vanishing deer

[DaveHawk]

Friday I canoed across the lake at 5:30 am and was in my stand good wind for deer returning to the beds and about 8:30 AM here came a doe with 3 yearlings in tow. I took the last one with a Good shot at 25 yards. She bolted out of there and at about 45 yards it think tree cover I see the tail do the death wiggle. I waited an hour an went to pick up my deer and nothing. I searched both side of the the 2 ridges and along the lake. Nothing. The hard woods opened up about 30 yards from where I saw her last to where I could see 150 yards in all directions. and again nothing. What gives here. I am completely stumped because I found no blood and I had great blood on the arrow with bubbles. Unbelievable. Now I heard that evening that there are 2 bears in the area I was just wondering if one could have carried her off with out leaving a traces? But I know one thing come next weekend I will be hunting for bear.

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

One time I shot a nice fat hog, right behind the shoulder with a 30-06. When I went to where it was supposed to be it wasn't there. I looked for hours. Three days later I find buzzards and the hog exactly where it was supposed to be. I haven't figured that one out yet. I would have had to step over the pig and not have seen it. I don't claim to be the worlds greatest tracker but I can trip over a pig.

Maybe go back and look again Dave.

Alan

[DaveHawk]

I'll hunt the same area Tuesday. Crows will be at it by then but then again so will the yotes and bear.

[ncboman]

:rolleyes:

Bear don't usually move a kill but will take it over and defend it. You'd know if that happened. :D

Bobcats will move a kill short distances and hide it by covering with leaves.

most likely, might not have been as good a hit as it looked.

[DaveHawk]

not sure NC the tail did the death wiggle down and arrow had ggod blood from head to end. So I'm stumped.

[GF.]

The part that confuses me the most is how you can have good blood on the arrow and none on the ground, but that's what happened to my brother last year on that Elk. Hit was just a bit on the high side and she simply wasn't leaking. Anywhere.....

But what that points to in my mind is that the holes in the ribcage and in the hide aren't lined up well, most likely because the animal was not in a neutral body alignment/position at the hit, so that you'd have fat or connective tissue covering the holes in the ribs as the animal walks or runs off. That does two things, both of which are bad for all concerned.

One is that you don't get much in the way of a blood trail; second is that if blood's not leaking out, than air is not leaking in, and that's what you need in order to get the lungs to collapse and put an end to the brain's oxygen supply.

So those can go a lot farther than they would otherwise. That's got to be what's behind the myth about some magical 'void' where you can hit a deer and have it run off and be just fine.

One thing, though. OK, maybe two...

I've always been surprised at where the hit actually was, compared with where I thought the animal was standing. Things just look really different from 15 or 20 feet up. So if I can't see the animal from the base of the tree, I always try to pick up the blood trail and just follow that. And again, the blood trail usually doesn't start where I expect it to. Sometimes not even on shots taken from the ground. So picking landmarks is really important for me in terms of marking the bird, so to speak.

Second piece of this is that I learned an awful lot about trailing from just that one buck last year. I was able to use the binoculars to pick up the blood trail from up in the tree; that not only made it a lot easier to find from ground-level, but once I was down there, I was again able to follow the blood with the binoculars first - often as much as 20-25 yards up ahead. That's how I found the buck bedded down ahead of me in the mountain laurel. Without the binoculars, I would have bumped him for sure - especially given how heavy the blood was, since I was amazed that he wasn't down for the count yet.


And as you may recall, the blood trail past that first bed was mighty thin.

So anyway, I'm gonna get on the binoculars soapbox again. At 45 yards or so, you can usually get a pretty decent look at a deer even when it's behind a bunch of stuff - especially if it's got its head up or is still kicking. And you can get a really good look at the area, which makes it easier to get oriented when you get over in that direction...

BTW - Were you able to find the spot where you saw her go down initially? I'm thinkin' that if you never found a bed with any blood in it, then she might have wiggled up tight next to a log or something before she expired. They're really good at hiding in plain view, aren't they??

[Bushman]

Dave, that would have been a very opportunistic bear IMO. What are you using for broad-heads? I shot a few deer with Bear Razorheads without the inserts, but I was much happier with at least three blades so that I had a flap that was less likely to close over. I brought in an 8 pointer that I'd hit with a five blade Satellite and the guy at the registration station said that an arrow couldn't have made that large a hole. I know that you are not new to this, so I guess you just need to chalk it up to experience. Along about this time of year I do hear the archery stories of the one that got away. Been there and done that, so that is why I hung up the bow.

[DaveHawk]

GF what I am thinking is that the arrow hit the deer with some movement of deer reaction the arrow did a right turn and exited the gut although no gut juice prevalent it could have pulled some atomic lining through the hole on exiting clogging the hole.

[GF.]

BTW - What kind of heads are you shooting?

I'd think that if you'd gotten behind the diaphragm, the blood would not have been as good. Bubbles usually mean something bad for the critter.

But yeah, if it was starting to move at the sound of the shot, it could have gone from a neutral body position into something pretty contorted, which would prevent the hole in the hide from lining up with the one through the rib cage.

That's why making sure you find that first bed is so important, IMO, or even the first place the animal slowed down or looked back.

[DaveHawk]

Nothing GF , nothing at all.

[ncboman]

An open woods is the worst for blood tracking a deer that won't leak.

I much prefer a cutdown or some thick stuff.

[DaveHawk]

Me too NC. nothing to make the blood pump on open flat ground.