Yesterday morning I had the opportunity to stick an arrow through the biggest deer of my life, easily 140 inches. I messed up big time and shot just below the spine and top lunges at 20 yards. Had good blood on the arrow that appeared to be lunge shot but after tracking we found blood 400 or so yards from the shot and jumped the deer over a mile from the shot location around 9 hours later. I know this deer is not hurt bad enough and he will recover from the shot. I have scouted this deer and have been hunting him hard the last 3 weeks. Within the last week I have encountered him on 3 separate occasions, all trailing a doe. I feel like I am in his core area based on the fact of all the scrapes and hooking in the area where I am setup and seeing him repeatedly. Will the shot scare him out of the area or will he be back through once he recovers? He never looked up at me or winded me, neither did the doe. Will he associate the area with danger and change his path or will he just forget about it and stay moving through this area. All opinions are appreciated, just trying to figure out how to go about finishing the job with 2 weeks left in the season. Also noted this is public land and I am hunting on trails he's traveling, not over a food source.
There's a lot to unpack here, and of course, this is all my opinion. Some may disagree. 1. There is no area under the spine and above the lungs. It simply doesn't exist. If you hit him under the spine, you got at least the top of one lung. If you hit above the spine, you got nothing but meat (backstraps). 2. When you say that the blood "appeared to be lung blood" what does that mean? Bubbles? A single-lung shot animal will have bubbles in the blood no differently than a double-lung shot animal. 3. In my experience, a backstrap shot animal won't bleed much past the first hundred yards or so. 400 yards seems like a long distance to have blood on a high shot, but it's not impossible. 4. If you lost blood at 400 yards, how do you know the animal you jumped a mile away was the same deer? Assuming you got a good enough look at him to positively identify? 5. Don't always assume he will recover from the shot. If you got one lung, there is a good chance that animal will still die. In my personal experience, they can take a long time to die from that type of hit. I single-lung shot a deer years ago and he lived at least 14 hours, if not more, and died a mile and a half from where I shot him. 6. If the animal isn't mortally wounded, I wouldn't expect to see him back in that area for a while. Again, in my experience, they change their movement patterns considerably after being shot and pursued by a hunter. I've seen them reappear a few weeks later, but never right away. Every deer is different and there's always a chance, but I wouldn't bet on it.
I appreciate your input. Let me see if I can clarify some of the information a little better. The arrow had bright red blood with bubbles on the vanes. So originally I assumed I had lung shot him. We could not find any blood on the ground so we called in a tracking dog and put him on the trail. The dog tracked him to around 400 yards where we saw the first bit of blood. Then a few drops here and there for about 100 yards till it cut off again. Blood both high on brush and very low on brush. The dog continued to track him till the dog jumped him at a little over a mile. The deer bolted out of there like it was nothing and we went to where he was bedded up and there was no blood to be found so we called it off because after 9 hours for him to get up and go like he did we assumed he wasn’t going to die from the hit. We assumed I shot over his lunges but the blood on the arrow says lung shot. Another weird thing is the arrow was full of white hair which is confusing if I shot over his lungs. I am also in a climbing stand 20 foot up or so. The whole thing is confusing. The reason I ask if he will come back is that he was behind a doe and was never alerted to me being there. Some other websites state that he’ll be back through because he doesn’t associate danger to the area even after being hit because he was unaware of something happening.
Okay - the dog makes a lot more sense now. I was wondering how you made it from 400 yards to the bedded deer a mile away. You're correct that the entire thing seems odd. Usually, on a single-lung hit, you'll get good blood with bubbles for at least a period of time. No blood in the bed, white hair on the arrow, no good blood trail, etc makes make thing it's a backstrap shot. In which case, the deer will most likely survive. As to whether he will be back or not, that's up for debate. Every deer is different and has difference tolerances for what will make them alter travel patterns. In my personal experience, he's not coming back to that area any time soon. Being shot and then chased by people with a dog sure sounds like something he would associate with danger.
Bright red often times means muscle where bright but pink almost is lung blood. I'm guessing like Justin you hit higher than you thought and severed some backstraps - will provide blood for a dog but will heal up just fine (albeit if you bag him your backstraps may suck) LOL. Best of luck!
