Lost my first buck.....

[Brujah12]

This year is my first time bow hunting. I own my own land and have no friends that hunt so as of this season I'm a loaner. Anyways, got in my stand before dark today. At about 9:30am I see a buck in the brush about 40 yards out eating away. Being new to bowhunting I knew I had to let him get closer. He roamed around nibbling here and there, tending a couple rubs and finally after about 20 minutes walked within 10 yards of my stand.

I pulled back and let an arrow fly. I saw clearly that it wasn't a pass-through and could see the arrow sticking out as he darted off. I got a good look at him broadside as he ran away and it looked like it was a couple inches back from the shoulder. I'm concerned it may have hit a little too high. Anyways, I marked his direction, gave him some time, then got down and went after him. I didn't see any blood at the point of impact. Just a small tuft of fur. I followed his path about 50 yards through the brush and still no blood. Just where the brush meets the hardwoods I found some blood...about 8 or 9 drops grouped together. This was just where the brush met some hardwoods and entering the wood I was able to follow a small blood trail. It wasn't much. Usually just a few drops at a time. As I got into the woods I saw the flash of a tail and a deer take a few steps, hop a log and disappear. I cannot be sure it was the same deer but I'm guessing it's likely. About 20 yards into the woods the blood trail vanished. Not only that, but an hour later the wind picked up and scattered the leaves and sent new ones coming down.

Anyways, I searched from then until about 5:00pm. Didn't see the deer, any more blood or a single sign. The woods is only about 20 acres and I went back and through it several times. On the other side is a bean field that I don't think he would have crossed as it's so open? On the one side of the woods, closest to where I saw the deer, is an overgrown field with 4 to 6 foot brush. The opposite side of the woods is an apple orchard. I found several bedding spots at the edge of the overgrown field small enough for a single deer. I didn't see any blood though nor any footprints big enough to match the ones I had tracked along the blood trail. I made countless rounds all through the woods hoping to pick up the trail somewhere with no luck. I searched as much of the field as I could but much of it is full of prickers and spots so thick you'd have to crawl to get through.

I'm super bummed. The day started great and just got progressively worse. Ohh ya, and I lost another arrow during the search that had dropped at some point without be noticing  :'(

What a downer. The wind has pretty much wrecked what trail there was although I noticed several landmarks. Don't know what to do at this point. I doubt the wife will let me get away with spending the whole day searching again.

[fasteddie]

t hurts to hit one and lose it but it happens . Not knowing exactly where you hit him leaves the question , will he survive the injury . Hopefully he will hael and you get another crack at him . http://www.downsouthhuntingforums.com/images/smiles/thumbup.gif[/img]

[nybuckboy]

I would be willing to bet you stuck in his shoulder blade. You probably penetrated it but did no damage... well very little. He will live to see the future. This sounds exactly like my first buck I hit and story sounds like mine.

[skyzmine]

it happens

might want to buy a blood light

it realy helps you track the blood

[First-light]

Hey you may want to try across the field. I had a big 9ptr cross a field after I stuck him in the liver. Deer was bedded when I jumped him and he could of stayed in the woods or cross the field, he took the field. It's worth a shot, I found my deer hours later with the help of crows, yes crows, they were pecking at the dead deer making a huge amount of noise. Good luck!

[Pipecrew]

Don't rule out the open field so quickly. I can recall 3 bucks we have tracked over the years that headed to and across an open field.

With the lack of a lot of blood to track it could go either way. You can try Deer search:

http://deersearch.org/contact-us/

I've never used them myself but it's worth a shot.

Good luck.

[Brujah12]

Thank you everyone for the replies. Unfortunately I don't own the bean field and haven't been able to get in contact with the land owner.

UPDATE:

I found the arrow that hit the deer. It was only about 10 yards from where I shot him in the brush. Upon careful inspection of the arrow I noted a few key things:

- the very tip was bent

- one of the blades was bent considerably and two were very chipped and dull

- there was a bit of bone or possibly shoulder blade on the side of the point

- there was only blood on the arrow about 2 1/2 inches passed the broadhead

Originally I had thought the high penetration point was why I wasn't seeing a lot of blood initially. Now I'm thinking I bounced it off the upper leg, shoulder or spine. I tried taking some pics of the arrow but my camera is retarted and couldn't get them to turn out. Based on these observations, what do you guys think? Without seeing the deer I'll never know for sure but does it sound like this guy is going to live to see another day, or is he going to the crows....

Thanks for the feedback guys. Glad to be on the forum. Long time lurker second time poster....  :-X 

Let me know what you think.

[nybuckboy]

See the reply above from nybuckboy... shoulder blade hit!

[First-light]

I hit one in the blade years ago. Bent the arrow and had small amount of blood on the arrow. I did see the deer bed down, I gave the deer plenty of time when I came back he bolted running with no problems. In his bed was a small puddle of blood.

[gundeck]

I hit one last year (looked like a solid hit) and tracked it to a brush line in the dark.  The next morning, we picked up the trail with no problem.  Plenty of blood and easy to follow.  Ended up under some thick bushes a little over 100 yards from where I shot him.  Big pool of blood where he had laid down.  Never found the deer.  No blood leaving the area and we spent parts of three days looking.  (My friends are convinced my neighbor found him.  He has repeatedly come onto my property to hunt as his house borders it.  He has his own land, but mostly it is pasture.)

[bushnell]

Sorry to hear about your luck. It does sound like a shoulder with with only minimum penetration.

[Gthphtm]

Like Pipecrew said,You should have went back to camp and called Deersearch.My first bow bock the arrow was deflected by a tree branch(another fellows ladder stand) it took 4 other fellows and myself 3 hours to find it about a mile away.S... happens.