Last week i hit a doe far back because my arrow deflected off of a branch and kick out. She ran off with my arrow as i seen it was a bad hit. I waited a while and grabbed my friend that was hunting near me and went back to tract. We had to be back home that night so we couldnt wait over night plus it was 85' overnight so the deer if dead would go bad anyway. Found blood for 100 yards then found my arrow. Soon as we found it the blood stopped, we contiuned to track another 100 yards i guess but found nothing. We have no local dogs to use, or anyone else for that matter to help track. What would you do?
Get as many people as you can and start grid searching. Look under every rock, tree, blow down, tree top, and in every creek bottom and water location you can find. Wounded deer often head to water. We owe it to the animal to find it if we can, even if it may take a while
IMHO this created species deserves at least a 3 day search through the seed ticks, chiggers, and briers if a clean kill is not made. Last year I gut shot a doe that was at 31 yards and for what ever reason I held my 20 yard pin on her. I left my stand for 4hrs came back later that night and found blood and a basic direction. The next morning I spent about 6 hours looking to no avail. The third day around 12:15 I found her a half mile from my stand "in" the neighbors pond, well what the coyotes did not eat anyway. I found satisfaction in just giving a 100% in that track job and finding the carcass. But, in the end if you don't find her I'm sure the coyotes will not let her waste. Good luck on your search.
We grid searched for a while it was just me and another guy. My lease is hour and half from home so we didnt have anyone else to call. No water source near where the deer ran or even a few miles for that matter. We where on our hands and knee's looking for any type of blood but she just dried up that quick.
Depends on the situation. Usually the next day atleast, depending on what I find. If I'm finding blood and it's petering out (finding beds with progressively less blood the next day), I may call it, depending on the shot. Blood trail, grid search, then water. That's the 3 stages I go through. I don't like having too many people until I start grid searching. I'll track alone or up to 2 others, no more ideally.
Yea i wish i lived closer to go back the next day but that wasnt possible. I'm hope she made it but if not i'm very sure the coyotes made a meal out of her. I agree the more people you bring can cause more issues then help i normally keep it under 3-4 people.
Well if it's a good buck then you look for at least 6 weeks and pose with what's left of the corpse... A doe, not so much.
If I am sure there was a hit, even non lethal. I push to make sure I look. Because: If it was mine, I feel terrible and need to lead by example, and self loathe a little bit. If it was someone I am guiding or just helping, I want them to spend as much time as I can convince them to, thinking about what went wrong and how they are going to avoid it in the future. I have legit told people to go out the next day and look for a "few more hours" when I am 90% sure the deer is on it's feet and crossing county lines !
Man that sucks , to bad it was so warm, you just ran out of time , I've helped a few like this and they always seemed to go to the thick heavy cover with a last dive before dying
I look for a good amount of time over the course of two to three days. If its past the point of the meat being good, I still want to see exactly what went wrong with the shot. My arrow got stuck in a buck last wednesday and until Saturday at noon, I spent about 11 hours looking, 3 with a helper, and asking neighbors if theyve seen anything. In my case I now believe I bumped the buck too soon(3 hours) and he was in good enough shape to make it a ways away.
I look until I'm satisfied I'm not going to find it and then I quit and don't ask anyone else for their opinion. I feel I'm the best judge in the situation as to how much time and effort I put in it. That said, the longest I've ever looked for a deer is two days.
