"Shot" first deer yesterday

[LongRifleVaB]

This thread was inspired by Mountain Man's "Finally" thread

I have been hunting deer only a few times. I am an old 40 year old, that has been shooting all his life (Black Powder since I was 12), but never hunted deer to any great extent. I have shot at 2 up until yesterday and missed both of them.

I would love to hear your opinion on what happened yesterday because it baffles me.

So to start the story like Jeff Foxworthy... So there I was....

Got in the stand early and 2 nice size does almost immediately strolled under my stand, but it was too dark to shoot, but they hung around

Dawn was 6:47, and sunrise was around 7:15. They hung around and it started to get light around 7 am. Then I heard guns going off in the distance”¦ ok”¦ good enough for them”¦ I leveled my 55” long Pedersoli Frontier rifle (caplock version I have not yet fired the flinter) and letter fly.

Off the deer bounded into the woods with its tail flag way up in the air and it stopped about 20 yards into the woods, then it proceeded on a trail.

I was sure (as Sgt York used to claim) I cut plumb dead center, so I waited 15 min, and went in after the beastie.

Sure enough, puddle of bright red blood where it stopped to look back at the field before going into the thick stuff.

I tracked a nice blood trail of that very bright red blood for nearly 200 yards. The deer moved in a very straight line perfectly parallel to the field so it was easy to measure the distance.

Then, no blood. One nice big last spot and nothing.

How does that happen?

Either a) the deer stopped bleeding, but can that happen after a good blood trail for 200 yards?, or b) she simply changed direction and we could not pick her back up.

I went back to my stand until later in the AM, then before me and my buddy left, we went back in to search more. No dice.

I am sure there are a dozen variables, but maybe one of you guys that have hunted more could give me some opions. Maybe I did not cut dead center... where is the most likely spot I hit given a strong bright red trail for 200 yards? What mistakes did I make when I found that last spot? anything would help. I hate shooting something and not finding it.

 

[Blizzard of '93]

Tough question. If you got a body or neck shot it should have gone down after bleeding awhile. Maybe you got a leg with your ball? Or very low body shot that did not hit any organs?

 

[PreglerD]

Hello, some questions:

Was there any cut hair at the place where you hit them?
What colour had the blood?, more dark or more lighting perhaps with bubbles or just normal?
How did the doe ran after the hit? Slowly so that it seems there was no hit at all, or very fast and straight ahead?
How did it react in the moment of hitting?

Greetimgs from GE

 

[paulvallandigham]

Look for hair or fur at the place where she was standing when you shot her. The type of fur, and color can tell you a lot about where the ball actually struck. I have seen these kinds of blood trails in deer that received wounds that cut the chest and the lower ribcage, under the heart, but did not internal damage. The bleeding is profuse but finally clots when the cool air combines with fur to matte a scab over the wound.

Look at the tracks, not the blood. If you injured her in a leg, it will be walking on 3 legs, and not 4. If it took a long raking hit along a shoulder, it will favor that shoulder as it walks. 200 yds is a long way to trail a deer and learn absolutely nothing about its tracks so you can identify its tracks from other does in the area. Go back and look at the tracks, and take notes. Draw a picture of all four hooves, and any anomalies in the shape of the two toes on each hoof.

If the doe is walking at a normal pace, that would indicate she is not panicked from a serious wound. In that case, here rear feet will step on top of the tracks left by the front feet, but slightly to the outside of the earlier track, obscuring most of the front foot tracks. A doe track has a doubling, or hesitation step appearance to it, with the doubling on the inside of the track. Buck tracks are the opposite.

It sounds like your doe was either a yearling, or at most 1 1/2 years old. If it was a deer born this last spring, expect to find tracks that are between 1/2 and 1 inch long. If its 1 1/2 years old, expect to find tracks that are 1 1/2 to 2 inches long. A deer track is heart shaped, with the point of the heart at the front of the toes. It is composed of two toes, or lobes that form the heart shape. The point of the heart points the direction of travel.

I hope that helps you. The other thing that can help you decide where your ball hit is the color of the blood, but this takes experience to differentiate the different, subtle characteristics of blood from various organs. A Lung hit produces a pink, frothy blood. A hit to the heart or liver produces a dark red blood. Stomach or intestinal hits are bright red, and often have bits of food in the blood drops. You can also get these from chest hits, if the ball happens to also penetrate the eusophagus.

If you are going to trail blood, then at least know that a walking deer drops blood about every 4 feet. So, either carry a tracking stick, or cut a branch off a tree to give yourself an easy way to measure 4 feet. When you find a drop of blood, put the stick end next to it, then drop the stick down as you bend over in the direction of travel, and look for the next drop of blood within 6 inches of that 4 foot measure. If you miss a turn, you can use that stick to pivot around in an arc to find the next blood drop. Be aware of game trails, and brush along side. Sometimes, the best information about your hit is blood found on brush along the trail. Its height off the ground will give you a good indication of where the animal was hit. Its location in relation to the trail will tell you what part of the animal is bleeding. For instance, if you ball grazes the front of the chest, the blood is likely to appear on brush or weeds in the middle of the trail formed by the tracks of the deer. Left and Right side hits will leave blood on brush to the Left or Right side of the tracks respectively. Finally, if you have hit a leg, you will likely see foot drags in the tracks, reflecting the injured leg, or foot. Think about how you limp when you have hurt a knee, leg, thigh, or hip. Lifting a leg to step over things becuase more agony, so you are likely to drag that foot through oneven terrail, and hope to find a flat surface free of debris to walk on, so You don't have to lift that leg, and then put your weight down on it to make the next step. The same thing goes for deer with leg injuries.

 

[Seeking Trad Deer]

From 27 years of tracking deer all I could add to the terrific responses already is that if you are not sure where the prb hit and the deer is walking away...the longer you wait 99% of the time the better. I'd suggest an hour minimum in this case.

 

[roundball]

Bright red blood is from muscle...it'll bleed until it clots then no more blood trail

 

[paulvallandigham]

Although I have seen bright red blood from arterial shots, Roundball is right about it generally indicating a muscle shot. Trouble is, a ball that hits an artery has to go through muscle to. The only way I have told the different between a non-fatal muscle hit, and an arterial hit is by the quantity of blood. The arterial hits will generally leave a steady stream of blood on the ground, where you get drops from the muscle hits after a few dozen yards.

A high hit, above the lungs but below the spine may bleed very little, but if it hits the pleural cavity, one or both lungs will collapse, slowly, and death will finally occur. By taking the time waiting for the deer to lay down, to find its tracks, and take note, then slowly follow the foottracks, you increase your chances of knowing more about where the deer was actually hit, what kind of injury has occurred, and ultimately locating a deer. I have found one deer that took a chest hit, a little too far back, where it stuffed some leaves in the hole and stopped the external bleeding totally. The deer died from internal bleeding, and I found it lying down along side a river, in the cool mud.

When you are tracking a wounded deer, remember that the body's reaction to being injuried is to send lots of blood to the wound, and this is done by dumping a lot of adrenalin into the bloodstream. The Adrenalin signals the capilaries to relax and open, and this creates a blush, or flushing of heat to the skin. You feel a " fever " come on just as when you are injured or sick. Animals treat " fever" the same way we do: they find someplace cool. So, if you lose your tracks, start searching the nearest cool areas- shaded thickets, and muddy banks along streams, ditches, rivers, ponds.

 

[rabjr]

Bright red blood is from muscle...it'll bleed until it clots then no more blood trail

Thats the first thing that comes to my mind too, blood like that usually means a muscle hit.

 

[Runner]

When you have a steady blood trail that suddenly stops, several things are likely. One is a low chest hit or gut shot. Gut shot usuually gives darker blood and they run like their tail is on fire at the shot. Low chest can give good blood like you describe. When the deer starts to feel weak, it will often do a panic run at the end. When they go to bouncing and the blood goes from every 5 feet to every 25 feet, this is where more deer are lost than any other. Smears on plants or trees often allow you to find the trail again, sometimes quite a ways from where you lost it. In neither case should the deer walk away with their tail in the air. A leg hit hard enugh to produce that much blood should show in the tracks before 200 yards.
Twice I have seen deer that took an arrow thru the chest turn and walk away as if nothing happened. Both were late cold season deer. One fed over the ridge with her yearling following her. I can't explain it, but I know it happens.

 

[LongRifleVaB]

Guys... this is unbelievalbe. I am very excited about all of the responses and information, you have no idea how helpful this is to me.

So before I answer the questions, let me give you an update.

While I have not hunted a lot, they guys I hunted with when I was in Ohio were very, very almost to the extreme conscientious hunters. I was taught to never let a deer go. So, yesterday, I went back to where I shot the deer. I found the last drop of blood (took one of my kids with) and we started circling. I found more blood some 20 yards from the last, along one of the possible trail routes and the deer seemed to have headed out into open field. My buddy that was hunting some 500 yards away that morning said he saw a deer cross the field diagonally after he heard my shot, but it was a bit foggy and he could not see it clearly. I believe that to be the deer. So it travelled a LONG way

So here are some answers to questions posed

- The Blood was very bright red. It looked almost fake it was so red. Not a hint of bubbles or froth, and no hint of any deep red. All bright, light red

- Once shot, the deer bolted off fast into the woods where it paused (and bled) before proceeding at a much slower pace onto a deer trail

- When in was shot and it bolted into the woods, its tail was up like a flag pole.

- I waited about 15 min before starting to track

- Unfortunately, because I am inexperienced, and (after stepping it off yesterday at the approximate spot I shot the deer) it seems like I shot the deer 75-80 yards from my spot, and I saw where it entered the woods, I did not initially go to the spot where she was hit, so I do not know what kind of damage was left on that spot.

- This area I hunted is infested with deer. It is crazy. Heavily travelled trails everywhere, just no way to track using footprints. It is hard to imagine how active this place is.

- Great call on the yearling thing... wow, I think it was a yearling based on its snout.

- She was definitely not shot in the leg, from what I saw, I had intially thought I missed... which i just could not accept like I said in my posting. I am a pretty reliable shot even out to 100 yards.

- From reading all of these great posts, I am inclined to believe I hit low in the chest area, and it clotted up and she kept on going. Very feasible, because I thought it was closer than 75-80 yards.... I stepped it off yesterday as I mentioned. I think I posted that I thought it was more like 60 yards. Need a range finder.

I am going to print this thread and commit it to memory. All of this advice is again, greatly appreciated. I do not like shooting something and loosing it.

 

[paulvallandigham]

You certainly shoud be able to locate and follow her footprints if that field she crossed is plowed. check her tracks to see if she is dragging any of her four feet. If not, you probably grazed her, and she should survive if the weather does not get too cold in the next day or two. The color of the blood suggests a low hit through tissue and muscle, as it explains the amount of blood, and also her not showing any sign of serious injury.

 

[PreglerD]

In GE it is the hunters duty in such cases to make a search with a hunting dog, especially a blood hound. Only when the dog find nothing you can be sute the deer wasn't seriously hit.Do you have this possibility?

Greetings from GE.