[VAGuardian]

Well this was the start of my fourth year hunting. It was the first morning and I was seeing lots of little bucks around my stand and had contimplated shooting one so I could have my first bow kill. My friend was hunting with me and sent me a text message after the first hour and a half saying "there is a huge eight pointer near her stand." Me and my friend were hunting about only about 80 yards apart. I looked in the direction her stand was placed and saw a deer moving. I immediately got up so I could be ready, just in case he came my way. All of a sudden I hear a stick break to my right, im telling myself "its just a squirrel dont even look." Well I looked and it was a huge rack coming through the woods. I instantly started to turn so I could get a shot and the deer picked up on my movement. He started to trot off and I bleated so he would stop, he stopped and I made the shot. Yes!!!! However, I only waited 30 minutes before I started tracking him and we tracked this deer for over 200 yards, it had a decent blood trail. Crashed once and right after we found the spot he crashed, the blood trail got smaller and smaller until it vanished. I am so dissapointed because I couldnt find him. This was the biggest buck I had ever seen in the woods and would make my first mount.

Do you guys have any ideas or strategies on how I could find him? I am going back out there tomorrow with a couple buddies and we are gonna look for a few hours.

He ran into the thickest nastiest spot ever, so tracking is difficult. Im not sure where the placement of my arrow was because it all happened so fast. Im pretty sure it was a lung shot. But like I said, he had a steady blood trail for 200 yards, so I cannot imagine him living after loosing that much blood. I just cant decide what the best tactic is to finding him. All help will greatly be appreciated and I promise if I find him, I will post up a nice article with his pic.

Thanks guys.

 

[Lonestar63]

What did your arrow look like?

If the blood trails peters out, back track and look to the sides for even a drop of blood.
I shot a buck that back tracked and went on another trail.
Friends are great, but they can also ruin a spotty blood trail, so make sure they know what there doing.

 

[KickerPoint79]

Go to the last blood sign and get down to deer level and look ahead. Sometimes you can pick out the path of least resistance for the deer to take. Look for running tracks, fresh broken branches anything that could indicate a fast moving animal. Take it slow and you may pick up blood again. As a last resort you and your buddies can do a grid search of the area. Kinda sounds like this may be a liver hit. Blood can be good but they can go a good ways before dropping. Normally a solid lung hit will be down within a hundred yards. Usually much less than a hundred. Good luck finding him tommorow.

 

[Back 40 Tree Rat]

Wait until morning! The deer will be dead for sure & easier to see sign!

 

[skyhunter]

You could use a good dog.

Many states have guys that have listed their sevice in tracking animals with trained scent trailing dogs. This is your best bet to recover your buck.

Find out if there is someone in your area. Do an online seach and see what you come up with, or call your state dept and ask if they have any information on canine trackers. Good luck.

Last resort: Grid search a large area with a GPS being sure not to miss anything.

 

[jrb70]

deer

How did the blood look like on the arrow? Did it smell? Was there particles of grass or corn? Any tye of weird liquid on the arrow? I'm thinking maybe a gut shot, thats why the blood dried up and you observed one "crash" site. If it was a gut shot it would travel up to 200 yards bed down and should of bled out there. But if you went in before at least 3 hours of a gut shot he coud of ran a while. After a gut shot you have to let it bed down for awhile and let it bleed out. If you track too fast he'll get up and go. If your arrow had this, check by bed locations or by the nearest water. These would be the best locations if you had a gut shot.

 

[dressed2kill]

http://www.archerytalk.com/vb/showthread.php?t=378943

Much help here

 

[arkiep&yhunter]

Well this was the start of my fourth year hunting. It was the first morning and I was seeing lots of little bucks around my stand and had contimplated shooting one so I could have my first bow kill. My friend was hunting with me and sent me a text message after the first hour and a half saying "there is a huge eight pointer near her stand." Me and my friend were hunting about only about 80 yards apart. I looked in the direction her stand was placed and saw a deer moving. I immediately got up so I could be ready, just in case he came my way. All of a sudden I hear a stick break to my right, im telling myself "its just a squirrel dont even look." Well I looked and it was a huge rack coming through the woods. I instantly started to turn so I could get a shot and the deer picked up on my movement. He started to trot off and I bleated so he would stop, he stopped and I made the shot. Yes!!!! However, I only waited 30 minutes before I started tracking him and we tracked this deer for over 200 yards, it had a decent blood trail. Crashed once and right after we found the spot he crashed, the blood trail got smaller and smaller until it vanished. I am so dissapointed because I couldnt find him. This was the biggest buck I had ever seen in the woods and would make my first mount.

Do you guys have any ideas or strategies on how I could find him? I am going back out there tomorrow with a couple buddies and we are gonna look for a few hours.

He ran into the thickest nastiest spot ever, so tracking is difficult. Im not sure where the placement of my arrow was because it all happened so fast. Im pretty sure it was a lung shot. But like I said, he had a steady blood trail for 200 yards, so I cannot imagine him living after loosing that much blood. I just cant decide what the best tactic is to finding him. All help will greatly be appreciated and I promise if I find him, I will post up a nice article with his pic.

Thanks guys.

U might need to check the next county...sounds like you pushed him. I say get a good friend with a dog.

 

[VAGuardian]

about 3/4's of the arrow was drenched in blood. I was surprised that I didnt get a complete pass through, but when I was thinking about it wouldnt three fourths of an arrow be all the way through a deer. I mean that deers body is not that wide. And I shot him completely broadside. But my fletching didnt just had a droplet or two, so my arrow didnt go in one side and out the other.

There were no signs of corn, or other foods with the blood, just pure blood. Didnt see any bubbles.

I have a strange feeling he might of backtracked as well. We looked for 2 hours and got exhausted. We also came home with cuts all over our bodies because of the thick briars.

I just have to get my hands on this deer. He is my first trophy deer and he was definitely a trophy in anyones book.

Someone said to maybe look for buzzards the next day, but the area is so thick I dont think you could see a buzzard if you tried.

Thanks guys for the suggestions, please keep them coming.

 

[BowProTN]

Greatest stuff I have ever seen!!!

Tracked a deer last night for a buddy of mine. Little or no blood for 150+ yrds. There is a company called Bluestar that makes a blood finder spray. This stuff is freakin amazing!! Took it out last night, filled the spray bottle, dropped the tablets in, and sprayed it in a circluar pattern where we "thought" to spray. Blood so small we couldn't even see it lit up light Christmas tree lights. Led us another 150 yrds to the deer. May not help your situation but trust me this stuff will blow your mind!!

 

[ArchersParadox]

However, I only waited 30 minutes before I started tracking him and we tracked this deer for over 200 yards

You did not read my thread earlier today....


http://75.126.80.18/vb/showthread.php?t=765406

 

[mark j]

Im not sure where the placement of my arrow was because it all happened so fast. Im pretty sure it was a lung shot. But like I said, he had a steady blood trail for 200 yards...

I doubt you hit lungs. If you did, I can't imagine that he would have survived for 30 minutes much less ran over 200 yards. When you let the air out of a deer, they don't get far.

 

[IL-Gutpile]

You didn't find where this deer "Crashed" you found where this deer first bedded down. If you had been patient and waited at least an hour or two as you should on any marginal hit (any hit where you don't see the deer go down is a marginal hit in my opinion), the deer would have been laying there dead (if you made a good hit to begin with).
First rule of trailing deer is to not try and track them too soon. I wait more than 30 minutes even when I see them go down.:zip:
Good luck

 

[PaScott6]

You didn't find where this deer "Crashed" you found where this deer first bedded down. If you had been patient and waited at least an hour or two as you should on any marginal hit (any hit where you don't see the deer go down is a marginal hit in my opinion), the deer would have been laying there dead (if you made a good hit to begin with).
First rule of trailing deer is to not try and track them too soon. I wait more than 30 minutes even when I see them go down.:zip:
Good luck

Nice the guy does'nt need any sarcasam i'am sue he feels bad enough. Every situation is different lets help the guy not critisize him

 

[WEEGEE]

You didn't find where this deer "Crashed" you found where this deer first bedded down. If you had been patient and waited at least an hour or two as you should on any marginal hit (any hit where you don't see the deer go down is a marginal hit in my opinion), the deer would have been laying there dead (if you made a good hit to begin with).
First rule of trailing deer is to not try and track them too soon. I wait more than 30 minutes even when I see them go down.:zip:
Good luck

very good advice

 

[PaScott6]

very good advice

Great advice could have been a little nicer about it.

 

[hobbs4421]

re

I have some suggestions. First of all, I dont think there is anything wrong with only waiting 30 minutes before getting out of your stand to search. However, I do believe that an error that you made is that you continued to push him after he didnt expire within roughly 100 yrds. You mentioned that you noticed where he crashed, but he got up from that spot. For future reference if a deer crashes or falls or lays down, or you just keep kicking him up, then ya need to back out and wait a number of hours prior to tracking. I know this will not be much help in finding this deer, but this tactic will help you on future marginal hits.
Congrats on the deer, and I believe you will find him in the daytime. I hope you get him and learn somthing from this hunt. Its all about learning something from your last hunt, thats how ya get good. Good luck, and keep us posted

 

[VAGuardian]

Well I went out with three buddies this morning and we looked for 2 1/2 hours. Came up with nothing. I have defintely learned alot through this experience. I just feel doomed. I have been hunting hard for the last four years and take this sport very seriously because I enjoy it. It just seems like I cant catch a break. Last year I took a buddy of mine hunting and he killed a beautiful eight pointer out of my tree stand. I still have never harvested my own trophy buck. This year I finally see a shooter buck in the woods, make the shot, and still cant put the thing into my hands. There is just so much fu**ed up with this situation. I just wish that I could have retrieved him. I would have rather not shot him than have this happen.

Here is my conclusion, either one of these three things happened;

Either A; I more than likely put a bad shot on a extremely wise and tough deer, combined with not waiting long enough to track, ruined my chances for recovery.

B; The deer looped back around to his core area which would have been on the opposite side of the property, being closer to where I first shot him. Maybe he wanted to get back to his home territory to feel safer.

C; The deer is hercules and is still alive somehow.

I still dont want to give up. However, I am mentally and physically beat up and exhausted. I have briar cuts that would make most people check me into a psych ward thinking I am a massacist. Im gonna maybe go back tomorrow in the heat of the day and look for buzzards flying and try to see if I detect an odor. Thanks to everyone for the positive feedback. It's greatly appreciated.

 

[BOHO]

I'd venture to say you hit it in the neck. Prolly tore a good hole but didnt hit the jugular or anything crucial. I bet he'll live. You can always go back a couple days later and look for buzzards. You'll see em if he's dead around there.

 

[Retch]

The best lessons are the ones we learn first hand. I know (from my own experiences) that you are feeling like crap about what happened and second guessing yourself. Maybe you'll find him tomorrow, if not, you learned a valuable lesson about bowhunting. Every time we go out we learn something about life, about hunting....about ourselves. Good luck. I hope you find him tomorrow.