allhandlesaretaken

This year my son shot a doe in a field that ran into the boggy woods by a river. I swore he got a good shot. It was about five minutes before quitting time. We searched about a 300 yard radius until dark, then with lights in very difficult walking. About 80 minutes. The next morning we went back and searched again for about two hours. No blood or anything. We gave up and I talked him into shooting another doe that afternoon, which he dropped and tagged.

He wanted to search all day and still feels bad. He loves hunting and I am proud that he hates wasting or maiming deer.

Anyone have any comments good or bad about how much effort we put in to find the doe?

coyote caller

The first question I need to ask is? What was the reaction of the deer when he shot it. Did it just run off with it's tail up high, did it buck and kick out it's hind legs, and tail held down. Was there any hair on the ground where the deer was hit. Following up on a deer trail that doesn't show no signs of blood or hair. Tells me he missed. There has to be some kind of sign where the animal was hit, and also where she ran off before she ran into the bog. How far into the bog did you go?

allhandlesaretaken

I didn't tell it exactly right when I said no blood. There was a little bit where it crossed from the field to the bog, but no other. She kicked up her hind legs right when he shot just like a hit deer, but the tail was up high as she disappeared into the brush. It was about 200 yds to the river bank, where we walked up and down about 300 yds each way, then back into the bog along whatever walking paths we could find.

timbercruiser

Without knowing the color of blood, angle of shot etc it would be hard to know the hit. Sounds like the doe hit the river and either sank or swam to the other bank.

skeeter 7MM

As far as effort I personally believe you put forth more effort than most ever would. Other than getting a group doing a slow grid search, with no real sign you were in tough and had few options. Did you notice any birds the next day? Here they will be on a carcass very quickly, the mags and ravens really show the path to a kill! With a tail up, she wasn't hit real at least in my experience if they are hurt that tail is down. What about head position, was it up and alert like a normal deer running, or was it down or cocked straight...usually the upright alert head position also means a poor hit or miss. Without being their it is tough to say what happened and really just a guess at best but if you found specs of blood at the shot location he could have just nicked her low or something casuing a small flesh wound, being the tail was up and she covered a fair distance without leaving any other clues.

We all make mistakes unfortunately that is part of the learning curve.

allhandlesaretaken

Thanks for the replies. I am comfortable and I have convinced my son that we tried as hard as was practical to find the doe.