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What Happened? Failed Recovery

That's the classic behavior of a gut shot. Deer run a short distance, stop, and then walk off.
Sometimes the holes get plugged with guts so they don't always leave much of a blood trail.
Gut shot deer often won't go far before laying down. Paunch hits require sneaking out with as little disturbance as possible. Even looking for the arrow can screw you, but finding it can give valuable clues.
Gut shot deer need a very minimum of 4 hours before blood trailing, but even that is risky. 8 hours is much safer.
My bet is you hit him back and the arrow should be somewhere close to the hit. Go find water and look for him.
 
Sorry to hear. Losing a deer is never pleasant. I agree with a few other's that your hit sounds like a high muscle hit. I would look at using mechanicals as they usually have more cutting area. I had a similar experience a few years ago. However, I was able to track the buck down and put a second arrow into him. Since then I have stopped using fix blades as I have found the entrance and extra wounds to be too small. I have move to 1.5" or greater cutting area to have a large entrance and exit wounds. Today I am shooting 2"Sver Titanium 2.0 which have been perfect on White Tail, Mule and Elk.
 
All I can say is whoever thinks slightly quartering is better than totally broadside is not thinking straight. Harder to double lung quartering and also easier to get one lung only and also more deer to go through to get a pass thru. I think ya gut shot him or low liver, where you yheld is a bit too low and can't be good even hit exactly where you held. Shawn
 
All I can say is whoever thinks slightly quartering is better than totally broadside is not thinking straight. Harder to double lung quartering and also easier to get one lung only and also more deer to go through to get a pass thru. I think ya gut shot him or low liver, where you yheld is a bit too low and can't be good even hit exactly where you held. Shawn
I will take a broadside over a quartering shot any day. "Quartering" is subjective. There's a lot of shots that the hunter only thinks it was broadside and when they recover the deer they realize how much they misjudged the angle.
But a true slightly quartering angle means you are basically aiming for the far shoulder which means a lot of hits will not have an exit wound. An exit hole is the primary reason Ashby advocates a heavy arrow with a high FOC and a strong 2 blade.
 
I know this post of a couple months old but here is something I have picked up in my 50 years of deer hunting. Angles are usually more than we perceive. That slight going away look to us is usually much more of an angle.

The shot described and results in my experience is a hit in the low shoulder or leg. Bright red blood where the deer stood and then deer walks off and no more blood found. This is usually not fatal. You might get another shot at this deer next year.

As for the arrow not being found. Those things have a habit of just vanishing sometimes. LOL

My cousin shot a deer and had a complete pass through and deer did not go 30 yards all the time in plain sight. He could not find the arrow and he even went back after the season and raked the leaves. The next fall while hunting from the same tree one day he catches a flick of orange down through the woods. At first he thought it was someone with orange hat etc. But when he put his binoculars on it he could see what it was. It was the orange fletching on his arrow he shot the last year and the arrow was sticking about 10 feet up in a tree about 70 yards away from him. Arrow had to have deflected off of something after passing through the deer and zinged off down through the woods and had just enough power left to stick in the tree enough to hold it. He was using a fixed blade sharp pointed broadhead. Can't remember the make.
 
Older thread, but I just read this book and it's probably the most thorough resource I've seen regarding shot selection/placement, assessing where the deer is likely hit based on blood, hair, etc., and what to do in various scenarios.


Anyway, I enjoyed it and plan to read it again closer to next season and thought I'd share in case anyone is interested.

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Older thread, but I just read this book and it's probably the most thorough resource I've seen regarding shot selection/placement, assessing where the deer is likely hit based on blood, hair, etc., and what to do in various scenarios.


Anyway, I enjoyed it and plan to read it again closer to next season and thought I'd share in case anyone is interested.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk
I have that book. It's excellent. Should be required reading for every deer hunter.
 
I have that book. It's excellent. Should be required reading for every deer hunter.
I agree. It's critical stuff.

Also, I thought it was going to be a dry read, but it was genuinely interesting. It made me realize that where I've always been taught to aim is slightly too far back on the deer.

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I wouldn't say it was your broadhead. I have been bowhunting for 50 years and most of that was hunting from a saddle and I have used all types of broadheads and never lost a deer because of the heads I was using. I have lost a few from poor hits that looked good at the time but wasn't. I used G5 Montec for years and have taken numerous deer with them. I use Slick Tricks, Rage and Ramcats now only because I like to shoot different heads and they all are deadly.
 
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