Alright guys, so I was out this morning, was just getting ready to get down, and I turned and had a good buck running across the field towards me. He came in behind me, I grunted, he came towards me then quartered away. I squeezed the trigger and watched my arrow flight straight and then deflect off a twig. I hit him in the back leg. I watched him run maybe 20 yards and then he started walking (gimping) away, and walked out of sight. After about an hour, I got down and got my arrow, and walked his trail maybe 40 yards or so. I found this: So the green dot is in the area that I hit him- I can't say that that's the EXACT spot, but it was right in there. It appears that there are some arteries that run down the leg there. So have any of you ever had any experience trailing a deer that was hit here? Do they generally die? How long? Any help I can get would be amazing, thanks guys. AND ON A SIDE NOTE:: I found more blood in the short 40 yards I walked then I ever did when I shot the doe below. With her I followed nickel and dime sized spots of blood all the way to her, and as you can see, I smoked her.
I would give him alot of time to bed down, if you keep bumping him you will most likely never find him! Leave a marker where you last see good blood and come back either later tonight with some helpers or even give him a day, it's hard but hopefully you clipped one of those arteries pretty good, you might get lucky! give him time though...
In my experience... Flesh wounds, especially low on the deer, can make it appear like there is a lot of blood. The blood has no where to go, but out. Lung/cavity hits can result in blood pooling up inside the deer. Hence, the reason you probably didn't find a lot of blood with that doe. Its not uncommon. If it is an artery hit, it shouldn't take the deer long to die. It should bleed out rather quickly. I would guess if it wasn't dead after the hour you waited, it probably won't die from that shot.
Shot a deer with a muzzle-loader last year during late winter. Basically took the joint out just underneath your shot. Was dead within 100 yards.
A buddy of mine shot a buck years ago with a gun in the very bottom of the back leg near the dew claws. (poor shot @ 350yds). Anyhow, that buck died in about 80yds....bled out via that artery you are talking about. Hopefully you did hit it....you'll know once you take up the track. Flesh wounds can look very good for the first 50-100yds sometimes, and you'll swear they have to be dead but then it will peter out. Good luck!
If you hit that artery he's not going just to far. If you didn't he could live then. What I would do Is give him a couple hours max and then get on the trail. If Indeed It Is a flesh wound hit sometimes pushing a deer Is the best thing. Get his muscles working to get the blood pumping. Every ass shot deer blood trail that I've been on we've gotten the deer. Never have I hit a deer there but many of the people's blood trails I've been Involved with have. You've got daylight on your side, use that to your advantage. Best of luck.
Im pretty pissed about the whole deal. I know it's part of it, but man it sucks. Im trying to look on the bright side of everything in the fact that I think if I hit the artery, I'll find him, if I didn't he should be alive and well. I'm also looking at these pictures and it seems as though the artery runs beside/behind the bone. When he took off, he wouldn't touch that leg to the ground at all, and he was gimping real bad on it. I'm hoping if it broke that bone, then I should have clipped the artery.
Let us know what you find. Its certainly an interesting spot to hit a deer, and I'm curious to know how it plays out. Artery hits will leave some of the best blood trails you can find. If you hit the femoral artery, it will be easy to tell. If you didn't, don't be surprised if the blood trail peters out rather quickly like WV Hunter mentioned. Be sure to take your bow and be ready to shoot. If he's not dead and its not a fatal wound, you might find him in his bed and can get another shot.
More importantly, if you hit the deer low in a leg like that, you WANT TO PUSH that animal to keep the blood flowing. I know it goes against conventional wisdom, but if it gets time to sit down, it can actually get the blood to clot off and actually live. Keep it moving, and the blood keeps flowing. Different than a gut shot because animals can "shunt" blood off to their extremities whereas they CANNOT do this in their gut. Good Luck with him, and yes, unfortunately, IT HAPPENS!!!
The only femoral artery hit I've ever witnessed was on a caribou and it died in seconds. The crime scene was gruesome. Doug gave you some good advise. Don't let this deer clot up if you can afford to push it (acreage) do it.
Alright guys, just got back in. Went back out to the woods around 12:30-1 and picked up the blood trail. It turned into really thick red gloopy blood at times and then it would be constant blood drops for a while, then we'd find another gloopy mess. We followed that for probably 1/3 of a mile with ease- it really didn't take much effort to follow it. We eventually came into a briar thicket where it looked like he may have laid down. We found some blood in one spot, and there was only one way to go out of the thicket, so we followed that and found no blood. We back tracked and split off the runs going into the thicket thinking he may have got up and back tracked elsewhere- no dice. We then made circles for probably 2 hours and didn't find a single drop of blood anywhere else. I'm thinking he laid up there for a bit and clotted up for good. I'm hoping he lived.
