Tundra10

Any update?

She's out there, gotta find her. ( sometimes ya can't)

NebBuckHunter

bet if it was a 170" buck, youd still be looking. Gotta give the doe the same respect. Keep looking.

AESOutdoors

The spot that I hunt is an hour away from me so it's hard to get down there between work and school but I went and looked again yesterday afternoon for a couple of hours and still no luck. The biggest problem is where she ran into is really really thick river bottom and you have to crawl through the game trails to get through there.. Still no luck though so I'm not sure where to go from here. I really hate to not find her because it is my responsibility to find what I shoot but it feels like she vanished. I will keep looking every chance I get but for now she is still unfound.

rockport

Its a done deal, finding a pile of rotten meat won't fix anything. All you can do for that deer now is learn from it.

It sucks but it happens, Spend your energy focusing on how to do better next time.

Buckhunter46755

Sorry to hear that. I "lost" a small buck several years ago. Looked like a good hit too. Only about 20 yrds. Thought for sure it was a heart shot. Arrow was covered in bright red blood but only found a couple drops of blood @ 20 yards then nothing. Waited for a few hours before tracking that night. We looked for about 1/2 miles radius and never found him. The next spring the farmer next property over found his skeleton about 3/4 mile away. And the deer was npt pushed. The arrow must have passed right above the heart and missed any lung. Talk about sick. I almost gave up bowhunting because of it. Luckily my buddies talked me into staying with it. Fortunately, it is the only deer I haven't been able to retrieve over a lifetime of hunting. So I guess I should consider myself forntunate. As others have stated, it does happen, sometimes even what looks like a good shot right in the vitals myseriously misses the organs. I know this as fact, I watched the arrow punch right through him. ALso, unless you see or hear a deer drop after an arrow shot, I would wait a good couple hours before looking for him/her as to not "push" him/her. Sometimes they will also try to "burrow" under brush/tall grass & weeds in the thick stuff to hide, as well as go to a water source. Just my two cents.

dougvarrieur

AESoutdoors, do the best you can to find our deer, pull out all the stops until it's simply futile. Then.....forgive yourself. I had the same thing happen to me but with different shot then yours. The 9 point as quarter to and I was elevated about 20 feet. The shot went in the right place but at the wrong angle and a little high. t slipped nicely over the vitals and I'm sure hit the gut. I searched for 2 days and never found the buck. The blood trail was spotty a few drops every 3 or 4 feet for 4 miles through swamps and woods. Finally on the second full day of searching I heard a pack of coyotes going crazy a few miles away at the other side of a swamp two dense to pass through. It was a hard lesson to learn but learn I did. Before you take your next shot be certain of your placement and picture where the shaft is going to come out.

MichiganWhitetails74

If you shot this deer broadside as shown I'm surprised you did not find it.

In my opinion regardless of the angle an arrow in this spot will take this deer. For whatever reason I'm sorry you did not find her.

Good Picture, if you created a still from video nice work.

By looking in the picture I see blood already.

----
I've found a lot of deer with no blood trail with gut shots. Stay on the main deer run where you last saw the deer. I find many many wounded deer in water holes. My personal opinion is gut shot deer will search for thick cover, fallin trees or water holes to lay down. That's where I have found my deer the next morning with gut shots and no blood.

MichiganWhitetails74

In addition,

Body language is key on a gut shot.

If the deer hunches up, and flickers its tail and walks off its a gut shot. He or she will have their ears tucked back, body hunched up and the tail will tuck between the legs and twitch and flicker back and forth.

Let'em lay down and walk out for the next day tracking.

Valentine

I never shot a deer that far back, so I never experienced it. I never did like to track deer far.
Son, you look like you're going to be a deer tracker more than a deer archer.