JRW, BobCo19-65...

Great advice guys....my times frames are a minimum...when in doubt wait longer because a dead animal can' t go anywhere, a live one can....great points guys.

Now I' m really getting a little antsy especially after reading this thread. Trailing to me is one of my favorite things about bow hunting. Don' t matter if it is my deer or my partners. Ahh, I still have 19 more days till the opener. As my wife tells our son, I guess I just " sit on my hands" for a while and wait.

Some very good advice indeed, the only thing that I could think of adding is always, always, always follow up your shot even if you think you missed and can' t seem to find the arrow that you think is lost in the leaves. Follow the direction the deer went for 50-100 yards and look for the faintest spot of blood until you can be sure it was a miss.

Case in point, I had a novice bowhunting buddy hunting with me a few seasons back and he took a shot at a doe at a marginal distance and thought he missed. When I approached him, he was looking for his arrow, and was pretty sure he missed and not excited at all. So I suggested we follow the trail for a ways and see if he did indeed missed. Low-and-behold after about 30 yards of trailing we found small specks of blood. To make a long story short, we found the doe dead within 75 yards, and she had a marginal hit. The key was I told him to stay in his stand till I came and got him at 10:00 (he shot the deer at 8:30), and that we still thoroughly investigated his shot.

A great post as expected - thanks Rob!

I wanted to make another point - and its been mentioned by others a couple times........ Not all deer that look to be mortally wounded will expire. - In fact some pretty good research has been done that indicates that more than 1/2 of all deer " lost" in traling will survive. Some of these studies were done on Army Bases where strict in/out - Surveys were able to be conducted with no bias.

As an example - I shot an 8 point several years back that had a broadhead firmly lodged in the pelvis, from the year berfore. His rack was a little lopsided as a result - but there was NO WAY to tell this deer had suffered such a wounding at the time I killed him - he showed no ill effects - yet the damage to the pelvis was extensive - and Healed over.

One other time a freind took a doe that had a Perfect " X" of a 4 blade broadhead - scar, under the front leg throught the brisket. The wound was perfectly healed and I doubt that deer ever slowed one bit.

My point is ---- Don' t give up - But if you cannot get another reasonable shot into the wounded deer - understand that it IS POSSIBLE that the deer is not mortally wounded, regardless of how the shot seemed.

if an animal is hit good i' ll give em 20 min if not hit well at least 2 hours depending on the amount of blood. Bright blood is a good sign usually that means lungs. look for blood on trees and branches not just the ground this will give you an idea on how high up the animal is hit. always have 2 people or else flagging tape when recovering game in order to mark blood spots. mark each blood spot u come to or have someone stand there so that if you lose the trail momentarily u can just go back to your last flag or hunting partner and look for the blood trail again where you last saw blood. another good idea is hydrogen peroxide in a spray bottle if u can' t tell if a spot is blood or not mist some hydrogen peroxide on it and it will bubble or fizz if its blood.

That is true, however, do not rely on that alone. I have seen artery and muscle hits that have been just as bright.

Lung hit will usually be a bit pinker however, and should contain some bubbles.

I Follow thru with my shot, no peaking, watch to see how the deer reacts, watch the deer run and mark the last spot I saw it and its direction. I usually wait a good 30 minutes regardless, before getting out of my stand. I then pack up my stand, gear, etc. I then head to the last spot I saw the deer, making sure to follow where it went from the spot of the shot. Try to locate my arrow or verify blood.

If the blood is thick and easy to tract, I track. If the blood is nothing more than slight drips, I' ll sit and wait another 30 minutes. This works for me. I have only lost one deer and it was due to a poor shot and it was right at dusk so the trail was tough from the start and the next day turned up nothing.

After reading through all 3+ pages of this topic, I find my question unanswered.
I put a good shot on an 8 point last Friday night. Quartering away, 18 yards, uphill from my tree so the shot was only slightly angled down. It was a good shot so I sat down to wait. An hour later I could not find my arrow with the binos, so I got down and looked at where the shot was. No arrow, but I could see it about 30 yards down where he had run. I looked at it..lots of dark blood. I think liver, so I back out to wait some more.
Then it starts to rain. A little at first then harder. I got on the trail as fast as I could and worked it only about 80 yards before it was totally washed out. By then, It was totally dark and pouring rain. We came back the next morning and found nothing. I went back out on Sunday and walked a grid by myself. I found no sign of anything.
What a terrible feeling.
So here is my thought. Nobody has addressed the weather. In 3+ pages, I think it was mentioned once. Am I the only one that has had to track a deer in the rain?
What else should I have done? I really do not want this to happen again.
Brian

ostdc, I agree weather can really be a tough thing to work with. And you are correct, it would make sense that you had a liver hit since you found dark blood and it was a quartering away shot. It makes sense to me. Did you find any beds within the 80 yards that were able to track? That is right around where the deer should have bedded down. Usually with a liver hit, if the deer is not dead in the first bed, he will bed down within another 20 yards or so.

What I do in situations dealing with the rain or snow, is to still give the deer enough time to expire, unless the hit requires me to get on him right away. So, In your case, I would have done the same thing. Do yourself a favor and get the book Finding Wounded Deer by John Trout. In the book he does address the issue, and he is an complete expert in the field. You will feel better about your trailing skills after you read the book. I can justify that myself.

Saddly for me I lost a deer last year,it had snowed the evening after I had left the woods,I was coming back the next morning.I also looked the next evening after work.I finally found this deer this past spring mushroom hunting.It is a heart sinking feeling.I have to admit though I had noticed hawks and gulls circling that area days after but didn' t figure to check the area.Great topic ,I think we can all learn from this discussion,or at least be mindfull of our shot placement,and wait time.Thanks Rob.Bill D>