thenuge15

Yesterday I shot my first deer with a bow. I am not going to tell the whole story but i had to hold my bow back for a long time and once i got the shot I just kind of aimed and shot at the deer. I realize i made a huge mistake which i will never do again. Well it was getting dark and we can not track her this morning so we went to look for her. We found my arrow with a little stomach matter on it but we still thought it could be a liver shot. Well we found first blood and it was a pretty decent trail. When went for a while then found a bed. Then it started getting weird the deer did not follow any of the huge trails it would go in the hardest places to crawl through. The guy helping me track said that is very weird. Than the bloodtrail went in about a 20ft diameter loop then went on again almost dodging the beaten trails. then we got to some thick stuff and looked to the left and there was this tiny little hole in the brush. The guy helping us said it wouldn't have gone there, I looked anyways and sure enough it went through then made a circle again! We followed the blood for a while then it went under some brush. We went to the other side of the brush and found blood then nothing. We went all around that area for more than 2 hours and didn't see another drop of blood. There was what we thought was a swamp but it was dried up and there is a fence line that will probably keep her on our side, but what should i do to try to find her today. sig sags from the road to last blood? the guy helping me said that this was the weirdist blood trail he has ever tracked and it didn't look like we jumped it, it was just walking around like it wasn't hit? Some how there would be blood like 3 feet into the brush that we have no clue how it sprayed in there inless it stopped to feed in there. O i almost forgot after the shot (i didn't see where it hit) it made a thump noise and the deer ran 50 yards than stopped and walked off. Please tell me what you think i should do. thanks-sam

Edited by - thenuge15 on 10/31/2002 06:15:10

Mass.hunter

Hey Sam.
Sorry about your truoble but welcome to bowhunting. First of all...never say a wounded deer "would never go there". Deer have been know to do some pretty weird things wounded or not.

You obviously made a gut shot cause if you hit the liver, she would have probably bled out. How long did you give her before you got on her tail? When I make a bad shot (and we all do sometimes) I like to give the deer overnight if I can. A gutshot deer will "most times" find a place to lay down and bleed out. You may have pushed her too early. When you kick a wounded animal, it switches to pure survival mode. Crawling on her stomach through tunnels in briars is not uncommon. Regardless, here's what I would do.

Get back ASAP today with one or two guys (no more). Find the last spot where you encountered blood. Dried blood in the leaf litter will be difficult to see. Make sure it is blood from last night. One guy stand at the spot and the other begin making tight circles, slowly broadening them out. Finding a dried blood trail can be frustrating to say the least. (any rain in the forecast?)

If that proves fruitless, try a grid search of the area. Some guys use dogs to try to locate downed deer.

The deer is more than likely dead, it's just that they can go a long way on pure adrenaline. If you are persistant, you're chances are pretty good.

Get out there and good luck.
Jack

wimp

A deer can live for 8 hrs even hit through the liver. The deer is dead, keep looking all over the places from where you had last blood. Since she was alradys going through the nasty stuff, that is where you must look. She most likely crawled up in a pile of brush and you are going to have to step on her to find her. One last tip, don't be afraid to use your nose. If the brush is thick and you can't see, pay attention if you smell that 'deer' smell, that may lead you to her, good luck.

benhuntin

this deer is definately gut shot.
In my experience, deer that arnt
panicked when they are shot and mosey
off tend to search for thick cover
to bed down in. I have had deer circle
like that in cover. Almost like a dog
circling his bed before he lies down.
This deer is looking for someplace she feels
secure before laying down to die.
My guess is she will probally lie down
soon if you back off for a few hours.

knobby

if it may help there is a product out that you spray on and it makes blood turn bright green.... ive never used it but it may help since you are now following a dry blood trail

if you dont kick them up during the tracking....mortally wounded deer dont usually go too awful far b4 they lay down and expire

slow persistent patience is the key

** I almost got him but I refuse to take a marginal shot **

JRW

Get a spray bottle and some hydrogen peroxide. You can get empty spray bottles in the hair-care section of most stores, and the hydrogen peroxide can be found in a pharmacy.

When sprayed on blood, dried or otherwise, it foams right up.

Best advice; in the future do NOT push a gut-shot deer. Once you jump them they can be extremely difficult to find, and can go a loooooong way.

JRW

FlipNY1

Keep on looking. The area I hunt is surrounded by some of the the thickest nastiest briars you can imagine and nearly every deer that we shoot either goes right in the thick stuff or expires on the way to the thick stuff. That deer is in there.

Just keep on looking and let us know how you do.

BuckAlley

Like to add 1 more idea noone above mentioned. If all else fails on grid searches, circling back, and forth. Try going to the nearest water source. Gut shot deer do have a tendency to head for water. You may also have gotten the esophagus area, which appears just like a gut shot, lighter green bile substance on arrow. Not that its much better, but still seem to bleed decent. Good Luck, and don't give up. If anything your learning something about bowhunting, deer, and tracking!!!!!!

thenuge15

I went back and we did grid searches and in the middle of the grid search my friend looked down and saw blood. I don't know how we just came upon that but we did. We then followed it and only found like 20 feet of blood. We did like anoter 45 minutes threw a swampy area looking at in all of the brush. Right when we were about to leave we just happened to find more blod that actually connected to the earlier. I was excited cuz i could follow it well than i followed it and it looped back where we found the blood (the first time today). IT made kind of a P shape, then we could not find anymore i looked in the close brush piles and nothing. Thanks buckalley i learned a lot of things, deer are not always predictable, pick a small spot not just a big part of the mid body, and if i do pick a small spot dont realease till i know thats where i want it. I left pink tags where i found blood and left a note for my friends dad incase he wants to look cuz we found more blood. I will probably look more tommorow even though it will probably be spoiled.