HuntingBry

I agree with the 1 lung sentiment. It sounds like this will be a dead deer. Hopefully he laid down not far from where you last had blood and you'll be able to find him. Time is what he needs right now. Coyotes are few and far between here and a fox will do minimal damage. Give him time and you should be able to find him. I sent you a PM in case you want a hand looking.

As far as jumping the string goes, I videoed a hunt earlier this year where a buck came in feeding. He was perfectly calm and content. When the shot was taken it ended up being a spine shot at 22 yards. The hunter thought he had misjudged the distance, but when I was editing the video I looked at it frame by frame and the arrow was headed for just under center line in the chest. The deer ducked in the last 5 yards or so of flight and nearly got under the arrow.

You can never know when a deer is going to jump the string, and it's amazing how quick they are when they do.

NCRemington700

Any word on this buck?

Bbearfax

Poor thing is probably fox food!

glew22

Well I wish I had good news to update you with but I can't say that I do. I searched for about 5 hours friday and couldn't find a drop of blood/ a dead deer/ or buzzards circling anywhere.The blood trailw as parallel with a cliff for about 75-100 yards which drastically limists the directiones he could have gone. About 400 yards in the direction he was heading, from the spot of impact, is a road, that seperates 2 woodlots. Both woods are pretty open and fairly narrow, with some scattered bedding. I combed over both woodlots extending about 800 yards from the original spot. I spoke with a local expert from QDMA and asked what he thought about the situation. I explained the type and consistency of blood, the approximate arrow penetration, and the fact that the arrow had not been snapped off. He said that it sounds like an arterial wound, he went on to explain that if a major artery is severed the deer will bleed out in 6-8 seconds. Whereas a minor artery could clot up, explaining the change from heavy blood to nothing at all. To reiterate, the arrow was found 15 yards down the trail, there didnt appear to be much penetration and it was not snapped. After about 50 yards the deer started bleeding heavy. The trail alternated from paper plate sized piles of blood to the heavy lines of blood drops connnecting them. I would say that this would usually indicate the deer bedded but there was about 15 of these piles and the trail seemed to be more continuous motion. The blood was bright red with SOME bubbles. The gentleman with QDMA informed that there is really no mistaking a lung shot, that there would be tons of bubbles in it and a pinkish color. However, if an artery was struck there could be some bubbles in it because of the oxygen being carried in the blood. He also stated that the blood trail seems to indicate the buck was walking away opposed to running. He was moving with a cliff on his left, and on the outermost portion of the 15 yard bench that extends away from the cliff. When we were trailing him we couldnt believe just how close he was to the end of the bench we kept thinking he wanted to break down over. However, in retrospect if the deer was walking it would make sense for him to walk the outermost edge so that he could scan the woods below him for danger. I'm soory this was long-winded but to sum it up. I was told that if this deer didnt bed within 200-400 yards the odds are it was a minor arter/muscle hit and he will make a full recovery. I'm still sick to my stomach and I'm heading back out there tomorrow morning to look some more.