Strange but lucky....and a bit humorous.

[BobT]

This past weekend I experienced two strange situations. Fortunately both of them turned out well.

My daughter hit a buck on Saturday morning. When I arrived on the scene, my brother was already there trying to pick up a blood trail because the deer took off after the shot. She was using a .243 from about 20 yards when she shot him.

We searched the area for about a half hour but came up empty. I sent my daughter and brother back to their stands so they could be prepared while I continued the search.

The deer headed north by northeast so I methodically worked the area in a east-west grid pattern looking for drops of blood, stirred up leaves, anything I could find that could point me in the right direction.

Well, here's the lucky part, I finally found a fair splattering of blood on the ground and low on trees about 25 yards from my daughter's stand. I also could see where the deer appeared to have stumbled so I figured it was close by. At this point I tried to back track it to try and determine a general direction that it was heading but there was nothing to be found. It's like it suddenly started to bleed. We're talking about finding a patch of blood splatter in the middle of the woods about the size of a kitchen table and I stumbled on it. Talk about luck.

Well, now comes the humorous part. We have to be able to laugh at ourselves right? So, my brother could see me through the woods where I was because I was near the end of one of his shooting lanes so I waved him over to help me track the deer. In the mean time I'm glassing the area ahead of me hoping to catch sight of the deer laying down ahead. My brother arrives and I show him what I found. He points at the spot where the deer stumbled and says, "You can see where it stumbled and if you look there you can see him!" I had been standing less than 30 feet from the deer for at least five or ten minutes and hadn't seen it!!!

On Saturday evening about 4:45 my nephew hit a buck with his 30-06. We founds very little blood and a small patch of fur but it was like it quit bleeding and disappeared. No blood trail or other indication of direction aside from what my nephew could tell us. We finally decided I'd try to pick up the trail in the morning.

The next day my nephew went to his stand again. Since my tag was already filled by my daughter I volunteered to do the work of trying to pick up the the trail of that deer he hit the night before. I took a stand position south of my nephew because that's the direction the deer went when he hit it. I thought maybe I could intercept it as I worked my way toward my nephews position and it worked. I found it. From where that deer laid, I know I walked right around it the night before in the dark. I'm surprised I didn't stumble over it. Again, no blood trail to follow.

Here's the strange part. In both cases those deer were hit well from broadside in the chest. Both deer traveled less than 30 yards after both lungs were destroyed. They were hit high enough though that they bled internally without leaking out until they fell.

[BLACKJACK]

Congrats on finding both deer!!! Good persistance!!! Too many people 'assume' the deer are going to drop on the spot when shot and if they don't find a blood trail, they just continue hunting and shoot another one. Good work!

[Deitz Dittrich]

nice work on the 2 recoveries.

[tipup]

Same thing with the doe I shot yeasterday. We saw her get hit, run and crash. but for the sake of doing it I went to the impact sight. There was a big shot of blood on the trees and grass and then nothing until where she pilled up. After looking it was a great lung shot, as she ran only about 40-50 yeards, but it was a little high and her blood filled up her insides and didnt spray to the ground.

[iland99]

Here's the strange part. In both cases those deer were hit well from broadside in the chest. Both deer traveled less than 30 yards after both lungs were destroyed. They were hit high enough though that they bled internally without leaking out until they fell.

I had the exact same thing happen with the buck I shot this year. Broadside double-lung shot with no hair or blood found at site of impact. Luckily I knew exactly which trail the deer took, and I knew I hit him pretty much perfectly. I found one tiny patch of blood about 20 yards up the trail, then found him laying another 20 yards past that. We recovered the bullet embedded in the hide on the opposite side of impact, which explains the lack of blood trail.