I've heard there are all sorts of ways to tell the shot from an arrow. Such as little bubbles means lung shot. Correct? Now what are the darker color to the more red color differences? How does this tell you when you should follow? Any other tips?

Smell it.[:'(]

Mostly it comes with experience....smell and slimee is intestine/stomach...

Bubbles and/or very bright red blood is heart / lung

Dark blood can be muscle and or liver....

Watch the arrow and learn from experience...

Foamy bright red blood tip to nock=dead deer, give em a little time and go get him. Dark red, last half of arrow might be liver, give em plenty of time, hours,may also be a flesh wound. Green smelly stuff on arrow=gut shot give em 6-8hrs.

Well said. If your nose isn't very good try looking for bits of leaves and grains on the shaft. If ya can't smell you can see.

I have only lost 1 deer and that was a buddies. It started to snow! BIG wet flakes that mounted to 2-3" in 10-15min. We had to get out. We wnet back the next morning and I tracked it another 200yds until a clearing. Just too many tracks to work with. I found the trail a couple of times by looking for odd steps a nd then kicking the snow aside until I found the smallest bit of red. Got on her trail again and lost it in the next clearing....... I just couldn't find it.

Give them all night.

Learned this the hard way my first bow shot deer. Man I wish I could take thattrack jobback.

LT

At least something good came out of it LT. I'm betting you wouldn't do it again!! Experience is by far the best teacher out there.

You got that right Schultzy. I had that deer bedded and dead within the day, and got on him too fast. I kicked myself for a week over that and almost said I quit. But, I got to thinking, hey I am not the only one who ever lost a bow shot deer and probably will not be the last.

Sorry, not trying to hijack the thread. This is all good info though for new folks. Remember around the start of the bowhunting contest to find the sticky that Rob always puts up about "After the shot". Years of experience there, and well worth paying your utmost attention to.

LT

And when you've read all the answers and think they must be right..... there are exceptions. The correct answer is experience. Follow every blood trail..... even if you saw the deer fall. Example of where all the answers can be wrong. I slammed a buck at close range from above. I saw the hole appear in the deer about 5 ribs up angling forward. The deer ran off.The arrow was covered with green slime... not blood, but green slime. The deer went about 80-100 yards. The arrow had entered the near lung, passed through the food pipe, hit the other lung and exited under the offside armpit. There was maybe at most a tablespoon of blood for the whole trail. Upon autopsy I found a glob of cud about the size of a small apple between the skin and chest wall under the armpit. The arrow had hit both lungs and was all green slime. No blood. My buddy insisted I gut shot the deer. We found the deer by following just the tiny little drops, foot prints etc. It was a perfect shot except for the fact the deer reguretated his cud into the exit hole. The arrow must have caught him bringing up a cud or swallowing a large bush... at any rate... everything was green and it was a perfect hit. Experience and observation are your best teachers. Patiences and attention to detail are your lessons.