Hi guys. last night i shot a doe at 18 yards broadside. I think i hit her a little far back but im not 100% sure. i waited an hour, got down from my tree as quiet as possible and went home. me, my dad and my brother returned an hour later. We didnt find any blood right away since i forgot to mark where she was when i shot her. We found a pile of blood about fifty - 75 yards from where she was when i shot her. It wasnt bubbly so it wasnt a lung shot. It was just a plain red blood. We decided to follow the trail since it was supposed to rain. We followed the trail for a pretty long ways. From the blood trail it seems she made a big loop back towards where she was when i shot her. We marked every so far with tissue paper to find the blood spots. Then we went home.

Im not sure if we were pushing her or not. The route she took wasnt on any major trails for long. mostly through thick swampy stuff. Her trail was zig zagging and it appeared she wanted to bed down but we never found where she did. Some areas there was good blood and some we would find just a tiny drop.

Last night it did rain and now i dont have any idea if i have a chance of finding her. This would be my 2nd bow deer and i went from the highest of highs to the ultimate low.
Does anyone know what organ i may have hit?

Anyone have any ideas to track a wounded deer after it rains?
Thanks, i appreciate the help[/align]

That's a tough one, I would have used something more permanant than tissue paper to mark that trail though. Good luck.

If you found a pile of blood...she had either laid down or stopped. If she laid down within 50-75yds of being shot, she's probably hurt real bad.

Could be liver...which is deadly. The gutshots I've dealt with haven't bled enough to make a pile.

It could have been a one-lung hit, also. I've shot deer through both lungs and just had red blood...no bubbles.

All you can do is look, look, and when you're done looking, look some more.

I believe you may have hit the liver, and maybe some of the stomach/intestine area. Generally, a liver shot will bleed fairly well (This is, of course, circumstantial). However, if you hit the liver and the stomach/intestines, it has been my experience that the stomach matter, as well as the acids and other stuff in there, will clog up the entrance and exit hole and make trailing difficult. From my limited experience, when a deer is hit like this they bleed best when they are running, and keeping their blood pressure high and that wound pumping.
You didnt indicate how hard it rained. A real hard downpour might make it difficult. A light sprinkle might not have mattered much. I would go back , try to pick up the trail where you left off, and keep your nose to the ground...literally. Get on your hands and knees if that is what it takes. No blood, try to follow her tracks. If that doesnt work, then......
Find everyone you can and organize a grid search. Keeping searching until you find her or until all hope is lost. I will not, under any circumstances, hunt again until a deer I hit is recovered, or until all hope is lost. Typically, I will give up after two-three days after the hit.
That said, if you think the hit was back you should have not trailed her that evening... If you are EVER unsure of a hit, the best thing is to wait, wait, wait. Odds are, if undisturbed, that deer will bed down sooner rather than later. An hour is nowhere near enough time, especially when you are unsure of the hit. An hour is what I typically wait when I hit a deer right in the boiler room.
Ps. If there is a water source in the area, make sure you look in that area, especially if you find the trail trending in that direction.
Hope this helped....
Good luck finding her!

Don't give up. Take a look at the trail markers that you already put out and see if they give you a likely heading. Often times they can be like a road map. Follow that heading first and see where it gets you. Wounded deer will most often head for deep, heavy cover and/or water. They get thirsty after a wound and will do everything they can to get to water. If that water has heavy cover around it...check there very carefully. If that does not pan out, try a grid type search and always pay very close attention to heavy cover. If it looks "too thick" for a deer to get into, forget that train of though and look harder in that spot. It's amazing how they can contort thier bodies and get into tight spaces. It's like a mouse fitting thourh a dime size hole...how they do it is beyond me, but they do.
Best of luck.

If it didn't rain really hard take a sprey bottle with peroxide in it add some food coloring (yellow) and spray the area ahead of the last blood drops the peroxide will foam up when in contact with blood. A little drizzle is good may make the foaming action even stronger. Don't give up let us know how you did

http://www.huntingnet.com/forum/tm.aspx?m=1665984

You knowingly thought you hit here too far back and you only waited 2 hours, I would have waited at least 4 if not more, you likely pushed her and that is never good news. I have nothing more to aid you with, I was not there but can only suggest some reading in the link above, perhaps someone within the link has what you need. Good luck.

If you have no blood trail to follow, start checking water sources first, the grid search. Starting from the last spot you have blood.

You might have hit the liver if so , the doe will be dead within four hours ,
When you and your family start tracking again look for some type of a water sourch or thick bedding area.
Good luck I hope you find her.

ok it does sound like a liver shot blood will be dark you need to keep looking she is there yes you may have been jumping her if it takes getting down on hands and kness do so make sure you look in all thickets you said she went in swampy area they can travel 150 yards from where you shot her make sure you all stay in a line mave carefully and slowly big pools of blood indicate laying down is it only on one side or both I ope you find your deer keep searching check blood again what color is it is it dark did it look like anything was in it to indicate stomache too check let me know