Wounded deer questions.....
 

I shot a very nice buck yesterday evening with my muzzleloader. He came in at about 30-40 yards broadside. Right as I was squeezing off the trigger he began to run. The crosshairs were about mid body. I assume liver hit. The deer bolted hard but was running "hurt" running over dead trees etc. where the deer stodd there was lots of hair and lots of very dark almost purple blood with small pieces of meat (looked like liver). I thought I heard the deer go down so I took up the trail. Blood was everywhere! I tracked him about 75-85 yards with a blood trail a blind man could follow when I heard a deer blow (very softly) I looked up and saw the buck bound off. I figured I'd walk to where it was standing and mark that spot and leave for the evening when half way there he jumped again only running a few yards before walking very "heavy footed". It was WAY to thick to shoot so a follow up shot was out of the question. It has rained all day yesterday so a deer walking shouldn't have made much noise so when it last walked away it was obviously hurt bad by the sounds it was making. I went home and have been up ALL night worried sick. As soon as my sister comes to watch my daughter this morning I am heading out. If someone were to tell me that story and ask my advice I would think "the deer was jumped twice and only went a short distance, he's hurt, go back the next morning and get your dead buck!". But since this ones mine I'm having lots of doubts. What do you guys think? Btw I was using a 54 cal t/c hawken with a .530" round ball ball pushed by 90 grains of FFG.

acts like a liver hit, always fatal, they get sick fast and don't go far.
RR

I agree with RR but have on occasion seen a liver hit deer go for quite a long ways before tipping over. Good luck on finding it.

they do on occasion cover a lot of ground, if they don't bleed out due to a fringe hit on the liver, he's bleeding heavily, don't think he'll go far before bedding up. have a good feeling for recovery based on the OP's description.
RR

The fact that you jumped him two times in a short period is good, he's hurt bad. I believe you will find him today not far from the last spot. Good luck, post the pics :D

Good rule of thumb is, if you know you made a bad hit...leave em lay. Liver/gut hits, the longer the better. Min 4hrs is my rule, longer if possible. They will usually lay down within a short distance. If left be, they will often die where they laid down initially.

This is great advice though it is harder and harder to do each year with so many coyotes about. Thirty years ago I wouldn't have thought twice.

That's the way it is here in Northern Vt. When I was a kid there weren't any coyotes. Today they are all over the place and actually are crossed with wolf DNA giving them some big sizes.

Around here I've walked up on deer that I had hit less than an hour before and had half it's rear chewed out by yotes. Thats the bad part of bow hunting around here. Even with a perfect double lung you are risking yote damage. DRT doesn't happen to often with archery equipment.

Whino, from your description I'd have to agree with RR and the others. You have a deer down from a liver shot. I've seen them go for a long way with liver hits and I've seen them go 10 yards and lay down. If it was heading towards the direction of a water source that would be the first place I looked. Gut and marginal liver hit deer will 90% of the time head for water.

I don't think he went far either. You jumped him twice so the hurt is deep and he wants to lay down. My guess is you leaving relieved the pressure he was getting from you so he laid down and bled out.

If you don't find him in the area remember deer usually seek water when injured to make up for lost blood volume.

Good luck.

Any luck finding him?

Well - No word from Whino 83 does not bode well. Hope he had luck and found it.

Well I'd have to say you guys are spot on from my experience this morning. Ha. Shot a nanny about 100 yards away with a 4570 quartering in to me from her bedding area. Put the cross hairs on her & fired. I knew I hit her, but the shot looked high so I waited about an hour and a half in the stand. Got down to go look for blood and there was none on the ground, not even speckles. I went the direction she ran & there she was, maybe 10 to 15 yards from where I shot her. It was a definite gut shot. Couldn't believe she didn't run further than that!

He may now be Whino84....

Hope he found it, also hope he comes back to update us.
-Jake

Sorry for the delay guys. I've been out of town working. I went back the next morning and went to the last spot the dee stood and found more heavy (dark) blood and then.....nothing......no blood at all! I zig zagged the side of the ridge I knew he walked down and picked up the trail again but it stopped again. I back tracked and used toilet paper and marked the trail and go a bearing on the direction he was heading. That's when I could notice the leaves ever so slightly were flipped over and I found his path. I followed it slowly and sure enough I found him piled up about 100 yards from where I last saw him the night before! I was And still am very excited. I've taken bigger bucks for sure but he's the biggest I've taken with a traditional muzzleloader with a patched round ball! I'd post pics if I knew how to using my cell phone

Congrats on the buck and kudos to doing what it took to find him. My experience with liver hits follows what happened. Lots of dark blood then nothing. Dead deer but finding them can be tough.

Glad you found him. Would you mind sharing were you hit him so guys can learn more about shot placement, color of blood and bleeding charcteristics.

That's great that you found him and got back to us about the recovery!

Good deal. Glad your persistence paid off.

Glad you persisted and found him, also glad you reported back.

I wish my phone would let me post a pic. It would show the shot placement a lot better than I can explain it but I will try. The ball entered the ribs hitting the back of the liver and the front of the stomach. Any further back and I would have missed the liver all together. A few inches to the left and I would have got the back of the lungs. Where the deer stood there was hair and lots of very dark (almost purple) blood with small pieces of purple flesh in it (I assumed liver). The blood trail started from there and was very steady and easy to follow for the first 100 yards (ish) until I jumped the deer and backed out. The blood was a very dark red and not the bright red you see with a heart shot or the pinkish blood you see with a lung shot. Because I backed out that night even if I had not been able to pick the trail back up with some grid searches (even though I was in a very dense thicket) I would have found the deer. My biggest bow buck was shot at a lasered 57 yards and I had very similar results (that was the first and last time I've shot over 40 yards, I was young and dumb). I wish I could post pics. I took pics of the deer of course but also the blood trail but I hope my explanation can help someone someday. I knew I'd find the deer but after a sleepless night of second guessing I had begun to doubt everything. Patience is key when the shot is not ideal.

good deal, would love to see pics

Try to send your pictures to me in an email and if you get them to me before I head north tomorrow I'll post them up on this thread for you. [email protected]

Topgun 3006 I emailed some pics to you. I appreciate it!

Here are his pictures of the dark blood where the deer was standing at the shot along with the blood trail and two random pictures of the buck. It was definitely dark blood indicating that liver hit and you can see where the buck was hit a little too far back because of the shot angle.

Nice, congrats! Good job finding him. :D

Good pics. Thanks for working together to get them posted.

Nice deer. Thanks TG for getting the pics up.

when you bust the diaphragm, the guts go up against the vitals and the usualy don't go far. congrats on your buck, congrats for sticking with it and finding him. thanks for the update.
RR

The hole on the left side of the deer looks to be a pretty decent hit depending on the angle and whether its entrance or exit. A little back but not much really.

Great story and even better deer. Congratulations.

That hole is the entrance and didn't miss by much but the shot on the offside is right in line up and down with that side but about 2" further back. If it had angle forward a touch instead of back I would have had a different outcome. I've been trying to kill a decent buck with my old T/C Hawken for years and have only managed a few does and yearling bucks. When this buck came in I had to shoot left handed (I'm right handed) and I had to do it rather fast or he would have been gone. I am definitely proud of him! I'm getting a European mount done and for many years to come when people ask I can tell them how I took him with the hawken with a patched round ball!

Yeah ! Good job all the way around.

Congrats nice one

That's nice to hear!! Glad there are still folks out there that value a deer's life.