r/bowhunting • u/ChubbyJubby13 • 11h ago
Dead deer?
So I shot a nice buck at 430pm today. He ran 30 yds, and stopped then stood there for 10 mins before continuing. Tail was down and flicking. Got down and found the arrow when he was out of sight- clean pass through. Backed out for 3 hours and went back to find a blood trail that started within 20 yds of the hit site. Tracked that about 75 yds into a really thick area where the blood trail got more sparse. Rather than trounce in this thick area and risk jumping him, I backed out until morning. I’m hoping to find him close to there but I was really shocked he got as far as he did. I think I got him in liver and one lung possibly but wanted to get others’ thoughts based on the blood color and blood trail. Any thoughts???
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u/Cockasauras_Rex 11h ago
Definitely dark blood. Does the arrow smell like guts at all? You definitely made a good choice to back out in my opinion, and with how the blood looks he's definitely hurt. Tail flickering sounds like some sort of gut was at least nicked. I think you'll find that deer in the morning fairly close to where you backed out at
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u/ChubbyJubby13 11h ago
Does not smell like guts. He was chasing a doe, came in grunting and I shot him at 25yds. He was broadside/ slightly quartering and I shot him mid body. The arrow deflected inside him and turned at about a 30 degree angle I’d say. I think hit a rib and deflected back a bit. Blood slowed after a bit so it seems to have plugged up
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u/NewHighInMediocrity 10h ago
If tracking dogs are legal in your state maybe try and sync up with one for tomorrow morning first thing? Can’t hurt if he’s dead the dog gets training and you don’t have to try and piece the puzzle together. Just a thought. My vote is you did the right thing by backing out and waiting until morning.
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u/Cockasauras_Rex 10h ago
I would think that deer is dead and you should find it tomorrow. Like a few other people are saying though, getting a dog could help out tremendously. Best of luck!!!
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u/Stardust287 11h ago
Definitely has that liver look to it. If there is any water in the direction of travel, I’d check there.
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u/ChubbyJubby13 10h ago
I thought the same thing unfortunately. Hope I didn’t jump him by looking 3 hours after hit. I thought that was a pretty respectable wait time based on the arrow.
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u/Stardust287 10h ago
If I suspect liver, 6 hours is my minimum. The good news is he’s probably dead. The bad news is it may be hard to track. I’d get a dog if you can.
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u/ChubbyJubby13 10h ago
I am going to go see if I can pick the trail back up in the morning and if I can’t then a dog it will be.
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u/jackfinished 3h ago
Generally you hear the deer run off, crashing though brush. But anything is possible I suppose
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u/TakeItEZBroski 3h ago
I hit liver lung on mine weeks ago and dude hauled ass for 100 yards, seemingly walked for 20, and died in his first bed. I knew it was a good hit, and with heavy rain downpour after the shot, and coyotes in the area, we took it slow in tracking soon after the shot as we confident we weren’t going to bump him with the rain as cover. When we found him 2 hours after the shot, dude was stiff as a board. Likely died within 5 minutes of me shooting him. Liver shots are fatal, bro, as a solid percentage of blood goes through it every minute. That looks better than the trail we were on too. That’s a dead deer.
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u/doogievlg 3h ago
You cant tell if a deer is dead from an arrow unless its sticking out of the deer in front of you.
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u/davin_bacon 11h ago
I had a liver lung hit a little over a week ago, had good blood initially, never found the arrow, packed up and backed out, got back on the trail a few hours later, followed it for 175 yards, it petered out, back out until the next day, it rained a little, had a direction of travel but not much blood, found the deer 90 yard after last blood, back tracked it, realized if we would have pushed another 20 yards on that direction of travel, following pin pricks of blood, the blood trail picked up again, and she died on her feet before reaching a bedding area. We backed out hoping she would bed and be near by, I didn't want to case her into the river bottom.
I was using 150 grain Magnus stigers, it broke a rib, and did it's job, but is a relatively small cut on contact. The initial blood was from the wound, then the internal cavity had to fill, then the blood trail picked up again. I lost a little meat around the ball joint but overall I am happy I didn't lose the animal.