Dead Buck?

derk22

derk22

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will this buck die or can i get him another day?

today was my second time hunting, the first time we didnt see anything. this time we were sitting on the edge of a clearing about to call when i seen a buck walking across the field. i had only seconds before he was in the bush.
i quick got into prone and fired a shot. i had pulled the trigger and was unsure if i hit him since he hardly jumped and continued into the bush at his same pace (long story short) we found the blood trial and determind i hit him low and probley just the meat of his leg with my 270 130 grain( because of the blood stains on bushes). we followed the blood trial at first what seemed like a lot of blood...(only large pools were from where he was standing, he never bedded down)for 3 hours near the end the trial was getting smaller and smaller untill it was almost nothing.


we figured he lost a liter and a half of blood.
could the buck die from this or will he live for another day?

(oh and he was a midsize-large buck)
 
it may have been a good shot, but you started tracking too soon and bumped him into the next county?

it may have been a bad shot and he will recover or suffer a long death?

one will never know unless you see him again...dead or alive.
 
He could be alive still, but either way he prolly won't make it thru the winter. If you hit a leg low enough that you missed the vitals he could go a long time and show blood. He'd get picked off by coyotes eventually. If you got vitals and he bled a bunch, clogged and you spooked him before he died, he might of had enough life to run a long way and hide in a thick spot, where he died. Happens, its sucks.
 
Who knows I shot a nice buck a few years back with only three legs and when we skinned him you could see his front leg had been shot and he had buck shot under his skin it was a few years old and well healed over
 
I wouldn't assume a leg shot because of blood on the bushes. If I were you, I would go back to the blood trail with a friend or two and try to follow it some more, make sure you bring a rifle as my bet is he's bedded somewhere dead, dying, or resting. If he's still alive, he's definately hurting and problably pretty run down, you'll likely be able to get quite close to him before he tries to run from you again.....if thats the case you should be able to finish him off. While tracking, when you lose the blood trail get on your hands and knees and look very closely for the next drop of blood. Make sure you mark where the last drop was and then fan out from there. It is really easy to miss blood, but you only need a drop or two every so often to point you in the right direction. I had to track one this year after a night of hard rain...the blood was there but it was very scarce. It took a friend and I 5 or 6 hours to go 350 yards, but there was a dead buck at the end!
 
I've seen several moose that have taken shots to different areas of the body that recovered and were harvested later. One had an old wound that was healed with the bullet against the spine. He also had a fresh wound high on the shoulder that was a mess.
I shot a deer that had been wounded in the throat at some point. It was an open wound, very old and virulant, oozing puss. A biopsy on the wound site showed it to be healing.

More likley though, get out and spend some more time scouring the area. I bet you will find the buck.
I just noticed you are in B.C.. Where are you? Maybe I could help you.
 
My boss shot an 8 pointer 3 weeks ago that had 4 inches of arrow and a fixed broadhead lodged in his right shoulder. My boss couldn't even tell he was hurt, it was completely healed over with a little scar. The butcher phoned him and told him a couple days after he shot it. Looks to have been from a crossbow.


So who knows, All depends on were you hit him, but my bet will be he will die before the end of winter. Between the coyotes and snow I don't think his chances are good.

Don't you have any snow??? should be easy to follow him for a long ways...
 
DVXDUDE said:
My boss shot an 8 pointer 3 weeks ago that had 4 inches of arrow and a fixed broadhead lodged in his right shoulder. My boss couldn't even tell he was hurt, it was completely healed over with a little scar. The butcher phoned him and told him a couple days after he shot it. Looks to have been from a crossbow.


So who knows, All depends on were you hit him, but my bet will be he will die before the end of winter. Between the coyotes and snow I don't think his chances are good.

Don't you have any snow??? should be easy to follow him for a long ways...
Click to expand...

Wow, only 4" of arrow to see and it can be determind it was from a crossbow, sounds like that butcher should be a forensic detective, not a meat slicer.
 
Interesting deduction.
My truck has Goodyear tires on it, but please, if your butcher sees any of them around tell him not to assume I put them there.
 
to track blood, i usually use flagging tape, mark it every spot i find. when you loose the trail look back at the flagging tape, usually it shows that your a little off track.
if theres that much blood id say he's dead, recheck the area again, and take your friends dog with you.
 
Deer are tough critters - if you only hit muscle, there is a good chance it can survive. Deer will roll in the mud to seal a wound, and stymie further tracking. As was pointed out, you made a newbie mistake - after taking the shot, wait for 30 mins before tracking.
Finally, when deer are hit they often buck their rear legs.
 
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