Shot a buck this evening, quartering away, but more away than quartering, maybe ten yards. Arrow went thwack, deer took off. I was surprised I could see 1/2 the arrow sticking out went it took off. Found blood and tracked it down one hillside, through a valley and up another hill. Blood was really starting to thin out, then it started to drizzle. Started just looking for a dead deer, found him laying down, got my knife and he took off, not moving to good. Very little blood where he had been laying. Crazy, cant get over it. That arrow has to be in one lung even with 1/2 sticking out. Was shot with a 60 lb compound using a 29" 2413 and magnus broadhead. Gonna try looking again tomorrow morning. ~ 4 hrs elapsed from when I shot him until I jumped him. 25 years hunting, never lost a big game animal, wish me luck in the morning.

Good luck, hope you find him.

You went after a poorly hit animal way too soon

Exact same thing happened to me but the arrow was a pass thru. Called my blood hound Dad, and the next morning we found him to weak to stand......cut his throat and dragged him back. Was luck to find him was luckier to find him breathing, was not that cold.

Probably so, the impending rain put a rush on things.

No luck yet, did find one more blood spot, gonna head back with a dog soon.

You were a Monday morning quarterback and it ain't even Monday yet.

Live and learn I'd rather look for a dead deer the next morning without blood due to rain than go after one poorly hit too soon...recovery rate is exponentially higher finding the deer the next morning

Hope you find it

Good luck w the recovery.

rain rushed me too! I pushed him less than 30yards but could not find him until morning.

Find it?

I am in treestand now. Its 57 and clear and going down to 38 tonight. Things should finally pick up....

3 deer at 20 yards now....

Rain changes NOTHING. NOTHING. You'll learn, hopefully not the hard way.

FWIW, which will help you, waiting only runs one risk, that of a varmint finding your deer.

I had one jump the string many years ago, gut hit, she walked out about 80 yards away, laid down in an open field under a single mesquite tree. She was alive 3 hours later at dark.. Left her. Thunderstorms were coming with a front but it was to early to even take a dog... We left her. About 10 hours after the shot and about 3 inches of hard rain later, she was dead, still laying there..

We've also jumped a couple of bigger body bucks that were double lung hits... 3 hours later.... we give them time, they aren't going anywhere if they are dead... thats the point you need to get.

Luckily those bucks ahd bedded, and clotted up, and getting them up, they didn't make another 50 yards before breaking loose and bleeding out the rest of the way.

With a bow, the LAST thing you want do be is in a hurry. EVER IMHO.

Dog wise our dog found a rifle wounded buck last year, after 5 inches of rain that lasted 4 hours.... a dog can find the deer if you have one, don't rush....

Patience is really hard... We've been lucky that almost every bad situation we found ourselves in we backed off and gave it time, when giving it time, its always worked just fine. Unless the deer is not mortally wounded.

I"d think half penetration said it hit the other shoulder and bounced back also IMHO.

And Im not bragging, but over 100 animals with a bow, IE big game, deer, pigs and the like, and in on tracking/finding probably another 300-400 over the years... BTDT, time is always your friend.

No dice. No deer, no arrow. Scent dog took up the track from where it crossed the road right to where I jumped it last night. Then followed the trail for several more miles. One blood spot where it rubbed against a tree. My guess is that deer is still moving. Shoulda, couda, woulda, all hindsight now. Have taken several moose and lots of deer with the bow. If the arrow hit too far back I would have waited until morning. The arrow looked like a good hit to me, hence the pursuit, compounded by rain. I guess it wasnt hit as good as I thought.

That sucks,but it happens.

I'd think then the hit was to high most likely.. And it'll be just fine.

Especially if the dog did like ours, follow it that far, its very likely not mortally hit, if not hit in the gut.

Time would not have hurt anything in this instance... hint hint, though it would not have changed anything eiether.

I was going to throw my bow in the nearest dumpster but I figure the best way to get over it is to get back on that horse. I have to travel for work next week, after that its on. Prolly be a bit picky about shot position though, like full broadside only! Horrible feeling to not recover an animal, one I hope to not feel again.

That sucks. I have lost 2 deer that were shot with compound bows. Both times it was amazing at how much blood was lost, how far we tracked, and no dice. It happens.

I have yet to lose a deer shot with a crossbow or any form of rifle or pistol.

Much as I hate to admit, I feel more confident shooting the crossbow than the compound nowadays......

Let me help you a bit. If you do your work in trailing, and especially using a dog, the deer isn't dead and won't die. Blade cuts are really clean. They do 2 things. They bleed well and they are not prone to infect.

This is much different than a jagged bullet wound can be. Even that said we've seen a lung hit buck from an 06, actually hit both lungs, live for 3 weeks and get shot running a doe 3 weeks later... they can be really tough. Granted it was a pencil hole high in the lungs when the game king never opened up...

IMHO, as noted, if you work at the trail and come to nothing with an arrow hit, you've lost nothing.

And while it may look like a lot of blood, in reality its not that much. It takes a lot of loss to kill one. Being around a lot of deer harvests and trails and being around a lot of bad EMS runs, its amazing....

And non recoveries are good for bowhunters. Makes them rethink life, that you have to be really picky about shots, that long shots ain't all they are cracked up to be. that REAL vitals are not as large as made out. In the end I'm always amazed that all these high shots from rifles kill deer so well.. high is NOT where you want to be with an arrow, to much non vital tissue.

One last thing..... when the trail starts out bright red blood and quite a bit and then gets down to pin drops every few feet or less over a couple hundred yards, thats almost always a nice flesh only hit that heals.... SIL did one many years ago, I watched the buck the next morning. I had to look with my binocs at 20 yards to finally find where the arrow had hit, it had healed that well over about 20 hours or so...

I'm sorry for your lost deer. It's a sickening feeling that doesn't leave your memory any time soon. I lost one three years ago due to my bad judgement and impatience. I'll not make those mistakes again. It can happen to the best hunters doing the very best they can possibly do. Try not to beat yourself up too badly as you reflect on the event and learn from any mistakes you might have made. That's about all you can do at this point.

Bummer.

Sorry to hear the outcome, but it happens.
Almost everyone (myself included) that has bow hunted for many years has had that happen.
Learn and move on.

I wouldn't worry so much about going after the deer too soon. The fact that it was not moving well when you jumped it says it wasn't that bad of a hit. Chances are good the diminishing blood trail was due to either loss of blood or plugging the hole. Putting deer with an arrow in the lung into motion s not a bad idea in any way shape or form. The deer moving and the arrow moving are going to do nothing but cut it up some more inside.

I ALWAYS go after a deer right away and I've never lost one in 60 years. NEVER! Nobody with a bleeding out patient gets them on their feet and jogs them to the hospital. The quiet them down and help get the bleeding stopped.

My personal opinion is that more often than not blood trails diminish from decreased blood pressure, and deer are lost when the blood trail is lost because the tracker couldn't find a dead deer.

A deer that's bleeding is more likely to keep bleeding if it keeps moving. A deer that has a well shredded chest contents can easily plug both holes and not bleed much if any, and still make it fifty yards after the blood on the ground stops. I've seen deer with the heart completely shredded, the lungs gone and a fistful of tissue on the ground where it was hit make it 70 yards and leave maybe a teaspoon of blood in between. I've seen deer with the lungs well shredded and the heart loose in the chest make it to their final resting place with but three #6 shot size drops of blood and those in the last 30 feet.

I have seen enough bird dogs step on a dead bird and still neither smell it nor find it that I look at any dog as just another tool that may work or may not in any given case.

The deer isn't lost until you give up. Even when you do quit though, it doesn't mean Bambi isn't laying dead somewhere. Do the best you can and learn from all of what happened to make it easier next time.

Curious about this statement in the OP:

"Started just looking for a dead deer, found him laying down, got my knife and he took off, not moving to good."

I was taught to NEVER approach a non-dead deer, shoot them again. Was the plan to finish it with the knife?

That statement has me curious. And your example of a doe lying under a single tree out in an open field compounds my curiosity.

Try that same doe 80 yards away in five foot visibility brush with several inches of moss and duff covering any dirt that might show a track, all in a steady pouring rain.

Rain can and does wash out a blood trail. Seen it happen many times here in the rainy PNW. That changes the visibility of the blood trail and makes it more difficult.

Rain does not change how quickly the animal dies, but it changes the difficulty of finding that animal. That and snow covering a blood trail are two conditions when I've decided that time is not on my side and followed an animal right away.

We work with what nature gives us and you are obviously very good at recovering critters in your part of the world.

That always made sense to me as well. I've never had to track a deer very far, but I'd think a pushed deer with a lethal hole in it would expire quicker, even if it did cover more ground, than one left to rest.

I presume the distance a mortally wounded deer would travel when pushed is the reason for letting him lay.

Well, the OP said he had a quartering away deer and put half the arrow inside the deer. NOT saying the arrow was high or low tells me he thought it was in at least one lung. I will push one like that as hard as I can every time unless I am pushing it somewhere cannot go. In September I shot one that wasn't hit as well as I would like. In above the brisket and out the shoulder. When I hit her she almost went down and recovered. Didn't bleed all that well for the first hundred yards, but I could see she had to stop and rest fairly often and wasn't moving fast. Pushing her was hastening her expiration. I did not expect to find her alive or very far away. I found her dead 200 yards give or take some from where I shot her.

Usually you have to follow them for a ways to understand more about the wound from the trail. I have on occasion stopped and either myself or someone else got out in front of the deer. But... the closest I have come to stopping is when it got dark and I knew the deer was going to need shooting again to recover it. I think in every case like that it was a leg shot deer. I have never even considered not going after one right away to at least find out how bad it was hit.

Sometimes you just know that the deer is well hit and dead near by regardless of what the trail tells you, and you have to go with that.

That was the plan, it was dark and there was no way I was going to hold the flashlight and draw the bow, let alone see anything through the peep.

I had to do this last year with a doe shot in the neck with a flintlock, its a rodeo but can be done. Never fun.