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Question? Trailing shot buck

T

TallTines

Member
This morning at 6:45 my hunting partner shot a huge 160" 10 ptr. The deer was 20 yds away. when he shot, his arrow slightly deflected off a unseen twig to the right hitting the deer in the middle between front and back legs in the lower third. My research tells me he was hit in the abomasum area which absorbs water and minerals and breaks down proteins. He was perfectly broadside and the arrow passed through. The deer ran 10 yds then walked all humped up till out of site. The arrow was covered in a very bright red color almost fluerescent. Not dark like a liver shot.
My buddy then backed out and called me. We decided to wait as long as we could before traking him. We then returned 6 hrs later to track the deer. It would have been longer but rain was on the way. The blood trail shows he walked the entire time losing a pretty good amount of blood. It was very easy to track. There were no pools of blood indicating bedding down he seemed to just keep going. We tracked him for 3 to 400 yds before losing the blood trail right at a fence in the middle of the woods. Now we don't know if he just stopped bleeding or if because of the sprinkling that it washed the blood away.
Now I have no doubt that this deer wants to get to water. The problem is there is no water on the property, just dried up creeks. The nearest water source is 3/4 to a mile away.
My question to you guys is from your experience do you think this deer will travel this distance to get to water with this shot? (he would have to cross totally open ground) How long do you think he will live? Remember 6 hrs passed before it rained so I don't know if that would be sufficient or not. There is a 50 acre block of timber there that we have not searched totally with dried up creeks which is where we left him.
Our plan right now is start where the blood trail left off with 3-4 guys and sweep the timber for sign of him. If we come up with nothing we will head to the creek in the next section over with water and search the banks for him.
I hope we can find this deer for my friend because he is pretty torn up about this and of course like all of us would have rather totally missed him totally rather than gut shoot him. Your experiences would be helpful.
Thanks TT
 
Sick [shot] animals almost always head for water to submerge their body in,if the shot is marginal. We have found whitetails and bears in the water both dead and still alive, as far away as a mile. Carry your weapon! Good Luck!!
J/H
 
I would have to think that the deer is definately dead. A shot through the area described is most assuredly lethal. I bet he is within 200 yards of where you stopped. You need to use a methodical approach and take your time. Take aerials if possible and grid search that area to a T. Might be a chance too that he turned downhill at the fence instead of crossing if he was to weak. Down be afraid to go back over the area you have already searched too. I have gone as far as sitting in my truck for the night listening for coyotes that may have found your buddies prize. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.
 
His innards may have shifted from the fence crossing too causing a temporary cessation of the bleeding. Look for the trail to begin again within 50 yards of where he crossed. This would be most beneficial for determining direction of travel. Good luck. Maggs
 
Unfortunately we have not found the buck yet. We had 5 guys walking 15-20 yds apart doing a grid sweep of the timber. This is a very thick timber though and even that far we probably would have a hard time seeing him. There is a few places we want to thoughrely check out still. But we won't stop until we find him. The neighbor is combining the huge cornfield that he might be in so we talked to him and asked him to contact us if he finds him. Otherwise we are now left to follow the crows and the smell. I can't imagine he got more than 2- 300 yards from where we left the blood trail so we will concentrate there. I will keep you updated if we find him. This is very unfortunate for my friend and Iam sure he will be kicking himself for a long time if we can't find him. We'll keep our fingers crossed that we'll find him though.
TT
 
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