Shot a nice sized Doe Friday afternoon about five. Let her lay until Dark (about 3 hours hoping to get a double), had a clean pass through and found REALLY good blood for about 100 yards, but then the Blood trail just stopped, like you turned off a faucet, I did a 50 yard Circle to find any more blood in case she doubled back or just clotted for awhile then started bleeding again, but no luck it just stopped. Had three guys come help me grid search for her and still we couldn't find her or blood. I know I hit her good and it was a Broadside kill shot, but I am just baffled, about the blood just stopping. has anyone else had this happen and what did you do.
You got a dog? Put the dog on the trail and see if it's nose is better than the human eye - usually so. If that doesn't work for you I don't know what to tell you. I've only killed one deer and that wasn't with a bow, he didn't get very far. I figure if I ever did have this happen to me I'd bring in my dog to help me find it. What kind of broad head did you use?
This happened to me 3 years ago. i brought my bird dog out and put her nose on the trail. she took off and i thought it was a bad idea then about 2 minutes later she started barking. i found her yapping at my dead doe.
Sounds like the holes got clogged up. Move then likely when you find her she will have some organs hanging out.
This very same thing happened to me on the first buck I ever shot with a bow. Blood was pooled up in every leaf I found and then all of the sudden the trail just went dry. I went back with a search party of 7 the following day. We looked for four solid hours. My theory is he ran across a scenic paved road, folded up, and a passing motorist saw him fall and picked him up. My head was not in the game the rest of the season.
Not trying to be negative but I am venturing to guess that you did not hit her as well as you thought. Don't worry though, in the heat of the moment sometimes we do not see everyting as it really happened. Good chance you might have only gotten one lung. I think you kicked her up out of the bed that she was probably going to die in and once you did that the chances of actually finding her are slim to none. I understand your frustrations with the blood. I have had it happen to me and have heard many other instances of the same thing happening. The worst part about it is following a walking blood trail and then not finding the deer. It is frustrating, but keep your head up. As long as you put your best effort in to find her thats all you can do. You always remember the deer you didn't find. You got to just get back in the stand and keep hunting. Good luck the rest of the season!
No Dog and where I Hunt is two Hours away couldn't get anyone to bring me one. I Felt really Good about the shot, I have made marginal shots before and new it, but this one I was sure she was double lunged and would find her in no time, i even watched her crash once and get up then lost track because of the cover. I shoot the G5 T3's. It is really got me down that I couldn't find her,I just new she was just out of site. we grid searched a pretty big area, im completely baffled. Guess I need to shake it off and go for another.
Yeah that's tough, I mean I read all the time about people going back in the woods for a second and third look even - you might give it a try, you never know. Heck I've even heard of people going back in at night with flash lights - that way it gives a total different perspective and you might search in a place that you didn't before. If your that upset about it (completely understandable, I would be also) then go back out for another look, you've got nothing to lose and everything to gain at this point. Don't know where your hunting but more than 24 hours in my woods and the Yotes would have already exposed of the body.
I’ve had this happen more than once. One time we looked for her all day long and finally I decided to check out the hot bedding areas and guess what I found dead. What happened was she ran in one direction and then stopped and turned around and headed back towards us and branched off somewhere? Typically you follow the blood; however when you find blood you don't normally look in other directions you simply follow the blood trail. After I found her i followed the blood trail from the bedding and ended up back to the trail where we had lots of blood. Try this out, because you never know.
I won't make it back out there until next weekend I will try to look again just to get closure, but I believe I'll be looking just for Bones we don't have Yotes that bad but the Buzzards will have her picked clean in a day. Thanks for all of the Replies, never had it happen before, so just wanted to see what others have experienced. still Blows.
