I went out Mon night for a hunt and arrowed a nice doe about 25 yards out. I seen the arrow go through the chest, nice pass through. I waited about 35 min then started to trail. I found a NICE blood trail and followed it for about 50 yards into the woods. Then the trail just stopped, I could not find anny blood at all! I have tracked many deer in my hunting career but never have I seen a blood trail that good and have it just stop!! i looked around for 3 hours to find nothing! I looked the next morning and again found nothing!! I feel horrible because I have never lost a deer before. If anybody has any advise or tricks to better track I would greatly apprecitate it. What a waste of a great animal. I hope it never happens again.

Just get some friends and grid search the area. I shot a Doe last night that stopped bleeding, and me and a friend searched an area and found her 40 yards from where we lost blood.

don't give up!!! also, where is the arrow??? what does it look like??? are you certain you know where you hit??? grid searching with some friends is the way to go here, i hope you get her, but you owe it to her to put forth a concerted effort

Yeah, what the others said and asked.

What did the blood look like, color, bubbles, etc?
how much was there?

Any water near by she may have headed toward?

maybe it is just me but i give up if i can't find a doe that night. i have been told to not eat the meat if it is left over night. if you can't eat the meat then you are just adding pressure to your hunting area by filling it with extra human scent.

You've been given bad info. I've recovered a few deer the next AM, and the meat was fine. Overnight temperature and whether the deer was gutshot or not can come into play of course. I recovered one doe at first light when the overnight temp was not below 60, and it was fine.

Sometimes a blood trail will appear to stop. Most often the deer backtracked a bit and veered off in one direction or another.

Sounds to me like the doe ran into the woods and stopped to assess the situation. She probably clotted up a little and couldve bolted once alerted by you tracking her. Clotting and then taking off quickly will leave little in way of a blood trail. As said she also couldve backtracked her trail and veered off-grid searching for a body is all thats left now. Was there a puddle of blood at your last spot of blood???

I hope its just you. You owe it to the animal to do everything you can to find it. If you're not prepared to leave your scent in your honey hole, don't shoot!

Agree 100%! Your scent will go away in a few days anyway. Good ethics outweigh hopes of future success anyway. Get in there and find her. Even if the meat is bad, I would want to know how I hit her and what happened just to help me out in the future.