Shot at a huge 8... Please tell me I'm not crazy

[growalot]

I hope you find him...

geez here I go...the doe I shot Friday and recovered after a good blood trail...not a drop of blood on the shaft...When I said the arrow did not look good...It had a very light green slim on it..

When I got home to take up the time waiting I researched all over the net on gut shot deer....every thing I read indicated it was intestinal not gut...said I'd find hardly any blod and she'd walk not run away...I was sick!

Got out there the blood trail spotty at first then a solid trail of blood then spotty ...when hit she tipped over a bit and then ran like a scalded cat full board through the woods...bedded just once...

Now the hit...rt side quartering slightly ..I wanted the arrow to enter a little back..but it was a little to far.. I think....she had a steep hill on her lft side thus looking like she tipped...in the pics you see the exit wound...I thoroughly examined the guts and organs...

The arrow nicked the top front of gut...one lung and the front part of her liver

Not one thing did I read indicated I hit any of those organs,.....SO CHIN UP and Look Hard

Edited October 14, 2012 by growalot

[TheTruth2]

I hit a doe earlier this year with a rage in just about the same area. She fell straight down and gargled like you said. After three minutes she got back up and ran for nearly 200yards before I recovered her. You'll find him. Blood trail will be nearly non existing try going to thick bedding cover or water. That's most likely where he'll be.. He's dead somewhere

[phade]

rough deal. hope you find him. if you think the hit was high, maybe you knicked a lung. the lack of blood is odd....no sign of anything on the arrow?

[Karpteach]

Good luck today. I hope you find him. If you need help let me know.

[Geno C]

Thank you all for your support and info!

Update: this deer will indeed live to see another day, a healthy one at that... I looked at both landmarks where I saw him stand for a few minutes at a time, zero blood, anywhere. If he was gurgling blood he would have left some right where he stood. On his second stop I land marked it right dead infront of a group of 3 trees. I walked right to those trees also and sure thing a nice solid deer run and not one spec of blood. Nice part is there are so many ridges at this spot I can see everything when I get to the top of each one. I can't even begin to tell you how much ground I covered. In the walk back to the truck I played in back and said to myself what would make this so easy to figure out is if one blade happened to nick him and hair would only be found on one blade. Sure enough I get back to the truck and only one blade has hair the other clean as a whistle. Checked the arrow and literally a 3" spec tiny tiny blood trail was on the arrow and it was only on one side 2" from the start of the shaft. Shot was high, grazed some meat above his spine. I never ever have seen a rage hit a deer and not have hair on both sides and I'll tell you, never saw one not covered in blood. As for the sound, I'm sure huge blade gashing the deer a bit was enough for him to feel some pain after that shot and he reacted. He will be fine, 100%

Thanks agin guys!

[Karpteach]

Glad it went well. Hope you get him in the future!

[G-Man]

Geno, the hair on the back is very thick , if you grazed it you would have ton of hair, no blood on shaft, you shoot high poundage arrow shaft is probably smaller than ferrul on broad head as well leaving the shaft slide thru with out much contact , plus thru thick fur both sides and it could wipe the blood on shaft/ fletch pretty clean. I've hit high lung before it is not fun or easy to track as blood must fill chest before it will come out mouth / nose i've gone 100 yrds without "first blood" . As the deer walked out and up the hill it may go up a bit and than level or head back down up hill required more blood to fill chest to come out and down hill less.... The hair will tell you where your shaft entered and exited. then it just come down to hardwork tracking. Hope you find it!!

[pistolp71]

That sucks, but it happens. Hopefully you will get another crack at him.

[dave6x6]

Boy i wish things had turned out different for you Geno. Lets hope you can get another crack at him down the road..

[landtracdeerhunter]

I have to go with G-Man on this one. sounds like u clipped one lung. Arrow slid through with little blood. The tough part is hair on one side. One would think the hair would coat both blades on a Rage.

[dave6x6]

I hope i'm wrong but i think Geno has thought this through and came up with a pretty good assessment of what happened. Nothing i've read indicates anything different then a grazed deer that will be chasing the women(does) maybe by today.

[whitetailfreak]

i cant believe what im heaing,last season you would be bashing and coming down heavy on anyon with a story like this.you should have searched till the end of the earth for this deer,being as experienced as you are you know deer dont always bleed out right away,sounds like you are not even sure where or if you realy did even hit this 130 class buck.how long did you look,maybe 2 hours tops if you got there at 630 considering you gave up at 830.you always say to other you would have given every option to find it 2 hours is hardly enough,what about deer search,or maybe searching yourself for a little longer than 2 hours.you cant just look a few yards in front of you and call it a day.hope you didnt kill anything that big because a 130 eight is pretty deceent for just an 8 point.possibly more target practice is needed,maybe i missed but you always tell us how many yards you have deer next to you and usually they are less than 20 yards.and being how green and that i also do all my hunting on the island early season shots are usually limited to chip shots.what about your trail cam no pics sometimes you can get lucky and they will get a good picture.just asking,no you know how it is to be on the other side.

[whitetailfreak]

^{also i might add did you really think a spark would happen by hitting bone,i know everyone is trying to be sympathetic but come on and a carbon arrow against the fur we are stretching to be nice,just my opinion,and when you hit a log it may make a thud}

[Guns&ReligionCop]

WOW, Whitetail freak and Geno have a little bad blood? Its sounds like you just knicked him and hes fine but it never hurts to do a little more walking because you never know

[dave6x6]

Whitetail. I might be agreeing with some of your statements if the evidence were different. and i'm not trying to speak for Geno who i'm sure will respond with his own thoughts, but in my opinion this deer is not dead.. You can search all season and call in the dogs and the national guard, but if all the sign on your arrow and on the ground indicate that it was a grazed animal with a flesh wound, then you will never find this deer no matter what. A clean arrow with hair on the ground and no blood found after two searches says to me a grazed deer that will be fine. A bloody or gut junk covered arrow with some sign of blood and i would be encouraging for more searching myself, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

[irish_redneck]

Having never used rage heads this may or may not be a stupid question.

How would the blades have deployed without some form if solid hit from the heads central mass?

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2

[newbreed]

Having never used rage heads this may or may not be a stupid question.

How would the blades have deployed without some form if solid hit from the heads central mass?

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2

they are held on by a little rubber O ring, when i walk in and out i sometime bump my arrow on branch or bush and they deploy, i gotta check them all the time to be sure they are set before i shoot. so i can see how a glancing shot off some fur/skin would cause them to open and possibaly spark.

[NFA-ADK]

I have to agree with the person on site... Sounds like a high hit that nicked the back leaving a slight gash causing the deer to make those noises. Arrow blood specs and hair prove a miss on pass through IMO. Otherwise if uncertian a 200-300 yard area search in all deer trails and thick area's would eliminate most doubts. Sounds like Geno covered that.

Hunt the area again, you will get him. You'll catch him chasing if you put up cams, I bet he goes nocternal a for a bit, doubt for long as pre rut is kicking off!!!

Good luck Geno, He is still out thier!!!

[Geno C]

No lung... The one blade deployed and sliced the top of his back. If that arrow got into him hair would 100% be on both sides. I didn't take noticed to that detail last night, popped into my head today and confirmed the degree of the hit. I have no doubt that I was way above the vitals.

[cobra196]

Yo Geno its Nick. Saturday wasn't the day for us. I had a doe come in 10 yards and shot just over her back at about 4pm. I haven't shot since the week before the 1st. Nothing but my fault, i felt my self flinch.

[Geno C]

i cant believe what im heaing,last season you would be bashing and coming down heavy on anyon with a story like this.you should have searched till the end of the earth for this deer,being as experienced as you are you know deer dont always bleed out right away,sounds like you are not even sure where or if you realy did even hit this 130 class buck.how long did you look,maybe 2 hours tops if you got there at 630 considering you gave up at 830.you always say to other you would have given every option to find it 2 hours is hardly enough,what about deer search,or maybe searching yourself for a little longer than 2 hours.you cant just look a few yards in front of you and call it a day.hope you didnt kill anything that big because a 130 eight is pretty deceent for just an 8 point.possibly more target practice is needed,maybe i missed but you always tell us how many yards you have deer next to you and usually they are less than 20 yards.and being how green and that i also do all my hunting on the island early season shots are usually limited to chip shots.what about your trail cam no pics sometimes you can get lucky and they will get a good picture.just asking,no you know how it is to be on the other side.

well mr whitetail, im glad i have impacted your life enough for you to remember comments i have made in the past on lost deer threads 2 YEARS AGO. For the record, some posting those lost deer threads could not even indicate if their deer was quartering or broadside or where they even hit for that matter. if your going to make comparisons make sure your comparing apples to apples. I on the other hand can tell you exactly where my original gut feeling was where i hit (and i was right), what the wind direction was, i even took the time for that deer to give me the shot i was looking for and on top of that made sure before i anchored that my cams cleared my stand rail and bow hanger. I am very in tune, with my surroundings, gear and myself. I do not just see a deer and let an arrow rip and hope for the best and say yeah, well i hit the deer but i cant remember anything before or after the shot. THATS NOT ME.... since you have not been on this forum for a long time and would like to continue where we left off not last season but the prior season thats fine because if you read correctly i stated please tell me IM NOT CRAZY because i did not believe my broad head would cause a spark on bone. i have heard someone say that and all i was doing was reporting my hunt to a T. I spend a ton of seat time each year in my stands and its a learning curve each sit. If your not learning anything while you sit then attention to detail is not ones forte. Dont come on here trying to rip me apart when you have not a clue on anything about me. you dont know me from a hole in the wall and to be honest you personally followed me from thread to thread 2 seasons ago like some pathetic stalker calling me out in each thread i posted in, im giving you fair warning that is not going to happen this year. i have hunted less then 3 times this year and have almost 30 hours logged already, i know where my deer was standing when i shot, i know where he bounded to and stopped for 3 minutes and i also know where he walked another 50 yards and stopped and stood for another 2 minutes after the shot. THERE WAS NO BLOOD. That deer was not fatally hit, he is fine. I know the legistics of shooting a deer and how far when to expext blood from where the shot took place, this is not my first rodeo so i dont need your input... you seem to be some little cry baby and really have a jones for me... dont worry about me and what i do, worry about yourself. i know myself as a hunter and i am very happy with myself. i never ever once claimed to be better then anyone here and honestly i get along with everyone here. and the camaraderie here is great and then theres guys like you who throw a wrench in the fan with what appears to be jealousy. all the pieces to my puzzle on this deer in place, end result: a deer with a slice in his back who will be running doe in a few weeks. nothing more, nothing less.

[Geno C]

and for the record i swept the woods atleast what felt like 800 yards in each direction, no sign of a bed up deer. i even swept the first ridge he walked off on which is almost 300 yards from the shot, i wept it good not one spec of blood... hair was found on 1 blade of my rage, if i got in to that deer both blades would have hair hung up everywhere. anyone who shoots Rage knows that. 1 blade happened to nick his back as it glided over and the one shoulder on the Rage deployed the blade and created a slice on his back. i would honestly rather this situation then to hit the deer to the point where he would not live and never find him.

[Geno C]

I have to agree with the person on site... Sounds like a high hit that nicked the back leaving a slight gash causing the deer to make those noises. Arrow blood specs and hair prove a miss on pass through IMO. Otherwise if uncertian a 200-300 yard area search in all deer trails and thick area's would eliminate most doubts. Sounds like Geno covered that.

Hunt the area again, you will get him. You'll catch him chasing if you put up cams, I bet he goes nocternal a for a bit, doubt for long as pre rut is kicking off!!!

Good luck Geno, He is still out thier!!!

thanks NFA, yeah i made mental notes of the small group of trees he last stopped infront of for 2 minutes. its knee high brush and could not visully see a run from the stand but i climbed up this morning to double check those trees, climbed down walked right to those trees and sure enough a nice run 2 feet in front of them that runs north to south which was the very tral he was on, NO BLOOD. that was over 130 yards from the shot. i sure hope i see him again, he was nice!

[Geno C]

Having never used rage heads this may or may not be a stupid question.

How would the blades have deployed without some form if solid hit from the heads central mass?

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2

the broad head has 2 shoulders, when both make contact they deploy and switch out. my guess is as i passed over the deer only one shoulder made contact with the top of his fur and triggered one blade to open. when the arrow hit the log both were fully open... it doesnt take a whole lot of friction to deploy the blades.

[Geno C]

Yo Geno its Nick. Saturday wasn't the day for us. I had a doe come in 10 yards and shot just over her back at about 4pm. I haven't shot since the week before the 1st. Nothing but my fault, i felt my self flinch.

Nick glad you made it on here buddy

you will learn a lot here, great group of guys here... To bad we didint get some time to do some scouting together during the summer. ill shoot you a call tomorow