How often has anything like this happend to you?

[brotherjack]

So, this morning at about 7:00AM, my wife put a 4 blade 125gr Muzzy broadhead into the side of a nice little deer. Just slightly quartering away, but still a pretty clean shot. Found nice little air bubbles in the bright red blood, and figured this looked pretty good. Waited half an hour (by the watch). Then, off to follow the blood trail we go, which was mostly pretty easy - the deer was bleeding good.

Over a kilometer later, still plenty of blood, but we're thinking this is not so good. After running that far (over a kilometer), the deer went up a really harsh hill (almost killed me getting up it, going very slow). We're like 5 hours into tracking this thing at this point. Found where it had laid down at the top and bled a nice little pool of blood, but this happened a long time ago (possibly 5 hours ago), because the blood is all but dry (and about a half inch deep).

We think - great, deer must be close. We fan out and search several hundred yards in any direction, and no deer.

Back to the blood pool, and start searching, and found a very faint blood trail going off again. We followed that for maybe a hundred yards. Blood trail ends. No deer. Bush is wide open and clear, easy to see. We walked it off for about half a kilometer in any direction. Nothing... Followed the last game trail the animal was on for about a kilometer. Nothing... Almost 9 hours of tracking and searching, and it's gone like a ghost.

So, my question to all you more experienced bowhunters - what's the deal? Do you have to get a perfect heart or double lung shot if you actually want to retrieve your animal? This deer got an arrow through at least one lung (or so I assume because of the bubbles in the blood), and it goes that far, and then up a hill - and still going when the blood trail ran out? How often has something like this ever happened to you? (if ever?)

I'm about "this close" to giving up bowhunting right now - this is two for two animals shot and not retrieveable since The Wife (tm) and I took it up for this year. Is this common, or are we just having a bad time of it?

Thanks...

[ruger#1]

hey bj, how wide are youre arrow tips,they are four blade, maybe they have to be a bit wider. im new to bow hunting to, im useing nap crossfires and im wondering if i wasted my money they are 100 grns, and three blades with a one and one eigth cutting diameter. cost me a hundred dollars for six, dont give up.

[brotherjack]

hey bj, how wide are youre arrow tips,they are four blade, maybe they have to be a bit wider. im new to bow hunting to, im useing nap crossfires and im wondering if i wasted my money they are 100 grns, and three blades with a one and one eigth cutting diameter. cost me a hundred dollars for six, dont give up.

Mine are 4 blade 125grain Muzzy's, 1 1/8th cutting diameter. Supposed to be good heads, from all I've read...

[ruger#1]

my buddy is in the kootenys , he went out for elk with his crossbow and hit a six pointer, lots of blood on the arrow , he waited for a while , and they have had the same problem, the walked and walked, and the blood trail disapeared, when he gets home ill ask him how long he waited before he persued the elk, mark

[brotherjack]

Followup questions:

How often do you have to trail your animal more than 500 yards?

Is spending hours on hands and knees combing through blades of grass looking for blood trail normal?

Thanks...

[BwanaDave]

Its happened to me with both bow(1983) and rifle (2002) the bow was from 6 yds downward angle double lunger from a tree stand. Rifle 125 yds .270 win 130 gr. trailed both until the blood ran out , found where they had laid down and left a great big sopping puddle but never recovered either deer. Its truly a lousy empty feeling. Sorry I dont have any answers for you Its just part of hunting.

BD

[Kirby]

something is wrong with the shot. I have hit, and trailed numerous deer, and bear with a bow, if you catch one, or two lung, the deer will not likely go more than 250 yards, with both lungs, it would rarely go more than 100. It is possible the head hit the sholder, and turned, and exited out the front of the sholder, not catching the lung, the blood can still have bubbles, even without a lung hit. I have trailed some deer by blood, however, mostly with solid shots, I don't even need to trail them.

Some questions:
- what the weight your wife is shooting?
- How far was the deer?
- relaxed or aware?
- was the arrow recovered?

Muzzy 4 blades are great heads, and definatly will do the job, if put in the right place.

Kirby

[Cappy]

Sounds like you hit one lung only. Even if the shot looks perfect funny things can happen as the arrow penetrates the body, glancing off ribs etc. Regardless of how good you think you hit a animal give it a least 20 min before you take off after it (unless you see it fall and expire) an hour is better. As soon as you see that the deer is still alive and you are pushing it back off and give it some more time.

Last year I shot a nice big doe and the blood trail was easy to follow. I gave it 20 min before I took off after it. Within about 60 yards I saw her stand up and move off again. Left her for the night, came back in the morning and found her another 30 yards along the trail. I'm sure if I continued after her she would have kept on going.

A deer shot in the heart or through both lungs won't go far just give it time and space. A single lung hit will be fatal just back off and give it a lot more time.

[greybark]

Hey Gang , Studies on a one lung hits on mature Whitetail will result in the animal not being retrieved and in some cases the deer will survive .

When Region 4 opened up for any Elk and any WT deer ( due to 8 years of effort of the TBBC) several bowhunters and I disscussed what would the wounding rates be . Any increase would be as result of new and inexperienced bow hunters taking to the woods for the first time. I find that those bowhunters who use Traditional and Compound bows as a rule practice a lot more and most attend 3-d shoots where shot placment and personnal limits are recognized . In over 30 years of bowhunting and attending a hell of a lot 3-d events I saw only one crossbow participate ( I invited him to shoot with me) . It was very evident that he knew nothing about shot placment and judged distance very poorly .
I had a friend who had a crossbow with which he practiced once a year and he shared a WT deer hunt with me . He could hit a bull consistantly up to 60yds , but missed 7 shots at deer because of poor distance judging.
Interesting enough I just came back from an Elk hunt and the first four bowhunters i met used crossbows and during our disscusions each group of two stated they used crossbows because unlike other bows they did not wound deer. Needless to say I was MAD as hell and told them so . If this is the general attitude of crossbow hunters then i am concerned about direction bowhunting is headed for .

REMEMBER -- Keep Your fingertab On --

[brotherjack]

Some questions:
- what the weight your wife is shooting?
- How far was the deer?
- relaxed or aware?
- was the arrow recovered?

Muzzy 4 blades are great heads, and definatly will do the job, if put in the right place.

150lb crossbow (Horton SteelForce - about 210FPS w/ 485-ish grain arrow weight. Neighbourhood of 48lbs KE.

About 20 yards.

Aware, but not spooked - wife whistled to stop her as she was trotting along at a brisk walk. Deer stopped and looked, and wife shot.

Arrow unrecovered. Presumed still in the deer, but fletchings not visible on impact side when deer ran off - never got a look at the far side to see if it was sticking through.

And yeah, obviously something went wrong with the hit - but I'm kind of wondering if this is common, or just a fluke? If it's common, I think I may just give up bow hunting - I'm not into killing animals I don't get to eat...