My son shot a buck this afternoon. When he shot the deer it hit the ground. He thought dead deer but he got back up and ran out of the lane low to the ground. Said he looked hurt. Looked in dark some but no blood. Backed out and taking dog in morning.
Any thoughts?

Did he look in the right place? I know I've been off by 5 yards and it cost me 2 hours of searching only to realize I started in the wrong spot

There's a good chance it's a high back shot....very low recovery rate on those.

Yep, sounds like back slap

Low running, in my experience, indicates a fatal chest shot. Certainly not a gut shot. I've seen a lot of them that didn't bleed much because the shot was mid to high in the chest and most of the blood pooled down into the chest cavity. They really didn't start bleeding good until the cavity filled with blood. By then the pressure causes the heart to stop so they are very close. When I think this may be the case, I concentrate on where the deer was standing when shot and look for hair instead of blood.

Anyways, with a decent dog, you'll find it.

William Crawford meeting us tomorrow

I bet you will find it in the morning. Only tip I have is if blood is sparse,put toilet paper pieces at each spot found.

If he hit him there is blood, Expand out from where he thought he shot him. I like to track using a roll of toilet paper. Start where the deer was shot and mark with a piece of toilet paper. Expand out until your next drop put another piece of paper. You can use the paper if your unsure if a red spot on a leaf is blood or not. Blot it and if it comes back red it's blood. It's raining here. If you get rain it will make it a lot harder if it wasn't a good shot. The nice thing about toilet paper is that you don't have to go back and pick it up. It will deteriorate very rapidly.

I hit one a little far back a couple years ago. Not way back towards the intestines, but liver area. He hit the ground. I thought he was down climbed down and when my foot hit the ground on some leaves he took off like he wasn't even hit. Finally found a pool of blood where he was laying about the size of a softball. Was going down to 30 that night and it was a big deer so I knew I needed help getting him out so I waited till the morning. Next morning I found one little speck of blood on a leaf. I could see the direction he ran though. I killed around 20 or so deer on that stand and knew they all ran straight to the bottom of the holler, if they made it that far. So I got in the bottom of the holler and just started looking. found him about 200 yards from where I shot him. Walked back through were he ran and still didn't see any blood. I guess it was a little high and the blood just filled the chest cavity.

How long did it lay there? If it laid there a while then it is probably a back-whack or neck shot. Either way it will be a long, hard recovery, if at all, even with a good tracking dog.

Didn't lay long , head was wobbly .Son said he hit the ground kicking then got up running off low to ground. Thought he was hit hard

The dog should lead you right to him alive or dead. The rain we had will only his nose work better.

Well???

The guy is heading over with the dog now.

Good Luck, I hope you guys find him.

Ditto

Rained pretty hard last night. No luck so far

Rain usually makes the trail easier for the dog.

That is good. You may have a good chance then. Been 18 hrs. He should be dead nearby if it was any vitals. Who's dog? Good luck.

William Crawford dog. We tracked a good ways. Neighbor heard the dog barking then William saw a deer get up. From the distance we went it looks like he may make it.