around, so walking all over the place is kinda hard without pissing everyone off. The doe's last blood teail i found was 300-350 yards away from the point where i shoot her. I waited 1 hour to track her after the high shoot. I should of waited any where from 3-8 hours to track her. How long before the meat will go bad? Here in ohio its gettting down to 35 degrees f. at nights and as high as 70 degrees in the day. I feel really bad not be able to find these deer and cant even sleep over it at nights. This would of been my first deer i taken, so you must know how i fell. The buck i shoot was not found eather. I took a few buddies with me to look and still not luck. I think i didnt wait long enough and spooked them both when i went to trail them. Is it true that wounded deer can trevel miles before dieing, or there wounds can clot and live? All the tracking stuff to me is new so all the stuff you told me helped out very much. Thanks allot for everything. James

RE: how to fin wounded deer
 

Youd be amazed at what they can live thru. You went back and gave it a good honest effort,better luck next time.Hunting on public lad there is a good chance someone found em.I shot a doe in Hoosier National Forest once,spent 3 1/2 hour trailing her only to find a gut pile,within 50 yds of where I had parked.Just the way the ball bounces sometimes.You done all you could,dont be too hard on yourself.

RE: how to fin wounded deer
 

I agree with trapperdave,it sounds as though you made every effort to recover this deer.If you don't hit a vital spot, chances are you won't get them.I have lost 2 different deer that I shot with arrows, both with good pass throughs. Tracked them a long way and they just quit bleeding. The buck I shot last week had been hit by my neihbor and the broadhead was in the top of his shoulder. This deer acted fine and would have been o k if he hadn't come in to my stand. We also butchered one that a friend shot, and found a broadhead with 4 inches of arrow shaft,along side of spine. This deer had been shot by friends dad 2 years previous.

RE: how to fin wounded deer
 

http://www.edershunting.com/publicat...ot/default.cfm

RE: how to fin wounded deer
 

That's a horrible story and I'm sorry it happened. All you can do is what you did and do your best to recover the animals.

For the future, all the tracking, time, frustration is just not worth it just to shoot an animal. Take your time and only shoot when you have a good double lung opportunity at a range where you know you can score. I'm new to bowhunting and have shot 2 this year already. Both were excellent lung shots and the deer still ran 1-200 yards in both cases. A bad shot and the deer goes who knows how far. I'd rather pass on an iffy shot and wait until I get an opportunity that I know I can execute. Good luck.

RE: how to fin wounded deer
 

Good points above. About the only thing I can add, is maybe start aiming only for a heart shot. I have found this to be a good fix for folks that have a problem with high hits. Sometimes, a high hit can be a poor shot by the archer, but also, deer have a tend to start dropping at the sound of the shot...so even a good aim at the lungs can end up being high. If you aim for the heart, and the deer drops, you still have a pretty good chance of a lung shot. If both those deer were hit high, but below the spine....I doubt you'll find them. That spot seems to be the mysterious &quot;VOID&quot; that supposedly doesn't exist....though I know many hunters that would dispute that. Regardless, I think if you concentrate more...maybe make a mental checklist to go through upon drawing, (with one of the points being aim at the heart), and give any deer you hit, a little more time...you'll be ok. I went through a similar thing many years ago...I know how you feel. But you'll be ok...get back out there and get that monkey off your back!! Good luck :)

RE: how to fin wounded deer
 

I went and shoot today from a fork lift 15feet up, and all my shoots was perfect, so it was all mental why i hit high because i had a buddy move 3 targets around in all differnt ranges even ranges i wont shoot because of the distance and all the shoots was perfect, so figured all i need to do is to stay calm. Thanks for everyones help
James

RE: how to fin wounded deer
 

I took a doe last Friday with a game tracker expandable 100gr. I was on the ground and I hit her high, just above the lung area. The arrow didn't pass through but there was an initial blood flow upon the hit. She lunged forward and broke the arrow off. I noticed the blood flow lessen almost immediately as she walked about 30 feet off and stood behind a tree for about 40 seconds then trotted down the hill. I retrieved my arrow and waited. I had bright blood but no bubbles. I heard what i thought was her about 3 minutes later fall down the ravine. After about 45 minutes I started tracking and lost all blood trail within 30 yards. I could see roughed leaves and headed in the general direction very slowly. I found her at 75 yards. I hit her in the void above the lungs but fortunately found her. She bleed internally rather than on the ground. It was my first bow kill and I'm not sure but i think she ducked a bit. I shot her at 12 yrds. I barely missed a double lung. My nephew shot a doe just above the heart the other night, I took the deer to the butcher so i saw it, and it traveled over 300 yards. sometimes it is hard to say how far they will go

[Deleted]
 

[Deleted by Admins]

RE: how to fin wounded deer
 

One thing you may want to think about is if your a good enough shot. Not trying to slam or anything, but to lose two deer in one day is pretty bad. You have to be sure your shot is a good killing shot(double lung), and that you can make it every time. PRACTICE! Also, as for trailing deer, find someone who knows what they are doing. This is the only way you have a chance to learn without losing alot more deer. What kind of broadheads are you using?

RE: how to fin wounded deer
 

<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote<font size=1 face='Verdana, Arial, Helvetica' id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>
I was just wondering how far wounded deer can go. I shot a doe in the morning and hit high, we looked for it for 4 hours and and never foung it. We found my arrow and it wasnt broken. The blood trail was really weak and didnt show any signs of a good shoot. In the after noon i shoot a six point buck and hit really high. The arrow broke of in side of the buck, but there still wasnt a good blood trail. Im a good shooter but under pressure i get really shaky. I dont want this to happen again is there any way to prevent this from happen again?
Thank James
<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote></font id=quote><font face='Verdana, Arial, Helvetica' size=2 id=quote>