i was in my lil ol stand about 7-8 feet off the ground , i had a deer come in about 13 yds....i told myself, stop him right there and shoot,pick your spot and shoot, i even had time to ask myself if my form was right, bend my elbow , and make sure i had the right pin........perfect hunt...had time to do everything right, and i took that time, nothing was rushed.....i thought he went one way, so i looked for my arrow, in water and it had some green stomache looking matter on it, noooooooooooooo blood, we looked, nothing after awhile gave up, then fl got there and found the first sign of blood......man , if you would of seen the blood, youd think he would be right there....bright red,not watery, no gut stuff in it, just beautiful red blood.then it stopped, litterally,we looked for a few hours and then i decided to go get fl's hound...she found the blood, then out in the opening , there was one spec, so i told her to find the deer, she took me through the thickest nastiest palmetto's youve ever seen, at a high rate of speed i might add, lol.......we spooked it........i could never see it because it was so thick, but i got to where i thought it was layin'and there it was one drop of blood, about 60 yds from the first one ellie found...nothing that we saw in the middle of the two blood spots, so i went after it thinking it was up and running, blood will spurt out, but nothing, so i opted to back out because of the lack of blood after the intial blood trail, which was good.........i figured it wasnt wounded enough to die so i wouldnt make things worse by looking for it....this was about 4 :30, it happened around 8:00, waited til 9:30ish to go look, but it was a couple of hours before we found the blood and actually went looking in the right direction....it was like 8 hours and still alive...and no blood where it bedded down..do you think i should of kept after it, or let it go like i did....
when i took the shot i swear i was calm, confident and i didnt rush, i had a blk. line right behind the shoulder blade i was focused on , i knew had hit him by his reaction but i didnt see where, i actually thought it was close to the heart, obviously i was wrong....
there was a small myrtle in front of the deer i guess i just saw through it when i found my spot, thinking either the fletching caught it and bounced, or i just suck, lol........but it was the pefect everything...i saw a deer , i decided not to look for antlers just in case, i shot it thinking it was a real nice mature doe, but when it took off , i thought i saw a fork horn...so it could be a lil buck or a doe....i busted my rear end looking for it and when found it,i didnt think it would be alive but it was and it was too thick for me to see what it was......what happened? i feel it'll live and most everyone else thinks that too, but one person doesnt so now i have to wonder if i did the right thing....i am so disapointed and i cant for the life of me understand what happened to the shot and to the blood trail that was so good for about 20-25 yards, then 2 single drops in an 80 yard or better stratch....please help me understand.........

If it was green you got the guts < intestines. Itis probably bleeding internally,thats why the litle amount of blood. Try again tomorrow. I hate to say this but most likely that deer will die eventually/ Sorry.I probably would not of pushed it so hard.

well that is what i thought too, but the blood on the ground was bright beautiful blood with nothing in it......... wouldnt it be runny, brownish looking.....i'll be out there again looking for it if i think i can even find the carass...i'll be looking for buzzards for sure and i can even bring the dog out with me, this stinks........i was so sure of my shot when i released......shaking head in disgust... i didnt think 6 hours would be pushing it, i was expecting to find a dead deer... why would the blood be so good and then totally stop?

Hey Ma,

I would say that the deer is going to die. If he is hit in the guts, which would explain the green, he will die, it will just take him awhile. The bright red blood you saw could have been from before the deer clotted up, if he clotted up, he would still bleed internally but the clots could stop the blood from comming out of the wounds. I would definetly go back out tommorow and look some more! Go back to the last sign and just keep looking. Take your sis and some friends with you. If you entirely loose blood, start making circles from that area. Also, often times when a deer is injured it will head for water, so look for areas with water. I hope that you find the guy!

Sometimes when stomach shot the stomach or intenstines come out and plug up the hole which results in not much blood on the ground. If you had hit the liver the arrow should have had thick red blood on it. Sounds like you might have hit the liver if the blood you found was bright red and thick.

Don't know what to say, my gut feeling after reading this is the deer will expire, but ya never know.

I always wait a long time, even overnight, when I see green stuff on the arrows.

Chalk this one up to experience, you pushed the deer to hard to fast. Likes Bees said when you find green stuff on the arrow just wait, then wait some more. I would get back on the trail tommorrow.

we looked for hours and did the circles, the lines,every path of least resistance, you name it, we did it, thats when we got the dog and spooked it, i think it hit good, but exited out of the stomache, would it clot up wihtin 25 yards or so from where i shot it? it was in water when i shot it, it ran the path of least resistance , into a grassy area and then into the high.thick palmettos, where we spooked him, at this point i'll be loking for buzzards because i will never find it in that stuff without the dog, but i could try her again....

how did i push it, i spooked it around 4:30 pm, i shot it around 8:00a.m., waited an hour and half before i even walked more than to where my arrow was, which was 20 yards from my stand....how long before you dont rush it....i really thought i gave it plenty of time.....

As others have stated the green matter on the arrow indicating gut shot, the deer will die. Deer can live longer than 8 hours on a gut shot(as you unfortunately are witnessing) I would take the dog again out in the morning and find your deer. Best of luck. Maybe run thru the tracking thread again to see if you can pick something up as well.

From your explaination, I would guess you hit an edge of the liver and the guts. The liver gave enough blood to follow at first, but then the guts plugged the hole. Since you didn't find blood when it took off, its probably best to not push it in a thick area. If you can't track by blood, sight or tracks in mud, don't make it go further than you need to. If kicking it up started blood flowing good to follow, sometimes quietly tracking can get you into range for a finishing shot. The deer will not live, you may want to believe that to ease the pain, but the deer is findable. I think that dog could help you out to find it.

He hit the nail on the head...the deer is findable, just stay persistant.