Bummer of a day

[Rutting Buck]

Well today really sucked. It was a beautiful morning in the woods, I was all settled in by 6:30 am. My buddy shot buck at first light, and I had a good size bear come by me 17 yards away. About another 45 minutes a hear what I think is a bear across the creek from me. It comes out through the opening and its a nice big bodied buck. Forget the rack this thing was like a horse coming through the woods. I range the creek to get a distance, it is 40 yards out. The deer crosses the creek and I decide its now or never. So I pull up my crossbow and shoot, I hear a thud sound, the deer mule kicks and jumps back over the creek and mills around for a minute but wasn't going anywhere. I then start to 2nd guess myself that maybe I missed. I decide to reload, I grunt to try to get the buck back over into the 40 yard range. As I stand up to re-cock my bow the deer sees me and trots off. I was aiming for the boiler room.

I wait 40 minutes and have my buddy come over to help me look for blood beings that I'm red green color blind. We get over to the creek and blood is everywhere. We tracked the deer for 350- 400 yards until the blood trail went dead. We circled the area trying to find it for hours. at the end of the trail it was just a drop her and drop there about 5-10 feet apart.

I feel like crap shooting a deer and not recovering it, but I wonder if it will live to see another day? This is my 3rd year bow hunting and this is my 1st time connecting with a deer. I have yet to get a deer with a bow and am just frustrated that I was unable to get the deer. I have tried so hard over the past 3 bow seasons & I'm just frustrated, but I learned another lesson today. Do you think I should have not tried to re-load and maybe it would have just hung around and died or atleast I would have been able to recover the deer?

[BowhunterNJ]

Man, that is a tough day...one of those days you have to take away from it what you can to learn from the experience.

I can't really say re-loading your bow would or would not have made a difference given how far the deer ran after you guys tracked it and ultimately lost blood.

 

A few questions:

- Any idea of where you actually hit the deer?  I know you were aiming for the boiler room.

- Did you find the arrow?  If so, any idea on penetration?  Pass through?

- What kind of blood sign did you have?  Bright?  Dark?  Any bubbles?

- What kind of hair sign did you have?  Color, length, coarse vs thin, etc could give a hint as to where you hit the deer (entered and/or exited).

- How hard and fast did you track the deer over that 350-400 yards?

- Initially there was a lot of blood at the spot where you hit the deer, but how quickly did it dissipate?   Most muscle/non-vital hits I've found have gone from really heavy initially to virtually nothing in about 150 yards.  From there on you are following a small drop here, a small drop there, eventually pin drops, and then nothing as the deer clots.

 

One of things I like to do in these situations is have a camera handy (much easier with smart phones today) and take pictures as I track just in case things get difficult, I can go back and evaluate the pictures.  Likewise on here, it would help a ton to see what you guys were seeing (blood, amount, hair, etc) as you tracked.  I know it's a PITA to do and you're in the heat of the moment tracking...but in hindsight it's easy to see the benefit to it.  Just an idea and something more to take away from the experience.

 

Bowhunting isn't easy, and sooner or later...if you hunt long enough and shoot at enough animals, something unplanned/unexpected eventually happens that leads to an unrecovered animal.  And to give you some perspective, it took me almost 4 years to get my first buck when I was younger.  Bowhunting back then, on my birthday no less, I wounded and never found a 4 pointer.  Rain rolled in and washed the blood away amidst a very difficult 6 hour tracking job.  First deer I ever lost, having taken a few does before that with gun and bow.  Later that same year in November, I successfully took my first buck...and the following year took two more...all with the bow.  Success will come, just keep at it, stay positive, and try to learn from your experience.  Time afield is a great teacher!  And sites like this with guys to discuss your experiences with help too!  Keep your head up, but first lets kick around this experience and get some more details so we all can learn from it!

[Rutting Buck]

It was bright red, bubbles on one leaf where it was shot, no hair, no arrow.  When it jumped the creek the opposite side I shot was facing me & i didnt see any blood pumping out nor an exit wound.  I really can't 100% tell you where the arrow hit because I couldn't see the arrow hit the deer.  The blood went from heavy to drops the size a penny to half that size where we lost the trail

[BowhunterNJ]

Hmmm, when you see bright red with bubbles, it's usually at least a single lung...and a deer can go a long ways on a single lung hit.

Did you consistently see bubbles while tracking or just where it was shot?

What kind of distance from heavy to penny size drops?

Also were you hunting on the ground or in a treestand?  That will give us an idea on the angle of entry/exit.

The "thud" you heard will also play a role here...not sure if you hit shoulder with that thud possibly.

And there's always hair when you hit a deer...you have to cut/go through hair to get to the capillaries that yield the blood, you just might not have seen it.  It's good to be aware of that next time as it gives you a very good idea of what part of the body you may have entered/exited the deer.

[Axiom]

Golden rule #1.. Dont push a wounded deer...

[BHC]

Sorry to hear, but hope you find him. Get out there tomorrow, it's cold enough you may just find him

[BowhunterNJ]

Also might be worthwhile to give a tracker a call, no doubt a good dog can track a heck of a lot better than a human can!

The UBNJ has a list of available deer tracking contacts here:

 

http://united-bowhunters-of-nj-bowhunting-nj-outdoors-conservationi.eggzack.com/deer-tracking-contacts

[BowTechExperience]

Sorry to hear man. Good luck if you get out tracking tomorrow.

[runum n gunum]

Dont give up bright red and bubbles good sign, never push a deer if not sure of shot. Get out there tommorow and find that deer  Good Luck