Wounded Buck

[cutty98]

I need y'all's help. This was actually a whitetail buck but I figured I would ask here for a little more exposure.

This morning, my wife wounded a really nice buck up here in northern Idaho. After some searching we decided to pull out and give him some time, just in case.

In the meantime I wanted to run the situation past some folks who might be able to give me some helpful advice.

She shot the buck at about 120 yards, broadside. Upon getting shot, he reared up on his hind legs then ran about 20 yards into a thin strip of trees.

I felt pretty confident that she had made a good shot but decided we should give him some time anyways. At about the 20min mark a really nice buck stepped out in the exact same spot where the previous buck had been. This new buck was following a doe and in the back of my mind I thought it might be the same buck, but I hadn't seen the original bucks antlers good enough to be confident. We watched him stand there for a minute then he followed the doe off into the trees.

At this point I decided we should go in and look for blood, which I found pretty quick. After getting shot he went about 20-50 yards into the trees then spent the 20mins right there. The small, maybe the size of a dinner plate, pool of blood here was pretty dark with some bone chunks and lots of fat. He then circled around, and came out in the exact same spot again. The blood trail on the small circle he made was really spotty with some pin pricks here and there. In some cases the fat looked like someone had carried a candle along dripping wax with small drops of blood in it.

The blood trail dried up and I could no longer follow it after he followed the doe off and yes, it was definitely the same buck.

Any insights, thoughts, or tips would be appreciated.

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[Muley_]

Bummer situation. If it’s been long enough to the point you know it should be dead, you could grid search the area.

 

[TK161BOONER]

Sound like brisket shot.

 

[aks]

Similar situation with a friend last year bow hunting. We ended up coming back the next morning and found it. Thick thick timber. We looked up, found the crows and found the deer right above where they were circling.

 

[Jmoore]

I agree with sounds a little low in the brisket. My wife did this 4 years ago on a late evening shot. We found very little blood and some small bone fragments. It got dark and was cold so we backed out for the night. We found the buck alive the next morning and she made a great shot when he jumped up and took off. Initial shot had gone through the sternum and clipped his offside leg which slowed him down.
Good luck

 

[cutty98]

Bummer situation. If it’s been long enough to the point you know it should be dead, you could grid search the area.

Yeah, we'll be back in the morning to grid the area.

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[cutty98]

I agree with sounds a little low in the brisket. My wife did this 4 years ago on a late evening shot. We found very little blood and some small bone fragments. It got dark and was cold so we backed out for the night. We found the buck alive the next morning and she made a great shot when he jumped up and took off. Initial shot had gone through the sternum and clipped his offside leg which slowed him down.
Good luck

Funny you mention that. When I saw him the second time it looked like he was holding his off side leg a little funny but I couldn't figure out why that would be the case. Maybe this is what happened.

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[HairyScandinavian]

Agree with brisket or leg meat shot, betting not fatal.

 

[LoH]

hard to say without being there, or even being there, but to me a couple things suggest liver and stomach. Liver blood is dark, like what you describe. (Brisket or leg / muscle blood is bright red) The stomach is wrapped in that web of caul fat—could be the source of that fat. It is rare to hit the liver without involving the stomach. The handful of liver hit ungulates I’ve seen all demonstrated the behavior you describe, of running a short distance and then standing like a statue for a prolonged time. Rather than running and then bedding down quickly, as a more typical paunch or gutshot animal would do. For whatever reason they kept to their feet instead… but almost frozen in place. Depending on where the liver was hit, they lived 30 minutes to an hour plus. But a pure stomach or gut shot animal can live in some cases 8+ hours.

 

[rookieforever33]

Good luck on your recovery. Call some friends. You cant have too many on a grid search

 

[TK161BOONER]

Liver shot would not produce chunks of bone, I think sometimes we say blood is dark because we’re used to looking at pink frothy blood from a lung shot Deer, but non-lethal meat blood is darker color compared to pink lung blood, yes liver is very dark, but brisket would produce meat blood,fat, chunks of bone and cause a deer to jump from bullet impact.
I once shot through the brisket of a buck and he jumped head first straight up into the air probably 9-10’. Luckily I got another shot off at him and killed him because he is the biggest deer Ive killed to date.

 

[cutty98]

Liver shot would not produce chunks of bone, I think sometimes we say blood is dark because we’re used to looking at pink frothy blood from a lung shot Deer, but non-lethal meat blood is darker color compared to pink lung blood, yes liver is very dark, but brisket would produce meat blood,fat, chunks of bone and cause a deer to jump from bullet impact.
I once shot through the brisket of a buck and he jumped head first straight up into the air probably 9-10’. Luckily I got another shot off at him and killed him because he is the biggest deer Ive killed to date.

I think you're right about this. The blood was dark compared to lung blood, which is my usual reference, but it wasn't that dark.

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[LoH]

i definitely wouldn’t stake a claim to what happened here (not being there first hand of course).

But for the purposes of discussion and in the spirit of pooling our communal knowledge: since the liver and front of the stomach are positioned well up behind the rear of the rib cage, and bullets hitting ribs do often produce bone chunks and shards on the ground, in my experience there can be bone sign on those types of hits.

 

[Jethro]

Liver stomach hits don’t rear up.

 

[The Ri Guy]

Find him?

This happened to me a couple years ago, similar situation.

Shot a fat, tough, old buck broadside at ~400 yards, kicked back like a heart shot. Very sparse blood, super dark, lots of fatty specs and some bone in the initial blood trail for a few hundred yards, then just pin pricks for a multi-mile loop down the mountain and back up the backside to where I had shot him to begin with.

Caught up to him two days later in the same area, was a "clean" brisket shot that clipped the front of a front quarter, and he was chasing younger bucks like nothing had ever happened.

 

[TaperPin]

I think a brisket shot must hurt like hell, because deer seem to bed quickly like the deer you described. We followed a brisket shot mulie with barely a drop of blood anywhere in fresh snow for miles. He was big enough we wanted to follow him as long as the tracks held out. He bedded often, but was quick on his feet and headed into rough terrain faster than we could travel. On the third day he crossed a steep snow covered avalanche chute we weren’t going to attempt.

 

[ctfxd3]

Find him?

This happened to me a couple years ago, similar situation.

Shot a fat, tough, old buck broadside at ~400 yards, kicked back like a heart shot. Very sparse blood, super dark, lots of fatty specs and some bone in the initial blood trail for a few hundred yards, then just pin pricks for a multi-mile loop down the mountain and back up the backside to where I had shot him to begin with.

Caught up to him two days later in the same area, was a "clean" brisket shot that clipped the front of a front quarter, and he was chasing younger bucks like nothing had ever happened.

Had almost the exact same scenario happen this past week in NW Montana. Unfortunately, I never caught back up to him after he pushed through a corner of private. That was my first muley hunt and longest shot I have taken on an animal. Was a tough learning lesson on day 6 of an 8 day hunt. My only personal takeaways were to remind myself I'm better off watching him walk into the edge of the timber than rushing a shot and just flat out shoot more.

 

[J_Fish]

I've never seen a liver shot deer rear up, but have seen non lethal brisket shots bleed a lot. What caliber was she shooting?

 

[jwatts]

I have my hand in more deer tracks for the public in one season that most folks will in a lifetime. IF you have bone it's gonna be leg 90% of the time. There's a chance of knocking some of the flat cartilage form the front of the brisket. There's also very few places on a deer that will produce fat. The front of the brisket, top of the backstraps, and top of the hindquarters are about the only spots you'll find it later in the season unless you're hunting ag field deer that haven't been rutting. It sounds like she shot forward and low, caught brisket, and exited the offside leg. Was there any hair at the shot site or first bed?