Never thought I would be making a thread like this, but here it is. I finally had a chance to shoot a mule deer I was looking for and it went sideways. I found three bucks, one of them being my target buck that I saw before a few times but never got a clear shot at. Everything was good except for snow (noisy), but since the time when I found them was about 5-10 minutes before sunset, it was not overly difficult to get closer for a shot. I got to about 50-60 yards from them for a fairly clear shot. Two of the bucks could not take the suspense of hearing me moving around and took off, while "my" buck took a bit of cover but was still clearly visible from where I was at the other side of the opening in the bush. So about 70-yard shot (after he took cover) and about 20 minutes of legal light left. I leaned on a tree, aimed and pulled the trigger. It was not a rush shot, not freehand, I was confident in my shot. The buck jumped up, landed on his hoofs, kind of rocked to his right like a drunk (I thought he was going to crash) and then took off. The weird thing was he did not run crazy fast, rather galloped away into the bush. There was no time for a follow up shot (and I was 100% sure he was going to collapse). There was not much time to wait, so I only gave it about 10 minutes (maybe even less). I went to check the spot where he was standing and found no blood. I followed his tracks to where he entered the bush and no blood. I went back to where I shot from and yes, those were the spots, so I was not confused. Long story short, I hiked the valley for a couple of hours after dark looking for blood and could not find anything. It was snowing and still is, so it wasn't supposed to be hard to find it. The only problem is the trail that he took to the bush splits and then again and again and so on, all withing 50-75 hundred yards from the spot where I shot him (presumably) and lots of fresh tracks everywhere, so I was not sure which direction he took, but no blood that I could find anywhere. Of course, I could not cover too much of an area. I was really looking for blood to follow it, but nothing turned up.
What can I do? I am going out tomorrow to look again (I cannot make it in the morning, but going in the afternoon). It is going to snow overnight, so no chance of actual tracking. I really have no idea what to do tomorrow. I know where to start, but where to go? I am just at a complete loss here.
I am still fairly confident in my shot. How could I have missed? I mean I was 100% certain it was a hit, but since there was no blood anywhere... I am still positive of the hit. But how could that be? Lungs/heart shot, .308, ~ 70 yards, where was the blood? Did I miss? What do I do? How do I look? It is a river valley, so hills, steep, bushy. There are lots and lots of game trails, as I mentioned earlier.
I think he is dead in the first bush or it was a complete miss. Reason is that if he was hit then he would have bedded or collapse fairly quick. But since you never bumped him, he is either dead or just kept trotting off.
Kind of sounds like you hit him in the antler,especially the way you explained that he acted drunk after and galloped away. No blood either kind of makes sense as well. Either way,get out there as fast as you can and start searching. Who knows maybe you run into him again.
You need a smart phone with a gps mapping app like iHunter.
At first light (everything else has to wait, the coyotes won’t) walk to and mark the spot he went into the bush. From that point, you have to walk every inch within a 300 yard radius. If you don’t find anything to go on, well, there might not be anything to do except sit on the hill watch for magpies.
Most likely a chunk of fat blocked the hole. Or you missed.
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I have had the same scenario before. Looked and looked. On my way out of the bush after a long search, thinking I had missed, there it was dead on a trail. No blood trail. Frustrating for sure. Good luck.
Bow hunters know all about “the second hunt” finding your animal.
Always mark where you shot from then mark where the animal was. Follow the trail until you find blood, it takes awhile sometimes. If you can’t then go back to where he was standing and start doing small circles until you find blood. Mark every drop of blood you find with toilet paper tied to the grass or trees etc. When you can’t find blood go to your last marked blood spot and start looking again. Tomorrow morning when the sun is up the birds will tell you where it is, probably it’ll be a pile of bones because of the coyotes.
I've shot deer before with minimal to no blood . Sometime the hair from the animal can clog the entry wound and if it hit a bone with no exit it can just bleed internally. With it being a close steady shot I wouldnt think he would go far. Keep making small sweeps of the area and flagging then widen your grid area, he could be folded up closer than you think. Best of luck on your search
Yup, get out there as soon as you can and expect to put in a long day. Bring food and water. Walk patterns out and back, or grid search. Mark your progress as you go so you have a safe path out. Look behind bushes no matter how thick, downed logs, anything they can have their back to. Look for beds in the snow. Listen for large bird gatherings. Bring buddies if you can. This has happened to me once. It was gut wrenching. I searched with head lamps at night, and a full day the next before I found him.
[/LEFT]I would say your deer is down happened to me as well, deer jumps in air stands there for a bit and runs off like nothing happened. I'm asking myself same questions as you. Long story short... no blood trail, but had tracks in beginning, then too many.... now what..... walk straight line alittle longer and find deer camouflaged behind bush... almost missed it, I'd say I walked 100 ft approx. Why no blood ? Shot was alittle high further back and deer bleed out internally, only 1 hole, exist hit a rib which caused deer to jump
Walk a straight line for a bit if nothing go back to beginning an start over. Pretty sure it's a dead deer.[/LEFT]
Kind of sounds like you hit him in the antler,especially the way you explained that he acted drunk after and galloped away. No blood either kind of makes sense as well. Either way,get out there as fast as you can and start searching. Who knows maybe you run into him again.
X2...bullet could have hit the brush and ricocheted up...my gun shoots 3” high of bullseye @100 yards.
Kind of sounds like you hit him in the antler,especially the way you explained that he acted drunk after and galloped away. No blood either kind of makes sense as well. Either way,get out there as fast as you can and start searching. Who knows maybe you run into him again.
I shot a deer's antler off once and the reaction was similar. Another possibility is a high paunch shot, above the stomach but below the backbone. Either scenario makes for a difficult retrieval. Good luck.
You have a duty to be there tomorrow morning at first light. And start walking circles, or either run a grid style pattern. Best of luck!!!
Exactly after reading the post you took the shot at sunset you should be there in the morning look for Ravens like the other post said do a grid search good luck
At first light (everything else has to wait, the coyotes won’t) walk to and mark the spot he went into the bush. From that point, you have to walk every inch within a 300 yard radius. If you don’t find anything to go on, well, there might not be anything to do except sit on the hill watch for magpies.
Most likely a chunk of fat blocked the hole. Or you missed.
I will second this but add "bring help". The more eyes, the better.
He's hit. If he jumped it is because you hit him somewhere. First instincts are usually right. Try not to second guess yourself.
Hopefully you beat the coyotes. Good luck.
What area of Alberta are you in, if you’re around Wainwright I can come help you look for the deer. I think he is dead just laying in thick bush, watch what the birds do and listen when you get back in there.
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If you saying went into or down into a area then maybe just sit high and glass a bit at first light, see what the birds are doing then after that I would go to where you hit him and then to where he went into the bush, start a grid pattern walking, listen to the area, magpies squeaking etc and keep glassing too.
Good luck.
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The bucks reaction to the shot reads like you hits guts.
He probable went to the nearest thick cover and bedded.
If he wasn't bumped by you or other predators, he is probably still nearby.
It might take a day or two for him to die, so there is still a chance that you could find him wearing more than just bones.
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I feel for you, although my experience is slightly different as I did NOT feel great after the shot.
On Friday evening, a friend and I were mostly on our way back to the truck when we noticed a doe and fawn feeding along a creek about 600 yards away. We watched them for a bit, then out from the bushes on the other side of a creek came a buck trotting after the doe. We decided to head in a direction to cut them off on their travels. As I came over a ridge to see where they had ended up, the doe and fawn busted me and took off. The buck turned to see what they where up to and whether he should follow. This is where my inexperience as a hunter showed true, I was in to much of a rush to get a shot before the buck took chase after the doe. My breathing was heavy from having jogged 300-400 yards to cut them off. I did not take the time to range the buck first and I guessed the range, I did not take the time to get a proper rest set up. The buck was quartered towards me a little more than ideal. I took the shot and all I saw in the scope was his white ass running away. I thought it was a complete miss and no good second shot presented itself. He ran about 500 yards, then stopped in a thicket and began licking his front haunch. We continued to watch and after a bit he limped on his front left leg about 15 yards and laid down. My buddy stayed in the high ground, while I got into the low ground and tried to move around to another firing position. This did not work and he took off further way, he was limping but moving at a fast pace and we lost him over a ridge. We relocated him another 500-600 yards away, limping up a ridge into a treeline. With limited light left and knowing that he was moving at a good pace, I made the call to waypoint the treeline and come back. The next morning I spent 4 hours griding the ridge he went into(their was a private ranch boundary at the top of the ridge, I did not have permission and did not cross) I did not find him. We found no blood or sign of any sort, my assumption is that the shot was low(bad range estimation) and I got him in the lower shoulder. He may walk it off, or die, or get caught by the cougar that is in the area based on the tracks I found while looking for him.
Not a great experience for a newish hunter, but I learnt a lot of valuable lessons from it. BTW, my season is over, I am out of province for the rest of the month, although even if that were not the case I probably would have "punched" my tag for that buck.
I will write an update later today when I get a few minutes. Deer not recovered. Hopefully, it is just "yet". There is a development though and I will write about it later in the night.
What area of Alberta are you in, if you’re around Wainwright I can come help you look for the deer. I think he is dead just laying in thick bush, watch what the birds do and listen when you get back in there.
Thank you for the offer! That's very generous and I appreciate it, but I am in the north.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 350 mag
What bullet or load were you using ?
Did you put side pressure on forestock of rifle as you leaned against the tree.
At that range you should have had better results with double lung? You might have hit him further back liver or guts?
I would think that the result should have been better as well, but it is what it is. The ammo was store-bought Hornady American Whitetail 150 grain in .308 Win.
Now to today...
Lots of hours looking. The weather was not supportive of the task at all: easily 6 to 8 inches of snow over night and more during the day. Very windy as well. If the guy was dead in the bush, I suspected the chances of finding him in these conditions were pretty slim, unless he was being eaten by predators. Weather aside, the morning was quite with no wildlife visible or heard. I was not sure if it was a good sign or not. There were no tracks in the bush whatsoever. To begin, I wondered from high point to high point for about an hour, just glassing and listening. There was nothing but bush.
This is the trail the guy took yesterday on his way out:
Quote:
Originally Posted by CBintheNorth
He's hit. If he jumped it is because you hit him somewhere. First instincts are usually right. Try not to second guess yourself.
Before beginning with the grid search, I decided to go back and take a look at the gun. I was still confident it should have been a good hit. The barrel was empty and clean (I really started thinking that no bullet reached the target). So I fired a couple of quick shots at an empty diaper box I had at the back of the vehicle (all I had) from about the same distance and both bullets hit the box where they were supposed to. I definitely took better care of my shot yesterday, so it must have been a hit and the deer should have expired by now.
So I went back and went on with the search. Given the weather, wind and snow, I was concentrating on an antler sticking out of snow, poking around at "suspicious" hills, etc. At the same time at the back of my head I knew that I would not find anything there because I did a quick walk over most of the trails in the proximity the night before and there were no tracks off any trail. He did stick to one of them, at least within the first couple hundred yards.
Anyway, the day went on. Someone from here with a little more experience joined me on the search a little later in the day, which I am very thankful for. We have not found anything. About half an hour before sunset, I found a deer track on one of the trails (the first one for the day!) and decided to check it out (don't know why). I followed it into nowhere for about hundred yards before I decided to stop and go back. When I was heading back, I clearly heard a crack and movement to the left of me. I looked up the hill to the left and I saw a deer. It was not just a deer, it was THE deer, staring right at me. When I looked through my binoculars, there was no mistake it was him. I knew for a fact it was him because his headgear is very distinct. He also had a blood spot in the right place. It was just a tad above where I would have preferred to see it, but it was there. The shot was good.
I took the gun off my shoulder and aimed. He moved behind some trees and there was no shot. He then started walking away and still no shot. The guy who came to help advised me that it would best to at least to move in to where the deer was and check things out and so I did. Deer tracks, deer tracks, deer tracks... How?
I waited for the guy to find me. When he did, we had about 35-40 minutes of legal light left. After short deliberation, the decision was made to track and see what happens. More deer tracks. However, shortly after, the guy found this (I'd say no more than 5 millimeters in diameter):
A little further and there was more:
And then more and more:
We tracked this buck until 20 minutes past legal light time. Surprisingly, he went out of the bush and out to a field (I have permission on, but have never seen him there before) where I could shoot him just a couple hundred or so yards away. But it was 20 minutes past legal shoot and there was a dwelling in that direction that I am aware off, so not shots fired.
I will be back tomorrow. I am really hoping the deer will be back to his usual grounds rather than walking to some new solitude place. He is hit in the right place for sure. Why is it that he is still walking? I have no clue. Bad cartridge maybe? I really don't know. A guy shot an elk with the same ammo last year (but 30-06) and the bullet went through a rib, lungs, a rib on the other side and exited clean without ever expending. He took the elk down with the second shot (running).
Any thoughts would be appreciated. We figured that he bleeds when he moves, mostly. The spot he spent a few minutes up on the field had no blood; yet, once he started moving again, there were drips of blood. Also, he does not seem to be moving too fast but can still jump around and gallop.
Snow has stopped, almost. Wind slowed down but is still blowing...
First off congrats and thank you for keeping after him . As Dick says sounds like you hit no mans land but dont rule out bullet failure either . I shot a whitetail buck about 20 years ago and had a Sierra bullet fragment and fail to break thru the ribcage at 150 yds, right behind the shoulder about a third of the way up the body .Left nothing more than a grapefruit size bruise and I shot him again with a buddies gun and put him down .I have never used Sierra bullets to reload again , especially after relating this same story on another forum and receiving a couple messages from others that have had the same experience with them . Good luck on your continued hunt .
Lost deer. What to do?
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