Need advice finding a buck

[Rather_B_Fishing]

Today I hit a buck at about 17 yards. The shot was forward due to me screwing up and rushing the shot. The deer ran off hard with the arrow sticking out of it forward of the front shoulder, possibly in the base of the neck.

This all happened about 5 PM today. I heard a deer behind me moving from my right to my left. When it got directly behind me, maybe 20-25 feet, I glanced over my left shoulder and was very excited to see it was a decent 6-8 point buck. In my 5+ years of hunting, I have never taken a legal buck. It kept moving to my left. When it got behind some trees, I stood up and grabbed my bow. Then it took a half right putting it on a path to cross my shooting lane (to my left) quartering away at about 15-17 yards. Prior to it getting to my lane, while he was behind some brush, I pulled back. He stopped before the lane, stuck his nose in the air and took a big whiff. Finally he steps out just about enough. I move forward on my stand so I can see his front half. I quickly put the pin on him and let it fly. With the arrow sticking out of the buck, he did a half left turn, charged hard for about 20 feet, then did a hairpin left turn and charged hard down into the woods out of sight. After the hairpin turn, he ran for maybe 4-5 seconds, then I heard him stop, then he ran again for about 3 more seconds then all went quiet. I stayed in the tree for another 70-75 minutes after the shot before getting down. Afetr going back to the house and putting my gear away, I got my father in law and we went and searched satrting about 7 PM. We looked for about 20 minutes and found no blood or sign. We called off the search until the morning.

I am a nervous wreck. I should have settled the pin, just like I do in practice every time. I am kicking myself....

Can any of you knowledgeable and experienced hunters offer any advice or suggestions of finding my first buck. Thanaks a lot.

[matchset]

you did the right thing by backing out...

in my opinion (deep breath) lets hope you hit the shoulder more than the brisket area.

if you hit a deer in the fatty/fleshy brisket it will blead a considerable ammount at first. but then the blood trail will diminish (after 150yards) and chances of finding the deer will be slim.

if you hit the base of the neck, you might have hit an artery. and you should have no trouble finding the deer.

Try your very hardest to find blood. and keep your eyes open on the Right side of the blood trail. find the arrow. it might pull out if it hits a tree and could be 0-6ft off the actual blood.

What kind of broadhead were you using?

take note of the deers path direction and move slowly as you follow the blood. dont rush. note if you find any pooled blood that would indicate him standing still. or if he bedded at all.

always mark "last blood" so you can come back to it. if you lose the blood trail. work in a Pac-man shape half moon in effort to find blood again.

[Rather_B_Fishing]

Thsnks for your input. I use G5 Strikers, 3 blade fixed, 100 grain. I don't think I am going to sleep much tonight....

[matchset]

nope. me either.

[96trigger]

Matchset is right on. If you hit the brisket you will not find him and he will live. If you got an artery or wind pipe you should find him this morning. Tracking may be tedious. Go slow, mark your blood trail and stay off the trail. Hopefully blood increases as you track, this is a good sign. If not, you probably never hit anything vital. You will probably need daylight to find that blood. I am betting he will nor bleed much.

[InTheNorthwoods]

If you don't find him within the first few hundred yards, I am guessing it was a superficial wound and he'll survive.

I've seen the exact same situation play out on a very nice buck; deer ran off with the arrow in him about 10 inches, front of/up from the shoulder; searched for two days thinking he was a dead deer based on the long blood trail that went cold due to a plowed under field; only to show up the next year on trail cam about 20 inches bigger. Still the the biggest deer I have ever gotten on trail cam in NoDak.

Get out and do your due diligence. But if you don't find him, I'd be suprised if it was because he was for any reason other than he survived.

[Rather_B_Fishing]

I'm on the blood trail, found blood for about 50 yards, unsuccessful in finding me blood. Seem to have stopped. I found the broken off arrow. Fletching is clean, looks like about 10-12 inches of arrow is in the deer. The blood is bright red.

[InTheNorthwoods]

I'm on the blood trail, found blood for about 50 yards, unsuccessful in finding me blood. Seem to have stopped. I found the broken off arrow. Fletching is clean, looks like about 10-12 inches of arrow is in the deer. The blood is bright red.

Don't give up without doing a grid search and having fresh eyes take a look for additional blood, but it sounds like a superficial - muscle hit to me. If that is the case, there is a pretty good chance he'll survive.

[PropsterII]

I would just add a couple thoughts. Perception is not reality. I know we've all experienced those times where we "know" where we hit it, i.e. right behind the shoulder, etc, etc. Can't tell you how many of those I have heard, only to find something completely different when the animal is recovered. Between excitement, wishful thinking, our eyes playing tricks on us, shot angles, and the plain and simple fact that a deer is often not in the same position when the arrow actually gets there as our mind's eye had him when we "saw" the arrow hit, what we think we saw is not really what happened. Unless the deer remains within sight and we can study or look with binoculars to make an exact determination of where that arrow is, it's awfully hard to make the proper judgement call. And to hear second-hand someone else's account of it is even more difficult. All I am saying is exhaust every possibility, you have to go with odds, but don't always assume something is so. The other observation is that 10-12 inches of penetration, especially if it includes the broadhead in addition to that,is plenty to get to something vital. In addition to that you have a sharp head inside the animal theoretically moving around as the deer moves. All kind of things can happen. With a high entry hole and no exit hole, I wouldn't jump to any conclusions one way or the other yet.

[nbadger23]

After our first description I was thinking brisket hit and he'd likely live but after you saying a broken off arrow in the deer I have much better thoughts for you. To me, that sounds like it stuck in the opposite shoulder and as Propster said, that broad head is juggling around in there as the deer moves, causing more internal damage.

Mark your blood trail so you can get a general idea of his direction, look for footprints, etc. Grid searches help tremendously. I've found more than one deer by picking up a pin head size of blood here and there and it's put me on the right direction.

[deerminator]

Good luck. Be sure to report in after the next search. I'm not trying to sell them but I mentioned in another post how I discovered lighted nocks. I had always thought they were more of a nice to have but man, after using them for the first time this year, I knew immediately where the shot went and was confident in not waiting to long to go look for the deer. Again, good luck and hope you do find a dead deer. I have been on both sides of it. Fortunately not too often the wrong one. But it stinks when you are.

[Rather_B_Fishing]

I am sad to report that I could not find him. We did circles around last blood time and again with no results of more blood. I went back to my tree and directed my father in law to where I last heard the deer. He marked that spot. We made a line between last blood and and the spot the deer was last heard. That line coincides with a deer trail. We did a grid search all around last blood and last heard locations.

Coincidently I got a trail cam pic from this morning of a 8 point buck who looks like it could be the same one. Only thing is I don't see an entry wound on its right side (side shown in pic).

One other thing sticks in my mind. That is the way this deer charged off after being hit. It sure seemed like the mad death run to me...

Thanks for all your input on this guys.

[bobbymalone]

dang.. that sucks...

[deerminator]

Too bad. In my somewhat limited experience, I've found different deer react differently when they get out of there. That is, I put more stock in a deer's reaction when being hit (if they hunch up, etc.) versus how they run off. I had one buck take off in a mad dash after I missed one year and another saunter off or what seemed like it after a heart shot. Good luck out there!

[Getanet]

Never tried it myself, but I read an interesting tip one time to use a spray bottle filled with hydrogen peroxide when following a hard to find blood trail. When it comes in contact with small drops of blood it will fizz. Might be useful in a situation like the one described above, where you're following a blood trail, lose it, but a least have a good idea of the direction it was heading. Might help you find a few spots of blood you normally wouldn't see.

[InTheNorthwoods]

Never tried it myself, but I read an interesting tip one time to use a spray bottle filled with hydrogen peroxide when following a hard to find blood trail. When it comes in contact with small drops of blood it will fizz. Might be useful in a situation like the one described above, where you're following a blood trail, lose it, but a least have a good idea of the direction it was heading. Might help you find a few spots of blood you normally wouldn't see.

I've never done it either, but I've heard it is better in theory than in practice. The reason being that peroxide reacts with certain elements (such as catalase found in blood), but these same elements can also be found in many other places and things in the woods. So what ends up happening is that the peroxide reacts with many "things" (elements) that are not blood and have nothing to do with a blood trail.

That, and I would think it would take a lot of peroxide to follow a blood trail by spraying randomly for hundreds of yards?

[Getanet]

That could certainly be true. Like I said, never tried it. But I have an empty spray bottle and a bottle of peroxide in my pack just in case. For about $3 it's worth a shot - hope I never have to use it.

[Musky Buck]

It's to bad also a guy couldn't leash up a dog on your own ground and give it that as a last resort not that you want a stinky lab stinking up your ground but I'd prefer it found or not by use of dog rather than going out and drilling another and maybe another. My old dog would find that deer or where it bedded in minutes if I can hold on as he's a tuggin. He could find a mouse terd in an alfalfa field in seconds then of course roll on it, good luck and hopefully he survived and will get polished off this weekend.

[Archerysniper]

I see they sell a chemical aid that makes blood glow blue in the dark haven't needed to use it yet though.