Note where deer stood at shot,every shot. Hits cut hair. Find it,save it. If not sure where its from it can be compared to a hide or whole deer later.
Mark,mentally last spot deer seen at. If backing out take pen or pencil notes.
Include deers reaction to shot and its demeanor in flight.
High and no exit wounds leave little blood. Fat and other plugging items have been discussed. Tracking without blood not uncommon at all. Take it slow,upset deer leave more noticeable sign,especially panicked ones.
When a trail had "good"blood and ends be sure deer didn,t double back on its own tracks. Also a button hook can occur as brain runs out of oxygen.
A deer even mortally wounded can jump six feet, over a dead fall from where last blood found, downwind so it can monitor its backtrail.(circle last sign till trail recovered).
Had one kill years ago,rear of brisket,arrow sheared at first jump. No blood bigger than a dime. Another pinned between shoulders from above just barley sliced side of heart and spine,no exit. Buck ran out of sight at 80 yds with arrow. Just past that he rolled breaking arrow,then about a 20 yard hook to right dying on the move. 3 or 4 quarter dollar size spots of blood where he rolled.(i had better eyes then).
Treat each shot as a fatal (back off time if in doubt) hit. After doubt caused wait prove to yourself the result.Have had multiple kills the deer showed no sign of a hit,(that i could see.)rifle and bow till tracked a ways. They just raced out of site.
Spent a couple hundred yards today on first miss in a while. (Bang head.)but it was an obligation.

Gut shot...
 

Guys, I have harvested many deer and I am sick over this situation. Everyone has hunting stories, but I am puzzled on this one. The deer was hit back mid section of body, broadside. It was a 20 yard shot, arrow hit a small branch. The deer went about 20 yards and stood there for about 5 min. He then walked 20 yds. and bedded down. After 30 min. He got up and moved about 10' and bedded down again. About 20 min. later he got up and fell back down in to a bedding position. He got up one more time and went 10 yds. and bedded down again. It got dark and I back'ed out. The next morning I was hoping to find the deer where he bedded last, but not the case. The arrow was recovered with blood on the fletching and some small gut/intestine particles. (It did not smell like guts). I have done a viual search for over 10 hours, swamp, hard woods, creek bottoms, etc. Because of the shot placement, no blood trail. Any feedback appreciated. Thanks

If it did not penetrate through the shoulder he/she will not die. I have butchered deer with broad heads logged in shoulders. You may get blood trail for awhile, but it may turn in to small specs eventually. Good luck!

Tough one. Backing out on suspected gut shot gets lots of agreement. Wondering what broadhead condition was in on impact. besides being robbed of energy a dull cut/tear binds much better than a razor. Was deer hunched up when walking like a severe paunch shot?not smelling matter could be good for survival. Expected it to be where you left it also. Unless a yote or something made it get up. Nearest thick cover(oddly uphill like their not supposed to) is where last tough find was. I don,t use dog (yet got enough of them) but after your search don,t know what else to try. Maybe twanged a nerve but deer didn,t seem panicked or on a death run. Wouldn't,t be surprised if it gets spotted again.though it may be at opposite end of his range. Were i sent to look after your great effort i would seek out the spot to hide within sight of last bed. If it did not head for water it just rebedded if dying, or left area for security cover . Some bucks die on their feet but usually where running,walking hard after the shot. I appreciate your recovery attempt.

Great post, thanks for the tips

:cool2:

Also look for good blood on the ground. The doe I shot this year only ran 40yds at most but had good pass through broadside shot and the arrow fletching was covered in "red blood" it wasnt bright colored like the lung blood but was a good shot right above the front elbow...so I assume it was a good lung shot. recovery was easy on this one.

That's good info, but there are quite a few coyotes where I hunt making it hard for me to wait so long to recover my dear. So far though I've only either made a great shot or missed completely.. So I haven't had to worry about gut shot deer

thanks for this nice and usefull information.

Just got done reading the write-up. Alot of helpful information and great write-up! This will deffinitely come in handy, thanks!

Awesome! Thanks for the info

Great Info Rob
 

Everything Rob said is dead one. I would like to add a Few additional key things you must account for...
1. Ground conditions:
-Is it fall with blowing leaves?
-Is the ground covered with snow?
•Is the snow hard iced snow or fluffy fresh snow?
-Is the ground wet?
2. Weather: This is simply so key in tracking. Ok you shot a deer. Like Rob said... WAIT TO TRACK IT. DO NOT push it. However, you really have to think about weather and ground conditions.
Windy with leaves? Well what do you think it's going to do with bloody leaves?

Fluffy snow with wind? Your blood trail may get covered up.

Rain? Bye bye blood.

Hard snow no wind... heaven for tracking.

By all means don't rush a track job. All I'm saying is that with each track comes a different challenge. Knowing what your getting into before you start could make or break finding your deer.

Best of luck,
OhioHunter

"No such thing as a bad day hunting"

This is a worthy read. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks that will help me if I get something this year. First time bow hunter so thats great info. Thank you

Awesome post.

I've many years of tracking deer, black bear, Elk, Moose shot with bow or rifle...

Many times with a bow you'll never see a drop of Blood at the scene... Look for cut hair if bowhunting or if rifle hunting there's a high likelihood.

I lost a doe by not waiting one day after putting the Muzzy through a 1/3 inch softwood and hitting her good. We waited 45 Min - should've waited 2 hours MIN!

Lung hit; bubbles, etc... single lung I'm sure. Took 2 days from work with my pup and we never did find her! She bedded within 50 yards when we bumped her that day.

Terrible story I know but it happened and I was wrong. Wish I'd seen this post prior!

SORRY for those disappointed!

I also believe there IS an area between spine and lungs when shot from the ground! This is from experience on a couple of tracking jobs.

If you have access to a dog, take it!

REM7600

BTW: Tracking that deer on hands and knees with ribbon that day I came face to face with the black bear doing the same! He wasn't big, but it was a rush/whatever coming face to face with him. I held the Bow over my head and walked toward him and he "beat feet" away "bitching/huffing all the way!" At the time, I did label my arrows with name and phone. circa 2000.

REM7600

PS: No joke! I've taken more than a handful of blackies with a bow but he was not in season in this area.

Thanks for the info/post

Saw a good suggestion I had never heard the other day for night tracking. Instead of having someone "stand at last blood" us glow stick and hang them at last blood. My only question would be what if you are in a field? lol

I don't hunt archery but do use a popup blind for shotgun hunting Spring turkey hunting. It's been a game changer for me. A ground blind breaks up your outline but doesn't hide all movement. A popup blind hides you and any movement. Some of the archery guys will be able to give you more info on archery deer.