Because blood is red it shows up extremely well over a blanket of snow. Even superficial wounds can appear like mortal.. even when they are not. A bloody bed in the snow means very little unless you have several beds close together and each have blood in them... indicating a very hurt animal and one still bleeding heavily. A mortally wounded deer shoulda. woulda bedded to die by now. (Unless bumped). Unless he's weakened later by the wound and succombs to winter or yotes.. he will likely survive this affair.
Mike just spoke the truth. He may have been bumped by yotes already depending how many you have. Keep looking though, and good luck!
Yep. A little blood goes a long way in the snow. A cut finger can turn into what you'd think is a CSI crime scene. If there's no blood trail leading away from that bed the wound closed up. He may start bleeding again if he's moving though. Your best bet now is to track him as best you can and hopefully get another arrow in him.
I was saying 18-24 hrs on a ONE lung high hit. If you take out the tops of both lungs more than likely you will see him go down or he wont go too far. I was simply saying it sounded like a one lung, and very high lung hit, which to me meant stay the heck away from him and let him die. A dead deer that day is a dead deer the next morning. When in doubt back out... its saves most hunters on recovery of deer. As far as a huge bed full of blood with bubbles, I had the exact thing in Illinois 2 years ago and thought it was a 2x lung when it was only a one lung. Went in 8 hrs later and bumped the deer only to recover during shed season, which is why I would rather wait it out until i know they will be dead. Sounds like you have some yotes that bumped your deer overnight. Do you have any water on the property? pond, stream, river? If so COMB it, hes hurt bad and usually make the biggest run when bumped from their first bed, which is why its tough to get back on them. Keep your head up and look around water sources or areas where you dont think deer would normally be. Good luck bud
Ive found drops of blood in two spots 200 yards away from each other. Thats all the update I got so far.
Well I found him. I did a stalk but a doe screwed it up. He's alive and kickin. I'm going to let the deer calm down and stay out for a couple days and hunt hard for him until seasons end.
You'd be sore if you had a broadhead shoved through your shoulder or back too. I'm guessing you hit shoulder/and or spinous processes with an 'above the vitals' hit. (but I was hoping I'd read that you found him dead in his bed) Good luck on getting another shot at him.
If you were able to stalk up on a mature buck today, my guess is he is hurting REAL bad. I would go back in there and do the same tomorrow knowing that he is hurting and exhausted. It might be your only chance to get another arrow in him this season. There is no better time than now.
Yesterday he was surrounded by way too many deer in a flat open field. Today he was laying against a ridge in the trees section of my hunting land. Much more acceptable situation IMO.
3/4 penetration in the spot you showed us....and he's still kicking? You've been able to locate this mature buck at least 2X, and you stalked up on him? Everyone's different. But, I'd do whatever it took to put that buck down. Is gun season open? Does it matter to you?
It is my current opinion that I did not hit where I thought I did. I am trying to put him down with all I can, but I think he is going to pull through at the moment. If there was a gun season open he'd of been on the ground yesterday when I spotted him. Sadly ML closed 2 weeks ago.
You got pictures of the arrow, bed etc...could give us a chance to tell you what we think you hit...got alot of eyes out here.
