well i found out one thing about my hit. Way too low, so low that all i found was white hair at the spot of the shot to where it left the field. The hair was a clean as could be. I found white hair in few places no blood, no bloody beds, nothing. I searched every square inch of the thicket where he would have been and nothing else. No blood on the air, no blood in the hair, only white hair. I am pretty sure this deer will live to see another day. I am going to give the stand the rest this afternoon and hunt it tommorrow. I have a feeling i will see all three bucks that i saw yesterday again. thats bowhunting......

Sorry to hear man. Happen to me this year also. White hair, but had blood in it. Went back the next day and trailed it over a mile. The deer didnt even know it was injured. I must have just scratched it. Anyway good luck on the next hunt. Thats great that you will probably see more deer. The woods I hunt you only see one from your stand maybe once every 10 times u hunt this year. All the guys in the area sayin the same.

Jim

that's about the best news besides finding a dead deer. Glad it seems he'll be alright

Legacy357, heck you're right up the road from me. Where were you hunting at? I hope you find him. Like everyone already stated, water is a good place to start.

the reaction of the deer after the shot is a pretty good indicator as well. Was he "spinning" his wheels running out of there? Did he go uphill or downhill after the shot? Go to where you last saw him and look at the terrain. chances are, if it starts to go downhill in one direction or the other, he will lean toward that direction when running away if hit hard enough. You're not going to find any blood now with the rains so close attention to every detail is critical.

Why hunt or take a shot knowing that you will not be able to track it due to the weather?[:'(] I can see if it started raining an hour or so after the shot, you can't control that.[&o]
JMO

jersey,

I sometimes hunt in the rain because it can be an extremely productive time to hunt. I haven't had it bite but I can see where it could. But, you have to be expecting them to run 40 yards and flop or you shouldn't take the shot anyway. Sometimes things just don't work out the way they should. If he had made a killing shot the deer wouldn't have run far and it would have died. If it's a marginal hit the deer should go lay down and you should find it even without a bloodtrail. Hunting in the rain is definitely a controversial issue and I see your point. Just expressing my views.

silentassassin - made some great points. I too have hunting in a downpour and have success. The key is the shot, depending upon how heavy the rain was coming down not sure if I would take a 35 yard shot or not but 20 yards or so go for it. You should be confident in your ability to make the shot if not you don't belong in the woods.

i am very confident out to 40-50 yards. the reason the shot was the way it was because i estimated the yardage wrong after ranging it. hunting fields makes it hard to estimate yardage. I ranged one shot at 38 yards and he took a few yards past that so he was at like 43 yards while i was thinking it was 38. my bow drops a good bit at that yardage and that is the reason why i shot low. If it would have been a solid hit, he won't have run more than 100 yards to this thicket in the field. I did my best and backed out not knowing the hit, came back in the morning and found all the white hair with no blood and searched every inch of thicket. found beds but no blood or deer in any beds. I know he lived and maybe next year he will make the mistake of walking with bow range of me again