Finding a buck without blood.

[Bighuntermioh]

This topic is about the best buck I've had an opportunity to kill. With a sick stomach I tell this story. I hit him good. I thought. 15 yrd chip shot in a tight shooting lane (I put into a dence bedding area two years ago. The shot came on only my second hunt there in two years.) whack wet paper deer bolted quick and out of sight. I thought great I got him. Biggest buck ever! Waiting 20mins I climbed down and eased over to where he was standing to find my arrow. It was buried into a pine tree 5" from the ground. My first thought was oh. Oh. Looks like a meat hit. No soaking blood arrow. Just some blood on veins and shaft lil secs of tallow or fat not sure which one spec of meat under the arrow on the pine tree. I could not see which way he ran after his first three steps. (10'). No blood. Checked all trails in direction he went nothing. circled 50-80-100-200-300 yards nothing. I'm sick. I called every deer tracking dog from as far away as 4hrs. Nobody would help. Even willing to pay $400. I can't believe this happened. Sick. Anyone have similar thing happen?

[Bighuntermioh]

I forgot to mention this happened 11-14-17. @11:50am

[Shockwave]

I had this ALMOST exact same thing happen to me the first week of Nov. except I had blood for about 75-100 yards then it just stopped. After that, nothing. That torments me to this day!

[Stanley]

The arrow is often the indicator, on how well you hit the buck. A non blood soaked arrow is not a good sign.

[PK_]

I would have looked hard to find hair at the poi the color and length can tell you a lot. Agree with Stan as well.

Other than that I am not going to play keyboard expert.

Sucks man. Hope you find some sort of closure on the encounter.

[Rich M]

My BIL shot a doe in the heart with a 30-30 and barnesX bullets. Turned the heart to hamburger - there was exactly 1 drop of blood. He said he heard her crash. It is now dark. I walked every deer trail heading in the direction he said she went and heard the noise. He was begging me to leave but I told him I'm not just gonna leave a dead deer here cause you are afraid of the dark. He stayed at the truck and I went into the thick pines back and forth, in and out until I found her.

Tough looking for them when they don't bleed. Sorry you are dealing with this - you did your best. He might not be hurt that bad.

[Jonny]

My last 2 bucks with the gun had zero blood trails. And the last one got 2 shots into the pump. Stood where I last saw it, walked in the direction it went, and started looking.

No blood trails suck. Even back tracked them to find any blood and never could.

Thank god they didn’t go far. But still, you are just hoping to step on them at that point. My last one I just picked a trail that looked disturbed and walked right onto him.

Deer are tough animals. Wait til you see the hurt I put on my buck. Still went 100 yards after 2 shots with a 270 into the heart/lungs and front shoulders

As long as you gave it your best effort searching, you should have your head held high. You gave it your all, that’s all you can do. Sometimes things just don’t go right regardless of what you do. Best of luck bouncing back!

[ThePreBanMan]

I've put a 12 gauge slug into the lungs of a doe and she went about 100 yards - no blood as well. I found her following disturbed ground, leaves, that was her running trail/track etc.. I had only been hunting a short time (2nd year) and I was baffled at how she made it so far. Though about switching slugs to a different brand after that but found out it's not so uncommon.

[Wapiti]

My BIL shot a doe in the heart with a 30-30 and barnesX bullets. Turned the heart to hamburger - there was exactly 1 drop of blood. He said he heard her crash. It is now dark. I walked every deer trail heading in the direction he said she went and heard the noise. He was begging me to leave but I told him I'm not just gonna leave a dead deer here cause you are afraid of the dark. He stayed at the truck and I went into the thick pines back and forth, in and out until I found her.

Tough looking for them when they don't bleed. Sorry you are dealing with this - you did your best. He might not be hurt that bad.

I had the same thing happen to me as a kid. Hammered a nice buck with the rifle right at closing time and heard the deer crash in the laurel-choked point I was hunting. It took my Dad and I almost an hour to find the deer and we only found one drop of blood. No exit hole and his chest cavity had filled up with blood.

[ThePreBanMan]

The no exit doesn't surprise me. Bullets are designed specifically not to exit. Any energy the bullet retains after exit it wasted. So hollow points are designed to expand, etc. so as to deposit 100% of the bullet's energy into the target. I've never had a slug pass through. They always enter, expand and make a massive wound channel. But never pass through.

[Noreast10pt]

The buck I shot this season never left a blood trail.
Shot with a .270 at about 45-50 yards, found hair where he'd been standing and the only blood was a small puddle that was under him where I eventually found him about a hundred yards away.