Okay, here’s what happened:
I’m hunting 10 acres of private, over a turnip field. Four deer came right into the food plot at 4:25. 2 nanny does, 2 fawns. I had one fawn at 20 but I wanted one of the big girls. Just my luck, the one I wanted stepped broadside, slight quartering away, into my 11:00 shooting lane at 18 yards. I drew back, bent at the waist, settled the pin low on her lungs right above the heart, light pressure on the release...
I hold my follow-through as best I can, but I can see my red lighted nock sticking out of her left chest, about 6-8 inches above where I was aiming, but definitely under the back strap and into the ribs. I pay attention to everything around me for 20 minutes while texting the landowner, then get out of the tree and slip back to the truck quiet as a mouse. The landowner, an ardent deer hunter with over 150 kills and tons of tracking experience, mandates that I go back to my in-laws’ for an hour, then come back to try tracking before dark.
We get to the site of the hit, and it’s about 90 minutes after the shot. Within 10 yards of the shot, we start to get blood. A little at first, but bright pinkish-red. We pick up a few more drops every 10-20 yards, then we find the ass-end of my arrow, broken off, covered in beautiful lung blood, next to a much bigger, bubbly spatter. Awesome, looks like I got the second lung after all. Another big splatter or three, then all of a sudden, 130 yards of blood just stops. Like, two pink frothy dots on a leaf, then nothing. Anywhere. Looked on trunks, in thick bedding cover, along all interconnected trails, on rocks and vines, and the blood seemingly vanished. We grid searched about 4 acres of trails and bedding, for over 2 hours on our hands and knees and into the dark, before the landowner said it was time to pack it in. He has given me permission to go back and search tomorrow, but I don’t have access to the neighboring property that it could have gone to and he will be at work and can’t help me. The real kicker is that I have to leave the state tomorrow night and head home for work myself. We both were hoping to have a deer to hang tonight, but the landowner is not optimistic that she’s recoverable given the property lines and cold blood trail. We know she is hit in at least one lung, probably both, and likely died, but also has about 24” of arrow still in her and that she could have gone just about anywhere without more blood or if the wound closed up around the arrow shaft.
This is my first saddle kill, and the biggest deer I’ve shot. I’m depressed as hell thinking I might not recover her.
Now, before someone decides to preach about “doing everything you can for the animal and we owe it to our sport”, I’ll just say save that. Of course that’s my plan. I’m not a mindless savage. I’m interested in recovering this deer at all costs, but I can’t do anything about property lines or having to maintain full-time jobs at the expense of game recovery, or the fact that her blood went dry after 130 yards of decent pink death-juice. I’m not interested in anyone’s idea of game-recovery ethics, I’m interested in strictly tracking logistics. This has come up on several other forums but I value SH.com way more. I would really just like honest, nonjudgmental feedback about how I can up my odds of recovery.
I am 100% confident that the windage on my shot was correct, and that I got at least one lung; I’m 60% confident I got both lungs, and 80% confident that I rammed the broadhead into her far shoulder, based on the blood texture and the fact that the arrow was hairy, bloody, and bubbly up to the nock. It was by no means a perfect shot, but it was the correct shot angle and range, in the correct area for lung collapse. We just can’t find anymore blood or her. Granted the daylight may help, but sh**, I could use a win right now...
Any ideas? I really would love to be able to follow this up with a photo of a dead deer, but it’s hard to be optimistic.
I’m hunting 10 acres of private, over a turnip field. Four deer came right into the food plot at 4:25. 2 nanny does, 2 fawns. I had one fawn at 20 but I wanted one of the big girls. Just my luck, the one I wanted stepped broadside, slight quartering away, into my 11:00 shooting lane at 18 yards. I drew back, bent at the waist, settled the pin low on her lungs right above the heart, light pressure on the release...
I hold my follow-through as best I can, but I can see my red lighted nock sticking out of her left chest, about 6-8 inches above where I was aiming, but definitely under the back strap and into the ribs. I pay attention to everything around me for 20 minutes while texting the landowner, then get out of the tree and slip back to the truck quiet as a mouse. The landowner, an ardent deer hunter with over 150 kills and tons of tracking experience, mandates that I go back to my in-laws’ for an hour, then come back to try tracking before dark.
We get to the site of the hit, and it’s about 90 minutes after the shot. Within 10 yards of the shot, we start to get blood. A little at first, but bright pinkish-red. We pick up a few more drops every 10-20 yards, then we find the ass-end of my arrow, broken off, covered in beautiful lung blood, next to a much bigger, bubbly spatter. Awesome, looks like I got the second lung after all. Another big splatter or three, then all of a sudden, 130 yards of blood just stops. Like, two pink frothy dots on a leaf, then nothing. Anywhere. Looked on trunks, in thick bedding cover, along all interconnected trails, on rocks and vines, and the blood seemingly vanished. We grid searched about 4 acres of trails and bedding, for over 2 hours on our hands and knees and into the dark, before the landowner said it was time to pack it in. He has given me permission to go back and search tomorrow, but I don’t have access to the neighboring property that it could have gone to and he will be at work and can’t help me. The real kicker is that I have to leave the state tomorrow night and head home for work myself. We both were hoping to have a deer to hang tonight, but the landowner is not optimistic that she’s recoverable given the property lines and cold blood trail. We know she is hit in at least one lung, probably both, and likely died, but also has about 24” of arrow still in her and that she could have gone just about anywhere without more blood or if the wound closed up around the arrow shaft.
This is my first saddle kill, and the biggest deer I’ve shot. I’m depressed as hell thinking I might not recover her.
Now, before someone decides to preach about “doing everything you can for the animal and we owe it to our sport”, I’ll just say save that. Of course that’s my plan. I’m not a mindless savage. I’m interested in recovering this deer at all costs, but I can’t do anything about property lines or having to maintain full-time jobs at the expense of game recovery, or the fact that her blood went dry after 130 yards of decent pink death-juice. I’m not interested in anyone’s idea of game-recovery ethics, I’m interested in strictly tracking logistics. This has come up on several other forums but I value SH.com way more. I would really just like honest, nonjudgmental feedback about how I can up my odds of recovery.
I am 100% confident that the windage on my shot was correct, and that I got at least one lung; I’m 60% confident I got both lungs, and 80% confident that I rammed the broadhead into her far shoulder, based on the blood texture and the fact that the arrow was hairy, bloody, and bubbly up to the nock. It was by no means a perfect shot, but it was the correct shot angle and range, in the correct area for lung collapse. We just can’t find anymore blood or her. Granted the daylight may help, but sh**, I could use a win right now...
Any ideas? I really would love to be able to follow this up with a photo of a dead deer, but it’s hard to be optimistic.