Lets Talk - wounded deer / tracking

[Jetman]

This is not a thread about preaching about ethicle shots etc. sometimes s*** happens and i would like to hear real life experience about tracking wounded deer, how far you have tracked them VS where the shot landed(if found).
i have heard stories of heart shot deer going a mile etc..

i have shot a deer that i could not find, that on the shot the deer dropped, for about 3 seconds rolled around on ground. then got up and ran. upon walking up to place of shot there was a large amount of hair and a bit of blood on hair.. following the trail there was bits of blood and hair along the way.
tracked this deer to a barbwire fence, where it bumped it and left hair, then walked further down, and jumped the fence. the deer made it to an open meadow where the snow had blown over any remaining tracks..

where would a shot placement be that would drop a deer and throw a lot of hair, but not be fatal ?

 

[Grizzlypeg]

Your shot was most likely fatal, just not fast enough.

I've had a heart shot buck let out a nasty cry then jump a fence about 20 yards away, lie down to die another 20 yards further. Blood trail like a wide paint brush.

I double lunged a doe and she ran out of sight. I tracked the blood trail as far as I could (75-100 yards), eventually using a flashlight, and had to mark the last known point with trail marker, and resume the search in the morning light. Turned out she made a 90 degree turn at the last seen blood, made it into a bluff and crumpled just inside the bush line. Here I had guessed incorrectly that she continued to run straight. Couldn't see where she went from the point i took the shot. Was glad to see the coyotes hadn't chewed her during the night. That was the longest I'd seen a deer go with a well placed shot.

 

[saskgunowner101]

This is not a thread about preaching about ethicle shots etc. sometimes s*** happens and i would like to hear real life experience about tracking wounded deer, how far you have tracked them VS where the shot landed(if found).
i have heard stories of heart shot deer going a mile etc..

i have shot a deer that i could not find, that on the shot the deer dropped, for about 3 seconds rolled around on ground. then got up and ran. upon walking up to place of shot there was a large amount of hair and a bit of blood on hair.. following the trail there was bits of blood and hair along the way.
tracked this deer to a barbwire fence, where it bumped it and left hair, then walked further down, and jumped the fence. the deer made it to an open meadow where the snow had blown over any remaining tracks..

where would a shot placement be that would drop a deer and throw a lot of hair, but not be fatal ?

Maybe the bullet zipped the brisket somewhere, but that doesn't really account for the rolling around on the ground part. Mayube it was an eventually fatal shot, but the fat sealed up the bullet hole?

I've been hunting 15 years now, have used 223, 243, 308, 30-06, 9.3x62, 257 WBY etc, and mild muzzleloader loads. Every single deer has went between 0-120 meters before piling up, head shots/double lung or heart. If a deer makes it further than that, it wasn't the shot you thought you made, or you had a bullet failure.

 

[iron cat]

What color and texture was the hair and was the blood dark, watery, pink and bubbly??
Cat

 

[blasted_saber]

I had a heart shot doe go about a hundred metres (exit hole and all). Furthest I've had one go. The rest have gone between 0 and 40m.

 

[Eagleye]

A Common mistake made is following up immediately after the shot when the animal runs.
Sit down, wait 20 minutes, then pick up the trail, slowly and carefully, being ready to
shoot quickly if needed.

If a wounded animal is not immediately pursued, they will often go a short distance,
and then lay down. If the wound is well located, they may just die where they lay.

But even when the hit is not a fatal one, they lay down and stiffen uo.
You may then get another chance at it when it stands up from it's bed. Dave.

 

[cyberman]

This is my first year hunting deer, so I have next to zero experience ... but a friend is mentoring me and he's been hunting for decades. He shot a buck (crossbow) last Thursday night at 4:30 pm just before sunset and the buck took off into the bush. My friend waited 2 hours to avoid pushing the buck away, but when he started to look for a blood trail he could only find small drops of bright red blood. He found the bolt as the arrow passed through the deer and was lying on the ground, but no air bubbles in the blood, no slime, and no dark coloured blood. He managed to follow the weak/spotty trail across the back of 4 fields into a bush along a creek but gave up after 4 hours when the blood trail disappeared and his flashlights were dying. Plus there seemed to be a lot of coyotes around him and he could see their eyes in the distance, so the deer was not likely going to be able to stop and rest.

The next morning I joined him and we resumed tracking in the bush. It was very slow going as we would find one small drop of blood on a twig and then spend time fanning out until we found the next drop, maybe 10 feet or 50 feet away. The deer crossed a small creek TWICE which was another challenge. After 4 more hours we followed the trail out of the bush into another corn field, and managed to find a few more drops of blood along the edge of the field next to the bush and then the drops stopped. The ground was frozen, so no footprints could be seen. We tried many times to pick the trail back up but at this point we were likely trespassing in a field where we didn't have permission and had no idea what direction to head in.

It was a frustrating way to end. I felt bad for my buddy who has taken many deer with good shot placement but clearly made a bad shot this time. We're hoping that the deer is not going to become coyote dinner or have a slow death. Hopefully the deer survives. My friend feels like the shot may been low and too far forward.

It was my first experience tracking and I learned a lot about blood trails and using sticks to mark the last known blood drop, then fanning out and back to find the next drop. Having 2 of us helped speed up the process. I'm guessing that we covered at least 2 kms "as-the-crow-flies" over 8-9 hours of tracking (including the distance tracked from the night before), so the deer was covering a lot of ground. We only found 2-3 spots where the deer had stood still for a few minutes, as there were more drops of blood in those areas. But never a large amount.

 

[powerbaitron]

A Common mistake made is following up immediately after the shot when the animal runs.
Sit down, wait 20 minutes, then pick up the trail, slowly and carefully, being ready to
shoot quickly if needed.

If a wounded animal is not immediately pursued, they will often go a short distance,
and then lay down. If the wound is well located, they may just die where they lay.

But even when the hit is not a fatal one, they lay down and stiffen uo.
You may then get another chance at it when it stands up from it's bed. Dave.

Also don’t be shy to send a second bullet…02$

 

[TheCoachZed]

This is my first year hunting deer, so I have next to zero experience ... but a friend is mentoring me and he's been hunting for decades. He shot a buck (crossbow) last Thursday night at 4:30 pm just before sunset and the buck took off into the bush. My friend waited 2 hours to avoid pushing the buck away, but when he started to look for a blood trail he could only find small drops of bright red blood. He found the bolt as the arrow passed through the deer and was lying on the ground, but no air bubbles in the blood, no slime, and no dark coloured blood. He managed to follow the weak/spotty trail across the back of 4 fields into a bush along a creek but gave up after 4 hours when the blood trail disappeared and his flashlights were dying. Plus there seemed to be a lot of coyotes around him and he could see their eyes in the distance, so the deer was not likely going to be able to stop and rest.

The next morning I joined him and we resumed tracking in the bush. It was very slow going as we would find one small drop of blood on a twig and then spend time fanning out until we found the next drop, maybe 10 feet or 50 feet away. The deer crossed a small creek TWICE which was another challenge. After 4 more hours we followed the trail out of the bush into another corn field, and managed to find a few more drops of blood along the edge of the field next to the bush and then the drops stopped. The ground was frozen, so no footprints could be seen. We tried many times to pick the trail back up but at this point we were likely trespassing in a field where we didn't have permission and had no idea what direction to head in.

It was a frustrating way to end. I felt bad for my buddy who has taken many deer with good shot placement but clearly made a bad shot this time. We're hoping that the deer is not going to become coyote dinner or have a slow death. Hopefully the deer survives. My friend feels like the shot may been low and too far forward.

It was my first experience tracking and I learned a lot about blood trails and using sticks to mark the last known blood drop, then fanning out and back to find the next drop. Having 2 of us helped speed up the process. I'm guessing that we covered at least 2 kms "as-the-crow-flies" over 8-9 hours of tracking (including the distance tracked from the night before), so the deer was covering a lot of ground. We only found 2-3 spots where the deer had stood still for a few minutes, as there were more drops of blood in those areas. But never a large amount.

From my own experience, liver shots will give you that reaction - deer will lay on the ground a while and consistently bleed, but the amount can taper off from a lot at first to a little at the end.

I've shot a few deer in the liver, from various angles; some was operator error, some was due to the head-on angle (bullet sliced the liver after going through a lung) and some was equipment error. None of them were easy tracks. All were dead within a few hundred yards and recovered. Most of them laid down once they thought they'd reached safety.

OP, if I had to bet, I'd say you were tracking a brisket shot, though. I lost a deer this way once due to a sharp angle bow shot. A degree more, and I would have centerpunched her heart. Instead, she led me a merry tracking chase and I think she's still alive today. My brother-in-law did the same thing and lost the biggest buck he'd ever put his sights on. Blew the brisket hair off with a .30-06, and that deer was shot by someone else later in the season.

 

[coleman1495]

A few years ago we had a rather unfortunate incident where a buck was wounded and never recovered.
It was shot at maybe 30yds somewhere in the chest. It must have missed the vitals and went through the ribcage.

The buck hit the ground instantly, flopped a few times then ran. This is where I stand by my claim that if you shoot something you fire until it stops moving or you run out of bullets. We followed a heavy blood trail literally all day, about 5 miles zigzagging through heavy bush. Eventually it got dark and we lost the trail.
Next day we returned and picked up on the old trail. The buck had went into a frozen swamp overnight and layed down. In the morning it got back up, continued walking another mile until it hit a cutline. At that point there was a fresh puddle of blood on the cut line edge and that was it. We couldn’t pick back up on the blood again. There was way too many buck tracks to follow tracks alone.
We never did recover that animal, was a terrible experience.

So yeah if its still moving, keep shooting. Never assume its dead.

 

[remyltr]

A Common mistake made is following up immediately after the shot when the animal runs.
Sit down, wait 20 minutes, then pick up the trail, slowly and carefully, being ready to
shoot quickly if needed.

If a wounded animal is not immediately pursued, they will often go a short distance,
and then lay down. If the wound is well located, they may just die where they lay.

But even when the hit is not a fatal one, they lay down and stiffen uo.
You may then get another chance at it when it stands up from it's bed. Dave.

THIS

Don’t go running in after you’ve shot it

 

[saskgunowner101]

A few years ago we had a rather unfortunate incident where a buck was wounded and never recovered.
It was shot at maybe 30yds somewhere in the chest. It must have missed the vitals and went through the ribcage.

The buck hit the ground instantly, flopped a few times then ran. This is where I stand by my claim that if you shoot something you fire until it stops moving or you run out of bullets.

You go ahead and shoot the piss out of your deer, I'll stick with being a good shooter, and have confidence knowing the animal is already dead on it's feet.

 

[TheCoachZed]

A few years ago we had a rather unfortunate incident where a buck was wounded and never recovered.
It was shot at maybe 30yds somewhere in the chest. It must have missed the vitals and went through the ribcage.

The buck hit the ground instantly, flopped a few times then ran. This is where I stand by my claim that if you shoot something you fire until it stops moving or you run out of bullets. We followed a heavy blood trail literally all day, about 5 miles zigzagging through heavy bush. Eventually it got dark and we lost the trail.
Next day we returned and picked up on the old trail. The buck had went into a frozen swamp overnight and layed down. In the morning it got back up, continued walking another mile until it hit a cutline. At that point there was a fresh puddle of blood on the cut line edge and that was it. We couldn’t pick back up on the blood again. There was way too many buck tracks to follow tracks alone.
We never did recover that animal, was a terrible experience.

So yeah if its still moving, keep shooting. Never assume its dead.

This is good advice. And if you're approaching one laying down, if it looks capable of getting away (ie, legs aren't in the air or something), make sure you're ready to finish it off.

 

[coleman1495]

First 2 minutes of this video are a great example. Don’t get cocky its not over until its over.

 

[TheCoachZed]

You go ahead and shoot the piss out of your deer, I'll stick with being a good shooter, and have confidence knowing the animal is already dead on it's feet.

I've shot deer and bear that looked to be dead on their feet but most decidedly were not. And even if they were: If a second bullet hole saves you dragging it 100 yards out of a bog, you're better off.

Obviously spray and pray shooting is bad. So is losing a deer because you thought you made a shot you didn't.

My cousin's first buck was a 5-pt that he shot at about 10 yards from a treestand with buckshot. Should have flattened it, but he somehow managed to only put one pellet in the lung and missed with the rest of the load. I shot the deer twice more as it ran away and smashed its front leg. Upon butchering, he was grousing about how I'd ruined all that extra meat.

I said nothing, but thought to myself: I'm not sure that deer would have handily folded itself under the nearest evergreen if it had had four working legs and a barely-leaking lung, and far as I saw it, the half-pound of lost venison was well worth it, to eliminate that deer running off to somewhere we couldn't recover it. My cousin *thought* he smoked that deer, and he *should* have, but he didn't, and if that deer had made it 100 yards in that area, with minimal blood trail, I'm not sure we would have found it.

 

[Jetman]

What color and texture was the hair and was the blood dark, watery, pink and bubbly??
Cat

hair was greyish and wirey (older doe) , blood was well.. blood red bright. first blood probably 20yds from where it dropped and a bit splattery along the way , but mostly small drip here and there (easy to see in snow)
waited a while before really getting on the trail and it did not stop to sit down for 700 meters which is when i lost the trail

 

[DVXDUDE]

Watch my buddy shoot a 6 point buck this year at about 50 yards. Buck took off like a rocket, crossed the 100 yards of the field then jumped in the bush.

My buddy is positive he missed. I said no way just from the sound(massive THUD) before even the BANG.

First 100 yards we didn't find a drop of blood. He kept saying I think I missed.

20 yards inside the bush the buck is laying dead. Bullet took out both lungs high and he was moving so fast the body cavity didn't spill ANY blood

I wonder how many times people sat they missed because of the deers reaction and not finding sign at the shot. But in fact they in deed make a good shot

 

[jlovie]

So yeah if its still moving, keep shooting. Never assume its dead.

My thinking now as well. When I was 17, I shot a buck at maybe 50m he dropped, turned around and started crawling using his front legs only. At this point, the only angle I had to shoot was a rump shot or a head/high neck shot. The way he was crawling, I thought for sure he was done so I decided to not take a head shot. He managed to go about 30m, crawled off into the bush and I lost sight of him. I waited a half hour to go look and found no deer and barely any blood. I looked in circles that morning and found nothing. My dad and uncle looked with me in the afternoon to the same outcome. I thought I made a good shot, the strange part was he was walking with at me when I shot, so whatever I did, I sure buggered it up. 30+ years of hunting, I regret only 2 shots and not taking a head shot while he was crawling is one of them.

 

[Potashminer]

This is not a thread about preaching about ethicle shots etc. sometimes s*** happens and i would like to hear real life experience about tracking wounded deer, how far you have tracked them VS where the shot landed(if found).
i have heard stories of heart shot deer going a mile etc..

i have shot a deer that i could not find, that on the shot the deer dropped, for about 3 seconds rolled around on ground. then got up and ran. upon walking up to place of shot there was a large amount of hair and a bit of blood on hair.. following the trail there was bits of blood and hair along the way.
tracked this deer to a barbwire fence, where it bumped it and left hair, then walked further down, and jumped the fence. the deer made it to an open meadow where the snow had blown over any remaining tracks..

where would a shot placement be that would drop a deer and throw a lot of hair, but not be fatal ?

Maybe not what you are looking for? Some years ago, I took probably the longest shot I ever took at an unwounded deer - was standing broadside - in a field on opposite side of barb wire fence - my bullet struck about 1 1/2 feet to right or so, and higher than where I thought where I was aiming - I was aiming for easy exposed side of chest - the bullet actually passed through it's lower neck. It ran out of that field - across in front of us - maybe 500 yards away, we watched the high flag tail go bouncing into a poplar bush - viewable evidence said it was not touched - despite my initial shot and several others once it ran - all accounted for by various impacts in the snow - showing us getting closer but no where near to hitting it, once it was on the run.

About 15 minutes later - replaying that "miss" in my mind - how did that thing get over the fence? - none of us saw a leap - drove back there and found an open gate - and snow covered in misted red blood - I followed the tracks to edge of those poplars - that 5x5 buck was laying there - dead as door nail from bleeding out - about no blood inside when field dressing it. None there heard the impact of that first bullet - was only the holes through neck when we skinned it, all three of us convinced the deer was not hit based on watching it run and entering the bush - but it was dead. As stated above - "chit happens" - so is up to shooter to follow up and find out what happened - was my lesson that you can NOT tell that from 400 yards away.

Bullet was 165 grain Speer HotCor - rifle was a push-feed Model 70 Winchester - that hand load was chronographed multiple times at 2,800 fps muzzle - give or take. Should have been a "slam dunk" shot at 300 yards - but "stuff" happens when hunting ...

 

[cosmic]

Watch my buddy shoot a 6 point buck this year at about 50 yards. Buck took off like a rocket, crossed the 100 yards of the field then jumped in the bush.

My buddy is positive he missed. I said no way just from the sound(massive THUD) before even the BANG.

First 100 yards we didn't find a drop of blood. He kept saying I think I missed.

20 yards inside the bush the buck is laying dead. Bullet took out both lungs high and he was moving so fast the body cavity didn't spill ANY blood

I wonder how many times people sat they missed because of the deers reaction and not finding sign at the shot. But in fact they in deed make a good shot

Having shot more than a handful of deer, I have generally found that deer react when hit. This can be a shudder movement, bucking movement, arched back with dropped tail, etc. However, one deer I shot a few years ago confounded me entirely. I was hunting over bait, snow was on the ground, and it was close to the end of legal light. Three deer appeared out of the glade and approached the bait. As they passed by me at 25 yards, I took a shot at the rearmost animal, shooting from a rest. They had stopped to investigate the surroundings, so the shot was a slam dunk, broadside into the boiler room. All three deer took off like a rocket, with no sign of distress from the targeted deer.
They disappearing from my view about 100 yards away.
Hmm, I scratched my head wondering if the rifle was off. Heck at 25yards, even if I had bumped the scope somehow, you'd think I would have still connected. I radioed the lads back at the camp, explained what had transpired, and told them I would wait for 20 minutes, follow the tracks and report.
20 minutes later I started following. There was very little blood for the first 50 yards, it would have been difficult to track without the snow. Another 75 yards and there was the deer. It had skidded like a torpedo along the snow for about 5 yards, it had died running at full speed.
Shot was a pass through, I was using a Rem 760 300 Savage with 150 gr factory pills. The bullet certainly did its job, the heart was cut in half and there was a healthy sized exit hole in the rib cage.