lady

Best thing is to look and listen hard. Take someone you can trust that trusts in you to help. I rely on my ears a lot in archery. Most of my kills have not yielded blood trails. I actually tracked the sound of them running off and crashing down. Sit and do my wait, then start looking for a blood trail and tracks. Over half of my archery elk kills there was no blood trail. Most expired in under 75yrs. Well placed arrows in the boiler room that didn't pass through but broke off inside. Massive damage. Critters were like a waterbed full of blood. Another tip is if you ever have to need help to find an animal without a trail, is don't bring someone that isn't going to listen to what happened. I shot a smallish buck once to fill my tag at end of the season. Shot it with my 7mm08 @131yds. No pass through. Small entry wound. No blood. I knew shot was good. My husband had his dad come help before we had not even started looking yet. Dad didn't listen and stomped all over threw insults and tried to tell me there was no way it went where I said, or standing where I said... which it very much was so. He stepped all over tracks and was literally ruining the trail as well as my good time. He kept trying to go off in a different direction and arguing with me about it. We went back to where I said the buck was standing. Finally my husband picked up one tiny shard of rib bone darn near under dads boot after we got back from looking the wrong direction that he wanted to go. Deer was dead laying up against a log in a stump hole inside the tree line. Deer didn't even make it 60yds. No blood. just one shard of fresh rib. Of course it was where I said I saw it go, but dad said it didn't go that way, when he wasn't there, didn't see the shot. He just wanted to be an ass and discredit me. My husband just needs to not call daddy and help his wife himself. I don't think we really needed help from him in the first place. I think waiting for him to show up and cause drama made it take twice as long in fading light to find my deer. I never got an apology either for this man basically calling me a liar and hurling insults. So definitely take someone you can trust that is supportive and has faith in your abilities to help you blood trail.

Gtorq21

This happened to me the last two seasons on 8 points each time. Once using a 243 today using a 308. Both occasions I was using soft point ammo. No exit wounds all internal damage. When deer get hit they sometimes have a tendency to go back were they came from. Worst case scenario get a dog out there.