Another tracking question

[wally243]

Neighbor hits a nice buck at 60 yards with a 50 caliber ML. Deer is standing broadside and tips right over. Lays for 5-10 minutes the deer jumps up and runs away on approach. There is no blood on the ground where the body is, but the mouth is bleeding a nice pool of medium red blood (he can see the mouth bleeding and the pool). Deer goes 200 feet falls over and gets up again leaving another pool of blood where the head looked to be. The shooter is quite confident he hit him in the body somewhere (not the head or neck). Deer disappears with no sign of blood anywhere.

Thoughts??

[MUSKY18]

Maybe hit the deer high enough where the bullet was above the lungs but below the spine? Small area but it could explain it.

[96trigger]

High lung hit, probably just nicked the lungs on top, they have not filled with blood yet so the deer is dying slowly. He won't bleed much either until the lung cavities fill with blood. If he is pooling blood at the mouth, he either split it open while thrashing around, or he is coughing it up. If he is coughing it up, he is going to die soon.

[Summett]

High lung hit, probably just nicked the lungs on top, they have not filled with blood yet so the deer is dying slowly. He won't bleed much either until the lung cavities fill with blood. If he is pooling blood at the mouth, he either split it open while thrashing around, or he is coughing it up. If he is coughing it up, he is going to die soon.

Agree with Trigger. Blood out the mouth is usually an indicator of a lung hit. He'll eventually suffocate depending on the severity of the hit and how hard he's bleeding internally.

[wally243]

Trigger what do you mean by split it open. I am having trouble following that sentence??? If he laid for 5 minutes you would think he would be running out of time eventually?? I wouldn't think he could be very far at all, but they are tough. He said the tail was up when it ran and I have heard that means they are dying on there feet if it is a decent buck???

[96trigger]

I once had a deer that split his nose wide open from thrashing around, he looked like he was bleeding from the mouth, but it was really his nose bleeding profusely. I think that it is highly doubtful as it is the only deer I have ever seen injure himself while thrashing around. The description you gave makes it sound like a dead deer, my bet is that if you can follow him, you will eventually find where he starts to really pour out the blood and then very shortly after that, find him.