Two years ago I double lunged a doe. I was hunting the edge of a milo field along a river. I saw the impact and kick. She went 40 yds straight along the edge. I got down and zero blood . We found two drops where she entered the trees but nothing else. I heard her crash. We looked and looked but no luck, about 1.5 hrs into the search I walked to the river bank. There was a huge blow out of blood and clots from in and out wounds. Still no deer. Then I spotted her 20 yds down river snagged on a tree limb. Finally got her. Lesson learned. This is always a good thread.
Great thread. First buckni shot, we trailed 500 yds then lost blood. As we backed out at around 10pm at night, we heard coyotes, but didn’t think much of it. Resumed the search the next day and found the buck 60yrds further. Coyotes had gotten to him, and about all that was left was skin and bones. Could t believe how quickly they devoured the deer. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Great post, and good reminders. I would add also that persistence is a major key to success. I would say that many of the animals I have recovered, came as a result of not giving up. I think all too often people give up, which is easy to do when you’re really discouraged, but if you keep pressing ahead and searching, very often you will find them long after the blood trail has gone dry.
Shot a buck a few days ago a little further back than planned. Gave it 30min then checked the arrow and it was definitely liver/muscular looking blood. Gave it some more time. Tracking was intermittently between being able to see blood standing to crawling in my hands and knees to find specks. The blood trail died at 160 yards. I used onX to mark my way. About 11pm gave up on blood trail and did some grid searching based on his trajectory and nada. Called it at midnight- where the blue dot is on map. Came out at first light and drove around on the sxs. Blue tracks are where I drove to “grid search” that morning and found him 30yd from where the blood trail ended. It only got down to about 50 that night so was worried about the meat. But did the recovery using gutless method and the meat appeared and smelled fine. Lucky to find him and glad I stayed persistent.
This is very true. We hope to find the meat before spoilage or varmints consume but not always the case. Ive found many deer by not giving up. One very challenging one was when a buddy shot a doe in the front leg. He thought he got her right in the shoulder/vitals. We followed good blood into the timber and a ditch that ran downhill into a creek. Halfway down the ditch the blood stopped. The sides of this ditch went up in grade pretty steeply. We figured the deer was hurt, running downhill, and had to have plugged up and must be in the creek somewhere. After grid searching and walking each way of the creek with no luck we decided to come back in morning when daylight would aid us. We pretty much scratched our heads and asses as we just kept repeating the same scenario over and over. There was no way this deer would run up these steep slopes on the side of the ditch with a broke shoulder after running downhill a hundred yards toward water. My buddy decided to call the search off but i was determined. I decided to go back to last blood and just start doing an outward spiral. Walking around and around eventually finding myself on ankle breaking graded slopes of the ditch side. At the top of the far side of the ditch, which im guessing was about a 20ft elevation rise in about 20ft, i look down and see a little speck of blood. Size of a tic tac. Then another. When i yelled blood from up there my cohorts which were both sitting in the UTV said “no fnck!ng way!” The blood really opened up and had us crawling and snaking on our hands and knees through one of the thickest cedar thickets imaginable. When it finally opened up we were left at another dead end. Out of the corner of my eye i see a flash of white. When i walked up to this it was obvious something scavenged her and buried the kill for later. after a minute of scratching our head my buddy says “dude! I saw a bobcat head the same direction that deer ran about 30 min before i shot her!” When we peeled the leaves back we found that his hit was low and only broke her front leg. She must have encountered that bobcat as she was running down the ditch which made her switch directions and scale that ditch side. We took the deer and cut around the shoulder meat that had been eaten. Then it dawned on me. We just stole that bobcats kill! . I told my buddy he didnt get to claim the kill. Moral of the story is persistence pays off.
It is now 6/15/2025 as I read this for the first time. Here are my "TWEAKS" to your recommendations: (experience gained through over 391 personal bow kills and HUNDREDS more blood trails) First off,,,NEVER approach your arrow if it means taking a single step towards the direction your deer was last seen after the shot. Just wait in the stand until you are CERTAIN the deer is gone. If you can't be sure, go eat lunch, dinner, breakfast, nap, etc. and wait. I've have been "pinned down" in my stand more than a few times as I watched a deer through a monocular. Knowing that it had no clue what happened and watching it's back trail. All the while knowing (from BITTER) experience that if I bump it if it sees me climb down, it will head to a swamp or thicket or lake and I'll probably never find it. (I actually trailed a lung/liver hit to the edge of a lake once where it tried to cross and apparently sank because its' coat wasn't very bouyant with the early seaon and warm weather. (deer rarely sink in winter but will occasionally given big enough entrance/exit holes and thin hair) If you bump a gut shot deer there may be ZERO blood to follow. I have recovered many deer by following bile, and the sounds of buzzing flies or crawling ants, on bile. But that is a tedious, time consuming and frustrating way to recover an animal. 1. Unless you witness a double lung pass through, I firmly believe to let an animal go for a couple hours rather than the common misconception of a half hour wait. Too many times a half hour isn't enough. The only shots that put an animal down quickly are double lung hits and heart shots. If you don't see your animal fall within site, your best bet is to wait it out. Actually and arguably the DEADLIEST shot on ANY animal is straight through the kidneys. This has been reported by many of the "great" bowhunters from the past. Deer will die within seconds and the shot may appear to be a gut shot. Another is the femoral artery (ies) that may appear to be a butt shot. Another is the aorta which originates in the chest and travels under the spine. Another is the pyloric artery which is a stomach hit. and there are more deadly, quick killing shots. There are other clues about the hit besides the deers reaction after the shot. Sound is a big one. Watermelon "thump" is generally a sign of a body cavity hit. Not a chest hit. A rib"crack" sound can be a good sound. A loud "whack" can be heavy bone. Keep in mind COC heads sound "purer" than expandables. Expandables can really distort what you're hearing. But IMO...the BEST clue is the arrow, as you eluded to earlier. Sour salad is probably stomach. "Coffee Grounds" and sour salad IS stomach. Poopie smell may be just intestinal, especially if accompanied by a greenish slime on the arrow. The animal shot here, in the intestines, will take special skills to recover in many instances. Especially a big mature buck in peak chasing rut! A clean smelling blood may mean heart, or lungs In almost all cases of hits where the exit is behind the diaphram, I wait for HOURS. And often overnight in colder temps. Coyotes or not. In warmer weather guess what...I still often wait overnight ...(remember, we probably are NOT going to eat the inner tenders on gut shot deer) BECAUSE... 1-coyotes don't usually hunt as hard when cold temps aren't pushing them, and meat doesn't spoil if it is really cold. 2-LIVING deer don't spoil. And in warm weather wounded deer (gut shot) generally take longer to expire. Here are a few of my tips to "compliment "yours".
