Tracking wounded deer.

[Shwangman]

Shot a nice big doe, the arrow hit higher than I wanted to, she leaped up into the air, dashed about 30 yards and stood then walked though the woods with the arrow stuck in her. Waited 35 mins. and found a nice blood trail, about 4 inches wide, going through the woods, about a 45 min walk very slowly and at the end of the woods, found where she layed down and bleed good and parts of her stomach layed on the ground and after that, could not pick up any blood. Looked till 7:15 no luck. They is a swamp over the hill and I'm thinking that is where she might have gone and I did hear a shotgun blast but I thought, no one could be that stupid, could they? I plan on working till noon and try and find her, any ideas would be great.

Thanks

[AngelicFatum]

Yeah get back as soon as you can tomorrow. I like to try to "think like a deer" i.e. bend over to about deer height and look in the general direction from the last blood and try to figure where the deer would have gone. Then carefully(slowly) work in that direction making wide visual sweeps. If you don't find any blood after say twenty yards, go back and start circling outward from last blood. Good luck!

[hartner62]

Good luck finding her. Make sure you check that swamp because a lot of times the wounded animal will head for a water source. Let us know how it goes.

[mrklean]

i hope you find her, my guess is she went to the swamp to bed down, might get a little wet

[Shwangman]

Thanks guys. The swamp is right next to the city of Watertown so for sure that is where I'm heading. I was going to go over tonight but, I do not have permission to hunt it and not sure where the land owner lives. I figure daylight, a person does not look like you are doing anything unlawful and this is my closest to coming to shooting a deer with a bow, I really want to find it, one way or the other.... Thanks again for the tips, I'm going to stop at Gander Mountain and purchase one of those blood seeking lights for tracking, not sure it they work but what the heck, it may be my first deer

[Christopher Quast]

Ken give me a call I can possibly help you go look for it in the morning I know what your going through right now.

My cell is 952-201-5029 you can call me up till 11 pm tonight

[Neighbor_guy]

One peice of advice, other than dont give up, is to leave your bow untill you get permision to be on the property the deer entered. You can track a wounded deer onto adjoining properties without permission, but leaving the wepon is a good idea.

Another is to find a freind who has been there before. Another set of eyes never hurt.

[Deitz Dittrich]

best of luck, its cool enough tonight that the meat will be fine...

Go to last blood and start making circles. Bring a hand held GPS so you know the area you have covered. And bring friends!

Please do post back and let us know how things have turned out.

On a side note, on bad hits, the more you wait, the better. That deer bedded down, you may have pushed her. had you waited, you may have found her in her first bed. Watching the shot and knowing the shot will help in the recovery.

[harvey lee]

I would agree with the waiting period for a badly hit deer. The next time, I would wait at a minimum of 2 hours or longer if its cold.

Since its gut shot, many times these type hit deer will head for a water hole to drink. As Dietz suggested, go to the last blood and circle until you find some blood. Also watch for any crows and other scavengers in the area that may help with giving you a sign of a dead animal in the area.

If you opushed the deer out of its bed, it may have traqveld quite a wya away,. If you didn't push it, it could be fairly close to its last bedding area.

[92python]

I shot 2 deer today and neither were great hits. This was killing me all morning and much of the afternoon.

First onedeer was hit too far back at too much of an angle (30 feet up at 20 yards.

Second one seemed like a good hit and I saw a good exit wound when the deer ran away.

Waited for 1.5 hours on the 2nd deer as the arrow smelled bad just like the 1st one. On the 2nd deer I had good blood, followed the blood trail but jumped the deer out of its bed after 80 yards.

By this point I was disgusted that I even went after the 2nd deer with knowledge that the arrow was stinky and went to work for a while.

Came back after a few hours and picked up the trail of the 2nd deer and found it within 30 minutes.

Then I went back after the 1st deer that I thought had a poor hit on and found that deer in its 1st bed pretty quickly.

The moral of this story is:

If you make a questionable hit and your arrow smells funky, back out for 4 hours or so before going in after it.

Good luck tomorrow and I hope you find her.

[BLACKJACK]

I've also had the bad experience of jumping gut shot deer out of their beds and then not finding a trace of blood - or the deer. Sucks. But from that experience, if its cool out, I'd wait at least 6 hours.

One more tip, what direction did the deer come from? Check that area/trail, a lot of times deer will circle or head back to their last safe area.

[Shwangman]

I want to thank all who gave me very good tips and things to look for and I will take along with me, this year and as long as god allows me to hunt!! I want to thank Gold Tip who took time off of work and spend over 3 hours as we tracked this deer. It was a liver shot and yes, I should have jumped out of the stand and drove back to Waconia and went back at night or in the morning but, I did not and I have learned a lesson.

I'm not sure how far we walked but equaled over three hours and granted, it was stop and start most of the time but still, it was a long walk with many turns and twists. I will say that at first, we thought she would head for water and the swamp as was mentioned by a couple of you guys but, she surprised us by heading to the meadow and probably on to the corn field. Once we got to the meadow, the blood stopped and we could not pick it up again, I told Chris, I think we put in a good effort in finding the deer. After thinking it though and talking with me, Chris said, I can't believe that we did not find the arrow and all I could think was that the shot was higher than I thought and blood was only coming out her left side so the shot was not what I expected when I let the arrow go which,I feel bad for. Chris did mentioned that he had not had a better lunch hour and I could not agree!!!

Thanks again Chris for a great afternoon, I did not get my deer but , I hope that I took in all your comments and have cemented them in my mind......

KEN

I again want to thank

[harvey lee]

Its very good that you put the effort forth to try to find the deer. Way too many hunters just say the heck with it.

[sticknstring]

You did what you could. It happens. Most of us here have been through it as well. It's not fun. But you keep going out and remember your lesson and drill the next one!

[Shwangman]

Well, its been a few days to sit and think and Gold Tip told me to let the woods lie down because of all the sent that we left looking for her so I have just been thinking and taking in all the good advise and I like the point, just drill the next one!!!!!!!!

Thanks...........

Ken