Sam16 Posted December 20, 2004 Report Share Posted December 20, 2004 I just got back from my dad's house because my dad shot a huuuuuge 12 pt but we couldnt find it. He shot it riiight before dark at 25 yards. He heard the arrow THWACK and the buck mule kicked and took off. He backed off, waited an hour, wait for me to get there and we found the arrow. Arrow looked beautiful, red blood up the whole shaft and vanes. We start tracking and not a whole lot of blood... but we were able to follow it. 50 yards later he must have stopped or laid down cuz there was a pretty good sized puddle, and another one 30 yards later, but very little blood in between. It was good red blood. The farther we tracked the less blood, he made it into a CRP field thats probably 40 acres large and halfway through it we lost blood and tracks. We backed off and decided to wait until the morning. It went about 200-250 yards before the blood stopped. The arrow doesnt smell like a gut shot, and he said it looked like he hit him good, but was hard to tell for sure cuz of the darkness. He said this buck had 4 tines that were over a foot long and was just ridiculously high. He said this was a buck of a lifetime and put his 160 inch 10 pt to shame. My dad now thinks that maybe it was a liver shot and its bleeding internally and got clogged up. We are clueless, couldnt have been lung and heart right? Any help would be appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ronin Posted December 20, 2004 Report Share Posted December 20, 2004 Re: NEED TRACKING HELP QUICKLY!! Put a dog on him in the morning. If you don't have a dog, start quartering the field at the place you last had sign or spoor. Make concentric circles outwards from the spot getting ever wider until you've covered as much ground as you can handle. I use both methods successfully. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hillbilly Posted December 20, 2004 Report Share Posted December 20, 2004 Re: NEED TRACKING HELP QUICKLY!! Also check bedding area and thick cover. They love to go somewhere thick and also look for water. The also love to go to water after being shot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Straight Shooter Posted December 20, 2004 Report Share Posted December 20, 2004 Re: NEED TRACKING HELP QUICKLY!! Sounds like a lower leg or brisket shot to me. Not a whole lot of blood, but it's bright red. I wish you two the best, but it doesn't sound like your going to find that deer. I tracked two deer this year just like what your explaining and they are still walking around. Best of luck on finding it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wimpy Posted December 20, 2004 Report Share Posted December 20, 2004 Re: NEED TRACKING HELP QUICKLY!! Shot one in the liver earlier the season she went about 200 yards and piled up on the creek bank.My arrow was covered in blood,but there wasn't much of a blood trail,I just followed her in the direction she went and when I could'nt find any more blood I started circling the entire area and found her about 100 to 150 yards from the last sign of blood.Don't give up he's laying there waiting to be found! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slaw Posted December 20, 2004 Report Share Posted December 20, 2004 Re: NEED TRACKING HELP QUICKLY!! Look across the field where he was headed...go to thickest cover in that directiion....good luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LifeNRA Posted December 20, 2004 Report Share Posted December 20, 2004 Re: NEED TRACKING HELP QUICKLY!! Bright red blood is a lung shot, not sure about a liver shot! Liver shots might be a dark red in color. I would go to the last known area of blood and make the circles as mention above! Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
need2hunt Posted December 20, 2004 Report Share Posted December 20, 2004 Re: NEED TRACKING HELP QUICKLY!! IMO crp fields are tough to track a deer through, especially if he doesn't seem to be bleeding much. If it's a killing shot I'm going to bet he stayed in the crp. Let me know if you need some help looking for him, I'ld be willing to drive over to help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buckee Posted December 20, 2004 Report Share Posted December 20, 2004 Re: NEED TRACKING HELP QUICKLY!! It sounds to me like a higher shot, instead of a brisket or leg shot as suggested above. Once you get up past mid body, the blood trials are not as good as lower down. The majority of the blood stays internal. If it was a brisket shot, you would have fat on the arrow. Good advice above. All the best., and let us know how it turns out eh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Missed160 Posted December 20, 2004 Report Share Posted December 20, 2004 Re: NEED TRACKING HELP QUICKLY!! Any deer is worth really putting the time in for, but a deer like that I would not quit till I found him. My brother shot one a couple years back that he knew he hit good, after a bit the same thing happened, no more blood. About miles from where he hunts is a small local airport. He went there, and for about $30 he got a ride in a plane, and went over the property. He said after circling a couple times, BINGO, he found it.. Might be worth a shot.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billygoat Posted December 20, 2004 Report Share Posted December 20, 2004 Re: NEED TRACKING HELP QUICKLY!! Circle, circle, and if you have a dog, I would certainly put him to use... Sounds for certain that the shot would have had to pass through the diaphram, could have hit the liver and passed through diaphram into one lung (where bright blood is coming from). I know deer to have lived through a single lung shot, but if indeed he caught the liver or passed through the diagphram the deer will be dead or mortally wounded. If after circling you do not find the buck. Find several friends to make SLOW pushes... post your dad and perhaps another shooter with a legitimate tag... If he is alive, he won't be moving too fast and he will be moving through the path of least resistance. Best of luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magnatecsteve Posted December 20, 2004 Report Share Posted December 20, 2004 Re: NEED TRACKING HELP QUICKLY!! I feel your pain man. Where I hunt there is about an 80 acre CRP field...I love it but then again I hate it. It holds the deer, but if you have a poor blood trail, it's easy to lose one. I lost a huge buck three years ago, straight down shot that never made it through the bottom of the chest. I am sure the buck died, but without any blood at all I never found him. This past year my step-son took a shot at a nice buck with his muzzleloader. we never found blood. Used the 4-wheeler to criss-cross the crp...didn't find him...until me and my buddy went and tried some pheasent hunting out there and his dog found him. He was an awesome 8 pointer with 16 inch spread and great mass. The shot was a perfect double lung, and we passed within 20 yards of it! Don't give up, and I would DEFINATELY give the dogs a try! Just check the game laws to see if it has to be on a lead or not. Best of luck!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam16 Posted December 21, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 21, 2004 Re: NEED TRACKING HELP QUICKLY!! WE GOT HIM!!! Heres the story... first of all we thought our neighbors stole the buck when i first got to his house today, but that turned out to be a roadkill deer they were loading in their trunk. So that got us worried right off the bat. So we followed the blood trail in the light and the trail was much better, we musta not had very good flashlights. We got to the spot where we lost the trail last night and all 4 of us got on hands and knees and started following drops of blood the size of pin drops almost. It eventually picked up again, and then stopped altogether and we were following his tracks.... Needless to say, after 2 hours of following blood, finding 5 different beds that he laid down in and after covering about a half mile of CRP/forest we finally found him piled up. This is the kicker, we found him on practically the front porch of an old abandoned house, i think he went there to block the wind and stay warm. Anyways, it was an all day event which made it that much sweeter when we found him. Well my dad was caught exaggerating ONCE AGAIN... it was not a 12 pointer, but a 9 point that we scored right around 141.5 roughly. He's still an awesome buck and my dad said he thought he was a lot wider than he was. It has a 15 inch inside spread w/ the g-2's being 10 inches long and the g-3's being 8 inches long. What a day to say the least! The buck is awesome none the less and is nice weird heavy basket rack and my dad's biggest one with a bow. Im waiting for him to email the pictures over and i will send them to some1 to post for me, cuz i have no clue how to... By the way, the shot looked to be perfect!! but it only knicked the heart and liver, but was enough to take him down. We think the buck died just prior to us getting there cuz he was still very warm and rigamortous hadnt set in yet. WHAT A DAY! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam16 Posted December 21, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 21, 2004 Re: NEED TRACKING HELP QUICKLY!! I almost forgot to tell u guys... my dad missed this buck 2 years ago when it was a good shooter. Today i went to open it's mouth to try and age it and to my surprise the molars were ground down to nothing! He had his 4 front teeth adn absolutely no other teeth. How old does a buck hafta be before he has no teeth? I think it's at least 5 and a half becuz it musta been 3.5 when my dad missed it 2 years ago. Any aging experts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
birddog Posted December 21, 2004 Report Share Posted December 21, 2004 Re: NEED TRACKING HELP QUICKLY!! Good For you! Tracking a buck in CRP can really be tough and it sounds like (getting on hands and knees,etc) you did the job! I have tracked deer through CRP and literally stumbled over them before we found them! Congrats on a great tracking job and Kudos for not giving up! 141.5....a trophy indeed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huntinsonovagun Posted December 21, 2004 Report Share Posted December 21, 2004 Re: NEED TRACKING HELP QUICKLY!! I bet a dollar you didn't look far enough into his mouth. I hear it too many times every year "that was an old deer, not a tooth in his head." Heard it twice last year, one, a nice 10 point that the taxidermist said was 3 yr old, another a small 6 point that the shooter said "he was and OLD deer".....bull crap. I bet if you look WAY back there you'll find some teeth.....congratulations on a NICE buck!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billygoat Posted December 21, 2004 Report Share Posted December 21, 2004 Re: NEED TRACKING HELP QUICKLY!! Glad you found him, just got done looking at the pics, what a deer.... My bet is, you had a pure liver shot.. Had the heart been knicked, he would have died sooner (the physiology of the heart would cause him to rapidly loose blood pressure and die a very quick death), I guess you could have not cut through the heart on resulting in muscle damage, but my guess would be you knicked the heart w/ your knife... doesn't matter, dead deer, and a great one at that... sounds like an absolutely awesome tracking job also... way to stick with him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Straight Shooter Posted December 21, 2004 Report Share Posted December 21, 2004 Re: NEED TRACKING HELP QUICKLY!! I'm glad you found him. I guess my leg theory was shot all to heck. LOL Great job on all of your efforts and recovering that deer. Congratulations! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogdoc Posted December 21, 2004 Report Share Posted December 21, 2004 Re: NEED TRACKING HELP QUICKLY!! congrats on the great tracking! we need pics todd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
need2hunt Posted December 21, 2004 Report Share Posted December 21, 2004 Re: NEED TRACKING HELP QUICKLY!! [ QUOTE ] congrats on the great tracking! we need pics todd [/ QUOTE ] The pics are in another thread called SAM16 Dads Buck Pics you can click on the link to take you there or look for the title in the bowhunting room Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buckee Posted December 21, 2004 Report Share Posted December 21, 2004 Re: NEED TRACKING HELP QUICKLY!! [ QUOTE ] Glad you found him, just got done looking at the pics, what a deer.... My bet is, you had a pure liver shot.. Had the heart been knicked, he would have died sooner (the physiology of the heart would cause him to rapidly loose blood pressure and die a very quick death), I guess you could have not cut through the heart on resulting in muscle damage, but my guess would be you knicked the heart w/ your knife... doesn't matter, dead deer, and a great one at that... sounds like an absolutely awesome tracking job also... way to stick with him. [/ QUOTE ] I agree with Bill, if he hit the heart you would have had a better blood trail My guess is you knicked it with your knife too. Way to go on that tracking job guys...ya dun gooood Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fisherguy Posted December 21, 2004 Report Share Posted December 21, 2004 Re: NEED TRACKING HELP QUICKLY!! I would cut out the jaw and have him aged. We have had bucks aged at 9.5 years that still had all their teeth...worn a lot, but still there. Never seen one with no molars. I think it would starve pretty fast if that was teh case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.