I shot a doe around 9:30 this morning and hit a little back. I'm pretty sure it was a liver hit, and the blood trail was really good for about 200 yards are so, then it just stopped. Once we found blood we decided to give her a few hours. We went back out and looked for about 5 hours and came up empty handed. I am bumming. If you saw the blood you wouldn't have thought she would have made it that far. Any advice for looking tomorrow would be much appreciated!
Try to figure out why she was headed in the direction of the bloodtrail. In my experience, a dying deer has a destination in mind.
blood trails rarely "just stop" Find your last blood and go slowly. Stay off the trail. Get your face right down near the ground. You will be suprised how much blood you will find. during the day blood shows up better anyway. Good luck!
Can you post a map of the area, including where you shot her and where the blood went? In addition, I'd be getting in touch with Rob to see if he can recommend someone from United Blood Trackers. Not sure if dogs are legal in your area, but I've seen these tracking dogs do some amazing things. I wish you the best of luck bud, keep us posted.
Look for a tracking dog on the website below! I found one from there and have used him a couple different times! Steve didn't charge me a dime either, he loves what they do! http://www.unitedbloodtrackers.org/
If it looks like the blood trail ended check to make sure she didn't backtrack on you. Walk back on the trail and look for blood off to the side.
On the doe I shot a couple weeks ago, I was on my hands and knees after sundown looking for blood. I found a spot here, a pindrop there, and then found my doe in the creek. I "lost" the blood trail for 20 minutes until I found a speck of blood as I was doing a small circle around last blood. Get down and put your face by the ground and look tomorrow.
Three things come to mind. She's dead really close to where you last had blood. I've seen several blood trails almost vanish right before the animal expired. Or she back tracked. Or she got bumped and went from walking to running and so the blood trail is more sparse. This is the toughest scenario as you'll just have to keep doing circles or grids to try and pick up the trail again. Best of luck!
Check for any SHARP turns where you found your last blood as well. I've found that sometimes when blood stops in one direction, they took a VERY sharp turn left or right. Also of course check near water, or near any place where that deer may feel comfortable. I found my buck last year right up beside the land owners house in a TINY woodlot. He crossed wide open fields to get to this spot, within 150 yards of a house, barns, and horses.
MO, This is the thread i was hoping not to see tonight, But like Christine said, she could be expired CLOSE by, also, alot of the long tracks ive been on the deer have circled or semi circled, and make sure to always check by water.
I have seen and had them back track. Meaning that isn't last blood, just where they stopped and walked back then off. Go back and look off the path left and right. Sometimes when they are dying they'll start jumping in real eractic directions. She might be further then 200 yards. I got a video from this year of a nice doe that was double lunged on a quartering away shot. Pink globs and blood spewed everywhere. She went out into a open bean field and I taped her running. She went left, then zagged more right, then left , then down When I got to her I yardaged the tree I was in, 189 yards, she was 28 yards when I shot her. 161 YARDS. On a double lung. I was amazed because I've seen a lot of my deer go down within 75 yards of the shot. Keep on looking, she's there. Liver shots are lethal and usually have good blood because the liver holds so much blood
