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Blood trailing question

wtj43089

Member
Alright I shot a good buck tonight at 35 yards. Shot was defently low and just a little, but not far, back. Right at impact I could see good blood and what looked part of an organ hanging out. Instantly as soon as I saw that I thought hit him in the liver or maybe guts. He runs off behind some trees and I lost sight of him. 3 or so minutes later I see him get up (15 yards from where i shot him only his head and antlers) and run off. I wait a half hour get down look for my arrow, can't find it check but there's good blood all over. I went to where he had laid down and there's a good pool of blood 15x15 inches. Blood was pink and bubbly so I figure lung. It was only 4:30 pm so I figured I'd wait for my buddy to get done hunting before we go look. We come back around 8, and the blood is light for 50 yards then picks up a little but not much. Then find a spot where it looked like he coughed up two big piles of blood, then a bed with a bunch of blood. We decided to pull out and wait until morning. Now I'm feeling good about it so I go look for my arrow because I'm confident I had a pass through since I heard it hit some brush after I shot. When I find it 2 vains have blood on them and the other is clean as a whistle. Now I'm freaked out because my arrow looks like i grazed him, yet the bloods telling me hes hit fairly decent. The only thing keeping me sane right now are the big piles of blood. Does anybody have any sort of idea what might have happened? Also the arrow was planted a few inches in the ground.
 
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There's where he laid down initially
 
That's a pile of blood! If a deer doesn't die after losing that, you've got an invincible deer on your hands!
 
I think you did the right thing by backing out. If you seen stuff hanging out most likely gut shot. Give him time. Still may be a possibility of him getting up yet today so be ready for that.
 
If stuff was hanging out the deer will die eventually from its core temp getting too low. It may still be alive in the morning but if he's bedded twice he's hurting. Have your bow in hand and while one is looking for blood have the other be scanning ahead. Also be prepared to lose blood. Not saying it will happen but I had a similar hit and the stuff that was hanging out created a vacuum and the deer barely bled after that unless something dripped off or coughed up. That deer required a follow up shot the next morning.
 
From that information you gave us, I'd say he's going to die. He probably needed to be left, so backing out was the right call.

Let us know.
 
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That blood looks foamy to me so I think you had to hit at least one lung. It does not look like gut shot blood to me. I think you have a good chance of finding him. Now the bad your arrow had a lot left in it to sink that deep in the ground after hitting your deer. That puts some doubt on the table. Good luck and let us know what happens.
 
Dead deer no doubt and not a gut shot, blood would be scarce and you would see and smell it on the arrow.
 
I shot a doe in early October that I was worried about the shot. She was at 30 yards and for some reason I was worried I had put my 20 yard pin on her. My arrow was in the ground a couple inches and right behind where she was standing. The arrow had blood on it but wasn't soaked. Found a bit of blood on the ground but not a lot (Muzzy 3 blade). Long story short, found her 60 yards away double lunged, I made a perfect shot on her.

You deer is dead, I can almost guarantee it.
 
Well after a sleepless night I got up at the crack, read through the comments that had been posted so far and felt a little better, but still not great. Hurried through cow chores and was on last blood around 8. I found a few more specks and then it vanished. So I started making circles, and nothing. End up grid searching this 30 acre chunk and once again nothing. By this time my buddy had arrived and we started to put a game plan together. We just got done building a 6 barbed wire fence around this chunk a few days earlier but we had yet to hang any gates, and we saw that last night the buck had walked through 1 of the 3 opening into the pasture instead of jumping the fence. We figured we would split up and each take one of the remaining openings and the timber that was on the other side of it. Well not 20 minutes later my buddy calls and says he found a couple more decent spots of blood. We follow 20 yards and lose it again. We end up recruiting 2 more people for some more eyes. By this time it pushing 1pm and I'm feeling sick. We decided to all split up and just start griding off sections. 3ish pm I'm plowing through endless multiflower rose and my little sister texts me out of the blue with some smart ass comment about the Bears and Vikings game, which ticks me off even more so I just put my phone back in my pocket, I happen to look left and wouldn't ya know it, 10 yards away I see a split g2 through the thorn bushes! Ends up my arrow was low but my angle would have been right on but my arrow hit his sturnum, ricochets knicks his liver then cuts an 8 inch hole in his belly. Not sure the physics behind how that happens but that's how it went down. Thanks for the positivity you guys and a few other buddies kept me going.
 
And here is crabclaw. Local bully buck. This was his second time being shot this month. The neighbors wounded a buck on October 25, we got pictures of him on the 27 with a wound on his neck. Tried hunting him on the 28th with no luck. Hung a new stand for him on the 31st at 2pm, hit the horns at 4 pm and he was there 2 minutes later. Turn out the neighbor hit him in the neck just under the spine and out the other side. 12 scoreable points 153 4/8. No monster but one we wanted get out of there. He sure is a good looker though!!
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What do you mean he`s no monster? Sweet buck BIG congrats on a great buck every deer is a trophy be proud. Awesome job on not giving up on the search.
 
That was about where I figured the hit to be. (Been there before!) Congrats on a great buck and a hard earned recovery.
 
It is possible you laid him open, or eviscerated him. Low hits like that can bleed like crazy at first then trickle out. If you are inside the cavity or near guts he will eventually succumb to the wound. If you grazed the sternum he will live most likely. If you got in the cavity, though, and grazed one lung you might find him. We know based on his reaction it wasn't both lungs. Arrows can trick you as well, but you did the right thing backing out. Keep us posted!
 
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Ha ha ha! I posted that and then realized you had posted before not sure how I missed it or if you did it this morning no matter great buck! Really awesome story!!!
 
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