Monday's shot placement...no recovery
 

Saw a beautiful 9pt buck with a doe on Sunday evening in one our hayfields. I knew he would be in the area with that doe only for a few days until she was bred. I took work off on Monday morning and hunt him. I have a treestand set up that wasn't ideal for the area with the wind direction but chanced it. Long story short, I shot him at about 8:15am. He was directly broadside and at about 40yds. I felt my arrow hit him perfectly vertically, however was a bit forward. The arrow only penetrated 5-6", he broke the arrow off and I found both pieces. The blood trail was unbelievable for about 150yds, the amount of blood this deer lost was incredible. After 150yds the blood started to get smaller and smaller, by 300yds it was just specks that we could find. Has anyone had a similar shot and if so did you recover the deer? Any help would be appreciated.

Sounds like a deer that was tracked to early to me.(chased)

This forum won't allow me to post images.

I waited 5.5 hours before going after him.

Maybe one lung then in which case 5.5 hours may not be long enough. Pictures of the blood would help.

With the amount of blood you say he lost, its possible or likely he won't survive. One lung hits can go a LONG way, and a long time. Sometimes even survive, depending on the hit. I would say either get a dog to help you track, or start looking for buzzards and grid searching. Better to recover him late, than not at all.

Turns out waiting 5.5hrs was definitely a good decision, especially given that you thought you had a good hit. I doubt most would have waited nearly that long in reality. Its easy to rethink it all later and decide what would have been the best thing to do. Did you find any big pools or beds?

I killed one like that once... it turned right as I shot and I only got one lung. Luckily for me, it only went 40-50yds and bedded down. Took him right at 3hrs to die - I was pinned in the tree, no way to get down and no way to get another shot. That sucked but at least I got him. No doubt I would have pushed him a long way had I gotten down.

With 5" of penetration you should have got lung. It sounds like you had good blood. This leads me to believe it's a dead deer.

Make a grid search. Look in all the small places you think "A deer couldn't hide there" he's laying somewhere I think.

-Jake

Any update? Terribly sorry to hear you've been through so much trouble; it unfortunately happens.

Just something I've tried with success in the past, when the blood trail peters out, I spiral search instead of keep looking in the direction of travel. If they aren't heading towards a known heavy cover safe spot, half the time they are doubling back in the direction they came from. They may head off in a direction then loop back the way the came from.

Most any Dog is going to pick up that fine lung spray and go nuts. My Dogs would follow a trail like that at 30 MPH if you let them, the scent is so strong they don't need to sniff the ground.

I'm not particularly good or talented at tracking, I make up for it with perseverance.

if you have a creek nearby , he could be layin IN the creek...it has happened for me a few times..keep us in the know