confused


The Kid

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i got into the woods this morning had a nice six point come into bow range, so i said why not, let loose and watched my arrow smoke the deer. when i got down didn't find no bood or hair at all, searched all over for him and or blood didn't find anything. I'm confused because it look like a perfect shot, he was only 16 yards away. Even if i hit him in the sholder wouldn't there be blood?

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I can remember a few times I made good shots and found little or no blood in the area I hit the deer. The first buck I ever shot I smoked at 12 yards quartering away. The arrow hit the back shoulder and didn't pass threw. I did not find a drop of blood for almost 60 yards from where I hit the buck, and there was just barely enough of a blood trail to follow before I finally found him 150 yards later.

Don't give up. If you didn't find the arrow it's probably still in him. Try to remember exactly the way the deer ran after you hit him, and follow that path until you find some blood.

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yeah the last thing you want to do is give up now. I would do what buckbuster said, and follow until you find the deer or the last drop of blood. If you seem to come to the last drop of blood on the trail he took, begin there and grid search starting with 50 yd radius from that spot, then move to 100 if you have no luck, then 150yds and so on until you find him. if you smoked him, he's nearby.

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No blood does not mean the deer was not hit!

Track the deer. My wife convinced me two years ago that when we found no blood from my oldest daughters deer that she must have missed, I should not have listened and should have followed my own judgement and pushed on. I had followed the path the deer took and then went back and I looked on my hands and knees for over an hour that evening for just one drop of blood or just one hair to confirm my thoughts that she hit the deer, but never found any within the 100 yards or so that I went while crawling around. I got to a point where we were unsure which direction the buck went, and followed back and never saw a drop or a hair. Went back the next day and looked a lot more, and stopped at some water about 125 yards from where the shot was taken, I got to thinking no blood, maybe the wife is right and she might have missed although I knew by the way the deer took off he was hit. My daughter kept saying I think I hit him good, but maybe I did miss. She had gotten to second guessing herself, in turn raising question in my mind.

Kept playing it back in my mind. We took the kids and went to look the next morning after we came back in from hunting. My wife was 9 months pregnant at the time and my middle daughter tried to follow me through the briars and tangled mess of thorns where I had gotten to, so I had to quit, not having a clue as to just how close I was. The wife never saw a single drop of blood either. Heard some yotes that night as we got back to the house with the close of the youth hunt, and had a really bad feeling that we had messed up. It was 3 days later that I got an opportunity to go back out and look more and I came from a different direction along the river, and I noticed a buzzard fly up, and pinpointed where it flew up from. The buck had laid up less than 10 yards from where I had stopped, but I could not see him through the thick brush. The deer never bled, found no hair. He was tense, had been fighting, he took off hard. I have no explanation as to why he did not bleed.

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I agree, don't give up. You owe that animal that much. Be persistant and you will recover that deer most likely.

I gut shot a buck several years ago. I didn't see a nice blood trail, a drop here and there. We search and searched for two days. We found him not 200 yrds from where I shot him. He got into some thick stuff and bedded by the side of a stream. I can't tell you how many times I went by there the same day I hit that deer. If I only had looked a little harder in detail in the thick stuff, he would have been recovered that same day. Some people think, look for the white belly. True, but sometimes they blend in so perfectly. Thus, the case with me. So don't give up.

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The hit may have been a fuzz high.In my experience higher hits don't bleed as much as a hit lower in the kill zone.Also pass throughs bleed better so if your arrow is in him he may not bleed that much.If you think your hit was good I would go back out and look again.

Exactly.....and if there is no pass-through, it will bleed more internally with a higher hit, than externally. Also, it's very rare to get blood, even from a pass-through, at the exact spot you nailed the deer. Sometimes you won't see any blood for 20 to 40 yards or so.

That's two reasons to keep an eye on the deer after the hit, so you can go to the exact spot you last saw it too look for blood, instead of the spot you nailed it.

Sounds like grid search time ;)

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If your first instinct is you made a good shot then I would say you did. I always go with my first instinct. My cuz shot a hog saturday a little high above the shoulder, found blood but never found the hog. So if you feel that you made a good shot, don't give up!! Just because there is blood doesn't neccessarily mean you made a good shot and because there isn't any blood doesn't mean you made a bad one.

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hey boys just want to tell you thanks for all your help, we went out yesterday after i got donr coaching football, took the whole family out for a little grid search. it just so happend that my little 6 year old brother happend to walk up on the deer. hes definalty not the biggest buck i shot, but he got me excited and pumped up so i went ahead a took him. thanks for all your guy's help, and for those of you who said i shot high you guys were right thanks again for the good advice!! question though how do i post my picture

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Guest antlerhead

glad you found the deer. hate to lose one. shot a doe once at ten yards and she took off and i heard her crash back in the woods. got down could not find arrow and no blood at all. after taking up the trail found arrow after about 20 yards still no blood on the ground though. the doe went about 50 yards without no blood on the ground. it was a quatering away shot arrow went in and hit opposite shoulder with no pass through. i assume thats why there was no blood visible.

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Guest bow_hunter101

This same thing happened to me on a doe I shot. I hit her perfect left/right, but I hit her high. It wasn't a pass through and there was no blood for nearly 30 yards. Once I got on the blood trail it was pretty easy to follow.

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Guest totalscaf

Almost same thing happened to me last friday, but I did find my arrow. 7 buddies were helping me search until after midnight, we only found 4 drops of blood at 120 yard from were I shot. I got up Sat. morning and found her 75 yards from were I shot! So just keep looking until your positive it is a lost cause. Good luck on the next one!!!

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Guest adrenaline_junky

Congrats on the deer. Sure am glad you found him. I do know the feeling though, I just went through that tuesday night when i shot that big one.

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