Well it probably had to happen someday ... lost my first deer

Slamfire said:
Frowned upon in some jurisdictions depending on how the aftermath plays out...

http://www.gamewarden.ab.ca/agwmagazine/1998/winter%201998/archns13.htm
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Alright. Explain how having witnesses able to describe the hunter walking away from a wounded animal, is in any way like the OP's story. The guy that shot the sheep shot an illegal sheep to boot.
The guy in that story from 1997 got off pretty cheap too.

Yeah, following a blood trail and tracks is a real art form and a half, to do a decent job of. I usually carry a spool of surveyor's ribbon in my hunting kit to use to mark the spots, use a large strip of it to mark the last known positive identified track or blood.
It helps to start paying close attention to the spacing of the tracks or blood spots, as that can often give you a good feel for when to expect the next one, if the animal has not changed direction.
 
I have a "black light" flash light. I haven't had to track an animal with it yet but it works incredibly well , even after frost and often will still show blood signs if rain is falling. We've tested it out a couple times out in the yard ..... which is forest with deer in it haha
I am surprised these are not more mainstream.
 
Slamfire said:
Frowned upon in some jurisdictions depending on how the aftermath plays out...

http://www.gamewarden.ab.ca/agwmagazine/1998/winter%201998/archns13.htm
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That's a bit different. Witnesses watched him make a shot at 75 yards, miss and give up. Yeah, I'd call that abandonment.

To share my own story, somehow, in all my years hunting, I'd never lost one until this season. And I've lost 2- a buck and a doe. In the case of the buck, I pushed him too hard too fast, could see him more than once but didn't have a clear enough shot to finish him, so I tracked him until the terrain got too rough to continue alone- went home, got 2 helpers and returned, picked up the trail and he beat us, fair and square. Made his way into a swamp and we couldn't follow.

The second was a doe. She jumped, was clearly hit, ran to a treeline. We followed in, I had the only headlamp between us and neither kept our packs with us as the first blood puddle in the snow led us to think she didn't go far. 3 hours and a couple of sightings later of her, still following blood trail and tracks, I called it off until daylight the next day as we still had to get back to our machine and camp. 4 of us went out the next day, picked up the trail and after an hour and a half, spotted her once- as she BOUNDED away, still leaving drops of blood but clearly not either a gut shot or a kill shot. I called it off, and while I regret wounding an animal, she was clearly not going to die from it, and was going to lead another merry chase. I felt like we were not going to be able to keep up to her to get a second shot, she was urinating and crapping normally, had bedded down once or twice according to the trail, and two of us were still physically spent from the night prior.

It happens- but I believe if you've gone as far as you can, done as much as you or your party is capable of, you've done your part. It's why it's called hunting, not killing.
 
Let's just ignore Slamfire's post as it is pretty much a thread hijack and has zero to do with the OP's thread.
or in simple terms...... don't feed the troll.
 
Went back today, with sister's dog.

Methodically searched the nearest bedding grounds, with particular attention to water sources, not that there's any shortage of H2O around the area. Nothing. No hair, no blood. Searched the trails back to the shooting lane--nothing. The dog did pick up where the deer had gone (very quickly), but she's not really a trained tracker or a trained anything, so she lost it pretty quickly. I searched this area for blood or hair, nothing. Looked where I saw the buck fall over, and again, no sign.

The heavy rain yesterday certainly didn't help that cause.

Went behind my stand to see if I could pick up a trail back there. I searched there for quite a while yesterday, thinking that maybe he'd doubled back on me, but it would have been hard for him to do that without me hearing. In any case, I found nothing and neither did the dog. No sign of any sort.

Guess I'll see if the crows locate him, or if he shows back up on the camera.
 
Dogleg said:
There's two kinds of hunters who have never lost an animal. Beginners and bull####ters. Some argue for a third type, those whose turn is coming but don't know it yet.
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hoytcanon said:
This is only the "culmination" if you quit hunting. Wounding loss is an unfortunate reality, because we aren't perfect and shyte happens.

However, if 40 years of bowhunting experience and hundreds of animals tracked means anything... my 2 cents;

- the crash is a "red herring," ignore what you heard, it could well have been another deer spooked by the wounded buck.
- if the arrow stayed in the shoulder as you described, the buck is bleeding and the blood is leaking to the ground. Were you in a treestand? With a high entry wound it may taken a few dozen yards for the blood to start falling to the ground.
- go back and start over in the morning (hopefully no rain or heavy frost tonight to disapate the bloodtrail)... and go SLOW.
- watch for blood on the sides of saplings, trees and tall grass... also flip leaves along tight trail passages as the blood is often on the underside of hanging leaves.
- start at the last place you visually saw the deer and do not advance until you find a drop of blood... it helps to have a partner to leap frog and keep you oriented on the route.
- mark the last blood with TP or flagging or have your partner stand there and wait until you find more blood while scouting ahead.
- do NOT advance because you found a track or hair (unless you can see that the hair was cut by the broadhead)... only blood sign should be taken as sign of your bucks passing.
- watch for crows or vultures or fox and coyote yipping.
- be prepared for the buck to start backtracking, and rapidly changing directions, particularly when it is close to expiring.
- the buck deserves another full day of searching (IMO)
- once the trail seems exhausted, think about where you have been and search a couple of the unlikely spots you have bypassed on the trail.

Good luck.
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dead on.
 
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