Need help with deer recovery
 

So here is what happened. There was a beautiful 140 class 8 point chasing a doe in the middle of the corn field i was working up. Closest bedding or woods was over 400 yards away. Regardless, I climbed out of my tractor and with my confidence high, I took a 70 yard shot with my Mathews. Arrow hit the deer, only to have him take off with his tail up with now slowing down. He ran almost 80 yards before any blood became present, and at point of impact there was white hair. He crossed a thin head row where he pulled my arrow and there was a big pile of red blood. Deer started walking across another cut corn field, and bedded down right in the middle of the field, With two blood spots on the ground (entry and exit wounds). Where he got up from his bed he walked south into the woods, still leaving a blood trail and I lost the trail in the woods. Early in the blood trail there was little purple blood mixed in with the rich red blood. Needless to say I have not found the deer yet. What I'm looking for is opinions on where the deer is hit and what my next step to do is. Thanks for the help guys

I honestly don't know where to start.....
My advice would be to get really good at tracking, because if you continue to take shots like this one, I'm betting that your going to be doing a lot of it....

The first thing I would do is think of where all the white hair on a deer is. With white hair on the ground then that's where your arrow cut.
For what it's worth, white hair is not the best of sign to begin with, and particularly not with you being on ground level with the deer.

With that bit of info, theres no way of telling where the deer is hit. On the other hand, your next step is to stop making bad shots.

My opinion to stop trying to make 70 yard shots at deer, you owe it to the deer to keep looking and also to the rest of the deer to attempt reasonable shots at them. There is a big difference between a standing still target at 70 yards and something that can and does move. White hair is low hair, belly hair, most likely you have a gut shot to deal with. Go back to where you found the last blood, hopefully you left something on the ground so you can find the spot. I found a gut shot deer yesterday for a friend, it isn't easy and it isn't fun but it can be done and if you don't know where white hair comes from on a deer you probably shouldn't be bow hunting.

You guys act like bad shots don't happen. I'm a confident 70 yards shooter. I practice out to 90 in my yard. I was elevated in relation the deer on a hill. Probably 10 foot incline over the 70 yard span. And with the arc of the arrow, I figure the arrow obviously came out low, which is where the white hair is from, but would have entered at least 6 inches up on the deer. The deer bucked it's back legs as if I hit farther back than anything. But my arrow shows all blood, and no stomach matter. And for the record, I shot it at 930 yesterday morning and didn't start tracking until 430pm. Had muscle blood and purple blood.

Bad shots happen, then people make bad shots happen, it would appear you are way over confident in your ability with a bow. I feel bad for the deer not for you. How many deer have you killed at 90 yards? How many at 70. Sorry, poor judgement on your part caused you to wound a deer, this is not a case of stuff happens. This is a classic case of why archers get a bad name, take a poke and hope!

I've killed two other deer at 68 and 72 yards. One is hanging on my wall the other was a doe. So yes I am confident. I had a rangefinder so I wasn't guessing at all. If I had guess a 70 yard distance I wouldn't be shooting. If your not confident taking a far shot then why are you bow hunting. Everyone assumes deer needs to be at 20 yards to kill it with a bow. If you practice you're fine. You are all concerned For the deer, so why don't you guys help me with some opinions on finding the deer. I know how to track a deer, I've done it hundreds of times. I want to know if anyone has had similar experiences with blood starting late in the trail, tail up, pools of blood, steady blood that stops abruptly. Just asking for opinions. If you want to criticize my ability to shoot my bow at 70 yards then don't comment.

Because to me bow hunting isn't about ever increasing your range of target. It's about learning the skill and applying what it takes to continually shorten the distance of your opportunity.

I've had enough deer jump the sound of the string at 15 yards to even consider the shots you are bragging about.

Here's a tip to finding your deer. Get off the computer and get back out there and look for it.

No one has to criticize your ability, it speaks for its self since your firs post!

Noone is trying to be buttheads here Levimundt, facts are facts. I've been known to practice with my rigs out to 100 yards and can hit consistently at that range. But I limit my shots on LIVE game to 40 yards. Just like my 06, 300WM, and a few of my other rifles I can hit consistently at 800-1000 yards but I limit my shots on LIVE game to 300-400 yards. The reason I limit my shots is TIME. It takes time for an arrow to get there. It takes time for a bullet to get there. Deer have extremely fast reflexes and those arrows are NOT breaking the sound barrier. They hear that string and drop, turn, jump, whatever reflexive action they feel is appropriate. Several of my rigs top 300fps and I've seen deer drop below my shot at 40 yards! The simple fact is, you made a very poor shot choice and oldtimr and the others are letting you know it first off.

Now as to your question, from your description of the blood, you have a liver hit and maybe not a heavily liver hit deer but it does sound like liver blood is definitely mixed in. Liver shots can be survivable if it was just clipped in the upper lobe which sound like what you got. But they usually don't survive long. They end up with sepsis and die in about a week. On rare occasions they buck it but with cold weather coming on this week I kind of doubt it. I'd personally get back out there to the last spot you found blood and start hoof tracking. If you have a friend with a good blood dog that would be the absolute best option. I have several friends all over the country with dogs they use just for these occasions. What state are you in and what part of the state and I'll let you know if I have anyone close to you to help.