jeg3455

I am far from perfect and I don't know everything so with that being said, Here is my thought, I think that you climbed out of the stand way to soon. 15 minutes is way to short of a time to let a deer die unless you know where you hit him and you seen him go down, I think that I would still wait at least thirty minutes. Given your situation I think you should have at least waited an hour or two. This way you give him a chance to bed down and die. Chances are if you did hit him and it wasn't very well you could have push the deer even farther into the forest I suggest you get some help from friends. Send out a search party. Next time I think that you need to practice a little more patients.

AJ52

Track em - Track em and more Tracking.Get on hands and knees and mark any sign(blood,hair etc.) with something(cloth,hat etc..) you can back track on if you lose sign. Good Luck and don't give up until you recover or convinced you "missed".Thats the ethical thing to do!

BTW - jeg gives some good advice.Waiting after shot is damn hard to do.It can however pay off with recovered deer and save hrs in tracking.Nothing worse than to carry around the thought of wounded or dead deer rotting away.

zekeskar

I wish you luck in deciding whether you hit him or not. It can be very difficult.

You probably know this, but it's often very difficult to pinpoint where the deer was standing when you shot at it. You have to really be meticulous about searching in a very organized way for sign. Go to the spot you "think" he was and mark that spot with some flagging (I use bits of toilet paper because it goes away in a few days). From that point do a very *slow and careful* search in a spiral pattern out from that spot - in tight spirals, about three feet wider every time. Do this until you are ABSOLUTELY sure there is no sign. Look for blood and hair of course, but also look for hoof prints, especially deep ones where he lunged or jumped. You can often follow fresh hoof trails through the leaves or mud if you're very careful. I would go out as far as a 25 ydor more circle from the original spot. I've also put little markers when I'm doing my widening circles just to keep track of where I've been so far.

It seems like a lot of busy work, but it really has worked for me as recently as this weekend. The point of impact was 10+ yards from where I thought I'd hit him, and this is in a situation where I did my absolute best to mark the spot I shot at. And this is with much shorter shot than yours. I can imagine quite a potential error in pinpointing a spot from 130-150 yards. It is just plain hard to judge this in the woods or field right after a shot, especially if you take your eyes off that spot to follow a running or trotting deer. It's amazing how similar all the trees look when you get right down to trying to remembera particular one.

Do this in every spot you think the deer was at - in other words, the mark and work out from the spot you think it stopped and the spot where you think it went into the woods, etc. Use all of these spots onlyas astarting pointand spiral carefully out from there.

If you do this and find sign, then you can try to follow it. Every time you loose the trail,do the circling routine again.The key is be organized and meticulous. If you do this and don't find sign you can at least feel a lot more comfortable that (a) you've done your best and (b) the deer was probably not hit.

If you find something to track, be very meticulous about marking the trail as you go along. Sure,once you see a spot of blood on the ground, you think it will be easy to find it again if you have to retrace your trail later. Not so - mark it. Also, deer circle and double back, stagger, weave, etc.and marking the trail can make some of this make sense if you see the markings as a whole.

My best wishes to you as you work on this. Please let us know what you come up with.

weakie

deerslayer: One that thing that bugs me deep down sometimes is when people come on here and post shot reactions and ask where it's hit, expecting us to know exactly where your bullet hit and wondering where the damn thing is. please, study this stuff before season so you don't lose deer during the season. if i had to say, i'd say it's a miss. if he stopped at 40 yards and looked back before runningn off and you didnt find a single hair or drop of blood, he's probably a-ok. sorry if i came off as a prick, but i've seen too many of these in this forum and in bowhunting expecting everyone to tell you that the deer is laying down in a patch of multi-floral rose 172 yards away dead of a liver shot




What a d1ck! if you hate reading posts like this then why did you open it? it says right in the subject what its about. You said you dontmean to be a prick but it sounds like you already knew you were gonna be.

The only reason i am replyng to this is because i that "type" of person who would come on here and ask a question like that and i wouldnt expect some clown to come on here ragging on me about it. what makes you so high and mighty?

zekeskar

I agree Weakie. Deerslayer forgets that each individual who asks the question has never done it before. Just because he's seen it before doesn't mean that you know what to do. Newbies and their questions should always be welcome. If a guy gets tired of reading or answering them he should just ignore them. That's what I do. Hope you've gotten some help here and good luck.

whitetailhunter4637

Elmer,

I believe i recall you saying it was muddy. THis could prove good as it has a better chance of leaving hoof prints.

Bassman4940

Well Elmer... It's been 2 days since you posted your message. Don't leave us all hangin' here! Did you find him or not?

zrexpilot

To me that was definately a good hit, and I doubt he went far at all.
So whats up ? tell us, did you find him?

Bassman4940

FTIW, I took my buck this morning... a clean double lung and top of the heart, and he kicked his hind legs up like a mule. I knew he was hard hit the second I saw that, but it's the first time I've ever seen one kick like that.
My shot wasn't nearly as long as yours, and he went about 40 yards before piling up. I'm curious as hell Emler... Did you find your buck or not?

nutz4bucks

Same here.