Monday I shot a doe around 8 in the morning. I called my buddy to help me track it. We started to track it around 9:30. As we were tracking it there was a lot of blood some patches that were as big as the lid to a 5gal bucket. The blood was bright red. As we came to a spot were she ran down hill we heard a deer snort but was for sure if it was her or not. So we waited about 15min then started down the hill. As we made our way at the hill my buddy said he saw her in a open patch of thorns but got up and ran well we found a small amount of blood there and a small trail that went about 30 yards and quit. I searched for a few hours with no luck. Any ideas of what might have happen. Could she have cut back up the mountain? Here is a photo where I believe I hit her.
It appears to be a gut shot. If in fact you are representing the shot placement accurately you started after the deer way to soon. You should've waited at least 8 hours before you started tracking. Do you have the arrow? Is there a funny smell on it? What is on the arrow? With a gut shot the deer won't live, it'll just make the recovery much more difficult now that she has been pushed.
The arrow just had bright red blood on it but I did notice in a couple of blood pile there was dark red chunks like meat kind of
I'm not sure then. Your red dot would definitely be guts. If you were forward a little you could've had liver.
If you knew you hit the deer there, can I ask why you started tracking so soon? I don't mean to sound like a jerk, I am honestly curious.
Ok, we all have to learn. The majority of guys/gals on here are more than willing to help with any question you have. IMO you should've made your first post on here being the one to ask what should I do first instead of what do I do now. Good Luck with the recovery.
My guess is you hit her a bit more forward than you think and shot her through the liver. Liver hit can take 6 plus hours to kill them. Now that she's been pushed it makes tracking more difficult but she's should be dead out there somewhere.
I tracked for about 8 hours and couldn't find her my guess is when my buddy spooked here she probably ran further
Best is to learn from it for next time, if in doubt back out is the best advice for tracking. If you go in and jump it back out again.
Probably a good guess. What kind of terrain do you have around you? Any water? We can't use them here in Missouri but can you guys use dogs to track?
Is it supposed to be cool/cold tonight. That will help her bed down and stiffen up. If she is wounded very bad she'll lay down. Try again in the morning from the last spot you know where she was at.
I live in Southwest Virginia lots of mountains. The area I hunt is really steep and plus where I shot her Monday wont it be ruined by now our nights has been 45 and days round mid 60s
If I read the original post correctly the doe was shot on Monday morning, probably a lost cause at this point.
