oldsmellhound

I think it depends on what kind of hit it was. If all signs point to a bad, non-lethal hit (i.e. front leg muscle hit, very low in the brisket), then I wouldn't spend days looking for that deer. Most of the time, deer are going to survive those marginal hits, so if you lose the blood trail, comb the area and come up with nothing, it's probably still alive and long gone.

However, if you are pretty sure you made a more solid hit (one lung or a little far back, etc.) then I would stick with it until you find the deer or are unable to keep searching. One example- last year my buddy hit a deer with what he thought was a perfect hit- turns out that it was probably a 1 lung shot due to the steep angle. He made the mistake of searching too quickly instead of letting it bed down and die. Long story short, we tracked the deer for over 400 yards through a swamp into the night. We finally lost the blood trail and couldn't figure out which way he went. My buddy decided to give up and go home. Another buddy found the carcass of the deer (we knew it was the same one because of the size & shape of the rack) several weeks later during gun season- he found it less than 100 yards from where we had stopped searching. If my buddy had come back in the daylight the next morning, there would have been a very good chance of finding it. Moral of the story- keep looking!

Soilarch

No doubt I made mistakes...but I did get one lung for sure (and it was a high lung hit). Anyways it doesn't matter, its long history and I've lost all the sleep I'm going to lose over it. I just didn't know how you guys approached a situation like that 'cause its frustrating as all get out. Personally I thought I was doing pretty good to find the trail I did. I little tuff or hair (without blood on it, but it had been 'cut' not just pulled or rubbed off) and those two little areas of blood had about 3 or 4 bb sized blood spots...that's it!! Really confused be because all the other deer I've shot with bow may not have been gushers but left enough of a trail anybody could've followed as long as they took there time and kept going back the last mark.

Oh well, thanks guys.

EDIT: Forgot to mention I did try to get my buddies to help...dad's not much of a hunter and he was out of town. One of my buddies was busy on his own hunt and the other was working. It was an evening hunt and he usually closes up the feed store/gas station. I bet they wished they had helped me...cause they had to get tired of my brooding about it for the better part of the holiday break.

SteveO KanevO

I shot a doe yesterday as posted today. Didnt have a complete pass through and the shot was high and back. I looked for 3 1/2 hours before we jumped her out of her bed. Now this was a mistake on our part. even though it was 3 1/2 hours later we should have waited longer. We waited 3 more hours and took up the search again and two hours after that we still hadnt found her. Nor did we find any more blood. I gave up the search I kinda feel like maybe there is a chance that she could make it through it but I dont know. I am very disappointed in myself. Like what was said before we owe it to the animals to make a good shot and an effort to recover them. I just dont know what I else to do.

JeffS

I shot a 4 pointer yesterday in the rain and we searched for over 2 hours in the dark before we had to give up. It crossed a fence onto the neighbors place and we found a lot of blood but we lost the trail after about 100 yards and searched a area over 400 yards in all directions but couldn't find anymore blood. With the rain it was washing the blood away and we had trouble seeing where it ran. We've crawled around on our hands and knees before looking for deer and hogs and we normally can find them within 200 yards max. Though sometimes you just can't find them.

spur0701

I've lost one deer, a doe, 4 seasons ago....it was a marginal shot with a crossbow, I held too high I think.....anyway I spent 7 hours looking between that night and the next couple of days but never found her....felt really bad about it. But one lesson I learned from that was not to take chances with a mariginal shot, I owe them that I think......now when I release or pull the trigger I only do it when I feel sure of the shot.....

bullet_head

Well,

(1) I would have made a clean kill shot so I wouldn't have so much trouble tracking a deer. If I wouldn't have had the shoot I wouldn't have taken it

(2) I'll give up when I finally find it. I've been on my hands and knees in ankle high water in the winter searching for blood. One of my idiot land leasers (who is no longer welcomed on the land) shot a doe with a slug 135 yards away. He calls me in the middle of the night. We search and search until daylight the next morning only to find nothing, no blood no deer no anything. I couldn't tell you if he really did hit it. I never seen any blood.

JeffS

Even with a clean shot they don't drop in their tracks. I've had them run over 150 yards with no lungs left. I shot a doe with a rifle a few years ago and there was pieces of lung on the tree behind where she was standing and she still ran 150 yards. When we cleaned her her lungs were complete mush.