Duramax05

I posted this in the bowhunting forum but thought I'd put it here also. How much blood could a 180-200 lb buck lose and not die?

Steve863

Depends on what you mean by "amount of blood"? From my experience if you find blood splattered all over while tracking his route of escape, there will be a high probability that he will be dead in a short while. A trickle here and there may mean that you will have a harder time finding him or you may not find him at all. Finding NO blood at all for a good ways trailing him may very well also result in a dead deer further down the trail. Sometimes the blood loss can be more internal than external. I think if you had a good deal of blood, the deer is probably dead somewhere very close. Many hunters just miss seeing him lying dead. Get another hunter to help you look. It helps a lot to have another set of eyes and feet stomping around and maybe stumbling upon it. Look around streams and any standing water. Mortally wounded deer usually will feel thirsty and want to drink and many times they will be dead close to water or in it.

38bears

The average person has 5000ml of blood in there system. A blood loss of 30% of that will cause confusion restless and over all distress. At 40% loss there will be full on shock rapid hart rate low blood pressure now if you get a loss of over 40% the deer will become lethargic drowsy shock will become more pronounced and then death

Duramax05

More to the story:
Shot this buck yesturday just before sun down. Shot twice, definitely hit onceand we think twice. We thought he fell within 40 yards of the second shot. Went to look for him before it got dark. Hindsight we should have waited. He wasnt in the field but had a great blood trail comming out both sides, but not far apart (maybe 5-6 inches). Makes me think I may have hit him low in the chest. He went 200 yards and laid down twice and it looks like he fell over once. (wasnt really a bed but he definitely hit the ground) He then traveled 200 yards still with good blood and bedded twice more.Each time he got up there was less and less blood in the bed. He kept going and had to jump a small creek. Bleed a lot after that and then it got thin again. Headed up a steep hill and the blood really startedgoing. Almost spraying out of him. We found another bedand backed out to get more lights and give him more time. At this point we had gone probably a mile and hes bedded 4-5 times and fell atleast once. This has been roughly 3 hours since I shot him. We went and got lights and dinner and came back an hour later. We picked up the trail and there was less blood when he got up out of the bed. We could pretty easily track him in the 1-2" of snow. I think the snow may make it look like more blood then it really is. We tracked him another 100 yards from the bed that we left him in and he bedded again long enough to melt the snow. He got up leavinga little blood in the snow. Now as hes walking there is a speck here and a speck there until he stopped before his next bed. When he was standing there, the blood wasnt bad like it was dripping out. He got out of that bed and went another 200 yards and bedded again. Then there was 3 beds within 60 yards. But again very little blood in the bed. The blood in the bed is all at the front end of his body. Again this buck is huge. Probably 200lbs dressed. Does that make then tougher? IDK. We stopped tracking last night after 6 hours of tracking and him not bleeding after the last string of beds.Personally I have never scene a deer bleed this much without dieing. He bedded probably 10 times and fell down twice. In hindsight we should have waited a couple hours before searching but the sign and his reaction at the shot was that of a quick kill. I am torn between knowing this buck is dead or alive. So much sign tells me he should be dead but he was still walking at the time we left. Also the total trail that we followed was well over 2 miles.

Allen Denton

When you see all of that blood you want to go after him right away, BUT you really need to wait and let the shot do its job. My biggest deer bleed alot at first and after 30 yards or so it slowed way down. I stopped and waited over an hour and he only went 50 more yards, he laid down and never got up. I think that you might have been jumping him up and that is why he went so far. I hope you try again and find your buck, good luck.

Duramax05

Also as he was walking we noticed that he kept walking trails and not wondering aimlessly. Im not sure what to do. I know exactly where we left him. I had no more time off from work to call in today. If he is dead the coyoted have found him by now. This would be my largest deer to date. I would guess him at 200 lbs dress and 130-140" main frame 10 and definitley had a kicker off his right side g2. Amazing buck. Really want to put my hands on him.

Steve863

I think it was a mistake to push him right away, but I think you realize that already. I really think this deer is dead by now. I think snow does make it look like there is a lot of blood, but the way you describe things this deer was bleeding big time. Why didn't you go out to track him today during daylight? Are you at work? I would leave work early and try again for my own piece of mind. Heavy bodied deer ARE probably tougher than smaller ones, but from what you tell us it seems like he was hit pretty good. What caliber did you hit him with?
Again, I really think the deer didn't go too far from where you last saw his tracks. Good luck, I hope you find him.

Duramax05

38bears kind of answered my original question. With the snow we can track this deer with no blood. Is it possible that he may die without dropping more blood? or a drop here then another drop 20 yards away? He has lost a ton of blood and now its stopping. I think hes starting to clott. Is it possible that a buck clotts and still dies from bleeding out?

Duramax05

Yeh im at work right now. Not getting too much done.

Duramax05

now its snowwing [&:]