Lost a deer tonight.
 

At sunset I shot a nice buck. I was watching a fawn with spots on it's butt when the buck came in. I didn't raise my bow till after I felt my pulse return to normal. I took my time and waited for him to present a full broadside/slightly quartering shot and hit him right behind the shoulders and about 3/4 of the way up his body. I was about 12 feel off the ground and 15 yards out. He jumped straight up (think bucking bronco where the whole thing goes up at once) kicked his hind legs and took off like a rocket. I took note of three things. First the sound. There was the loud noise of my bow..and another loud noise....that turned out the be the arrow hitting a log behind him after pass thru and breaking the broadhead out of the carbon arrow. Second I noticed the direction he ran. Third I noticed that he was running quite strong. He didn't look like there was anything wrong with him.
I waited 20 minutes before getting down. This is a fixed stand located close to my house, so it is minimal noise. I didn't check the arrow, I went in the house instead. After 30 minutes total I went out and checked the arrow. Nice bright blood covered the whole thing. No gut material. No bubbles like lung shots will sometimes produce. The arrow had passed all the way thru and the head was embedded in a log that was laying on the ground behind where I shot him. I walked about 15 feet in the direction he had traveled and found several spots of blood. I returned to the house, and had dinner. My 12 year old and I took off after avbout 45 minutes -1 hour from the shot. We methodically tracked the blood trail. At first it was just a few drops then it started to get more...spots about 6x8 inches on the ground... Not spewing but heavy blood trail. It went like this every 6-8 feet for abuout 150 yds, then it just dried up. It was also starting to rain but the blood we had already found didn't wash away so I think the other blood wouldn't either. About 2 hours after the shot we were walking around in large circles. We had found more blood about 75 yds from the last place we had lost the trail. I went back to the house and got my dog. He's a little house dog but he definately gave interest and seemed to follow the trail till it crossed a creek. After 3 hours, at 10 pm I was getting turned around and decided to give up till morning. He consistently ran downhill, and parallelled the creek. It was 63 degrees when I shot him, and 55 when I gave up. It's 48 degrees now. If he went down on the ground I am not sure if he will be good to eat or not. The temps have been about 75 during the day for the last week or so with very wet weather. It just cooled down last night. If he went down in water, I know it will be good to eat. I don't feel like the deer lost more than a cup or two of blood along the way when I was tracking him...my 12 year old noted that almost everywhere we found blood, there was also some clear fluid. (ants were always on the clear fluid....I have no idea what it was.) I know I took my time to make the shot. The arrow/bow/broadhead combo is tried and tru. 416 grain carbon arrow including muzzy 100 grain new broadhead shooting 240 FPS. That is 53 pounds of kinetic energy. More than enough. I have never NOT had a pass thru. I took my time and I believe my shot was good. I welcome criticism because I really hate not recovering a deer. The only thing I can figure is that perhaps my shot was too high and I missed the lungs.

Good luck on finding him. I shot a doe Thursday evening and knew it wasn't a good hit. Returned on Friday after noon and it took me about 10 minutes to find her. Hope you get him. No worse feeling than losing one when you know you made a decent shot.

I would try and get back out there at first light and keep running the track. Good luck to you. Hope you find him.

Found it....
 

Found him. So did the coyotes. I was back out there when it got light. couldn't find another spec of blood after the last one we found and marked last night. My buddy came over and brought his kids and We followed all the creek beds then went back and just followed path of least resistance along a creek bed that headed down to the main creek. about 500 yards from the last spot of blood. At that point I decided to just walk a hundred yards or so down the main creek ( this is a small river about 50 yds across and 5+ feet deep in many areas. I saw him thru the brush about 50 yards up the main creek on the other side in the shallows. He has been torn apart on his back end. Most likely coyotes. There are not a ton of them around here but they are seen from time to time. The buzzzards are circling and won't be long off the carcass. Since I don't want swim across, I'm gonna drive down to the first house on the other side and see if they will allow me to go try to get to it. They may allow me. At the very least I want to inspect it to see where I hit it because most deer I hit drop in the first 50 yds. This one went more than half a mile. I need to check my crossbow and make sure I'm hitting where I think I am. I took a picture but it's a bit grizzly so I am not posting it.

dang that's too bad... sorry to hear that. I lost one a few years back and almost gave up bow hunting because I couldn't fathom it. After talking with several people I decided to keep hunting deer with a bow. And the crazy thing is some people found my deer about a half mile away the next spring. But it was the same scenario. Good hit.... minimal blood...then the trail dried up. Yea it's a bumber for sure... but look at it this way. It didn't totally go to waste. It will be consumed by the other wildlife in the area. Also, look how many deer get hit by vehicles and are left to rot or not fit for consumption because their innards have been burst. I know how you feel....been there. But all we can do is shake it off and keep on keepin' on. It does happen... even to the best of us.

The land owner across the creek let me go down and check the deer. He warned me it was going to be a rough walk and he wasn't kidding.Crazy thick stuff. Tons of game trails. finally got to it and had chase away 4 vultures to drag it out of the water. I hit it about 5-6 inches behind the shoulder blade. Probably got the liver. I checked the bow again this morning. IT hits true, so it was me which I figured, since lung shot deer I have hit usually are down within 50 yards.

Got an o.k. picture you can post? I'd like to see it. Glad you found him, so you know what happened. I lost a buck with a similar story a few years back. Shot him a little before dark, and tracked a slow blood trail till a little after midnight. I lost the trail when he swam across a river. I found him the next morning by walking a grid search but the yote's had torn him apart. I was able to get the rack and do a Euro mount though. The Coyotes had tore apart his whole hind quarters.
-JAke

dpv,

Congrats on the buck and finding him. Did you get it in Chesterfield? I'm originally from Chesterfield. Congrats again.

VA

Glad you found him. I"m sure it's a load off your mind, eventhough a little bitter sweet since the coyotes participated.

Ok...I found a way to post a couple pictures. First the arrow.

Second the view I found after 7 hours of searching.

third, a close up of the one that got away....sort of. I don't have any pictures of it close up..no eyes, etc. thanks to the vultures ...not pretty. It was a ton of work to get to it to see what was up.

Thats a sweet rack, and flower. Congrats on not only shooting him, but on finding him as well.

That's unfortunate, but you did all you could. Looks like a nice deer too.

I have been considering getting into bowhunting, but it's stuff like that this that makes me really hesitant. Sounds like dpv made a great shot and still the buck ran off and wasn't recovered until it was too late. I'm sure this is not a fond memory for dpv, and not something I would like to experience.

There are no guarantees with gun hunting either, but I doubt that buck would have gone as far had he been hit in the same spot with a 300gr projectile from a slug gun or muzzleloader.

What is the average recovery percentage for bowhunters? Anyone know?

glad you found him, you can salvage the rack at least.

I like a good set of ,antlers but I hunt for meat not boney trophies. Antlers are a cool bonus. I hunted 7 years without killing a deer. Gave it up for a couple years then went back to it. Killed a doe for my first deer and was as happy as I could be. It tasted great. Losing a deer and not finding it sucks. Finding it gone to waste sucks more. I know the yotes and buzzards have to eat but I really hate losing that meat. There were at least 50 lbs of meat on that deer and they went to waste. That's one less buck on the land here...one less deer in my area. I have never had the reality that you can't eat antlers hammered home to me as I have this week. I will gladly take 20 does without another shot at a buck if that's what it takes to get meat in the freezer.

my sentiments exactly....

The meat is probably still good. I had meat sit out at 55 degrees for hours, and then I froze it. it's fine.

sorry for your loss but great follow up. I myself would have tried to salvage the backstraps as well as the front quarters if the temps were ok. That said, when in doubt throw it out. It's npt woth risking ilness. Although I once shared a doe with a bear. recovered it the next morning only to find it was dragged about 5 yds and part of the hind leg was eaten. I saw the bear so I just tossed the leg and made due with what he left me. Never again will a deer sit over night. Good luck with your next one and hope you fill your larder.

Concern about rabies and whatever vileness the vultures could be carrying took my appetite away. A deer isn't worth dieing over. If I was in a survival situation I might consider it.....might. Probably would just try to kill another animal.

We don't eat raw meat. therefore 99% of concerns are cooked away.