Yesterday I got a shot at a buck, trailed it for 300 + yards to finally run out of blood trail, after 6 hours of searching, I think he clotted up. I have a self climber stand, so I was wondering should I stick it out in this stand and hope more deer come back, or because I shot that buck is it better to move on to another stand location? Typically from this stand, Ive only been seeing a buck, once every three or four days.
I have never given up after a mere 6 hours searching. Shooting a buck in a location has no effect on whether other deer will still frequent the area.
If it was a bad shot, it'll almost certainly take longer than six hours to die in the first place. If it was a good shot, it wouldn't have ran 300 yards and ran out of blood. I'm far too stubborn to give up that easily, but can't tell you what you should do. I'd go back and outline the path of the deer, think about where i hit it, go to last blood and look again, make concentric circles from there looking for the deer, go search likely areas like water or known bedding areas (IMO big bucks often try and high tail it back to their core bedding area when shot). But if you are content with moving on to hunt again, that shot should have no impact on seeing another deer now.
I agree if you hit a deer and have blood you gotta give it more than 6 hours. Where I am it is legal to use a dog or hire someone with a good tracking dog. The blood will still be there and the dog will find him!!!!
I shot the deer at 735 am. I waited in my stand about an hour after I shot him to get down. He was limping away after I shot, so I think I hit the shoulder or maybe right behind and above the leg. Checked arrow, went clear thru him. After about another half hour I started to follow blood trail, at first thick blood trail for 100 yards, then started to thin. Very light spots and then about 300 yards found a lil pool of blood. Backed out and came back out around 1230-1, searched from the spot of the pool of blood in every direction , making circles across the hillside, as there were three of us. We checked the water areas first with no luck, this buck went straight up a huge hill which I thought was odd for a wounded deer. Anyways we searched about another 100-200 yards in every direction following each trail , no blood, no sign. Do you guys think he could have clotted up that fast?
Hard to tell. If the arrow passed through the deer right behind the front shoulder as you describe, it was either an EXTREMELY high hit (above spine) or a very low hit that clipped his underside. Otherwise the deer would be dead in seconds. In either case the deer can live (obviously no guarantees). Did you see for sure where your shot hit the deer?
Even during the Rut being mobile is a BIG tool to have in your favor. Best thing you can do is find the Deer and go to them. Hunting Doe's now is the thing to do! Find the Does and the Bucks will find you! Dont get hung up on old reliable spots,,find em!
They can go a long way before expiring if you don't hit vitals well enough. We found one my cousin shot 4 years ago, 1000 yards from where he shot him. Two years ago, we found one the neighbor shot 1/4 mile from the hit.
I may have hit him high, hard to really see the height, but I know it was right behind that front leg, as soon as I shot him he jumped and limped a few yards. Stumbled and fell, then limped away behind me, opposite the way he came in. Its just pretty odd that he was able to make it so far with the arrow going straight through. I have never had a deer limp away, so I thought I must have hit some vital that took out the front leg movement. I know I didnt shot him in the leg.
