# Lost buck



## eyecatchum2 (Mar 30, 2010)

I took my cousins 11 yr. old son out for the youth hunt, this is the 3rd year he has gone. He shot a doe the first year and missed a small 6pt. last year. He won a .50cal muzzle loader at a Whitetail dinner and wanted to use it. We mounted a 3-9x scope and he shot it really well out to 100 yds. Anyway he shoots a nice 8 pt. buck Sunday morning at 80 yds. across a field. The deer kind of hunched up and ran 20 yds. and stopped, we re-loaded but had trouble getting the cap off, got it ready and the deer stumbled and then walked into the woods before he could shoot again. He was able to get a 2nd shot at about 90 yds.into the woods but missed. All 3 deer slowly walked away. We waited 45min. and went and found blood drops (quarter sized) every 3-5 ft. lost trail after 40 yds. so we waited 2 hrs. and looked more. Found 1 more spot of blood 25 yds. down the trail he took. I knew a bedding area near by and checked it, jumped him 4 hrs. after being shot (very little blood in his bed) looked most of Monday and never found him. I felt he hit him a little back (maybe liver shot) but watching buck walk into woods I saw a dark area behind off shoulder - rib area that I thought was blood. Out of 25 plus tracking jobs this is only the 2nd I could not find. Bad hit, did not wait long enough, what happened?


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## M.Magis (Apr 5, 2004)

You named it, gut shot and followed up too quickly. He's out there, but could be very difficult to find now. When they hunch up like and walk off slowly that, it means gut shot. Could have easily been a liver/single lung which would describe the blood behind the off shoulder. This would come from a quartering away shot. That deer is dead, but it's tough to say where. Many times there's very little blood to go on. Just comes down to boot leather.


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## bkr43050 (Apr 5, 2004)

It is tough to convince ourselves to wait but it sounds like the best thing to do in that case would have been just that. Like Mike said it is time to get some exercise and comb that area well. He is down by now. Hopefully you will come across him. Unfortunately the temps will ruin the meat but at least you can recover the deer and get the rack for the kid. It will of course cost him his deer tag though but it is the right thing to do.

Good luck!


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## fish4wall (Apr 14, 2004)

i was down by wellston this week end and helped track and find a buck that a 16 year old boy gut shot. his dad all but gave up looking for him..i was in my stand and told him i'll get down and help. at first his dad said no...but when i got down said ets find your boys buck!!
after about 2hrs of looking i found him..come to find out it was his first buck kill!!! what a rush to find him for the kid!! it was a big body 6pt.


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## eyecatchum2 (Mar 30, 2010)

With what I had to go on, the blood and the dark spot on his side I thought we had waited long enough, I guess I should have waited till late afternoon to look. Will be back out later to look some more. How far do you think he would go if bumped? What is a reasonable area to search. Is a hit deer more likely to head to more bedding cover?


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## M.Magis (Apr 5, 2004)

There are too many variables to say anything for certain. How far he went depends a lot on the environment and how spooked he was, as well as how hurt he was. I've seen them go a couple/few hundred yards, and I've seen them go 20 yards before laying down and dying. Without understanding the lay of the land, all we can do is guess.


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## ramfan (May 6, 2008)

Eyecatchum, where were you hunting at? Will you need help looking? Just to find the deer for the kid would be great. Well PM , me if you wanna get some help.If I can,b4 I head out for the evening hunt.


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## eyecatchum2 (Mar 30, 2010)

ramfan,

Thanks for the offer, knowing that the buck maybe dead and spoiled by now we will look more after gun week to see if we can at least find the rack for him.


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## Lundy (Apr 5, 2004)

Sorry for your misfortune, I agree he is dead somewhere probably not too far from where you bumped him. 

Curious, what load was he shooting from his muzzlelaoder?


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## eyecatchum2 (Mar 30, 2010)

100 gr 777 with t/c shockwave. I have taken 3 deer with this load with no issues.


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## M.Magis (Apr 5, 2004)

eyecatchum2 said:


> knowing that the buck maybe dead and spoiled by now we will look more after gun week to see if we can at least find the rack for him.


After gun season the rack may be in someones garage. Unless you know he's somewhere that no one will be hunting, but I can't even be sure about my back yard.


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## krp2nite (Nov 23, 2010)

I bumped one after a bad shot with a bow (liver shot) and then backed out after bumping him up and got a buddy to help. Anyway we did find him not by blood trail though just luck and a lot of walking. Mine was a decent 8pt and he managed to go everybit of 1/2--3/4 of a mile from where he was bumped up. We lost blood halfway into the tracking. Good Luck.


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## Huntinbull (Apr 10, 2004)

If it was a liver shot he would have been in the first bed you jumped him from. Shot to the liver means dead, just takes a couple hours instead of minutes. Seems to me he was gut shot. Sometimes the subcutaneous fat can plug the holes and blood doesn't escape the body.


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## M.Magis (Apr 5, 2004)

Huntinbull said:


> If it was a liver shot he would have been in the first bed you jumped him from. Shot to the liver means dead, just takes a couple hours instead of minutes.


Much too general of a statement. It just depends on exactly where the damage is. The liver is a large organ. I've seen more than one liver shot deer alive after 4 hours. I agree it most like was gut, but there no reason to say it wasn't liver. I'd hate for anyone to get the idea that all liver shot deer are dead within 2 hours, because that's just not true.


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## krp2nite (Nov 23, 2010)

Eyecatchum: 
If you hunting where I think you are, you may find the rack after or during gun season but my guess is by now with the amount of coyotes around there the meat has not been totally "lost" as it was consumed by now....whenever you want to thin a few of them coyotes just give me a call.

I agree with whomever said not all liver shot deer are dead in a few hours..its a deadly shot but if bumped they can definately make it a long way. Of course its always easier after the fact to say we should have waited longer or pulled out before tracking than it is in the moment especially with an excited youth wanting to get after it...


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## supercanoe (Jun 12, 2006)

Liver shot deer can live for 24 hours.


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## ohiogary (Dec 14, 2006)

My 12 yo shot a extremely large buck saturday afternoon, we found a chip of bone and a few spots of blood along the trail which ended 75 ft and not another sign of blood, we did the circle method, I know we covered alot of ground and could not find anything, went back again yesteday with a friend and we searched for 5 more hours, it was shot on a 468 acre private farm and this coming monday there will be 14 hunters there to do deer drives so hopefully we come across it. Being his dad I felt just as bad as he did, I wanted to find that buck so bad, just to brighten his day. His grandfather was with him and said it was the biggest buck he had seen.


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## GotSpaceOnMyWall4U (Oct 6, 2010)

I would suggest searching around any and all water sources. That has been my lucky spots on lost blood trails. Atleast the fella can have the rack if the bucks found.


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