Bow hunting advice please?

thequeensblessing · #1 11/10/08, 08:59 AM

DH and I have bow hunted for years, using crossbows, but never have we had an experience like this before. I'd like to know what you all think.

Saturday morning we were hunkered down in our blind. DH used his grunter and within 2 minutes, a nice buck came along. It was only standing about 30 feet away, sniffing the air and grunting back. It turned slightly and DH took a shot. His arrow entered in on the right side of the chest. The buck took off with blood spurting from the wound. We waited about 30 minutes before going after it so that it would hopefully lay down somewhere and bleed. When we finally went out and found the blood trail, there was a lot of blood and tissue along a good sized deer trail. We followed it for about 100 yards into a thicket of russian olives, and saw the buck laying down. It heard us and jumped up and ran off. There were two puddles of blood, one on either side of where he had been laying. We continued to follow his blood trail. He was bleeding more out of the left side than the right side. Another couple hundred yards up and we found more blood, and the broadhead, where it had separated from the bolt. The bolt was obviously still in the buck. We continued to follow the blood trail, which got lighter and lighter, to the point where we were following blood droplets. Finally, the blood trail ended. DH, myself, 3 neighbors, our son and son-in-law all canvased the area searching for it. It just seemed to disappear. We never did find it. It was very frustrating and we've never had this same thing happen before, where we had a good chest hit and lots of blood and tissue showing, and then, nothing. That buck lost a lot of blood and still had the bolt inside him. Why would he simply have stopped bleeding? Any ideas? Any similar experiences?
We have often had to trail a deer over a long distance, depending on where the shot hit, but never had such a gushing wound simply stop bleeding.

Bearfootfarm · #2 11/10/08, 10:55 AM

I'd go back to the last blood drops and start searching in circles from there.

It's possible he bled out, and will be within 50 yds of there.

Next time, give him an hour

big rockpile · #3 11/10/08, 11:32 AM

First off I would have backed out for at least 2 hours when I jumped him the first time.The only thing you can do now is either walk a Grid and hope you find him or get a Dog to follow the trail which might be hard for it with all the other scent in the area.

big rockpile

thequeensblessing · #4 11/10/08, 03:19 PM

Yes, we'll definitely wait longer than 30 minutes from now on. It's always been enough in the past. However, my question really pertains to why he would simply stop bleeding and then disappear.
We walked the grid, 7 of us,overlapping one another. We never saw anymore blood or any other sign of any deer. It was in an open field that is about 50 acres in size.

SunnyJim · #5 11/10/08, 04:07 PM

It may sound odd, but when I have to track a deer, I prefer to do it alone. Stay to the side of the deer's trail so that you don't disturb it for when you have to back up and find it again. Pay attention to the other signs of its passing, flipped up leaves or snapped twigs or seeds knocked off the surrounding brush in case you do lose the blood you can still follow its trail.

Probably should have sat down and waited again after jumping him, he might have been staying just ahead of you, but that is only 20/20 hindsight. and every deer hunter knows that waiting even thirty minutes after a good shot seems like 30 hours!

jnh · #6 11/10/08, 04:23 PM

its possible the hit was not fatal and the wound stopped bleeding or the whole plugged up i have ssen that happen

agmantoo · #7 11/10/08, 04:33 PM

I skinned a deer a couple of years ago and there was a broadhead and about 6 inches of aluminum shaft inside the deer. The broadhead was imbedded in the bone underneath the back strap and the shaft was through the shoulder flat blade like bone. I found the arrow when I went to remove the shoulder and I found it pivoting on the shaft and it would not cut loose as normal. The broadhead and the shaft were encased in a gristle like growth an apparently was not causing the deer a problem. All I can say is that they are one tough animal when it comes to surviving. In your situation the animal bedded down and the wound clotted IMO. You can watch for buzzards and determine whether the deer survived or not.

Oldcountryboy · #8 11/10/08, 08:33 PM

Unless you see it fall within sight of where you shot it, always wait 30 minutes to 1 hour before you start blood trailing. Then if you happen to jump it while blood trailing, wait another two hours before taking up the blood trail again.

If you give the wounded deer time, it will lie down and after a few hours he will stiffen up, making it hard to get up if you happen to walk up on it.

poorboy · #9 11/10/08, 09:13 PM

My mutt onna trail of one that got away from me about 12 years ago, only took her about 5 min. to find it..;-)

**alleyyooper** · #10 11/11/08, 07:53 AM

Unless you hit the heart, double lung, the deer can bleed a lot at first then once laying down start to clot fast. once you jumped it it most likely headed for some water or a damp place to lay up.

I have also feild dressed a deer only to find a shaft and broad head in side. Thankfully I didn't cut a finger off or some thing.

Al

thequeensblessing · #11 11/11/08, 02:04 PM

Thanks for all the suggestions and advice. We will assuredly wait at least an hour next time. A hard lesson learned!

**GREENCOUNTYPETE** · #12 11/11/08, 03:57 PM

I shot a dow with would would have been a perfect shot with a gun a few years ago , right in the sholder from about 20 yards , she ran and blead good waited a while and went looking found where about 300 yards out she had layed down bitten the arrow and pulled it out , little pool of blood there then she got up and moved out without another trace of blood

actualy could see indentations in the arrow from where she bit down on it to pull it out

they have such a will to live

foxfiredidit · #13 11/11/08, 05:33 PM

I once shot one that went and laid down in a shallow slough. He was alive the next day when I jumped and killed him. From the moss and debris on his horns when he got up to run, I'd say he'd been there all night. He was lying there with just his nose sticking up to get some air. A 220 lb eight point, he let me get to within 5 feet of him before he jumped. Scared the h e l l outta me as well, I thought some monster had risen up to get me with all the vines and junk hanging in his horns.

I'd go back to the area and just check the nearest water where it looks like he could lay down and put some cold water on his wound. Actually I've seen them do that more than once. If it's deep enough, he'll sink when he dies though.