blood on arrow? help with where it hit......

I know how you feel I lost 2 this season, good luck



2015 Matthews Z2
28in draw at 60lbs with truglo Rival Hunter sights
Carbon Express with Montecs
Ripcord cord red rest

USMC Semper Fi

Remingtion 887 and 770
Marlin 30-30

 

It sucks but we've all been there before. Even though you lost the deer, that deer did not go to waste. Nature recycles everything, it provided food to plenty of other species.

Keep practicing and keep going out!

 

thanks guys. im not going to quit, i love it to much. Just mad at myself. I was thinking about it and i think i know what happened. There was a spot close to the beginning of the blood trail that had a good amount of blood and a good amount of poop. I think it was where she might have bedded down. At the time i was following the trail and moved past it quickly following the blood. she ran straight into the woods like 75 yards after the shot. Thats where i lost the trail. I think she walked back to where she was shot and bedded down. (behind trees i could not see this spot from my stand) But i climbed out of my stand after 30 min and i guess i pushed her out. But i will say i learned so much about bow hunting from all of this. Thank for everyones help.

 

looks like liver blood to me

 

In the future, you want to wait at least 30 minutes on the stand. Then get down and retrieve your arrow and study it. Was it a full pass through? What does the blood look like on the arrow, how does it smell. If the arrow had dark red blood and didn't smell foul then it was a liver shot on those take time. The deer will not expire right away, but it will expire. Typically they will run/walk a short distance and bed down. If left alone, that's where they will typically expire, but if you push them off the bed, it becomes much, much more difficult. Typical wait time for a liver shot should be at least 3 or 4 hours before you start trailing. The longer the better though.

 

If you do a little reading on how to track deer before you hunt you would know that if you feared a gut shot the last thing you would want to do is go looking for it, even at 75 yards. Liver and gut shot deer often will bed down in that distance, you going after it within a half hour could have very easily pushed it on. If there is anything at all to learn from these kinds of posts is you can't do too much research on what to do before you let the arrow fly. Any chance you could have contacted a tracking dog in your area???

 

+1 to the tracking dog. Good luck!

 

This is how to recover a deer you don't see or hear go down.
1. Wait 45 minutes in the stand.
2. Get down, check arrow.
3. a.If not possibly gut or liver shot, i.e., lungs or heart or both, or so much blood on the ground a major artery was severed, pick up the blood trail. If blood stops or you spook a deer, go home for six hours, you were wrong about the shot.
b. If possibly gut or liver shot ( dark blood, or blood with stuff in it) go home for six hours.
4. Follow blood as possible. When blood stops, look on hands and knees in likely directions.
5. If no more blood can be found, walk in the direction of known travel, very slowly, for 100 yards. If down hill is an option, check that direction also.
5. Continue looking for any signs of blood or a wounded animal for the rest of the day by combing the area.
6. Use a dog is possible.

I have recovered all but three deer with this method, two shoulder shot probably survived, one gut shot button buck who managed to go a long, long way, or hide very well. I assume the intestines plugged the wound and he died of sepsis many hours later. I followed blood for 100+ yards the day after the shot, but no deer. I have successfully recovered deer in the same situation, but it's a difficult track.

 

I would add one item. If you are the point where you have run out of blood, consider the nearest water source. A wounded deer (especially hit back) will head for water in a lot of cases.