Dollar Trifecta

Well i come over a knob and there is a nice deer and i decide to take a shot, offhand. I shoot, the deer runs into the woods. I sit and wait for about 30 mins or so and go over to where i hit it. I get there and it is gettin dark, my crappy flashlight spots a few drops of blood but i also here what i think is a deer running in the woods, so I stop and go home to wait a bit and get a better light and some help. 1st deer ever with a rifle that didnt go right down. arghhh
I get back about an hr or so later becuase it was starting to rain (and its gonna pour all night, as it is right now!) Where I hit the deer was a ton of hair..mostly white ( see the pic) and some blood. I follow the blood and its small drops of blood and then every so often is a big pile of blood that looks to have been coughed up, sometimes 2 in the same spot, total I saw about 10 of these blood spatters.
I follow the blood down hill mostly and slightly uphill and right by 4 fresh scrapes, and then over a small creek. I lost blood about 200 or 300 yards from the shot heading right into a sawmp. I didnt see anywhere where it bedded down but I had a gut feeling we were pushing it. So even though the rain was comin and will continue all night I decided to leave and come back tommorow after work and trudge through the swamp.
Does anyone have any tips/help/advice as to what you think may happened and if the deer will be dead etc... Im thinking the shot hit in the brisket. The deer was broadside when i shot looking at me....so i am thinkin becuase of the white hair i either hit him in the belly arghhh or right behind the front shoulder but low.

timbercruiser

Hate to say it, but I'll be surprised if you find the deer. Was the blood pinkish with bubbles?

Dollar Trifecta

no it was bright red...no bubbles

bradisthebest

I hate to say this but this i year i hit one like this and never did find it and that was with a 50 caliber muzzleloader.

fingerz42

By the description of the blood it sounds like you hit a lung, but if you had, it would have went down very quickly. If you hit it in the gut the deer will go to a swamp or creek and lay down in it. It seems to soothe them or something after a gutshot. But your blood description doesnt match a gutshot. And by the hair it looks like it could even be a front neck shot..?

Dollar Trifecta

itheaded to a swamp so maybe your right

fingerz42

The thing is with a gutshot they wont bleed much at all. So all that blood you saw seems to me maybe you hit a lung. My buck I got this past Monday, I shot a little to far back.. it went right through both lungs but also nicked the very front of the stomach. (My deer also stood broadside) I hit him about 3-4 inches behind his shoulder, and it hit the lungs, missed the heart and nicked the stomach. So what you may have done is the same as me, nicked the lungs but got mostly guts..? That could be why you see the spurts of deep red blood. When I hit mine he ran about 3 strides, stopped, started to turn to look and me and collapsed. When i got over to check out the blood trail it was like a scene from the OJ simpson murders. Deep red blood in big spurts every 3 feet or so. You wont be able to track tomorrow thanks to the rain, so good luck finding it. Hope you do, as its probably dead.

ALSO, I have put a neckshot on a dear and it seems to burn as well. If it was indeed a neck shot, who knows, he may have ran to the swamp to soothe that with cold water too. I have not heard this theory before, I'm just going by what I saw with my neck shot deer.

Angus74

From the looks of the hair,, it still has skin attached,, and its white. I would say that you grazed him on the belly, I undershot a doe like tha a few years ago, and had an almost identical piece of skin and hair. You probably hit very low and the shot blew a chunk of skin off as it opened. Was the deer level with you, if so, he is probably going to be fine, if you were above him, it may have exited the belly and still got a lung or something. Go out and give it another shot looking, good luck.

Dollar Trifecta

I was slightly above it so i would of had a slight downward angle

Bob H in NH

If that is the hair then you just grazed him and he'll be fine. You tore a chunk out, if you hit him solid you would get pieces of just hair, not a huge chunk like that.