Tracking wounded deer tips

[EyesOnThePrize]

Luckily it wasn't my shot - it was a gut shot, missing the closest vitals by about 5 inches. Best guess, she went about 3 miles all total.

[bigbucks]

That's impressive that you found her. We've trailed wounded deer that we've lost, but I doubt we've hardly ever been able to follow them more than a 1/4 of a mile. No wonder it took that long to find her.

I guess we trailed a firearm wounded deer once about 3 miles, to a gut pile...

[R. Miller]

I've been bowhunting for about 4 years now. I've got one buck-a decent sized nine pointer two falls ago. I was lucky. It was about a 20 yard shot and I put an arrow through both lungs. It was picture perfect, and almost surreal. I found the arrow stuck in the ground full of blood, and the deer was no more that fifty yards away. It was a great experience. My good friend was not as lucky with his first chance at a buck on Friday night. He got out to my hunting shack early on Friday before the firearm opener and decided to go out bowhunting. Just before dark he had either a nice big six or an eight(wasn't counting tines) come in and smell his scent pad he had in the tree. Must have been about a 20 yard shot. Anyway, he says he put an arrow in his lung area, and it was sticking about half way out as the deer bolted off into the woods, stopped for a minute and then took off again. He tracked it for a few hundred yards. There were two decent blood spots, with a lot of little blood spots along the way. I arrived at my hunting shack around 8:30pm. I thought my buckmasters LED flashlight would help, and did pick up the trail for about another fifty yards, and then the blood trail disapeared. We searched until 10:30 before calling it quits. It was on public lands, so we knew the blaze orange wouldd be out in full force Saturday morning. My buddy felt so sick to his stomach about it he didn't even go out opening morning of gun season, and opted to wait until late morning to go back and search. He checked every thicket in the area without any luck. So, to make a long story short. I feel I'm natually pretty good at tracking, but I really don't have a lot of experience with tracking deer while bowhunting. The blood was rather red, more bright than dark. A flesh wound? I don't know. He claims the arrow was hanging no more than half way out(and by the bowhunting vidoes I've seen that seems fairly common). Also, we were thinking that because the arrow was still in him when he took off, it my have helped stop the bleeding? It's a shame we didn't find him. I'm only hoping he's one of those tough old bucks that someone gets someday that has an old wound and a broadhead healed over inside him somewhere.