Wounded a monster this morning.
 

I had a really nice 10 come in this morning. My gun hit my stand when I was raising it and he spooked and trotted 15 yds behind some brush. He finally stepped out and I shot and he bucked and ran off. While he was running I noticed his tail up. Not a good sign from past experiences. I went to where he was standing. Nothing. I followed his tracks about 300 yds and found 1 spot of watery blood. At that point he was walking like nothing happened. I looked and looked nothing. So dismayed I started to walk back to my truck. I was about 50 yds from my truck and I notice a huge track in the sand and it hits me. Wow that looks like the track from the buck I just shot. I look up and he's 30 yds in front of me just walking down the logging road. I tried to take a shot but he spooked put his tail up and jumped in the thick brush. I just stood there in disbelief. If it was the same buck which I think it was. He made a complete circle and walked by the same stand I shot him out of 2 hrs earlier. I think he'll be back. His tracks are all over. Obviously he wasn't spooked. Just wanted to get all your thoughts. I just have this fear that he laying in the woods dead and that was just a different buck. To me nothing worse then leaving a deer in the woods.:action-smiley-099:

First off, it's probably unlikely that the deer you shot is dead. Though not 100% sure, from the description you gave of the blood you found, it sounds like you might have hit bone. Also, judging from that fact that you didn't find "initial" blood in the area where he was standing when you shot him likely means the shot you put on him was not critical. Usually when you have to walk 300 yards to find 1 spot of blood, it usually means the deer is not hit critically at all. There have been instances where a bullet can actually "seal off" the flow of blood for some amount of yardage until it breaks free of becomes dislodged and hunters will start to find "good blood" several yards into their tracking. But usually if this was to happen the deer would start pushing out blood at a good rate and usually far before 300 yds. Watery blood is usually a distinct sign that you likely hit some bone somewhere on the deer's body.

I do have a couple questions to ask you, if you can think back and recall your observations when you watched the deer trot away after the shot.
1) Was he limping at all when he was walking away? Although a shot to the front shoulder is not always critical, a deer will usually limp when it is hit in the front shoulders.
2) Do you recall any hair being found in the area where he was standing when you shot? The color and even length of hair found in that area can also indicate where you might have hit him. White can mean belly hair, throat patch or even rump areas, where as whitish beige color hair can mean a grazing behind the legs anywhere from the " elbow knuckle area" up to the base of the brisket to where the two intersect. And obviously dark brown hair would be a sign that you hit him up top near the shoulder area.
3) If you didn't get to see if he was limping away, did you at least get to decipher some really good track impressions when you where following his trail? Was there anything unusual about any of his tracks, like finding only (3) tracks making contact with the ground instead of the usual 4? Where there drag marks on any of the tracks that would indicate he was favoring one of his front legs?

Now, on to deer walking in circles:
I don't know if you have ever read any books on tracking or stalking deer by following their tracks. But in a whole bunch of the stories a lot of hunters have made observations that deer usually will walk in large circles, even if they are being followed by a hunter. And what's even stranger than that, some stories say that they will walk in their circular patterns even if they KNOW that a hunter is on their tracks following them. If you ever get the opportunity to follow some tracks and stalk a deer, you are going to learn a whole lot about deer. (especially when they know you are hot on their tail) They can take you on a pretty wild ride and they have a lot of tricks up their sleeves when they know they are being followed.

Damn Danial Boone... You should get a job in Africa as a tracker!!!

You wrote"he bucked and ran off" if he bucked like you said and that was just not a expression...he's hit pretty well. Are you sure you did not get off his track when you started? Go back, relax and start over slowly. Place your hat at the point of impact thats first...so you can judge distances if you can still see the hat. Do you have ANY hair at impact? if so what color is it? Think to yourself how far did you see that buck run off before you lost sight...make a mental note of compass direction. Was he hit on the right or left side...he will favor his hit side everytime, they look for water when hit if they can get to it within reason. BRING a buddy with you (no weapon for him), more eyes looking will help... but stay as a pair and work slow...you are the one with the weapon so you are in front at all times...he's looking down for blood you are looking for the deer...YOU CAN NOT GO SLOW ENOUGH. Good Luck

A couple of observations and questions:
1. most wounded deer that I have had to track have circled back. Even a big 8 I shot through the heart he was dead and didnt know it. Ran a 300 yard circle back and died 5 yards from where it was standing when I shot it.

2. watery blood doesnt mean anything it is still blood. Ok you may have hit bone but you did hit the deer.

3. what bullet were you using? By this I am asking was it a ballistic tip? or a powerbelt? If it was, then here is your problem. They just do not (in most cases) pass through therefore you dont have a good blood trail to track.

I hope you are back out there now looking. Good luck.

Well...Can't say about the shot, but if you tracked that deer for 300 yds till you found blood - Good tracking job!

Ghost of the hardwoods that was a good read.
Where do you live at?

deernutz I hope you see your 10 point again, and get another shot at him.
Good Luck.

Watery blood doesn't mean anything? Really..... I guess it does when you have to walk 300 yds. to find the first spot of it though. I have seen deer limping around the woods missing a front leg from a wound the previous season.

Even though he drew blood doesn't mean that that deer is dead. And it is more likely given the fact that he found first blood after 300 yds.

I fleshed a deer's skull out once for a mount that had a noticeable bump over his left eye under his hide. When I removed the hide from the skull, There was a silver object lodged in his skull. It was a headlight bezel from being hit by a car and had been lodged in his skull for about 2 or 3 seasons.

We also where caping a large 9 point late muzzleloader season that had its windpipe severed by an arrow 2 months before. The wound was totally healed over and we found the broadhead and about 2 inches of arrow lodged in the muscle of his neck.

Deer are very tough animals and can survive a whole bunch of things. Especially if you don't hit him where it counts. Sure this deer might die, but given this hunter's description of the blood he found and how long he had to track to find it.... it's likely that this deer is not critically hit.

Unfortunately, I currently live in the Rhode island/ Massachusetts area.:s10:

3. what bullet were you using? By this I am asking was it a ballistic tip? or a powerbelt? If it was, then here is your problem. They just do not (in most cases) pass through therefore you dont have a good blood trail to track.[/quote]

Ballistic lesson 101...when you can expell ALL of your energy within the game you are shooting you have done the best possible job that bullet has to offer.
IMO...passing through any animal in hopes to get a blood trail is a bad way to start the hunt. Placement and complete energy "dump" within the animal is the answer. I reload and have used Nosler Partitions 4 ever, there are a lot of good bullets out there but these have left my game DOA everytime.

Ballistic lesson 101...when you can expell ALL of your energy within the game you are shooting you have done the best possible job that bullet has to offer.
IMO...passing through any animal in hopes to get a blood trail is a bad way to start the hunt. Placement and complete energy "dump" within the animal is the answer. I reload and have used Nosler Partitions 4 ever, there are a lot of good bullets out there but these have left my game DOA everytime.[/quote]

I respect your opinion and your experience. But my experience has been the opposite. And this is after 42 hunting seasons and every single issue we have had at our lease with non recovered deer. Was due to ballistic tip bullets.

Maybe you are an excellent shot? Yes shot placement is everything. But not everyone places their shot exactly where they are supposed to.

Well I went back to the shot sight. I know I followed the right tracks. It was the only running tracks. Theres alot of sand by the stand so it wasn't to hard to see the sand all tore up.

When I shot he bounded off about 150yds then started walking. He never blew, or fell. He just bounded off and then walked through an oak patch. I found the drop off blood and there was a small white hair in it. This leads me to beleive I hit him low in the front leg. I couldn't find anymore blood. I went back to that drop and creeped down all the possible routes through the oak flat. I'm still sick to my stomach.

It's amazing how you can keep your composure and hit one at 200yds and drop him. Then completely screw everything up when he's 20 yds in front of you. All I can say is I was freaking out. Here is this big buck right in front of me I can't get a shot at first and I rushed it. Looking back i know I could have waited and he would have calmed down and gave me an awsome shot.

Theres just to many places he could have gone. A thick draw, a pine thicket, a snarl of bushes and vines. All I can do is get back up there and hope he comes by again. He has fresh rubs and scrapes in the area so I'm hoping he'll be back. I'm pretty sure he's not dead. What makes it worse I didn't do my job to make a clean kill and it's hard to swallow. Not cause he's a big buck but cause I owed it to that animal to make a clean kill.

Sorry I was using 150 grn corelocked.

Don't get too down on yourself Deernutz. You might get another crack at him. There are so many things in life we can look back on and wish that we had handled them differently...... Ya know what they say, "Hind sight is 20-20." And at the time you squeezed the trigger, you thought you were making the right move. You will get more chances. Don't kick yourself in the butt over it. You are still a good hunter that obviously has good ethics. You made your best attempts to recover and locate the deer, that's really all you can ask of yourself right now.

Thanks ghost. You know how it goes you always think you could have tried harder. All I can do is hope he wasn't hurt to bad. Maybe I even just grazed him on the bottom of the chest.

Good effort deernutz. You are right...big deer can instill panic to even the most seasoned hunters. Hopefully you will see him again, and it sounds like he may still be alive....but I would keep an eye out for buzzards just the same. Good luck.

I will keep an eye out. I'll be back out there mon night. I don't like to use cameras this late in the season seems to spoke deer by me. But I think I'm gonna put out 3 of them on his trails just to see if I can get a pic of him to help ease my mind.

I guess if i don't get him on camera it's not a good sign. Just in case anyone was wondering he had about a 19 inch spread with 9-10 inch G-2's and 3's. Thats all I could make out.

Sorry things didn't work out. Sound like he was an awesome buck.

Ive tracked a lotta deer for people in 20 years and I have nothing to base this on but my own observations but it seems like every time I track a deer that has "watery blood" involved its either hit low in the chest or in the brisket area.Sometimes it starts off bleeding good then dries up after a short trail or you find an occassional spot over a longer period then it quits but you usually dont find the deer.Bright side is quite often its not a lethal shot and you will see the deer a few days later or hear about another hunter taking one with a graze mark from a bullet on him.

I feel much much better now that you said you found a white hair. He should be ok. Yes it sure sounds like a brisket shot.

Maybe you should let the area settle down a little and get back after him?

Good Luck.

Sooner or later it happens to all of us. I hit and lost one deer with a rifle my whole life and every once and a while I wonder where I went wrong. It was an easy broadside shot about 80-90 yards and I was sitting. I took my time reloading because the reaction to the shot looked so good. That deer threw blood like you would not believe and ran across a creek. I looked and traced blood for about 3 hours and could find nothing. I had to find a log to cross the creek and years later, I now think he doubled back and fell in the creek and was pushed under in a turn in the creek where some junk was piled up. I know what you mean, it has been over 20 years and it still bugs me what exactly happened. But on the other hand, the Guy that posted about tough deer pulling through wounds is right. I have shot deer that were missing front legs that were healed over and may have been that way for years. The main thing is that it seems to bother you. Some idiots brag about hitting a deer and losing it as if it was as good as hitting it and getting it.

Deer are creatures of habit
 

Don't kick yourself. Sounds like you did what you could.

One time I was hunting hardwoods of the Shenandoah. Watching a ridge side from the ravine. Heard something to my back and right. Saw a 3 pointer cross the ravine and head up the ridge about 80 yards from me, headed away. Followed his path straight up and disappear. Then heard something from where he disappeared from.

Saw him come back down at an angle towards me, flagging. Brought up the -06 and followed him in the scope to where he stopped about 45 yards dead across the ravine from me, my level. I shot once, twice, thrice. He went down on the first shot but got up, went straight back up, away from me and disappeared.

That's when I noticed the 200#+ 8 pointer behind him. i was so focused on him I failed to see the other buck. I missed him. This was on a tuesday.

After trailing, finding one spot or dark red here and there, the trail petered out. I trailed him footsteps in the leaves until after dark. Next AM, I picked up that trail and continued and never saw another spot of blood. The tracks petered out on the logging road he traveled. I lost him.

Fast-forward to Saturday, last day of the season. 7AM, watching a draw between two ridges. I hear crash-crash from my stand. As I watch the area I heard toe crash from, a 3 pointer appears. about 90 yards away. I raise the -06 again and squeeze. He drops.

As I approach him, he's dead with a heart-lung shot. I notice his rack and recognize him. This was the buck i wounded on Tuesday. I discovered the bullet wound to his left front 'knee' Little more than a flesh wound, I had severed his tendon which caused him to drop momentarily last tuesday.

Don't ever give up. Deer are instinctive AND habitual. This plays to your strengths as a predator.

True Story!

Thanks guys for your stories it helps. I'm gonna go out tomorrow night and sit in the stand. Like I said in a previous post he was still scraping and rubbing trees so he still must have does on the brain. I'm thinking he'll be back. I don't think he knew what happened. Since he doubled back right past the stand again. Thanks again good luck.

So you had one buck hit and shot at another what state do you live in where you can kill two bucks in a day?

you can kill 2 per day in Florida { -;

You can kill two in a single day in Nebraska. However, that means your year is ov as you can only kill two bucks/year.

I live in CT but at the time I lived in MD.
And I was hunting in another state entirely.

Who wants to know.

Can shoot 2 per day and six per license year on a regular license in VA

I didn't read all the posts so I may be repeating what has been said. But....the tail up means nothing. Probably half the deer I have killed this year had their tail up. And...

I was guiding a couple hunters one year and one of them shot a buck, aroow sticking out abouthalfway. Buck ran by his buddy, arrow still in him and he shot him, too. Buck wheeled and ran back to the orginal shooter and he shot him again and dropped him.

Moral: A shot deer may do absolutely anything and there is nothig you can depend upon 100%.

I posted this picture in the mzl forum but it illustrates exactly what I am talking about. I shot this buck at 50 yards, made a perfect double lung shot. Bullet went all the way through. Buck ran about 60 yards in the fresh snow. Not a single drop of blood anywhere. Not one. go figure!

Very interesting picture scribe. I never thought I would have seen it with my own eyes. But I do remember hearing a couple hunters over the years come in to have their deer processed by us and telling us that their deer spilled no blood. And I guess the proof is in the picture.

I myself have had an experience where the exact opposite happened to me. I shot a doe broadside at about 63 yards. She bounded straight up in the air, came down and tumbled all over herself doing what looked to be a somersault. She then got up and bolted. I could see the blood dumping out of her from behind the shoulder until she ran into some thick brush and I heard her crash.

My father came over and we waited about 30 minutes to follow the trail. In my mind, I thought that I had made a great hit on her. We walked to the spot where she was standing when I shot her. There was blood everywhere, even a good size spot of blood on an ash tree behind her. We followed the blood into the thicket. It was a heavy trail, blood was heavy on the ground, and all over the trees. We where inside the brush about 60 yards and all of a sudden we hear her get up and go crashing further into the brush. We get to the spot where she was laying down and there was massive amounts of blood in the bed.

My father thought it would be best to return home, have lunch and come back out at around 2:30 in the afternoon and give her about 5 and a half hours to lay down and die. We went home, ate lunch, and came back out where we left off. The trail was very easy to follow and we continued on for about 500 yards or more crossing 2 properties until we kicked her up from bedding again. We waited another 20 minutes and my dad decided that we push her and try to back track on her once we figured out how she was going to pattern.

We played the game and she led us in circles twice for about 500 yards each time. On the 3rd time around, my father was going to have me sit overlooking a spot she circled past twice while we were tailing her. I sat and waited for my dad to give chase and follow her trail once again and lead her to me. To no avail, she crossed back and went in a totally different direction about 100 yards before she would have got to me.

We followed her for about another 500 yards going in the opposite direction until she crossed a property line that we had no permission being on. We stood there at the fence line staring into the pines that she would have headed for. No more than 2 minutes went by and we heard 2 shots. Boom-Boom! We were sure that it was her.

I never would have thought that a deer could dump so much blood, over so many hours and over such great distances and still be alive. Like you said.....Nothing can ever be 100% commonplace.

Shot one 2 years ago that to this days the biggest one I ever got an arrow in.I seen him coming out of a slough and circled ahead of him and set up on the trail several hundred yards from him on top of a little pile of gravel.He was honestly only about 30 ft from me when I shot him, he was broadside, standing still, and I seen the arrow go in right behind the shoulder.Something didnt sound right though, it made a loud crack when it hit.


Next morning we found the arrow about 60 yrds from where he was shot, he snapped it off but there was at least 18inches of arrow in his chest.He left no blood for the first 100 yrds, then there was about 100 yrds where there were very small drips, then there was nothing again.I looked for 3 hours, then had about 6 people out there for another 3 hours, then I looked some more after they left and never did find another clue to where he went.I hit a bone I think and the arrow never made it through, I dont know if the arrow blocked the hole, or what happened but I know without a doubt that was a very dead deer that only lost about 12 drops of blood in 200 yrds.

Guiding deer hunters for over 20-years allowed me to blood trail quite a few. I know I will never have seen it all but if you want to really learn something about deer, trail one with a really good dog and see just what one will do.

Blood trailing is also an excellent way to find stand locations fornext year. Some of my best stands were found that way. It is also a great way to get lost if you do it at night.