Pulled the trigger on a good buck about 15 minutes before dark tonight. The deer was almost directly facing me with a slight quarter to my right, and head down at the shot. I was aiming just left of the center about 2/3 of the way up.

At the shot I immediately lost sight of him as he headed into the thicket uphill. Sounded like he was struggling quite a bit and crashing through a lot of brush.

I waited about 15 minutes after dark and snuck to the site of the hit.

Once there I found this:

https://i.postimg.cc/651Lk7Vn/image.jpg

And this:

https://i.postimg.cc/8z2dCq0C/image.jpg

I'm pretty sure that the bone is a rib bone. Anyone think it could be a different bone?

The blood almost seemed like gut matter or liver, and there was a decent sized spot both in front of the deer with the bone, and behind him. I followed the trail into the thicket about 50 yards but just wasn't finding that much blood so I backed out.

I guess I am just looking for thoughts on if this is likely a dead deer? I've never had bone at a shot site before.

Does anyone have a name or contact for a tracking dog that works in Randolph county? I really want to find this deer and will be calling a tracker if there is one for the county.

Thanks gents!

What about trying this fella?

https://www.unitedbloodtrackers.org/tracker-profile/?user=513

Give him a call he's a good tracker...…...bone fragments on tracks are just about always from the leg. Sometimes its not but those are pretty rare.

Well if she ain't, he's hurtin

CNC I was hoping you'd respond since I know you're very experienced. I will reach out to the gentleman you two suggest.

I have seen you comment on bone fragments before on tracks being from the leg but I swear this was a rib bone. I should have picked it up and taken better pictures but I wasn't sure with the possibility of calling in a dog if that would screw things up.

I agree. Leg bone fragments. Dark blood. I'd bet it was a low hit. Hope I'm wrong and he is dead close by.

I'd wait to morning and track him possible get a shot if he ain't dead...

You can’t ever say anything for sure with these situations…..you just have to look at the percentages. Chances are about 95% or better that its leg bone. If it were a rib bone then that deer probably wouldn’t have gone anywhere. That means that you would have drilled it through the body at the angle you described. A deer hit like that would be smoked and not going far. ……There’s a good chance that you shot low…..It's possible you may still be able to get him.

Leg bone.

I’d have to disagree. Almost straight on, exit through liver back of ribs, dead deer.

I agree with atoler

Well guys I spoke to a tracker who covers the county and he is not going to come out for this one. Totally his call and I understand because of the size of this property, the patchwork property access in the area and the thought that it appears likely to be a leg bone from his experience tracking as well. It was a bit disappointing to hear him say that if we had 500 acres we would put it in the truck but I understand that there are places we couldn't access and areas that could potentially be unsafe for his dogs with roads in the area. I am pretty sure this is one of the two really nice deer I had gotten on camera so that is a bummer because I know the tracking dogs are impressive.

I should have taken better pictures and picked up the bone but I was worried about messing up a dog if one came out. Thank you to those of you who provided insight into situations where they have seen decent pieces of bone after a shot as this is a first for me.

I've not been hunting as long as many of you but the dark thick blood surprised me too. It almost appeared to be gut matter but wasn't what I had seen before with gut shot deer and was right at the shot location. I guess I was thinking liver and have heard that can take time so I backed out. That was made a bit difficult as the deer ran towards my parking spot but I dont think I bumped him.

All of that being said I will be out there at first light tomorrow following up on the trail. I plan to move slowly and quietly through the thick stuff. Maybe I will get lucky.

I will follow up.

Take your time in the morning. Mark each spot of blood with a piece of toilet paper. I’d also call another tracker if you can’t find it in the morning. And I would go ahead and get landowner names tonight off the gis map and be ready to call as needed tomorrow.

Agree with Atoler. Do not give up. Look hard and slow in the morning.

X2, I really hope you find him!

Any update??

Best of luck finding him. If I ever called a tracker, he'd better by god come and track! You either find him or you don't. Period..
If you don't call a tracker, take your's or a buddy's yard dog, it's a WHOLE lot better than nothing. Dogs can smell.

Well gentlemen he is dead. I'll follow up with some pictures and info shortly. Thank you for all who provided information and advice.


It's the tall tined 8 from this thread:

http://www.aldeer.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2597007#Post2597007

Great news! Waiting for pics. Congrats!

We need PICS.

Soon...

Congrats and good on ya for sticking with it. Hope maybe you can salvage some meat.

First I want to say thanks again to those who were willing to give advice.

Starting the daylight there was much more blood and hair at the hit site than I had found the night before so that was good to see. After following the same blood I was on the night before for 50ish yards there was nothing until a spot we found grid searching. Nearby there was a bed with two small pools of blood in it and that was it. At this point we just started trouncing through the cutover and surrounding area looking - shout to my hunting buddy for lending a hand. We followed the thick stuff downhill towards the creek and split up at the edge. After covering the creek both ways we started working back towards the spot we split up but my buddy had crossed over the creek.


I saw my friend across the creek and headed that way and as I was closing in on the little creek I walked up to this:

https://i.postimg.cc/8PgJw7rT/image.jpg

He died down in the creek under the ledge. We had repeatedly walked within 100 yards of him but there was just no sign. I went back from there to last blood about 100 yards away twice and there was nothing else.

Upon closer inspection of the shot I found the exit wound on the down side:


https://i.postimg.cc/25gnGxZ2/image.jpg

The entry wound is nowhere to be found. I think it was right in the shirt pocket area but the processor is going to let me know. I'm hopeful that the creek would have helped keep him cold enough to salvage.

Harvest recorded:

https://i.postimg.cc/SKnWcPJn/image.jpg


Best buck yet!:

https://i.postimg.cc/kGQNBtDw/image.png

I don't know what to say about the blood trail honestly. I know I wouldn't have found this deer without luck, and a trail I went on earlier this year helped for sure as it was a sparse trail too. The bone was a rib bone based on looking the deer over, but the bone was from the off side and was found on the on side. I believe that the blood matter I found last night was liver and perhaps the low exit was plugged with gut matter.

Shot was about 25 yards

.270 Winchester

140 grain Accubond

Congratulations!

Very nice buck. Wallpaper

Congrats. Great buck.

I'm glad you found him. Congrats on a great buck. How far did he make from where you shot him?

I'm anxious to hear what happened on this one...…….I'm still putting my bets on that the bone came from the leg and he got into the body cavity low. I'll just have to eat crow if it actually turned out to be a rib bone.

I am too. I'm holding steady on the upper leg shot.

Awesome buck man! Congratulations!!

I’m so glad you found him! That’s a great buck!

He said it was a rib bone, yall were wrong, dont be democrats, just say "well I was wrong", its no big deal, happens to everyone. Notice the hole in the deers side.

There's no fun in that. His opinion was rib bone ours is leg. We're waiting on the processor to give the facts on what the bone was. We're just having a little fun like normal people do. Some of you guys are wound way to tight.

Glad you found him! Way to stick with it! Sometimes bullets do weird things at close yardage.

Very nice deer glad you found him.

Good on you for sticking with it even after losing blood. Sometimes deer do weird things and are tougher than expected. Looking at the exit wound I don't know how he made it that far … he was dead and just didn't know it. Congrats!

Way to stay with it! Congrats

Yeah, no chit...… I hear you ………

Like was said……there’s no certainty to evaluating a hit like this. It may happen this way or that way 99% of the time….but there’s always exceptions. Bone is a leg hit on the vast majority of tracks….but then there’s that one…..Deer that hit the ground and then get up and run off are back-slaps the vast majority of the time…..but then there’s that one that’s not….You never know for sure. All you can do is try and track it and see what happens.

Congrats again!

Thanks guys, I'm very excited to have recovered this deer.

Marsh - as the crow flies he was about 125 yards from the hit site. The thing is he was not found in the direction that he ran. Ultimately he may have covered about 300 yards but he only bled for 75 of that or so.

Definitely a rib bone from the exit wound as the legs were not injured. I also found a decent sized piece of flesh that looked like the flank meat from the exit hole right near the shot site today.

Turns out the entry point was high on the chest where it joins the neck. This makes sense as I waited until be put his head down to shoot. Entry on his right front cheat/neck, exit low to mid body at the back of the ribs on his left side.

As shown in the picture the exit wound in decent sized. I really can't believe how little blood was found and I can't believe how far he went after seeing the shot. It really was a pretty good shot all told.

CNC I want to give you some credit here on this deer. This is my first lease and I was able to put in two small plots on the property using advice from your long thread. Although I don't have equipment for the mowing step my plots look incredible. Just using a backpack sprayer and a combination of oats, wheat and rye, with brassicas and winter peas has been drawing in so many deer. I've also seen multiple turkeys in the plots as well as watching a bobcat hunting mice in the log piles around the edge.

Great job Razor. Sounds like you hit just where you wanted to. It's just amazing what these animals can do after being shot. So you are really sure it wasn't a leg bone? J/K.
Congrats again on a dang fine buck.

Moral of the story, they don't always bleed like they are supposed to and sometimes go a lot farther than you would think possible. If I could post pics I would share a pic of an 8 point Idaho Mike and Lucy found for me 3 years a go. I only had a narrow shooting lane (road) and 200+ yard shot. At the shot the deer ran in to a 4 year old cutover that had so many briars it was like fighting a pack of angry bobcats, I was only able to find 4 specks of blood and then no more. It got dark on me so I called Mike and him, his wife and Lucy met me a couple hours later. As we started down the road in the dark to where I had left my orange hat hanging on a bush I turned my headlight on. Mike asked me to turn it off and said we would just use his dim one. We came to my hat in a few minutes and I asked Mike if we needed to call Lucy in and show her the trail as she had disappeared when using his dim light. Mike "No she has been sitting with your deer 206yds straight that way for the last 5 minutes". We crawled and clawed our way to her and sure enough she was sitting right beside him. The deer was shot right thru the heart but fat apparently was clogging up the exit holes, this was with a 300wsm and Barnes 165grain TTSX so there was a big exit hole but just no blood to follow. This is the only time I have ever called in a dog but I felt really good about the shot and it was a pretty nice deer. I won't hesitate to call for a dog if I ever need one again.

Oh Yea Congratulations!!!

Did Idaho Mike get moved to Alabama?

I don't know I thought he was living here when he came and found my deer 3 years a go.

Congrats. Way to stick with it.

So glad you didn't give up and you found your deer.

Congrats on an awesome buck.

Congrats on getting him

Congrats. Great buck!

Idaho Mike has bought some land in Ga last I heard he was planning to sell his house in Chicago and move down south.

Congrats on a successful hunt and kill. My hat is really off to you for making an honest dedicated effort to recover your kill. I think. No, I know, that is something lacking this newer generation of hunters. If it aint easy, they just quit and blame it on something else. Again, so glad that you found your deer.

Congrats on recovery. Fine Buck.

This would have been an easy track for a dog and saved the meat for the hunter. It's a shame you couldn't find anyone to come out with a dog. I called somebody last year and they wouldn't come out either. Congrats on finding the deer.

Deer do crazy things when shot. I tracked one a few years ago with my dog and hunter saw the deer bouncing through sage field. We searched that huge sage field to no avail and I decided to take my dog around the edge of that field and she hit on blood about 40 yards from where the initial shot was. Deer went into sage and made a 180 degree turn and went back the way he came.

Congrats

Congrats!

Dead deer