I have a couple of questions. How much blood can a deer lose and keep going? If I hit the deer in the front shoulder do they bleed quite a bit but live through it. This is my first archery deer. I have gun hunted for 24 years. Last night about 5 minutes before last shooting time I arrowed a spike buck. I was on the ground and he was 20 yards away about broadside. When I shot I heard the arrow hit and I could see what looked like about half the arrow sticking out. He took off like a rocket with his tail high into a field of standing sunflowers. The shot looked maybe a bit high and a little forward. Maybe more high than anything. I've replayed the shot in my head a hundered times I'm just not sure anymore. I gave him a half hour before I tracked him. I found blood just a few yards away from the shot. I found about a foot of the arrow (the broadhead end)about 50 yards away.I never did find the nock end of the arrow. Still in the deer?The blood was bright red and fairly easy to follow. I had some snow cover so It made it much easier.I followed him for about a 1/10 of a mile and decided to wait till morning to keep tracking him. I started at 7:15 this morning I found a few spots where he had been standing and where was a real good spot of blood almost a small puddle. He bypassed a cattail slough to go across wide open country on his way to another huge standing sunflower field. When he went across some tall grass there was blood smeared about 4 feet high. In some areas it was sprayed about 9 feet. I followed good blood for about a mile then it was harder to find. Then about a half mile later I found better blood again. I did find before that what looked like a clot of blood on the ground. this went on for about another half mile. What I'm thinking he started clotting then it broke free again. Then it was pretty sparce for about a 1/4 mile. I jumped a deer in the flowers which I'm pretty sure was him. All I seen was a flash of white It seemed like it was moving pretty good. I found where he had lied down and where I thought where the deer jumped up from. There was some wet blood in the bed maybe 1/2 of a teaspoon total. This was 16 hours after he was shot. I found a couple of small drops away from the bed and in the general direction of travel of the jumped deer. I looked for about another hour and couldn't find no other blood sign at all. The sunflower field was about a half mile by 1/4 mile. I'm just sick of losing him. I don't know what else to do. I tracked him for over 2 miles now I can't find any sign at all. Is this common for a deer to go this far? What are his chances of surviving? Thanks for the advice and help..

Sounds to me like you hit him right above the spine. the spine drops down above the shoulder and there is a small window to get just a meat hit. It can bleed pretty good as it is all external - none of it gets into the body cavity. if he does not develope an infection there is a good chance he will live - a little wiser but he will live

you tracked this deer 2 miles and only found one bed? Did you hear deer busting any other time and after bumping him how long/ if at all, did you wait before resuming the trail?

As for killing him...first was there bubbles? how bright? and how much? A teaspoon here teaspoon there on snow isnt much! Second, is most of the trailing you have done on snow or bare ground? How much do you figure the deer has lost? You say sprayed 9ft? is that guess? Sorry just trying to get details.

As for the arrow, yes the broadhead end probably made it through and broke off either on brush or from the running motion of the buck. The feathered end is very well probably still in him! My Dall Ram from this year was shot quartering away, I "aimed" for the off shoulder and took out both lungs. The BH went through the shoulder half way and broke off. The rest of the shaft was in my ram 20 yards later when the ram fell bending it severly (a wooden arra) almost to the point of breaking. Just trying to get all of your details to try and make an edumacated guess 3000 miles away as to what could have happened. Btw, dont give up yet, but look at the terrain and the direction the buck is going...Topo's can help! If he is hurt he will start bedding down.

I only found 1 bed. I seen where he must of stopped standing up 4 or 5 times. I didn't hear any other deer busting away. I didn't wait to track after busting him out of his bed. I thought after 16 hours being shot and running out of blood sign that it wouldn't of made any difference. Maybe I should of waited but I only found 2 other drops of blood after looking for another hour. I didn't notice any bubbles the blood was bright red. The ground was probably 40- 50 % snow covered. The strange thing is instead of bedding in a big 100 acre cattail slough he cut across about 40 yards of it and headed cross open country to the sunflower field about 3/4 a mile away. In the sunflower field there is probably 25% snow cover. It is just about impossible to find anything in a sunflower field unless you step on it. If he comes out there is just scattered sloughs and trees around the area. I'm hunting in northeastern North Dakota so it is pretty barren country. Thanks for the help I really appreciate it.

have you tried working around the edges for any sign of him coming out yet? Look on all the trails, maybe even walking in on the far side a few yards to make sure he didnt come through! If he didnt you can bet he is in there. I would also bet that is his home range. I bet he is on his last leg and going in tomorrow during daylight would be your best bet! Keep on your toes, when you dont, he'll be near be nearby! best of luck!

I walked the edge of the field of the last direction I thought he went. Didn't see any sign of him leaving the sunflowers. I'm going back out tomorrow morning and start walking the sunflowers again. The deer don't really have any trails in the flowers. They just kind of wander around there. I hope I have some luck with me as the field is over 200 acres in size. Maybe I'll get lucky and the farmer will start combining tomorrow. Thanks again for the help.

A deer has to loose one ounce per pound to become unconscious and die. It all doesn't have to hit the ground... just lost from the blood system. So, 100 pound deer needs to loose about 3 quarts. A 200 pound deer... 6 quarts. You know how much there is in a chest cavity when you field dress them. There really doesn't have to be a lot on the ground to have a very dead deer.

That's the answer to your first question. The second part. If you followed that deer all that distance and didn't find a bed there's no way he's going to die from blood loss. He may die from infection or something like that... but not from blood loss. Sounds like a very superficial wound as far as a deer goes. They're tough critters. I'm surprised you kept finding drops of blood. He must be on blood thinners or something. Usually they clot up after a while. Must be right on a big working muscle he has to use with every step... but since he didn't bed I don't think it's terribly serious.

I went out this morning and looked for the deer again. A friend and I looked for 5 hours and we never found him. We made gradually bigger circles in the last sign that I found yesterday. We never did find any other sign than what I found yesterday. We spent the last 3 hours walking up and down the rows of sunflowers. Hoping we would find some sign or find him. But the field of sunflowers is so big. It's hard to see anymore than 3 or 4 rows away. I talked to the farmer again today and he said he would let me know if he seen anything. Thanks for the help.

It sounds as though your hit did not do a lot of damage. As others have said, it was probably a flesh wound. Deer are pretty tough, and aren't so easy to kill. My brother in law killed a doe last year during gun season and when he field dressed her, we found a broadhead in her shoulder!! I know it is a sickening feeling you have right now; trust me, I know from experience. If I had to make a guess on what will happen to the deer, I would say he will survive and you may even get another chance at him. My advice to you would be to get back in the saddle and get back in the woods as soon as you can!!!

Your deer will heal in about one week - if I had to guess. Its odd that you never found the back 1/2 of the arrow. I'd guess the arrow ran up the shoulderblade or even higher towrds the spine without penetrating the lung cavity.

You did an excellent job of tracking. Knowing that you hit high in the front of the deer - He will almost definitely live - considering how for and long you tracked the deer. Imagine w/o snow how hard it would have been.

Its tough to learn from a mistake, when you cannot know what exactly went wrong. I'm sure you've surmised by now that they do not usually go a fraction of this distance with a lethal hit from an arrow. Alls you can do is to know that you did your best, and feel confident that you honored the animal with a dedicated follow up. My hat's off to you for your effort.

Now, shake it off, and hunt well.