Deer Recovery - Direction of Travel

[webby]

Dan also mentioned there being no hair at the impact site. What's everyone's experience there, it seems like an unusual occurrence, and recently had it happen myself. Personally, it really drained my confidence level and threw me off

[hcooper84]

I try to look at very critical details when things get hard to decipher. For example, my brother shot a buck a few weeks ago. It was close and quartering too. He hit far back and went through the guts and hit the opposite femur. The arrow entered the right side of the deer if the deer was facing you. The deer dropped then took off with a large gimp. This was over a food plot. The deer ran towards a thick edge that lead to wooded hillside. As the deer entered the woods the arrow was ripped out by getting hung up on a sapling. At this sapling the deer trail split and could go two ways. One to the NW, the other to the NE. The arrow was laying on the NW trail. Thus, my brother, other brother, and step-dad took that trail.

However, with the arrow entering the right side of the deer, if he ran past the sapling on the NW trail (the left side of the sapling) there would be no chance for the arrow to be ripped out. Thus, I concluded that the deer must have went to the right of the sapling on the NE trail. The arrow would have caught on the sapling in this instance and been ripped out as it passed by.

Unfortunately, we did not find the buck but just determining the left or right of a sapling could have had us ending up working a trail completely the wrong direction.

[sloughdog]

Kronik and arrowbender really appreciate that insight and will be something I use in the future. Thank you.

[EllieTheChubb]

One aspect I haven't seen touched on yet is looking for their tracks. Most often there is a good hoof dig in a the shot of impact. I can usually see a running track in fall leaves pretty good. Especially in the timber in hill country.

Good call! I shot a buck a few years ago that ended up being a little high and back. After one hour of looking and only finding two specks of blood and 1 tiny chunk of liver I started noticing kicked up leaves. I then followed the kicked up leaves for 150yds to a cold deer. There was hardly any blood because of the high hit and the leaves saved me.

[Boogieman1]

I’m a pretty simple minded fellow and have never been a great shot so I learned I gotta get close. If I don’t get a pass through and see my arrow stuck in the dirt I fire another arrow at the scene of the crime. I don’t pull all the way back to anchor and try to bury the sucker in the dirt. Just a lob for starting point of reference. From the stand I always notice more about the last place I saw the buck run vs the beginning part. Usually pretty good at mental notes at that point.