• The SH Membership has gone live. Only SH Members have access to post in the classifieds. All members can view the classifieds. Starting in 2020 only SH Members will be admitted to the annual hunting contest. Current members will need to follow these steps to upgrade: 1. Click on your username 2. Click on Account upgrades 3. Choose SH Member and purchase.
  • We've been working hard the past few weeks to come up with some big changes to our vendor policies to meet the changing needs of our community. Please see the new vendor rules here: Vendor Access Area Rules

help! tracking/recovery suggestions

B

beej32

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 10, 2017
Messages
279
I shot a buck this morning with my bow but don't have a lot of confidence in the hit. He was perfectly broadside, about 20 yards away and I was 15 feet up. The forward/backward shot placement was just behind the front leg. But, the shot was very low, enough so that I thought I had missed completely.

I waited a bit and checked the arrow, and there is minimal blood on it, but the conditions here are wet after it rained/drizzled all day yesterday, so that may account for the arrow.

I only visually inspected the arrow and tried not to stir up the site much by checking for other blood, in case it's necessary to call a dog.

Any thoughts on the likely lethality? Time to wait before tracking? Any specific things I should key in on to help figure out how to proceed?

Any help is greatly appreciated.
 
Are dogs legal in your state?

Have you walked the track at all?

Did you find any hair at the shot sight? There should be cut hair from the entrance and hopefully the exit wound. Take pictures.

C0A4F8C5-89DF-4CBB-8CB8-12B01C6A3950.jpeg

Give us your best guess as to which square you hit the deer in, and your best guess, based on angle, that the arrow exited the deer in. If you think it went out the bottom of the deer, not in any of the lowest squares, note that.
 
How did the deer react at the shot? Bound away then stop and look around? Full sprint out of sight? Walk away slowly flicking tail?
 
I'd say 4D or 5D for both entry and exit. He bounded into the treeline less than 5 yards away and I lost site, and there were four does around that also scattered. That made it tough to distinguish sounds, but two bolted then stopped nearby to investigate, and I couldn't tell with the other two to say if the run further back in was him or either of those.
 
If you’re confident you hit that low, it’s very long odds that the hit is fatal. However, you owe it to the deer to run out the track. It would be odd if the arrow went in and out the same location given the angle from you in the tree. But at best, you’re looking at a single lung hit. Sometimes those deer live sometimes they die. Sometimes it makes sense to push them, and cause them to bleed internally/lose oxygen intake abilities. Sometimes it’s best to let cold weather kill them.

You’re also looking at long odds of trailing the deer effectively if it rained and washed blood away.

I’d call a dog if you can get one willing to take the track. And I’d have my bow in hand.

There’s always the chance the hit ends up being fatal because you either misremembered and hit higher than you thought, or you just got lucky and created enough hemorrhaging to kill him.
 
Thanks, that's extremely helpful. Without a doubt I'm going to do all I can to track it. Fortunately the precipitation has stopped, so hopefully the residual moisture isn't a problem assuming we can pick up a blood trail. And I'll give an update once I have one.
 
I hit a deer this year in 4D from about 22' up at about 24 yards and it was almost immediately fatal. He ran about 50 yards, bleeding like crazy and died within seconds. Like the top, left corner of 4D. When I gutted him, it was 100% evident I'd hit the heart. So you might not have as big a problem as you think.
 
I would get a trained dog team in, rain does not make the slightest difference to a good dog, as is also the same for lack of blood to the human eye, the dog will work the ground disturbance from the cleave and small particles you can't see, there is no stopping the reaction of bacteria and vegitation disturbance.
low brisket shot can be difficult but if you have got high enough you could do enough damage, hard to say without seeing the shot site, look up a good team,regards and good luck ps talk to someone who will track for you before heading back in,
did you find any hair/meat/skin or anything you can for a tracker
www.unitedbloodtrackers.org

United Blood Trackers

United Blood Trackers is dedicated to promoting resource conservation through the use of trained tracking dogs in the ethical recovery of big game. United Blood Trackers United Blood Trackers (UBT) welcomes you into the world of tracking dogs for the recovery of wounded big game. We are all...
www.unitedbloodtrackers.org www.unitedbloodtrackers.org
 
Those boxes in this grid are big. try to be more precise when you pick a square. What broadhead(big cut expandable or fixed). When the shots get outside of dead center it becomes a game of fractions of an inch. I agree it's not likely the entrance and exit are on the same level. You have to go back and try to work the blood. The devil is in the details, the arrow, hair, any blood, tracks, topography. Go slow, it's a frustrating puzzle but you owe it to yourself and to the deer to put in a good effort. Good luck. I was in your shoes last Sat., I know how you feel.
 
I'm shooting Exodus fixed blade, so likely not very helpful if I'm dependent on luckily hitting a spot that'd cause it to bleed out.

And, I've yet to follow the trail, but I went back to reassess the shot and the little optimism I had from having blood on the arrow is all but gone. I do think I allowed the blood to alter my initial impressions from the shot. When I first shot, I thought I had only nicked the leg, but the blood on the vanes made me rethink that. But what I saw now supports that- mainly based from tracing the line from where my arrows is embedded in the ground back to the stand. I also found two small pieces of flesh a few yards from where he was hit, but no blood drops.

I have some help on the way before seriously looking. But at this point, I'm hoping it's a flesh wound that'll heal up quickly.
 
Any pictures of the flesh, you might not get blood at first so don't think because you have no blood it isn't hard hit. the other thing is every time you go back you could ruin your chances if the shot is less than good, have you got a dog team coming to look?
 
No. Unfortunately it’s the opening day of rifle season so I haven’t been able to get someone with a dog.

here’s one of the pieces
 

Attachments

  • 976432BF-9212-4E6F-AA39-E6A260A6A763.jpeg
    976432BF-9212-4E6F-AA39-E6A260A6A763.jpeg
    101.8 KB · Views: 42
  • F1F0ACB2-62E0-4471-9AE6-C379B2F6F02A.jpeg
    F1F0ACB2-62E0-4471-9AE6-C379B2F6F02A.jpeg
    129.8 KB · Views: 41
  • 06319A72-A233-4ADE-BF46-47BCB7278301.jpeg
    06319A72-A233-4ADE-BF46-47BCB7278301.jpeg
    105 KB · Views: 44
  • FFD195D0-391C-4F1D-9B57-7CAB3B9CD2E7.jpeg
    FFD195D0-391C-4F1D-9B57-7CAB3B9CD2E7.jpeg
    105 KB · Views: 45
Hopefully the person coming to help you is knowledgable in tracking. Between the two of you, you should be able to give it a good shot.

Unfortunately I'm a little biased now against just calling in a dog. My experience wasnt the greatest and I realized I could've done it all myself with taking my time, even confirmed by the tracker when he apologized for their poor performance. No doubt a good dog team can help, but I think they're harder to come by than everyone thinks.

Good luck!

Sent from my SM-J337V using Tapatalk
 
Thanks everyone for the help and encouragement, but no luck tracking all afternoon. My initial feeling after the shot was a clean miss out that I clipped the leg. The bloody arrow had me doubting that, but I really suspect he’s limping around but alive, and pray he heals quickly and thoroughly
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top