blood trail stats....any thoughts?

[mauser06]

so to follow up on my "Halloween freaks" post...



i did some measuring...and the numbers are pretty interesting...



from initial shot to first bed in the field is somewhere around 500yds somewhere around 300yds was UP hill...



assuming he took the path i think from bed 1 to bed 2 was somewhere around 200yds across/down hill


30yds give or take from bed 2 to bed 3....40yds or so from bed 3 to bed 4.


i THINK all of that was prior to any sort of pushing...i really dont know if i ever pushed him...


from bed 4 i followed another 175yds or so UP hill and up the 20-30ft steep bank...


from there i tracked another 150yds or so to the clots...then another 50yds or so passed that i picked up a smear down a weed stem...


total track i followed was somewhere right around 3/4 of a mile with a good portion of it up pretty good hill....




my mind is boggled...


i SAW the arrow...i SAW the hole. the hole in in front of the right shoulder. right infront of the joint of the shoulder.

i was 10-12ft high and he was 10-12yds..

arrow penetrated id say atleast 10-12" but i really think more...




i thought it should have been angled forward but i also thought he was broadside...i think what happened was what i thought was the point of the shoulder was actually the point of his fat chest..i basically buried the pin between his fat chest and his shoulder..did he move as i released...invisible twig...did i just plain ole yank the shot 6" to the right? no telling...


im dumbfounded by the track....lack of finding the arrow...lack of bedding...500yds without bedding and running up hill after the initial hit? interesting.


the hole around the shaft looked extremely big..bigger than it should have...

im kinda wondering if it didnt deflect off the right shoulder and thats what caused the big wound and caused the arrow not to go into the chest cavity...?


i dont know what to think or make of it....i dont know what happened with the shot...i can shoot my 1" bullseye stickers at 40yds..practice at 50 and 60yds...tough to swallow making a poor hit at 10 yards...i do everything i can to make sure things like this dont happen...i shoot more IN the season than most guys shoot in a year...i super tune my bow, arrows and broadheads...i built arrows with penetration in mind...


i know weird things can and do happen...this one is just tough to swallow...




any thoughts or ideas with those stats in mind??? really....even 1 lung hit...i cant see him doing that. i cant see him leaving the bed he was in last night if he is fatally hit...if hes fatally hit i cant really see him going 500yds to the first bed without being pushed AT ALL ...

[cdeam]

I just listened to a wired to hunt podcast on tracking deer. The old timer that they interviewed had tons of experience. He indicated that wounded deer seek safety. Sounds like your deer was quite far from where he felt safe enough to lay down after the hit. They are unbelievably tough animals. Could he have gotten your wind after the hit? Maybe that made him go further than he otherwise would have.

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[mauser06]

He definitely made a circle around...but, the distance was far greater than needed... basically went up a side ditch a ways and cut back right out across open. He didn't seem safety. He bedded in a field and watched his back trail.

He let 3 of us get within probably 50yds and never moved that night. I only saw him on a whim we shined the field.


Just odd. I know they like to circle and watch their back trail...but 500yds before initially bedding...leaving that bed on his own or for u known reasons...


I got there well before sunrise hoping he'd be in that bed still. One way or another that would have worked out..dead or another arrow..


Wind stayed the same...maybe after he felt a little better he went to HIS bed and safety...it was nasty thick...one bed had a rub in it and was well used as was the 4th bed..well used but no bed rub...


I learned a lot just tracking him...I could point to the beds just by the trees. Just like a swamp or marsh....even though the stuff is a tangled mess the buck beds often had nothing more than a faint trail...that's after a wounded buck crashed through...the 4th bed literally was eye opening...a faint trail is a stretch of the word...the exit he took was basically not visible..


I think Thursday after work im gunna move my camera slightly and then get my 2nd camera in the same woods and try to catch him on film...


I still think he might doe from the wound....but I'm not so convinced it was enough to recover him. If I find him and I have a tag it's going on him. If someone finds it and I hear about it I'm burning my tag. Not sure if I will shoot another buck...I feel wrong knowing i may have already killed one...but I don't know if I killed him...kind of an ethical dilemma?

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[JoeRE]

One lung hit deer can be like the energizer bunny. They can go miles...MILES...a few survive but make no mistake most die eventually. That would be my guess on your hit. I would agree your broadhead may have skidded off that big ball joint in the shoulder? Also a factor was the arrow or at least part of the arrow stayed in the deer, that usually makes them more restless, less likely to stay put.

We all make mistakes, it wasn't a total loss unless you learned nothing! Don't forget to carcass search the area after a couple days, looking for scavengers and using your nose. In many ways finding a carcass like that is easier than finding a fresh kill. Let the crows/vultures/jays/coyotes tell you where he is.

[mauser06]

....good point about the arrow/broadhead making him uncomfortable and restless...that does make sense...



it wont take much for him to snap the arrow on something and either drop him in his tracks or cause blood to go flying...

even though far from ideal i dont see how 1 1/4" 4 blade head went in there and didnt hit something important enough to end it quicker...really odd to me....when i get some time i will find a deer pic and put a dot where i saw the hole...kinda wish i had a lighted nock lol...i could have simply followed him in the dark lol...one of the rare occasions that'd actually work..



im definitely gunna continue to search...i have about 14hrs into it now...



i really believe he circled back and is now back in the block i shot him in....ive actually seen rifle hit deer make almost the same exact circle...we just chase after and set up posters and get him killed cause we know what they are going to do...i never expected him to do that...


im really curious on the time frame of when he left the last bed and crossed the road...and why...did i bump him...or maybe a coyote? or he just plain wanted to....by the time i found it and found the blood leaving it it was dry...but if i bumped him out of there first thing in the morning it would have been dry before i found it...at the same time...zero blood in that bed and he bled enough to follow for 200yds or so after he left...so even if i bumped him im not sure it was a horrible thing...

[Rich M]

I'm on another forum a bit and they have the deer dog guys - the trackers. Sometimes they track deer miles. If the dogs are allowed to run, they will often bay-up the deer, if not, the deer seem to keep going. Wild animals have this desire to live like nothing in the human world.

I'm kinda surprised you didn't finish him off when you saw him at 50 yards while trying to find him - you said you shoot that range. You were not hunting, you were recovering a wounded deer. It is something we learn from experience. Similar to putting a second arrow/shot into a deer that may fall at the shot but doesn't die right off. It is cheap insurance but it is not done on the video hunts so many guys don't think to do it. I remember Dan doing this in one of his films.

This appears to be your first lost buck. Don't agonize over it any more than you have to. You did everything in your power to do things correctly - practiced shooting, tracked that deer all over the place, you have exceeded what most would do.

Now, you gotta pick yourself up.

[briar]

Its hunting. We all strive to take shots we feel 100% confident that we can make at the time and the fact is, things can and do go wrong. I have admitted 100X on here I am not a big buck slayer, but I have shot a pile of deer with a bow over my 23 years. Its my experience but anytime I had an deer that was mortally wounded and not pushed it never went more than 100 yards before either #1 being dead, or #2 bedding down. Any of those that did, were a dead end and I don't believer I ever found one that traveled much past that point.

There are shots I saw that I thought.....oh man I am never going to find that sucker, and watched them tip over, and there are shots I saw that I was positive were a dead deer, and never found them.....funny things happen with angles and broadheads inside deer. Just on Monday I was on the drag of a buck shot from a 20 foot stand where the head exited higher than in went in. Deer barely bled, just caught a nick of the heart and lungs, but was dead in 60 yards.

You did what you could, its over, done with, finished, time to move on and get to hunting, this season here in PA is peaking and there is no sense in worrying about what you can't fix......get out there and enjoy it.

[mauser06]

Thanx guys....it's actually my 2nd lost deer..first one ducked and took the arrow high...I knew what happened and knew he was fine. I still beat myself up and don't think I hunted the rest of that year.. almost sold my bow..I was sick..


This one is just mind boggling....when he ran by and I saw they arrow where it was I couldn't believe it...I just couldn't. So far off from where I thought I had the pin..


Rich, I couldn't finish him or get another arrow when we saw him...it was in the field at night with a spotlight from the road...when I saw we were within 50yds I mean while we're were searching we were within 50yds..but at that time we didn't know he was there..


Thinking about the facts this morning...he might die to infection or something. I sure hope not...but. I am having my doubts of the shot being fatal enough for an actual recovery...500yds from the shot to the first bed...around 200yds of that up hill...I've never seen a fatally hit deer do it.

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[SamPotter]

Sounds like you got nothing but meat and gristle at the front of the chest. He'll probably make it.

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[mauser06]

Really what I'm thinking at this point especially after looking at the facts...500 yds before bedding without being pushed is a long ways.

Hard imagining my arrow coming to an abrupt stop like it did..only 1 thing does that and it's the shoulder bone...and I just don't know if you can hit the far shoulder without getting into the chest cavity and lung.

How on earth that arrow didn't rip out or snap off is beyond me...unless we missed it..but it would be hard to miss.

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[mauser06]

Rode around for a half hour just now..I had a vulture circling the area before it crossed the road..it didn't stay long and was alone..

Had another or that same one circling the next ditch where I lost blood..gunna check that out tomorrow..

Had a few vultures and crows in the area I shot him..I couldn't get a good look to see exactly where and couldn't find them after I drove to the next vantage point..still worth looking there more..


Birds are tough because they are always in the area..


Hopefully i get time on a warm day in the next few days to see if I can key on on it..gunna rain and be windy tomorrow.. planning to go in and check and move my camera and move my other one into the area..

After myself and 3 other guys beat around the area I don't know how it'll effect things..I don't know how an injured buck will respond to scent in his bedding area...I know the last one never left the area at all and was later killed right in the same area...

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[Kraftd]

Kind of sounds like he'll probably make it to me.

As for the arrow, did you see it stuck in him when he ran off initially? I've seen them get thrown pretty far from the trail while they are running or hit on a tree and fling off a ways. If you're looking for blood instead of, especially in the dark, I think it may be easier to miss than you may think.

[mauser06]

He ran right by me after I shot...I could see the arrow well..

My arrows have 7" of white and an inch of Flo orange..2 orange and a white vane..we could have missed it...but 3 of us were all looking for it, the deer itself and blood...


Just odd.


Odd the last bed had no blood and when he got up he started leaking again...3 beds in a 50yd stretch.. definitely seems like the arrow is I'm him and hurting...



Hopefully i can get some closure on this...tough one to swallow...on vacation starting Sunday evening. Still not sure what I will do...

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[JakeB]

I'm trying to picture where you hit, is there any chance you hit the on-side shoulder/leg bone/joint? Kicking your arrow forward into the brisket?

It's part of being an ethical bowhunter to feel like you do man. We try everything we can to make the kill as quick and ethical as possible and we still come up short sometimes.

[mauser06]

Definitely a chance that happened..I wonder if that isn't the case...even if a blade hot it thatd be enough to kick the arrow path...and that could explain why the entrance wound looked excessively large..could be an explanation for why I hit where I did..he may have been in the process of taking a step as I released..bringing that near side shoulder way forward..


When he ran passed I tried to get as much info as I could..entrance hole looked to be right tight to the joint maybe right above the joint...appeared to be angled down and inward toward the chest...but that's the unknown..looked like I had a good 10-12+" of shaft in him. Looking at my arrow and where my crest is I'm pretty confident there is that much if not a little more...

Blood was always out of the right side..the side I hit him on so I don't think it poked out...

I wish I took pics the night I tracked...but it really looked like it was gunna be a quick track to a dead buck...

This was taken after the last bed when he began to bleed again...



Hard to see but the blood isnt real high..and if you look there is blood farther than the rest like there is some pumping or spraying to it..there were times it was clearly drips and others it seemed to definitely have a pump/spray to it..if you look harder there's more blood in that pic than first catches your eye..same with most these pics...



That pic you can see some drops are clearly darker than the stuff on the ground...that was typical...some bright red blood...some watery blood...some deeper colored blood..



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