Tracking / Blood Trail Question

[fishermn]

I was tracking a deer the other night that had been hit pretty solidly but the blood trail was very poor. The blood looked very watered down and slightly brownish. It definitely wasnt a gut shot, it hit in the upper front part of the chest. There were only a few spots where there were this thin brownish blood, then the trail disappeared completely.

Anyone have ideas as to what this fluid mixed with the blood was? Could it have been that the shot was too high, and missed the lungs, but got a little blood and fluid from the chest cavity?

[lichen fox]

What did your arrow look like? If it did angle back through the guts, you should have noticed it on the arrow shaft. Most of my experiance with brownish color in the blood has indicated a gut or liver hit of some kind...

[BLACKJACK]

A high hit doesn't leave a very good blood trail. No idea what the fluid is. What did the arrow look like? Any hair at the site of the hit?

[fishermn]

unfortunately no hair was found at the site where the deer was hit. The arrow penetration was good, but appeared to hit the opposite shoulder and stayed in the deer. 10 hours of searching so far and have not located the deer...

[woody1975]

I had a friend hit a buck about 7 or 8 years ago. He thought he hit it solid and we followed the trail. The blood was a lot like you explained - watery and brownish. The blood trail wasn't bad for a while, and then disappeared. A week later (firearms opener) some friends of our shot an 8-point that had a scar just below the spine and above the lungs. When they cut the deer up, we could see right where the arrow went. There isn't a lot of room there, but there is enough to make a good looking hit go bad.

DL

[Nova]

I had this last year on a doe. I got her a little low on a broadside shot and hit her in the liver. I could tell after 30 minutes when I first went to the blood that it wasn't a solid kill shot even though I thought I hit her good. I let her lay down for 2 hours, she went quite a ways, but she was expired when we found her after 45 minutes of tracking. We did loose the trail several times, but with a couple guys we made big circles til we found it again. tough to track when the bleeding stops, but it worked out for us. hope this helps.