I feel terrible

[SpokaneSlayer]

I went up for an evening hunt after work today.  About 40 minutes after getting settled, a buck steps out in front of me.  A nice buck, bigger than the one I missed last week.  Problem is, he's facing me.  So I wait.  He then presents me with the perfect broadside shot at 20 yards.  I flung an arrow and connected.  I am so excited.  I call my buddy and he comes up to help me track it.  We start in and immediately find part of my arrow that had broken off wit a bit of blood on it.  This is where it gets bad.  There is no blood to be found.  We searched and searched, nothing.  Then it got to dark to see anything.  Even with flashlights it was difficult to see in the thick stuff.  So the first deer I actually hit, I can't find him.  I pretty sure I shot high and now looks like I didn't hit any vitals.  I feel really bad cos there's a deer out there that is possibly still alive and in pain or it's dead and I've failed so far to recover it.  I'm going to ask my boss tomorrow if I can take a couple guys up in the morning and look some more. 

[MountainWalk]

If he has any sort of understanding, he ought to let you. It happens to all archery hunters at some time or another. Those who say they never have lost one, prolly havent hunted with a bow for long. You did the best you could.

[300rum]

Find someone who has tracked wounded deer if you can.  Start doing some semicircles, if the blood can be found you should be able to find him tomorrow.  Generally, go down hill.  Look for coyotes tommorrow, or the sound of them tomorrow morning or tonight, they will yelp like crazy when they find him.  Tommorrow look for some ravens/crows/buzzards/magpies, they may help you, especially latter in the day.

You may want to take you good buddy who has a bird dog and try and find some grouse tommorrow too.

When it is all said and done we all have lost one.

[MountainWalk]

Yeah its nuts this state won't "let" you use a blood dog.

[300rum]

I am all for playing by the rules but you hate to loose one.  It seems like a waste to me if a dog could find it.  I understand where they are coming from but hey, we have a responsibility too and that is to do what we can to find em.

[Ray]

Good luck on your search. Bad things happen every now and then. Even when you do it "textbook" style. Whatever the hell that means. Shoot.. Even the best hunters lose their animals and end up wounding critters, miss shots, etc. However if you did your part and you were ethical and searched hard then you are ok in my book.

[Blsum]

I don't remember if I read it some where or if someone told this to me.  Get a bottle of Hydrogen peroxide, a spray bottle and some yellow food coloring. Put a couple drops in the h.p. put in the bottle. If there is still blood on the ground come morning, when you spray it it will start to bubble making it easier to follow faint blood trail. Good luck tomorrow. Keep us posted.

[MountainWalk]

In the absense of a dog or anything else, a coleman lantern with aluminum foil around the back half of the globe, it throws out a pretty good swath of light. Hope it helps.

[BC CHASER]

How much did you look for him tonight?  If you did not go far and didn't push him he shouldn't go far.  DO NOT go look for him tonight.

[SHANE(WA)]

Did the arrow bust off where he was standing? or break when running and hit something? the biggest buck I ever killed had no blood. Arrow snapped off from the shoulder coming back on it, not one drop of blood from where I hit it to where he eneded up, buck went 40 yards, dbl lung.

[high country]

leave you bow and take a dog. tis ok that way. I would bet you are right on top of him. they can pile up in some tight little holes for sure.

don't forget to ust your nose, deer smell pretty strong and you ought to be able to smell him if the wind is right.

did the blood you spotted hit high on the brush? color.....bright red-pink?

[bobcat]

Well, if the deer isn't found until well after daylight this morning, the meat isn't going to be edible.    

[spin05]

Man that sucks......I lost a small cow elk once the same way.Never did find her after looking most of the next day. My buddy has a saying in case you can't find it. "The coyotes have to eat too".

[MagKarl]

We need more info to help you more.  How much penetration did you get, as in how much of the broken arrow did you find?  If it busted off at the insert, then maybe you hit shoulder blade and didn't get to the vitals.  If all you found is the fletching and nock, then you got most of an arrow in there and that deer is likely dead, make sense?  What color and how much blood did you find?  Sometimes there is little to no blood for a while, you have to follow the tracks.  Try not to disturb the trail with boot tracks, and you'll need to get down on your hands and knees to look for the smallest speck of blood.  Toilet paper can be a good tool to touch possible blood and see the real color if it's still wet.  Probably won't help you now though, but might on your next opportunity.  Don't just look on the ground for blood, look on brush too as it will get blood up high as the animal plows through.  Do your best, that's the important part.  It does happen to most hunters sooner or later, but it should be rare.  I lost a doe two years ago and it sucked big time, still bothers me.

[SpokaneSlayer]

Well I just got back to work from looking for that deer.  My boss was pretty cool and let me take 2 guys with me.  No luck. We searched high and low. To answer some of the questions:

- Compared the broken arrow to a good arrow, didn't hardly penetrate at all.  Maybe 5".
- Didn't see any blood at all, very little on the arrow.
- The arrow broke while he was running.  I heard it.

[anglinarcher]

Listen for magpie's.

[NW-Eric]

thats to bad bro... but it will happen to everyone sooner or later

[DOUBLELUNG]

Sounds to me like you hit him in the shoulder blade, broke the shaft when he ran past something.  Poorly vascularized area, he may well live. 

[ellsworth]

Sounds to me like you hit him in the shoulder blade, broke the shaft when he ran past something.  Poorly vascularized area, he may well live. 

Id second that.

If you only got about 5 inches, the deer is probably gone.  I bet he's got a little pain but it should heal up good.  Lots of guys hit high, if seen lots of bucks in WI with wound channels from high arrows, they heal up pretty fast.

If you didn't push him far, and can't find him now, I would rest assured that he's probably walking around somewhere.

Hopefully, by my stand 

[Tony 270WSM]

I had a deer get away after I jumped him while tracking his blood. Couldn't find him and was getting dark fast. Took my gear back, got a couple dogs and went for a hike. They went straight to it and they're not hunting dogs at all, just muts that sat around the yard all day and went for a hike every chance they got. Don't know if that was legal (about 10 years ago), but seemed like the right thing to do.

[MuleySniper]

Man that sucks. I lost a bull I shot last year at 30 yards. Clean pass through with my arrow. It was covered in nice red blood. I gave him about 45 minutes before I even went looking for him. My dad, wastickslinger and I spent a whole day tracking that guy. We followed him to the point we were on our hands and knees and finding only tiny specs of blood 30 yards apart. He was traveling parallel with the hillside with two cows and no signs of going down hill. I still feel sick to my stomach every time I think of it. The only thing that eases me  is I know we gave a hundred and ten percent to try to find that bull. Its a bad feeling.
MS