Blood trail ran cold

[nofishfisherman]

Looking for some input. I'm fairly new to bow hunting, been at it maybe 5 years. Shot my second deer with a bow today...yeah yeah I know its rifle opener but I prefer bow.

 

Anyways made a shot slight quartering away at about 18 yards. Hit looked ok but a touch high from what I could tell but also no pass through.  No big thud sound just a tiny crack sound. Looked like solid penatration would have guessed 2 holes but no evidence of that.  Was shooting 3 blade muzzy.

 

It ran off about 50 yards and stopped for a second and then walked off. Found this blood where it stopped but after that only tiny drops. 3 hours on my hands and knees and I lost blood after 20-30 yards. Only found 3 drops in that stretch.  

 

Does this blood tell you anything? 

 

I just pulled the plug on the search for the night. Lost the trail and fog is setting in so everything is wet now and my headlamp just reflects off the fog so I can't see.  

 

Looking for any insight you might have.  I'll be out in the morning looking again but with the warm temps and coyotes in the area I'm not real hopeful. 

 

[Wanderer]

The crack you heard was either a rib or the bone the broadhead stopped in.

Looks like meat blood, not organ blood to me.  If it’s a high entrance and no exit the body cavity will have to fill with blood before you get a good, reliable blood trail.  Also in that case when the deer is moving fast what little blood comes out will be spread over a long distance.  You almost have to predict where the deer is going and look ahead.

 

Take a string/thin rope or whatever you have (The longer the better) and leave one end at first blood, then play out the string at any blood, hair or likely track, overturned leaves, etc. as you find it.  That helps draw a better picture of the deer’s true direction.  At first that deer will probably take the most obvious route back to its last bedding area because that’s the last safe place they know of.

 

Good on you for keeping on the track and picking back up this morning!  It’s tough sometimes.

[hugonian1]

Good advice here.

Things look much different in the daylight. Hopefully it didn't get bumped. They can go a long ways.

Hopefully it bedded down and expired. Sometimes you just have to grid search.  Get some help if you can. More eyes the better.

If there is water close look there. 

Good luck.

[nofishfisherman]

Thanks guys. I had a little help last night but that help came from my 80 year old aunt and uncle. They were troopers out looking for blood in the dark.  After awhile I sent them back in and i searched alone for a few more hours.  Back out at sunrise today.

 

I have the blood trail marked and plan to grid search in direction of travel.  I'm pretty sure we didn't bump him last night. He's either dead nearby or long gone.

[nofishfisherman]

I've been out searching and I'm starting to lean toward long gone. So far I've grid searched likely routes and came up with nothing. I've walked the bedding areas and did bump a deer out of one spot but couldn't say it was the same deer. If it was it looked healthy.

 

Never found the arrow or where it would have bedded. 

 

I've searched up to all the property boundaries but will need to get permission to go any further.  At this point with no evidence of direction I feel like options are limited.  Came back in for some food but will head out one more time later this morning before I have to start packing up.

[Wanderer]

57 minutes ago, nofishfisherman said:

 I've walked the bedding areas and did bump a deer out of one spot but couldn't say it was the same deer. If it was it looked healthy.

If you think that deer was bedded when you bumped it, it would be wise to look at its bed if you haven’t.

 

Best of luck to ya.  Hard to accept that loss but sometimes you have to.

[nofishfisherman]

Yeah I looked right away. A lot of deer bed there so could have easily been a different one. I saw no signs of blood in any of the beds.  Planning to look one more time before I have to head home.  

 

This one has me stumped.

[nofishfisherman]

Just thought Id update with a final outcome.  I spent 5-6 hours looking Saturday night and several more hours on Sunday looking.  Ended up giving up my hunt on Sunday in favor of spending more time looking for the deer despite there being little chance of the meat being salvageable with over night temps that didn't get much below 50 degrees.  In all my looking I found no additional sign after the blood trail ran out after about 15-20 yards.  Once the fog set in Saturday night everything started getting wet so the blood I was finding was already starting to get watered down.  The moisture in the air also reflected the light from my head lamp making it really hard to see.  Not ideal tracking conditions for sure.  But I still spent hours on my hands and knees searching in all directions from last blood hoping to stay on the trail. 

 

After all that effort I still came up empty handed which sucks.  I at least wanted to find the deer to see what I could learn from the shot.  It looked ok although a bit high on impact but replaying it in my head I know I rushed it a bit.  The deer was no wall mounter, just a spike buck meant for the freezer in a high deer population area but it still sucks.

 

Live and learn I guess.  This weekend closed out my hunting season for the year so I'll work to improve this off season and I'll give it another shot next fall. 

 

On the plus side all my searching brought me into new areas of the property that I've typically left untouched due to them being really tight to bedding.  I found a huge crab apple tree tucked right up to the prime bedding area that the deer have been hitting hard.  Scraps, rubs, and the ground around the tree is worn down to bare dirt from all the deer tracks.  I also found a way to access it and set up on it with any sort of west wind.  So I'll take whatever positive I can.

 

 

[DonBo]

The sad truth about archery hunting is that sometimes they just get away.  I've shot a couple over the years that had evidence of being hit previously with no apparent long lasting injury.  Hopefully that's the case with your deer.  Kudos for searching as long as you did.

[nofishfisherman]

31 minutes ago, DonBo said:

The sad truth about archery hunting is that sometimes they just get away.  I've shot a couple over the years that had evidence of being hit previously with no apparent long lasting injury.  Hopefully that's the case with your deer.  Kudos for searching as long as you did.

 

Unfortunately it does happen.  As someone that is somewhat new to archery and someone that has been 100% self taught its something that has been in the back of my mind since I started hunting with a bow.  I limit myself to shots under 30 yards and only broadside or quartering away.  Last year I drew on a deer that was at 10 yards broadside but I let down and didn't shoot because the window between samplings was just a bit too small so I have tried to be careful.  In this case I just rushed it, 2-3 extra seconds was probably all I needed.  Next time I'll be more prepared mentally and I'll take more time.

[Wanderer]

At my start to bow hunting I had a co-worker who often said things I didn’t like even though he was also often right.

 

He told me I was going to go in this order: miss, wound, then kill.

 

The thing that annoyed me the most about it was I was practicing a ton and on 3D ranges as they were first developing.  From tree stands, through shed windows and hole in steel plates.  I thought he just didn’t realize my capabilities.

 

Low and behold, I missed, then wounded and then finally got my first kill in my first year with a bow.  Up till that point I’ve taken scores of deer by firearms and never lost one.  It’s humbling.

 

Ive helped many, many people track their deer in addition to my own and there are just some cold hard truths about certain hits that play out in the blood trail.  You’ll always wonder what happened if you don’t find them but they are surprisingly resilient creatures.  You’ll always remember this one and what you could’ve done better, and then you’ll do it the next time. 

[nofishfisherman]

1 hour ago, Wanderer said:

At my start to bow hunting I had a co-worker who often said things I didn’t like even though he was also often right.

 

He told me I was going to go in this order: miss, wound, then kill.

 

The thing that annoyed me the most about it was I was practicing a ton and on 3D ranges as they were first developing.  From tree stands, through shed windows and hole in steel plates.  I thought he just didn’t realize my capabilities.

 

Low and behold, I missed, then wounded and then finally got my first kill in my first year with a bow.  Up till that point I’ve taken scores of deer by firearms and never lost one.  It’s humbling.

 

Ive helped many, many people track their deer in addition to my own and there are just some cold hard truths about certain hits that play out in the blood trail.  You’ll always wonder what happened if you don’t find them but they are surprisingly resilient creatures.  You’ll always remember this one and what you could’ve done better, and then you’ll do it the next time. 

 

 

That order of operations seems about right and Im currently right on track.  Starting to look forward to next year already

[bobbymalone]

I skipped the miss and went straight for the wound a couple years ago.   Still waiting on the kill.

[nofishfisherman]

29 minutes ago, bobbymalone said:

I skipped the miss and went straight for the wound a couple years ago.   Still waiting on the kill.

 

There's still time to go back and get that miss.

[bobbymalone]

3 hours ago, nofishfisherman said:

 

There's still time to go back and get that miss.

I missed seeing a bunch of deer under my stand.  Does that count?

[nofishfisherman]

15 hours ago, bobbymalone said:

I missed seeing a bunch of deer under my stand.  Does that count?

 

I think the name "nodeerhunter" is probably still available if you want to change yours.

[bobbymalone]

From the trail cam footage, acorn brunch happens on monday-thursday mornings under my stand.... while I am at work.  

[nofishfisherman]

The deer where I hunt are on the same schedule.  Ive had 2 days of good movement all season.  One was the day I shot the deer and the other was the next day when I was in the woods looking for the deer.

[hugonian1]

On 11/12/2020 at 11:00 AM, bobbymalone said:

From the trail cam footage, acorn brunch happens on monday-thursday mornings under my stand.... while I am at work.  

The deer have you patterned. 

They probably have their own camera out watching you. Lol

[bobbymalone]

21 minutes ago, hugonian1 said:

The deer have you patterned. 

They probably have their own camera out watching you. Lol

Lol.

 

They also party every night under my stand from about 9pm to 2am. 

 

And a nice coyote stopped to take a leak right in front of my camera.

 

Earlier this fall there was a bobkitty that wandered through.  And the biggest porcupine in the state.

Edited November 14, 2020 by bobbymalone

[hugonian1]

Sounds like they are mocking you.