Shwagy357

I shot the biggest deer of my life lastSaturday 12/6/08.I shot him at 50 yards with a .50 cal muzzleloader. I found a decent blood trail about 10 yards from the point of impact.Out of fear of jumping the deer, Iwaited untilSunday to track the deer. Ireturned Sunday a tracked the deer for about 100 to 150 yards before losing the trail. I have returnedseveral times, but am having no luck finding the deer. I think I hit the deer in the upper back below the spine.Can this be a fatal shot?Every day at lunch I watch the mountain where I shot the buck for buzzards but have not seen any flying. How long does ittakefor buzzards to show up? What do you guys think Ishouldnext?

DeerandbearhoG

Do a 200 yd by 400 yd grid search. May take some time, but if you find the deer, itll be worth it. If the ridge is not too brushy ,bring binos w/ you and scan every rock and leaf. Deer can hide in rocks and blow downs. good luck.

remmy123

imo any shot on a deer has the potential to be a killing hit, u did the rite thing by searching, every hit deer must be looked for no matter were the hit, in my experience deer hit high in the back usually survive at least long enough that they cant be found, but that is only in my experience.... good luck hope u find it

remmy123

also alot of the time at least with does on a high back hit you will find pieces of white fat and hair near the spot of the shot. im not shur with bucks after the rut if they have enough fat for this to be true for them as well

Mojotex

This is a tough deal for sure. In a few cases that I have experienced with high, under the spine shots, the deer will either drop in its tracks from spinal damage or the deer is never recovered because the shot is not soon fatal. I have had at lest one drop stone "dead" only to get up and run off minutes later. I am guessing spinal shock temporarily paralyzed the deer, but the "stun" wore off and boom it was gone !! Besides, let a panicked deer stay on its feet a couple of minutes in full flight and you are probably talking about a square mile to search! I my opinion, you've done good so far. You let the deer lay before taking up the search. You found a trail and have a track to follow for about 100-150 yards. Any way you can use the blood trail like a "pointer"? It may have kept going in that same general direction? Any water near by ? Sometimes hurt deer will go to water. Has it rained since you popped the deer ?? If not and you know someone that has a blood trailing dog, give that a shot.

The suggestion of a wide, well coordinated, organized "grid search" is what I'd do. If you can round up a few buddies, that should help ... more sets of eyes, and you could cover more ground, each searching a grid.

As far as buzzards ... I've had them show up on a doe I had downed early in the afternoon, and then sat waiting for another doe or buck to show ... on the doe in less than 2 hours. And I once found a 2- day old carcass that there was zero evidence any critter had gotten to it at all. So ??? I'd keep looking though .. and good luck.

Bocajnala

Just keep looking! I found an 8 point that i had the same exact shot on after four days! coyotes had torn it all up, but at leats if found it!grid search, use binos if you can see!
-jake