Another unseccessfull find
 

Well i have a quick story and feel that the blades are to blame,to make a long story short i had a good shot on a six point saturday(my first deer after hunting archery for 6 years)plus i used a rattle bag,grunts,and can call,to get this deer to its 30 yard shot(that was exciting itself,i guess those hunting videos payed off)after hitting the deer at 30 yards with a good side stance the deer turned around and walked back to where it showed up,stopping a few times to put its head down and snort what i thought was blood out of its nostrills,so i new i got a good hit(so i thought)Well i drew another SPITFIRE blade to see if i could get another hit but it faded away at 45 yards,well after giving it 30 minutes or so i decided to get out of the stand to look for the arrow,i found the arrow that was snapped off about 3 inches down from the blade,it did not go the whole way through the deer though i did not see any blood so i decided to go to the spot i seen him stop and there was blood with bubbles in it so i new i hit lung,well i tracked it after waiting an hour or so giving him time to at least time to lay down and expire,because of his slow progression,well it ended up me trailing for about 250 yards before loosing the trail,so i decided to give him another 2 or 3 hours to pick up on it again,i went back in after two hours and picked up a trail again of more bubbly blood but lighter in color almost white and trailed this for i know at least another 150 yards but then it stopped,i walked off from the last sign at least 150 more yards for 2.5 hours to find nothing i checked in all heavy brush to see if he was down but nothing,well i gave it all i had with tracking with 2 people,well i feel the shot was good but i feel only one lung was hit and i also feel the blade did not open,seeing the blood was not alot,any comments or suggestions on this might help me feel better,seeing my knees still hurt from crawling on the ground looking for signs.Thanks.

RE: Another unseccessfull find
 

First of all i just want to say hey to a fellow PA hunter, I live and hunt right over the mountain from you, in Huntingdon.
Anyway, tought break, sorry to hear about the tracking. So you were using the expandable blades then?
From what you are saying it souns like you nicked a lung, but after tracking for that far if it had beed a double lung, then it would have been dead by then.
Same thing happened to a girl that was hunting in the gang i was with during early muzzleloader. She shot a doe, 30 yards broadside with a muzzle loader, it ran past me limpining, with blooding coming out of a nice side shot. Fell down twice, but kept going. The blood we found was bubbly like yours, and almost white in some spots, but after tracking for well over a mile, we had to abondoned the chase because of daylight and lack of trail.
Wish there was more I could do or say, but I guess that is just part of hunting. You made a sound, ethical shot, but as luck would have it, things didn't go your way.


Jennings Buckmaster Bow
.50 Cal Thompson Center Renegade

RE: Another unseccessfull find
 

I'd be willing to bet that you didn't hit him in the body cavity. I would put money on it that you hit him in the throat. The "white blood" you saw was his spit mixed with blood. The snorting he was doing is from the blood running down his throat and into his lungs.


Edited by - Thundergut on 11/11/2002 12:23:17

RE: Another unseccessfull find
 

The throat hit would be a good guess,but like i said the arrow broke off telling me the arrow is in the deer,because i did look for it ,and it was not found,my guess because i seen the arrow flight.