shot a deer with very little blood trail (long)
12-18-2007, 11:00 PM
#1
Fork Horn
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Western NY
Posts: 148
shot a deer with very little blood trail (long)
If you are bored and have time to kill a story follows:
We recently had some bad snow come into town leaving about 6 inches of snow, and it ended about noonish the other day so I figured it might be a good time to hunt and put some meat in the freezer(got lucky with that guess). Got up in a ladder stand, hunting some thick hemlocks, low visibility. About 4:30pm hear footsteps - the area had standing water/ice underneath the snow so it was fairly easy to hear deer crunching that stuff under the snow here and there. Off to my right I see a deer heading somewhat towards me, then I see 2, 3 now 4 deer, working their way over to me. I glance over to my left but see nothing. Closest one is about 20 yards when I see the others, it's a doe heading closer but gets suspicious.(we have a few smart does hanging around my suburban area) There is no way she sees me move, she isn't even looking up at me but still acts nervous. I think she saw my footprints in the snow and put 2 and 2 together. Is that possible? Either that or she smelled me somehow, but never once did she look up. I haven't really moved my bow or anything reallyat all because I have no shot to my right, but she is heading my way. All of a sudden I hear footsteps over to my left, and they sound close! Look over and there is a deer about 15 yards away, headingtowards a good shooting lane. Gotta move fast, deer below are nervous, decide topull bow back and see what happens. Remember it is thick in there, really it is now or never. At this point lead doe is 1 yard away from ladder below me.I do not think she was going to be shootable, she was just too nervous and it was only a matter of time before she smelled me, or the scent I left on the ladder, or my smell drifting down, who knows. So I pull bow back, don't know what 4 deer around me do but hear movement. Probably the dow below me jumped back due to movement or noise. The deer I am watching and targeting to my left takes about 3 leaps/steps and stops, because it doesn't know what the deal is. A pretty good almost quartering away shot, I put the pin on thelung areaand shoot while it is standing still. Arrow pretty much looks like it went right for where I was aiming, I hear a crack when it hits, but for some reason arrow doesn't seem to have penetrated like it should have. Deer immediately takes off running. I wait for almost 30 minutes before getting down and decide to track the deer for just a little ways, to check out the situation and blood trail justwhile its still a little light out, just barely. At this point I thought I had a well hit deer, and wanted to see how things faired before I needed the flashlight, but was a little worried about the arrow not going through, or at least nice and deep. Start tracking, maybe 20 yards from point of impact see hair with blood on it, dark hair. Spot of blood about the size of a quarter. Follow deer tracks and find another quarter sized spot of blood maybe 10 yards farther on, also find specks of blood off to left side, about the size of pencil eraser. Not many specks. I track for about 50-75 yards with my tiny flashlight, and I am not seeing any blood. Start getting a heavy feeling in my stomachabout things, start thinking that maybe that crack I heard wasn't a rib breaking but the shoulder blade getting hit. I have not found the arrow yet, and remember seeing the deer run away with the arrow in it. Decide to head home to regroup, get more light, and allow the deer more time to expire if needed. Get home and start getting big flashlights, batteries, lose some of my gear and after about an hour make the decision to head back out. I went over that shot in my head and still think that it was a killing shot - that deer should be out there dead. My logic at the time was that my arrow either went into the lungs and hit the shoulder blade on the other side killing it, or else my arrow went shallow which I don't think it would matter if I waited 24 hours, that deer didn't receive a killing blow. Also I was worried about snow falling again and covering up the trail. Weatherman wasn't calling for snow until morning, but that doesn't mean a thing this year... My wife bless her heart decides to join me tracking, we had a friend of the family over watching the kids. So we go back out tracking back to the original spot. This time I am using a big halogen flashlight, can see more blood, but tiny little flecks. I mean the size of pencil tips they are so small. And not many either, in fact I am looking at this thinking there is no friggin way I could track this thing unless the snow is there. The good news is that what I am seeing, looks like it it being sprayed out the left side (where arrow entered) indicating an artery has been cut. At least that is what I try and tell myself. Try and imagine seeing running deer tracks, and then tiny flecks of blood about 1-2 feet away on left side. Pencil tip sized flecks, small enough that I had to bend down and look close to identify fresh red blood in freshly fallen snow! Sorry no pictures due to time constraints. At times there is no blood. We track for about 80 yards or so and deer heads right through this thick patch of grapevines about the size of a car. By the way I have not recovered the arrow yet. Figure the arrow is still in the deer, preventing the blood from coming out. Anyway I'm looking though this thick crap, I can barely fit through myself, and see flecks of blood here and there through the grapevine section, but again nothing heavy, small flecks and spots. Actually mostly no blood, just some now and then to make me confident about being on the correct track, but I get really worried that if I start seeing other deer tracks, I am going to have trouble staying on the right trail, especially if any other deer are running. At this point deer is starting to head towards one of my neighbors house, and then I really start getting depressed, I'm thinking that a well shot deer would not run into a wide open back yard. Distance is about 100 to 150 yards I would say when the deer tracks run right though my neighbors back yard, about 10 yards away from a swing set. No blood at this point in the tracks.Deer tracks continue in a strip of woods between 2 neighbor houses, no blood. Also we are approaching the road, and plenty of neighbors across the street. I'm thinking holy cow how many people's houses am I going to have to knock on doors to get permission to chase this damn deer. I know most of my neighbors but not all... Not only that but I start seeing other deer tracks,most of them arejust walking, but another running deer crosses our trail. Note that the deer has run the whole time, has not slowed down to walk, or bed down, just a flat out run/bound, which I took as a good sign. I am reaching for good signs at this point. My wife starts to follow the other set of tracks just to see if there blood. I continue following this running deer, and low and behold I find a fewtiny spotsof blood, we are still on the right trail! We are now in small thick crap with a trail down the middle that the deer is running on. Other deer tracks now and then just to make it tough. Getting close to the road, about 75 yards when the trail turns right. I follow, and see blood smeared on a small tree, almost like the deer ran right into it and then veered over to the left. I look over to the left and holy cow there is my deer, dead as can be! Thank God!
So what happened? I never found the arrow by the way, looked all over where the deer was found dead but nothing. It fell out somewhere along the way, but snow was deep enough to hide it easily. Oddly enough I coudn't find the broadhead broken off inside the deer either. The shot went in a little higher than I would have liked, I think the deer "jumped the string" a little bit. By jumping the string I mean it crouched down right before it jumped, causing my shot to go a little high. There was a hole I could fit my thumb in the left shoulder, leading right into the lung area, went right into the upper lung area, and got caught up in the opposite side bones of its right shoulder from what I could tell. Really tough to tell exactly where it ended. Bone chips in the hole, I broke at least 1 rib going in. Did not hit the shoulder blade from what I could tell. In retrospect I would have liked to explore it more, but the end result is that it was a mortal shot, just a little high, with no exit hole.End result was that the deer didn't bleed much, body cavity just filled up with blood. His upper lungs were pretty torn up, with some artery damage as well.Heart not touched at all. Deer ran flat out for about 150-200 yards and fell over dead. Hardly any blood trail, no way I could have tracked it without snow. (grid search instead) I'm just amazed at how little blood there was, and can't help but wonder how often this happens when there is no snow, and people think that they didn't hit the deer that bad.
I have hunted deer since I was 14 (am now 40) in 2 states every year until this year. I bowhunted a few years in my teens, and then stopped until 4 years ago. Have killed 3 deer (all within the last 4 years) now with the bow, and now am considering aiming a little lower on the deer, just to avoid that from happening again. Just too nerve wracking! By the way I enjoy bow hunting a lot more than gun hunting in fact I bow hunt during gun season here in NY. People look at me like I am nuts but it just seems too easy with the gun. I'm not knocking gun hunting at all, it's a very humane way to kill a deer, and an excellent way to put meat in the freezer, just my personal choice. To me, killing a deer with a bow and arrow seems more challenging, and I find it much more rewarding.
Oh well enough rambling. NY season is now over and I miss it already.
We recently had some bad snow come into town leaving about 6 inches of snow, and it ended about noonish the other day so I figured it might be a good time to hunt and put some meat in the freezer(got lucky with that guess). Got up in a ladder stand, hunting some thick hemlocks, low visibility. About 4:30pm hear footsteps - the area had standing water/ice underneath the snow so it was fairly easy to hear deer crunching that stuff under the snow here and there. Off to my right I see a deer heading somewhat towards me, then I see 2, 3 now 4 deer, working their way over to me. I glance over to my left but see nothing. Closest one is about 20 yards when I see the others, it's a doe heading closer but gets suspicious.(we have a few smart does hanging around my suburban area) There is no way she sees me move, she isn't even looking up at me but still acts nervous. I think she saw my footprints in the snow and put 2 and 2 together. Is that possible? Either that or she smelled me somehow, but never once did she look up. I haven't really moved my bow or anything reallyat all because I have no shot to my right, but she is heading my way. All of a sudden I hear footsteps over to my left, and they sound close! Look over and there is a deer about 15 yards away, headingtowards a good shooting lane. Gotta move fast, deer below are nervous, decide topull bow back and see what happens. Remember it is thick in there, really it is now or never. At this point lead doe is 1 yard away from ladder below me.I do not think she was going to be shootable, she was just too nervous and it was only a matter of time before she smelled me, or the scent I left on the ladder, or my smell drifting down, who knows. So I pull bow back, don't know what 4 deer around me do but hear movement. Probably the dow below me jumped back due to movement or noise. The deer I am watching and targeting to my left takes about 3 leaps/steps and stops, because it doesn't know what the deal is. A pretty good almost quartering away shot, I put the pin on thelung areaand shoot while it is standing still. Arrow pretty much looks like it went right for where I was aiming, I hear a crack when it hits, but for some reason arrow doesn't seem to have penetrated like it should have. Deer immediately takes off running. I wait for almost 30 minutes before getting down and decide to track the deer for just a little ways, to check out the situation and blood trail justwhile its still a little light out, just barely. At this point I thought I had a well hit deer, and wanted to see how things faired before I needed the flashlight, but was a little worried about the arrow not going through, or at least nice and deep. Start tracking, maybe 20 yards from point of impact see hair with blood on it, dark hair. Spot of blood about the size of a quarter. Follow deer tracks and find another quarter sized spot of blood maybe 10 yards farther on, also find specks of blood off to left side, about the size of pencil eraser. Not many specks. I track for about 50-75 yards with my tiny flashlight, and I am not seeing any blood. Start getting a heavy feeling in my stomachabout things, start thinking that maybe that crack I heard wasn't a rib breaking but the shoulder blade getting hit. I have not found the arrow yet, and remember seeing the deer run away with the arrow in it. Decide to head home to regroup, get more light, and allow the deer more time to expire if needed. Get home and start getting big flashlights, batteries, lose some of my gear and after about an hour make the decision to head back out. I went over that shot in my head and still think that it was a killing shot - that deer should be out there dead. My logic at the time was that my arrow either went into the lungs and hit the shoulder blade on the other side killing it, or else my arrow went shallow which I don't think it would matter if I waited 24 hours, that deer didn't receive a killing blow. Also I was worried about snow falling again and covering up the trail. Weatherman wasn't calling for snow until morning, but that doesn't mean a thing this year... My wife bless her heart decides to join me tracking, we had a friend of the family over watching the kids. So we go back out tracking back to the original spot. This time I am using a big halogen flashlight, can see more blood, but tiny little flecks. I mean the size of pencil tips they are so small. And not many either, in fact I am looking at this thinking there is no friggin way I could track this thing unless the snow is there. The good news is that what I am seeing, looks like it it being sprayed out the left side (where arrow entered) indicating an artery has been cut. At least that is what I try and tell myself. Try and imagine seeing running deer tracks, and then tiny flecks of blood about 1-2 feet away on left side. Pencil tip sized flecks, small enough that I had to bend down and look close to identify fresh red blood in freshly fallen snow! Sorry no pictures due to time constraints. At times there is no blood. We track for about 80 yards or so and deer heads right through this thick patch of grapevines about the size of a car. By the way I have not recovered the arrow yet. Figure the arrow is still in the deer, preventing the blood from coming out. Anyway I'm looking though this thick crap, I can barely fit through myself, and see flecks of blood here and there through the grapevine section, but again nothing heavy, small flecks and spots. Actually mostly no blood, just some now and then to make me confident about being on the correct track, but I get really worried that if I start seeing other deer tracks, I am going to have trouble staying on the right trail, especially if any other deer are running. At this point deer is starting to head towards one of my neighbors house, and then I really start getting depressed, I'm thinking that a well shot deer would not run into a wide open back yard. Distance is about 100 to 150 yards I would say when the deer tracks run right though my neighbors back yard, about 10 yards away from a swing set. No blood at this point in the tracks.Deer tracks continue in a strip of woods between 2 neighbor houses, no blood. Also we are approaching the road, and plenty of neighbors across the street. I'm thinking holy cow how many people's houses am I going to have to knock on doors to get permission to chase this damn deer. I know most of my neighbors but not all... Not only that but I start seeing other deer tracks,most of them arejust walking, but another running deer crosses our trail. Note that the deer has run the whole time, has not slowed down to walk, or bed down, just a flat out run/bound, which I took as a good sign. I am reaching for good signs at this point. My wife starts to follow the other set of tracks just to see if there blood. I continue following this running deer, and low and behold I find a fewtiny spotsof blood, we are still on the right trail! We are now in small thick crap with a trail down the middle that the deer is running on. Other deer tracks now and then just to make it tough. Getting close to the road, about 75 yards when the trail turns right. I follow, and see blood smeared on a small tree, almost like the deer ran right into it and then veered over to the left. I look over to the left and holy cow there is my deer, dead as can be! Thank God!
So what happened? I never found the arrow by the way, looked all over where the deer was found dead but nothing. It fell out somewhere along the way, but snow was deep enough to hide it easily. Oddly enough I coudn't find the broadhead broken off inside the deer either. The shot went in a little higher than I would have liked, I think the deer "jumped the string" a little bit. By jumping the string I mean it crouched down right before it jumped, causing my shot to go a little high. There was a hole I could fit my thumb in the left shoulder, leading right into the lung area, went right into the upper lung area, and got caught up in the opposite side bones of its right shoulder from what I could tell. Really tough to tell exactly where it ended. Bone chips in the hole, I broke at least 1 rib going in. Did not hit the shoulder blade from what I could tell. In retrospect I would have liked to explore it more, but the end result is that it was a mortal shot, just a little high, with no exit hole.End result was that the deer didn't bleed much, body cavity just filled up with blood. His upper lungs were pretty torn up, with some artery damage as well.Heart not touched at all. Deer ran flat out for about 150-200 yards and fell over dead. Hardly any blood trail, no way I could have tracked it without snow. (grid search instead) I'm just amazed at how little blood there was, and can't help but wonder how often this happens when there is no snow, and people think that they didn't hit the deer that bad.
I have hunted deer since I was 14 (am now 40) in 2 states every year until this year. I bowhunted a few years in my teens, and then stopped until 4 years ago. Have killed 3 deer (all within the last 4 years) now with the bow, and now am considering aiming a little lower on the deer, just to avoid that from happening again. Just too nerve wracking! By the way I enjoy bow hunting a lot more than gun hunting in fact I bow hunt during gun season here in NY. People look at me like I am nuts but it just seems too easy with the gun. I'm not knocking gun hunting at all, it's a very humane way to kill a deer, and an excellent way to put meat in the freezer, just my personal choice. To me, killing a deer with a bow and arrow seems more challenging, and I find it much more rewarding.
Oh well enough rambling. NY season is now over and I miss it already.
12-18-2007, 11:20 PM
#2
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Virginia
Posts: 3,882
RE: shot a deer with very little blood trail (long)
Congradulations on your deer. You stuck it out and did not give up just because you had to put extra work into it. Great story too, i thought it was going to end in a lost deer, you had me in suspense.lol congrats again.
12-19-2007, 07:46 AM
#4
Typical Buck
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Panhandle of Texas
Posts: 596
RE: shot a deer with very little blood trail (long)
Congratulations on staying with it and finding your deer. Trailing and the tenacity required to stick out a tough trail is, in myopinion, the hardest skill most bowhunters have trouble acquiring, and one in which we never quit learning.
Just curious, what type of broadhead were you using?
Just curious, what type of broadhead were you using?
12-19-2007, 08:30 AM
#7
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Central Minnesota
Posts: 9,445
RE: shot a deer with very little blood trail (long)
Thats a hell of a story! Congrats on getting your deer. If I was you I would keep aiming like you are instead of thinking about aiming low. I shoot a recurve, i've had 1 deer possibly duck my arrow, but then again I might of plain and simple just screwed up and shot over her too. I've shot alot of deer and thats the only one I can think of that might of ducked my arrow if thats what happened! I think in alot of cases we as the hunter just miss our spots were shooting at. You made a good shot, congratulations again!
12-19-2007, 09:35 AM
#9
Typical Buck
Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 721
RE: shot a deer with very little blood trail (long)
Congrats on the recovery. A high lung shot won't always give a good blood trail as the cavity needs tofill before the blood really comes out good. Usually they start spraying it out the nose/mouth before the arrow holes leave much of a trail which can take bit.
12-19-2007, 09:44 AM
#10
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SOUTH Carolina--I've moved!
Posts: 2,760
RE: shot a deer with very little blood trail (long)
Great job and nice recovery! That's why I always aim at the lower half/third of the deer. I'd rather get a low lung hit than high. I'm glad you found her. Nice! Now we need some pics!!