After 35 years.....

[First-light]

So Monday afternoon I was walking down one of my logging roads. There was 1/2 inch of snow on the ground. I get down to the bottom and look across the intersection of two logging roads and there is a doe. She seemed about 50 yards out. Looking straight at me we are in a stare down. I had her in the cross hairs and I blinked first. The shot rang out and she was gone. I mean it was amazing I didn't see that deer run. I actually though I dropped her but she was gone. I walked over to where I thought she was. There were deer tracks and it looked like she jumped from that position. I didn't find a thing. With the snow on the ground I thought this would be an easy track. Then my mind starts telling me you missed her. I look a little further still no blood. I think ok head on shot has to be good you could of missed but my gun is dead on. I look up the logging road and see another area about 15 yards away that looks like a deer moved in a hurry from. I start looking again for hair and blood and come up empty. I start following her track and finally find a spec of blood about 15 feet from the shot. The blood trail gets better and better and not 20 yards away there she lay. Her chest was blown out. Heart and lungs butchered by the bullet yet she left no blood or hair at impact sight and only started bleeding 15 feet away. I thought of a new hunter out there or someone that could just chalk it up to a miss and move on. I have always believed when you are at the last straw start over again and give it one more try and maybe you will find something. I've been doing this for 35 years and it amazes me how every situation is different. Good luck out there!

[Moho81]

So true. Been there before. I always pay attention to exactly where the run just for that reason. I’ve been hunting for 20ish years and still learn new things all the time.


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[The_Real_TCIII]

It's tough with a gun, especially if no snow. You have to really pay attention to where that deer was, pick several landmarks before you get down from a stand

[Doc]

These are the situations that turn a bad personal trait of stubbornness into a good quality that will result in a successful retrieval. Many years ago, I had a situation where I had made a terrible shot on a deer and had wounded it in the leg. I tracked that deer up over the hill, and began jumping him out of various beds but no shots. He went in a huge arc and eventually came back down the mountain and into a thicket back down in the valley where I lost the trail. That was a 2 or 2.5 mile tracking job that took all day. Even then, I didn't give up. The next morning I was down in that thicket trying to find the trail again. I did come across him and he was unwilling or unable to get up, and I shot him right in his bed. Yes stubbornness can pay off. It would have been much better if I hadn't have blown the shot, but once that decision is made to pull the trigger, a new responsibility takes over.

[Jeremy K]

You had snow to help improve the situation . I learned awhile ago not to push to far forward when tracking ,if you focus on the general direction ,you can see where the leaves have been disturbed enough to get a general direction of travel ,walking ahead to much usually disturbs the forest floor.

[JJBat150]

It's tough with a gun, especially if no snow. You have to really pay attention to where that deer was, pick several landmarks before you get down from a stand

Also need to pick landmarks that are visible from both thw ground and your stand.

 

Amazing how much different things in the woods can look when you're 15-20 feet in the air.

 

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[Five Seasons]

Preach


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[Iluvracks1359]

I actually lost a deer because of this exact scenario the day afte open season last year. I shot a 10 point buck, there was snow on the ground, I followed its tracks for 75 yards to a hedgerow and not one spec of blood. My gun had also jammed on me so I was super frusturated about that, and I decided to go home and try to see if I could figure out what was wrong with my gun, and I had assumed I missed. I got a text the next day from my friend who I had told the story to, with a picture of a guy who lives nearby sitting next to my ten point. They thought the deer was jacked, and called encon and encon took it. that would have been my first notable buck kill, and to this day, telling the story makes me sick to my stomach. The Deer died about 40 yards on the other side of the hedgerow that I stopped at. . . I talked to the guy that found him and said there was only one spot of blood right before where the deer collapsed, but his heart had been blown to shreds. . . Next time im in this scenario, im walking until I find a dead deer , or reach an impassable obstacle.

[wfmiller]

My first buck I doubled lunged at 25 yards with my shotgun, he went 20 yards before I saw one single drop of blood. 20 yards later he finally started really bleeding, spraying blood everywheres. I looked down the hill and he was standing there looking at me. He then went down the hill a little farther out of sight. I walked down there and he had laid down next to a log and expired.

You are right, it's amazing how each situation is different.

[growalot]

Shot and dropped a doe at 30 yards..she popped up and got in to a no shot area(heavy brush) then walked away eating as she went! My mind said no way with the 20 ga. in an open area at shot....So I watched her carefully. Well over a hundred yrds up hill I see her tail go straight up and then drop. Did everything you guys mentioned to find her dead..not a single drop of blood because the slug never actually entered her body...not one hole in her... but blood gushed out of her when gutted...and one small star shaped tear in her liver..I found the slug ,attached to the plastic wadding  just under her fur between skin and fat on hide when skinning her...Learned a lot that day....

Edited November 24, 2017 by growalot