Virginia Mike

I was able to get out in the woods Friday afternoon. I was in the stand and set up by 2:30pm. I had deer all over me by 3pm and the video was rolling. There were mostly does and small bucks, a 6 pointer wondered in. With all of the movement, I held out with hope of a larger buck. Right at dusk, with about 15 minutes of shooting light left, a doe came into the oak flat and fed. She got ansy, looked behind her, and then took off. I looked in behind the doe and there was a nice mature buck. He was at least 8pt's with trash on the bottom. He was also a large bodied deer. I decided to take the buck and opened the zoom on the camera, readied for the shot. The buck stopped at 22 yards in my shooting lane, I came to full draw and sent the arrow. I heard the hit and the deer crashed away. After a few seconds the crashing stopped. I was confident the deer was down, but stayed in my stand for 30 minutes packing up and killing time. I then went and put most of my gear in my truck and got the land owner to help. We looked for blood/Arrow at the shot sight for the first time one hour and 10 minutes after the shot. No blood at the shot sight, but I tracked to the last place I saw the deer and found good blood. We followed a great blood trail for 300 yards and it just stopped. It was late by that time and we had lost the trail and not found the arrow. We called it quits for the night. I came back at 8am the next morning with 2 friends and picked up where we left off. We did find the arrow at 9am, covered with blood and one of the blades bent out. We found only 2 more drips of blood and then nothing. The blood trail behind us was bright red pools of blood that were as big as a dinner plate. I can't believe this deer is not dead! We looked until 3pm and called it off again. We did grid searches and circles that got larger. We even back trailed to the shot sight and found where he left the flat. I resumed the search on Sunday morning at 9am with my friend and we looked until 1:30pm and I had to go to my son's soccer game. I went back later that day with my dog, a boikin Spaniel, and she could not find the trail after the blood ran out either. I know this happens once in a while, but this is my first lost deer and I am pissed. I guess I will go back and look for buzzards and stink later in the week. This sucks!

Mike

Copper31

It does suck. Do you have any idea where you hit the deer? Highor low? Quartering or broadside. With that much blood he should be down. 300yards is a long way for a deer to go if you hit him good.

huntingson

Yeah, it stinks, but it sounds like you did everything you could do. Did you see the hit at all? I like really bright fletching so I can see the hits better. Maybe you saw it fine, but it is just a thought. It helps you know what kind of trail you are going to have and how long to wait. Honestly though, it sounds like you hit the shoulder. When you do, it bleeds like crazy for a while and then just completely stops.

Virginia Mike

The deer walked by me at 20 yards, I bleated and stopped him and he was slightly quartering away from me. I held the shot until the arrow hit and felt very confident of a double lung hit. The blood was bright red, almost flourescent and had some bubbles. I can't believe this deer is not DEAD! I guess it is possible I hit the off shoulder.