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Maybe a Double

2-bucks

PMA Member
Had not seen any shooters at my farm in three sits, so I decided to hunt behind my neighbors house to change things up. I have a stand a couple hundred yards off the end of our subdivision that has been a nice honey hole for years. When I head out at 2:00, he is sucking up leaves. Not a huge deal until you consider he dumps them 50 yards from my stand. I debated not going but figured oh well, the deer are used to activity there and if he stops early enough it should calm down enough for the deer to still come out and maybe a buck will follow the normal does that frequent the neighborhood. Plus I had great "cover" noise so I could go in unheard. He stopped sucking up leaves at 3:00. I figure I'll play on my phone for 30 minutes and let things calm down. At straight up 3:00 I hear leaves rustle. Expecting to see one of the hundred squirrels around I look up and see a big doe running and a small buck in tow. I put the binos on him and see is NOT small. Not my biggest but looked like a nice 4 year old. Not sure if an 8 or 10. ( I never count points, I just see height and width and decide pass/fail.) he comes in to 25 yards and I hit him a little low. Looks like a heart shot. She comes in to 20 and I mess up and spine her. A second one to the heart and she expires quickly.

NOW to the maybe part....I give the buck an hour and start tracking. I saw the arrow in him as he ran off. (not a pass though) The arrow fell out after about 40 yards and he had a huge blood spot low and behind the front shoulder, about 1/4 way up the body. I thought he was broadside but may have been quartering away slightly. Shooting rage hypodermics. He is bleeding buckets, like someone is throwing full cups of blood every 15 feet. I expect to find him every time I look up but after 200 yards the blood is minimal so I backed out, plus it was getting to be dusk. The blood had bubbles but was a darker than a classic lung shot. I can see the exact penetration on the arrow and measured it at 14 inches. He was paralleling a creek when I backed out. I really expect to find him in that creek bottom in the morning but feel sick and afraid I won't. :mad::(

The whole scenario just baffles me. All the blood and bubbles tells me lung and/or heart/artery. BUT 200 yards and not piled up tells me not. Maybe quartering away more than I thought and I got one lung and hit the off side shoulder, preventing the pass through??? Hope to post recovery photo tomorrow.
 
Grab a flashlight and go after him tonite. If you don't and he's dead, the meat will be spoiled in the morning-
 
I double lunged a old buck this year, and he ran for 600-700 yards, lungs were absolutely tore up, but he kept going. I did find him, just don't give up you'll find him.
I would pursue this deer.
 
Any other thoughts on if the meet will go bad? I thought it would be ok but now I am worried.
 
Any other thoughts on if the meet will go bad? I thought it would be ok but now I am worried.
Tough call. They can go a long way on one lung. It's been 7 hours, if he was bleeding as bad as you say and you feel good about the shot, he's probably dead right now. Grab a buddy and go look. But if you start seeing empty beds, wait until morning. Goal #1 is to recover the animal. Be hard to get any meat at all if you run him into the next county. Good luck!
 
No good news. looked last night walking the creek. Back at it with help thia morning. He crossed the creek and started up hill. Followed a very poor blood trail another 2 to 300 yards sincewhere I lost it last night. The hillside he went up is nasty thick and leads to crp. Going to grid search later and maybe take a dog for a walk. Anyone know of good tracking dogs?
 
To use dogs to recover deer is illegal. Call your DNR to make sure. Its not worth a fine and losing the deer to the DNR if found.
 
If your hit was low enough, it may have been just a brisket hit. Typically bleed a lot right away and then dry up. Usually not a fatal injury.

NWBuck
 
Ishi said:
To use dogs to recover deer is illegal. Call your DNR to make sure. Its not worth a fine and losing the deer to the DNR if found.

Take a blood tracking dog for a walk with no camo or bow . Problem solved.
 
81 post: 618225 said:
Access to a drone? Youll spot a dead deer layin in crp in no time
Dont know anyone with a drone, but good idea. The field is in 6ft tall switchgrass so a view from above is the only hope.
 
Listening for coyotes and watching for buzzards for the next few days. Im off all week so maybe I get lucky. Lucky is probably a bad description because the meat is already bad.
 
Trapshooter1 said:
If u got a single lung he s done. Get a drone, search the CRP. If close to water I would check there also.

Do you really think a deer can't survive a one lung hit ? Well they can and do.
 
chipterp said:
Do you really think a deer can't survive a one lung hit ? Well they can and do.

Yep, I remember reading a story from the Lakosky's about a buck one of them shot and the arrow broke off inside the buck. Shot it a year later if I remember right and the lung healed around the arrow.
 
chipterp said:
Do you really think a deer can't survive a one lung hit ? Well they can and do.
I agree but if you put the whole story together the buck should be dead. Low one lung maybe offside shoulder? I don't know how that's possible from an elevated tree stand but if he's bleeding buckets and that's where you hit him he's dead. Maybe you hit lower than you thought but then I would think you would of had a pass thru. Was the buck using his front offside leg when he ran off? My only guess would be hit some shoulder and went in front of it but this is just speculation. I obviously wasn't there and you know what you seen.
 
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