Tracking perseverance...long story.

[Shanghai McCoy]

Yesterday morning a good buddy of mine called to tell me that he'd arrowed a buck with his longbow but the hit might have been "high". I offered my help in tracking so we met up and headed out to where he'd made the shot. There were three of us, with varying eyesight and experience, but we found blood right away and had a decent trail. At first...
Because we'd given the deer an hour and a half to, hopefully, bed up and bleed out, the blood was drying and freezing. Then it got to be where it was getting hard to spot till we got to where there just wasn't any. That spot was the edge of a field of prairie grass with a web of deer trails through it. I marked the last spot and we cast about for sign with out finding any.
Bill was getting pretty bummed and, to be honest, Mike and I thought it was looking not so good but, after Bill had circled the field without any luck,we decided to spread out and walk the field.
There was a fresh looking trail that I decided to follow, no blood, but the prints and other sign looked new and, as luck would have it, it was the trail laid by that buck and I was able to find it.
The bad news was that some coyotes had found it first and chewed through into the guts and made a bit of a mess of things. It appeared that his arrow was further back than he thought and the deer pretty much bled out inside. He called today and said that the one back strap and part of a roast were tore up but the rest of the meat is good.
So, the point of this long winded story is get some help and keep looking if you are on a trail that's less than "perfect" and put in that extra effort.
We owe it to the game that we shoot folks.

 

[wankerjake]

Good account of perseverance. Glad y’all found it and it didn’t just feed the coyotes.

 

[Axis II]

Couldn't have said it better McCoy.

I have been deer hunting since 2003 and have shot a total of 9 deer with 6 recovered. 2005/2006 I was walking along private/public boundary and a nice 120'' buck jumps the fence. I shot and only think I found was a pile of white fur. I glanced over the fence and 99.9% he was laying dead in the private land and I was confronted by the landowner and told no way am I allowed to go look or get the deer. I was only 16yo at the time and not a clue what I was doing, due to being self taught. 2014/2015 I switched from compound to crossbow and was in a Osage orange tree about 10ft up and a big doe came 10yards from me. I let that crossbow rip and she ducked, sending the arrow through the back-straps. Drops of blood for a few hundred yards and the tracking dog headed toward the road. We knew it was a loss cause cause the neighbors aren't hunter friendly. That same year I was walking out at gray light and a 100'' 8 pt appeared. I shot him with the x bow quartering away and he makes a run through the beans, stands there 50yards away, coughs up blood and drops. 30min later my buddy finds him and goes to grab the deer and he stands up and heads for the neighboring property you must call a warden if tracking into. I went back the next day and bubbly blood everywhere and he jumped a 5ft deep creek that was flowing pretty good. He was found 3 weeks later 5yards over the property line. I almost quit hunting due to these last two issues. I asked my buddy for the rack of that buck cause I knew by the blood it was a good hit and went ahead and used my only buck tag for the year on him out of respect.

2018 I shot a big doe about 160lbs dressed with a 45-70 at 50yards. She ran hard and crashed. I gave her 20min after the crash and began tracking. Lots of blood and then drops and then lots of blood again. I told myself I was not losing this deer and didn't care if I was there until 2am. I took my time with a small flashlight and headlamp and tracked blood and hoof prints alone until I found her 100+ yards away dead in the creek bed. Both lungs were blown to pieces but I think when I got down after she crashed 50yards away it spooked her.

2017 I shot this guy in the picture below at 50yards with a 50cal ML and not a single drop of blood in the snow until he fell down the hill and died in the creek 75yards away. Again lungs were hit and he ran hard and fast. We tracked hoof prints in the snow and grid searched for about 30min until my buddy found him laying next to a tree in the creek. Not bad for a first buck. I have learned since actually becoming a successful hunter that I should never give up and take it slow and calm and I will find it.

I had a 75yo man come help me track the wounded doe and I was so distraught about it and he said son, nothing goes to waste in nature. Coon, Possum, Coyote, Owl, Hawks, and Fox will have a meal for several days if not weeks. Yeah, it sucks but its part of the game. Mistakes happen and you looked for over an hour for her, shes gone. Since those few deer were lost, I do not take mediocre shots and make sure I am completely calmed down before even touching that safety/trigger. I let a 140'' deer walk 3 weeks ago because I didn't feel comfortable shooting left handed at a quartering away shot.

I am glad you guys found the deer and congrats. Oh, we want pictures please. I like pictures.

 

[Shanghai McCoy]

Thanks for the comments guys. Sorry, no pictures. My phone battery died while out there from "searching for a signal" overload.
It was a nice sized fork horn and, between the bean fields on one side and the corn field on the other it was nice and fat.
Actually, we think that fat might have been what plugged up the holes from the arrow. It was a pass through but he's using a two blade Zwicky head so that may have been a factor as well.

 

[Highland Lofts]

That's why I don't like lung shots. They can run a good distance after takeing a killing shot thru the lungs.

About eight years ago my oldest son shot a mid size whitetail buck. He seen it hump up after the hit and took off. Here was a little hair and a few drops of blood on the ground and that was it.
This area he dhot the deer was full of deer tracks in the wet leaves and on top of that turkeys had been in there scratching up the leaves for acorns.

We started looking in the direction it took off and then started checking the area by doing circles, a little farther every time.
After an hour or so we found him. There are people who would of only seen them few hairs and a couple drops of blood and would of turned around and left.

About twenty-five years ago I lung shot a nice big doe, seen her hump up and took off like spaceship. Same situation, no snow, just wet leaves, lots of deer tracks, no blood trail andcwas with four other deer when I shot her.
I was hunting with a neighbor, it took about an hour of searching and we found her dead as dead could be.

You owe it to the deer to search for it.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

So, the point of this long winded story is get some help and keep looking if you are on a trail that's less than "perfect" and put in that extra effort.

I also think the point is to learn how to track when there is no blood. You followed what looked like good "sign" and found the downed deer. Well done.

One of the lessons still valid in Van Dyke's more than century old, The Still Hunter is when you jump up a deer OR you down the deer and find it, is to back track from where the deer was holding still or from where it was down, and see what you visually missed and how you can improve. It does help you in the future.

I've had to help a lot of guys track their deer, I remember following the teeniest tiniest blood trail to find a downed doe for a friend. When I found her and back tracked, her blood trail was huge, but it was about 3' off the ground on the leaves of brush and on the sides of trees, as she coughed. I had been looking straight down the whole time and passed right by obvious and very encouraging sign. The only one that I've lost was the one the land owner got to after refusing me entry onto his property.... well at least the deer was down and was "harvested" by the land owner.

That's why I don't like lung shots. They can run a good distance after taking a killing shot thru the lungs.

They do?

I've only had two out of 16 deer move so far from the place they were standing when hit that I couldn't actually see them down when I walked over to where they were hit. This was after a through and through both lungs hit. One of those got both lungs but didn't exit the opposite side, and both of those were bucks that were already moving after being disturbed.

I'm starting with a pretty big hole though, .530 and it's larger still when it exits. I prefer the both-lung, thru & thru shot, but an online friend took the past two years and did nothing but shoulder shots, and had great success. He's not the only one that reports such even though he like me was exclusively using a traditional muzzle loader. I especially hear good reports from shoulder shots among the folks that use them new fangled, breech loading rifles. I tried a shoulder shot at the end of last season, and the deer dropped in its tracks.

LD

 

[Shanghai McCoy]

A shoulder shot with a firearm will, usually, anchor a deer. Downside is losing meat from it getting blood shot.

 

[Highland Lofts]

There are so many variables in bullets, velocities, angle of bullet entry, bullet direction, bullet exit and type of bullet used there is a lot to take into consideration.
No two shots are the same and some of the distance a deer will go depends upon the deer it's self.

One thing that helps in tracking a deer with little tracking sign is toilet paper.
When a track or a small spot of blood or any other sign is found place place some toilet paper there high enough yo you can see it.
Find another track, speck of blood or other sign place toilet paper there. Once you get going you can look back for the exact patch the deer took and sometimes keep looking in that direction forward might help finding other clues as to where the deer is going.

 

[WestKentucky]

A whole lot of people are real big on penetration and weight retention. At times those are good, and for archery they are the absolute goal. For rifles and handguns there is another option though in the form of bullet “failure” which can cause massive internal wounds that put an animal down quickly. When hunting small acreage, heavy brush, or near property lines that is the way to go. Putting them down while you can still see them saves a whole lot of trouble in tracking and in lost critters. My last bow kill was a similar mess internally. I hit bones in the shoulder after a slight deflection, the arrow broke the bone and stopped in the chest. Every step that deer took he shredded himself further. He ran about 60 yards before going down.

 

[MacAR]

Yea, I understand completely bud. I shot a little buck yesterday morning (opening day) and it took me 45 minutes to find him! Hell, I even walked by him once. You'd think a 180 grain, round nosed '06 bullet to the lungs at 40 yards would've stopped him. He made it 100 yards across the hay field and wadded up under a cedar tree. I had good foamy lung blood for about 30 yards, then just a drop or two every couple yards. It finally quit altogether. I just dont understand why they quit bleeding like that. The exit wound was about the size of a pop can, and he was laid in a puddle of the stuff. But for 70 yards, he didn't bleed a drop. Go figure.

But, the great thing is, y'all found him and at least he won't go to waste. Well, what the yotes didn't get anyway.

Mac

 

[hps1]

Good job, Mac! I lost the first two bucks I shot in the '50's and made up my mind to learn to track. Lung shot deer can and often do run about 40 yards if a shoulder not hit. In heavy cover if hard hit, they will usually run a fairly straight line to cover. A high hit will often not bleed for some distance and/or bleed out internally, and has been mentioned fat can plug up the holes making for tough tracking. Perseverance pays dividends.

50 years later, I was hunting nilgai while getting ready for an eland hunt so was using the 375 instead of my much more familiar 338. We spotted a few cows bedded down at the brush line across a wide sendero. I made a long stalk on them through the thick brush across sendero from them. The sendero was 100 yards wide and I had to stop three times due to encountering several deer en route and not wanting to spook them. A couple stood staring for what seemed like an eternity.

At one point in time, I eased to edge of my brush line an ranged the bedded cows at something like 350 yards (hey, it's been 15 years. ). I knew the trajectory on the 375 and felt confident at 250 or so, so decided to stalk closer.

Went a guestimated 100 yards and decided to ease out for another look. There was a two track running between my brush line and a parallel 5 strand barbed wire fence, which I would have to get close to on my belly for a clear shot. As I crawled across the road w/nothing to hide behind, the cows got restless, and stood up, staring in my direction. I decided to wing it, quickly guessed the range was about 225 or so and took the shot. I was surprised when I did not hear the 300 gr. NP bullet hit and the cows ran diagonally across the sendero toward the fence I was on, all the while increasing the range. They were heading for a crossing several hundred yards away. I managed to get on the running cow which I was sure I had hit with the first shot and fired again just before she ducked under the fence. I heard that shot connect.

Thus began the toughest tracking job I ever tackled. There were 4 or 5 nilgai in the group and the ground was already chewed up w/tracks. No blood @ the crossing, but I knew she was hit, so my bud and I followed fresh running tracks until they broke out into an open pasture covered in knee deep broom weed, then we circled, hoping to find blood. I got lucky and found one 1/4" drop of blood on top of a broom weed and we continued to circle and followed her back into another heavy mot of mesquite until it got too dark to see without a flashlight. By that time we had gone what I guessed to be 1/2-3/4 mile but we had covered miles. Walked back to truck and recovered flashlights and continued the search.

As it turned out, I should have just stayed where I took the shot, because that cow made a huge circle around me, crossed the fence I had shot from and the sendero, expiring about 600 yards from where she had been bedded about 50 yards back into the brush.

My (terrible) shot had opened her chest just behind the shoulder and fortunately the wound had opened as she ran and the blood trail increased the farther she went. ( Figured she had covered a mile after shot.) We finally figured out that the cows had moved at least 100 yards farther away from me while I was making that last leg of the stalk and laid back down, so I had underestimated the range by at least 100 yards.

Still making slow headway, about half hour after dark, we decided we'd better go back to camp before the cowboys figured we were in trouble and came looking for us. Tried to recruit one or two to help us, but they didn't want to go due to rattlesnakes and tried to discourage us from going back.

All in all, we spent the better part of five hours tracking and didn't get back to camp until midnight.

Regards,
hps

 

[Captcurt]

I am looking at an 8 pt that I took back in the 70's. Nice buck, but the main reason that he is on the wall is to remind me to squeeze the trigger. He came into a scrape and as soon as I saw his head I fell apart and jerked the trigger. We trailed him for 4 1/2 hours with part of the trailing done on our hands and knees. There have been a few more trailing jobs, but this one will never be forgotten.

 

[Encoreman]

Glad you found him, deer can be some tough critters at times to kill. I have seen them literally shot to death, however they were still running full tilt for a creek. A bit of advice, if you don't have a friend that has a dog that can find them, get you a lab and train it from a puppy to like the smell of deer. Short story several years ago my nephew came and asked if he could borrow my black lab, his bil had shot a deer with bow and they couldn't find it. They said deer went to end of grass patch and took a right, well guess what deer was to the left , dog found it in 5 minutes. Keep them on a long leash and let them work.

 

[Shanghai McCoy]

^^^
Dog tracking has only recently been legalized here in Kansass but that is good advice.