DEER VANISHED!!! Plenty of sign- no deer
 

Man I can' t believe it!!! Please criticize me, scold me, reassure me, wutever... I shot a big buck on saturday night. At bout 6:55 2 b exact...So i decide to let him sit over nite. I go back on sun. morning w/ my dad n pick up the trail. We find some good sign. Like a good pool of blood about a foot in diameter. We continue to find more blood n follow the trail for another 100 yds. or so...This time we find a spot where he bedded down. Blood all over the place... and bright red blood to be exact. So we continue to follow it for another 150 yds. and we find another pool where he wuz bedding down. again blood all over the place. we find out that he' s looping around... and after that third pool-no blood at all!! no deer to be found. We went back w/ 5 of us and we combed and did grid after grid after grid. even four property' s down. i just can' t figure this out?? and even everyone that wuz there said thats an awful lot of blood for this deer to be running around like that!! Please help me to figure this out!! again please criticize, scold, and or reassure me plaese!! Thanks a bunch!!

RE: DEER VANISHED!!! Plenty of sign- no deer
 

Give us a little more info. What did the arrow look like?
Where did you hit? How did he act after shot?
Give us all the details you can and lets see if we can figure out what happened.
How far to the beds? How far until you ran out of blood?

RE: DEER VANISHED!!! Plenty of sign- no deer
 

Sure, I' ll scold you... yada yada yada..... First off, on Saturday night at 6:55 when you shot you were past the legal shooting hours. Plus, when it' s that late, no matter what, you can not get the correct sight picture. It is extremely difficult to center your sights as you do in daylight. I know if I shoot in really bad light I have a tendancy to group left quite a bit.

In closing, if it isn' t legal shooting light, and/OR you can' t see your pins to make a decent shot... you shouldn' t be shooting at all. There, you feel better.[:-] P.S. Sounds like some major muscle damage to me. Probably a leg or tenderloin.[:' (] You screwed up and are paying the consequences.:D The old Risk/Reward deal just bit you bad.

RE: DEER VANISHED!!! Plenty of sign- no deer
 

He was within legal shooting hours. Ohio' s archery season is 1/2 hour before sunrise to 1/2 hour after sunset. The sunset occured at 6:42pm on Saturday according to the Weather Channel.

Still unfortunate that you lost the deer though, Jim.

RE: DEER VANISHED!!! Plenty of sign- no deer
 

OPS... my bad... I was doing East Coast where it was something like 6:11.

RE: DEER VANISHED!!! Plenty of sign- no deer
 

Sorry guys, the arrow wuz covered with blood all the way. I had a clear sight window and I could see the deer pretty good enough to make the shot. He kicked up his back legs and turned, which is why I couldn' t see where he actually was hit...but I know he was shot in his vital area... the shot felt good, the follow through, everything.. I just dunno!!

RE: DEER VANISHED!!! Plenty of sign- no deer
 

Also, it was about 350 yds. until we lost all blood sign, and again, with 3 big puddles of blood at least a foot in diameter...

RE: DEER VANISHED!!! Plenty of sign- no deer
 

I recommend reading this article.

http://www.bowsite.com/BOWSITE/features/articles/deer/stringjumping/

Even though you felt the shot was good doesn' t mean you hit him good.

RE: DEER VANISHED!!! Plenty of sign- no deer
 

The fact that he kicked his back legs tells me you may have hit him a little further back than you think. Was it a sharp quartering away shot? If it was, it doesnt take much error to put it in the hind quarters. Just my 2 cents.

RE: DEER VANISHED!!! Plenty of sign- no deer
 

Browning, thanks for the website...and sitter as far as the kick back of the legs...(not to start ne thing) i' ve seen deer kick back their legs for a heart shot and lung shot...also i' ve been told that if they kick back their legs, its a heart shot, and from my uncles p.o.v. its a gut shot if they kick their legs...and to tell u the truth i dunno wut 2 believe ne more!!!LOL!!;)

RE: DEER VANISHED!!! Plenty of sign- no deer
 

What was the color of the hair at the place where you hit the deer?

I have had a similar thing happen a few times, and one time actually got to see the deer bed down and press its briscit area into the mud to stop the bleeding. Sounds to me like you might have hit the deer low, and outside the ribs. If so, the hair would have been long, white hair at the hit site. If you had that much blood, and 350 yards of it, you must have caught the muscle pretty good.

RE: DEER VANISHED!!! Plenty of sign- no deer
 

First of all, I never rip anyone for doing what they do. You made the choice to shoot so you started the chain of events that followed. Don' t appologize just learn. That said, if you hit the deer in the vitals, you would not have tracked it for 350 yards. Period. Deer hit in the vitals die and die quickly.

Meat/muscle hits produce bright red blood. AND lots of it. You mentioned that the trail began to loop back. Deer frequently circle back. But in my experience, the mortally hit ones do it more often. Did you grid search right near your stand? The meat hit deer will bed and if not pushed will move about on his own time. The blood will quickly clot and bleeding will decrease and stop. With a meat hit, it is about the only time that while trailing a deer, actually keeping it moving will help. It keeps him bleeding. That being said, it is very difficult to trail a half startled deer all around the county. Check the water, check the overlooked areas no matter how small or wide open, then try to learn for the mistake, if there was one.

Greg

RE: DEER VANISHED!!! Plenty of sign- no deer
 

He made it to the nearest road where he expired. Another slob hunter came along and picked him up.[>:] That would explain it.;)