A friend of mine hit a doe on Christmas Eve. Shot was high, and farther back than we would have liked. We still figured we would have her within 200 yards. We got down, and the arrow was completely covered in bright red blood. NO blood on fresh snow for about 30 yards, then it was just flecks about every 5 yards, we backed out after we covered a total of 75 yards. We came back at 11:45 p.m, the same night. Time had been 7 hours, temperature was 1 degree Farenheit. We would have preferred to leave her over night, but we were forcasted for another 1-2″ of snow by midmorning. I have a doggedness too me, so I started on the trail, with my buddy flanking a few feet to one side in case I hit a point where I lost blood, he would have last marked, and be watching for splitting trails. This deer bounded for the first 85 yards then stopped, slight blood on both sides where it stood. Maybe an area about the size of a 50 cent piece, and not enough to even melt down in the fluffy snow. She walked for about 20 yards, then started bounding again. She bedded the first time about 250 yards from the shot. Very little blood in the bed. Too this point, before the bed, there was less then a 1/4 cup of blood lost. We had just had a fresh dropping of 10″ of snow, so it was easy to follow her trail by track, because of the lack of blood. Within the next 50 yards she bedded 3 more times, all beds had very little blood, spots of blood on the off side of the hit, maybe as big as a quarter. After the 4th bed she got up and started walking, then it was a spot of blood, maybe 20% of the size of a pea, every 4-8 yards. It was unreal, I had never seen a deer bleed so little, with any type of hit. If it hadn’t been for the fresh snow, this trail would have been lost in the first 50 yards. Now we are tracking more by track than blood, we have covered about 1/2 mile since the last blood, she has walked the whole time, bleeding only a speck here and there. No feeding, no bedding, or bounding just a steady walk. Now she was getting to some tag alders, which were pretty thick. To this point the blood that she was dropping seemed really dark. Now as she was squeezing between some tag alders she would rub off blood on to the alders that was really bright, and the brush would be just covered, it was weird how much she was brushing off on the alders, but not leaving any on the snow. And what a difference in color, really bright on the alders, and dark on the snow. We get out of the tag alders and into an old clear cut area that was really open. When we first got on the trail it was a full moon and really bright, now the moon was covered but it was still fairly easy to see, sure made the tracking job easier, not constantly running into twigs and branches you couldn’t see. We followed her through the clearcut, about 300 yards, and we could see the edge of a big stand of pines and hardwoods. Just as we hit that edge a deer jumped up and run away from us at an angle, we could only hear it for about 100 yards, in the fresh snow. We continued to follow her track for about 15 yards when we come to a bed, it was her that we had jumped. Finally there was some blood. She had bedded on the opposite side and there was a spot about 2/3 the size of a paper plate. Although there wasn’t much depth to the amound of blood that had soaked in the snow. All the snow in that bed was real soft, so we knew it was her we had jumped. We decided to proceed forward thinking that they adrenaline rush, and the bounding may get some blood moving. She bounded about 50 yards, and each time she would land there would be a slight mist out of each side, I believe just shaking out of her hair. She then stopped, with about 8-10 drops coming out of both sides. Next there was about 4 bounds and then walking for about 20 yards, then stopping. This scenario replayed itself for about 350 yards. Never did we see her or hear her again though. Essentially she was just staying ahead of us, until we would close to withing 50 yards or so, then she would move again. The blood never increased. After that distance, we decided to kill the lights. We took a little break, and talked it over. It was now after 2:00 a.m, obviously we couldn’t shoot her at night, and she was still well enough to stay moving. The way that she was just staying ahead of us, we figured if she didn’t hear us after a bit, she may bed close by and stiffen up more by morning, or possibly be dead. Keeping the lights out we backtracked a few hundred yards, then hit the lights and walked our tracks back out. It took us 55 minutes of fast walking to get out to the shot location. We were hoping that the snow would hold off and allow us to use what little blood there was to keep her seperated from the other deer if and when she did mingle in other tracks. Though if it did snow we were hoping she would be within 200 yards bedded or dead and we could either jump her, or find her on a grid search. So after getting home and getting my wifes presents wrapped, it was a very short night. At daylight there was no new snow, Merry Christmas boys, we got lucky. Isn’t it funny how daylight changes things. What seemed like a 6 mile walk through the jungle in the dark, was actually only just over a mile, and really not that thick in the light. Well after getting to the location where we left just hours before, we figured we would probably have to go about 100-200 yards, then really start watching for her. My buddy nocked an arrow, and got off to one side just a few yards flanking the blood, trying to get a different view, than what was at the blood. So now she is still walking. After about 35 yards, my buddy just tenses up and starts moving his head real slow, and he has his bow up. After about 10 seconds he draws and shoots, then grabs another arrow. He moves a few yards and shoots again. She is down! He spotted her, laying in her bed quartering towards her back trail, with her head up, but eyes closed. She would open her eyes a little, then close them again. He nailed her with the first arrow through the front shoulder and got one lung. After moving to the side to get a broadside he put the next arrow through both lungs. Wow, talk about a crazy hunt. She was bedded 58 yards from where we talked about what to do in the dark, a few hours earlier. And there was two other beds between us and her final bed. The last two arrows made a 100% autoposy kind of difficult. Best we can tell, with fair certainity is that one blade cut one lobe of the lung right at the farthest back point it could and another blade just nicked the liver. With the different circles and parallels this deer made it wound up less then 1/2 mile from the road we parked on, although using the GPS and a cookie trail, it actually went about 1.35 miles total after the shot. I will be the first to tell you we got lucky having fresh snow, and then not getting the forecasted snow, when we were supposed to. If it hadn’t been for the snow, that deer would not have been recovered, and I think it would have been dead within 4 more hours. On the other hand, we worked hard in getting it and I feel we made some good decisions, given what we were working with. I lost a deer about 12 years ago. I give up searching after about 1/2 mile and very little blood, very similar circumstances. Neighbors found that deer 250 yards farther, 3 days later. Now I really have determination, and give it 150%. I think some people would have left this deer after a short time, thinking just a flesh or muscle wound. Hopefully some of you can take something from this hunt. WTA
December 26, 2007 at 3:47 pm
#198779
We ended putting a 2nd arrow into him 5 sections South and 2 sections to the East. We nicknamed him the “7.5 mile buck”. During our chase I was within 20 yards of him bedded down in the super thick thicket and alls I could do is watch him and cuss. 
We got close to this buck many times but never got a shot off until at least 7.5 miles later. The entire time he kept the wind to his back and knew whenever we got close. Went across and down a few streams and exited sometimes 100 -150 yards down stream. Smart little bugger. My first arrow also hit/kicked liver. 2nd arrow was lungs. That was quite the adventure that day as we saw 3 other bucks that both Paul and I had drawn on thinking it could have been my buck. Saw some and covered a ton of great land that day. The worst part of it after putting that 2nd arrow in him and feeling relieved and exhausted, we had about the same walk back to the truck 7.5 miles.
Below is a pic of that buck. 
Persistence paid off! 
I couldn’t believe it – what a lucky break! I guess persistence also had a part in it too. When we dressed out the buck, we could not believe the amount of blood that was inside the cavity. The shot was in the same area as you mentioned above.
) Kudos to you.