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Urgent help needed for deer retrieval

Hwy Htr

Hwy Htr

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Hi All,
I took a shot at a buck at 6:11am, yup right at start of shooting window. Had to freehand shoot, buck was 85 yds away. Took broadside shot, he seemed to have staggered away for about 10-15yds and then went down a path to the right. I gave him 20-25 minutes while I reloaded my muzzy. I then went down to where he was standing and I found hair but no blood. I could see the ground behind where he was standing was ripped up like bullet hit ground, I was elevated over him shooting at a slightly downward angle. I figure 2 things could have happened, I shot over/under him due to ground ripped up while grazing him or bullet went straight through him. That is possible but the fact there is no blood worries me. If bullet was a thru & thru, why no blood anywhere for the 40 yds I can follow his tracks. Can't tell where he went after getting onto trail. I did take a short video of the tracks he made right after I took the shot. Can't seem to upload it though. Not a normal gait for a buck walking or running after a gunshot nor if he wasn't hit. Which brings me to this urgent help question:


Would a warden come out to help do a search if no blood found?
Does NH F&G have trackers?
Can anybody make some suggestions on helping to track the buck?

I have only gotten 2 deer in my hunting life, 1st dropped on the spot and 2nd ran 75 yds but I was able to track him pretty good as I also saw the direction he went which helped.

Any assistance is greatly appreciated
 
Thanks for the I fo so far. I am going to use my drone to do a overview search as, yes there is water nearby. I just didn't hear him make any splashes or cracking through the shrubbery.
I'll probably make a call to F&G and start asking them options.
 
Lack of blood at initial spot of shot by itself isn’t indicative of a miss. A high double lung hit will often not start leaving blood trail until lung fills with blood up to entry or exit hole and often the deer is dead before that happens. Plus heart shots often don’t bleed much while animal will go 100 -150 yards. My buddy hit buck with 450 Marlin at 45 yards. Buck went 110 yards no blood. Then staggered and fell. This describes two successful recoveries I have helped on this year. Keep optimistic.
 
Have you walked the area thoroughly? As Boghog1 said, start making circles around the area. Mark off your (potential) point of impact with a flag or something recognizable. Walk 100 yds off towards the direction you saw him head. I shot a buck 3 weeks ago with my ML- not a drop of blood, not a hair to be found, but I knew I had a solid hit. I walked 50 yds in the direction he headed, and there he was dead as a doorknob. My shot penetrated heart and lungs, but had I not watched the reaction, you would have no idea it was a killing shot.
It's been a few hours by now, but walk the area as best you can.
 
Ok. So here is an update. Just got back from an must do errand, ya that hyped my anxiety to get back to tracking bad.
Hair is white. I'll take a picture when I get to where I left a tree branch sticking out of ground.
I'm going to expand my search grid by foot to where I can. River runs parallel to the path he went when last seen.
Location is in Brookline. NH.
Drone may not work as wind has picked and not interested in losing that either.LOL
I appreciate all the positive ideas and support. Hopefully I will be able to share some good news.
BTW...this is guy I took shot at
 

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Hwy Htr said:
Ok. So here is an update. Just got back from an must do errand, ya that hyped my anxiety to get back to tracking bad.
Hair is white. I'll take a picture when I get to where I left a tree branch sticking out of ground.
I'm going to expand my search grid by foot to where I can. River runs parallel to the path he went when last seen.
Location is in Brookline. NH.
Drone may not work as wind has picked and not interested in losing that either.LOL
I appreciate all the positive ideas and support. Hopefully I will be able to share some good news.
BTW...this is guy I took shot at
Click to expand...
Solid white hair is not a sign of a well placed shot. Under or in front.
 
RB101 said:
Have you walked the area thoroughly? As Boghog1 said, start making circles around the area. Mark off your (potential) point of impact with a flag or something recognizable. Walk 100 yds off towards the direction you saw him head. I shot a buck 3 weeks ago with my ML- not a drop of blood, not a hair to be found, but I knew I had a solid hit. I walked 50 yds in the direction he headed, and there he was dead as a doorknob. My shot penetrated heart and lungs, but had I not watched the reaction, you would have no idea it was a killing shot.
It's been a few hours by now, but walk the area as best you can.
Click to expand...
We carry orange engineering tape with us. To mark points on a blood trail or point last seen. Only had to use it once and it definitely helps.
 
Hwy Htr said:
Hi All,
I took a shot at a buck at 6:11am, yup right at start of shooting window. Had to freehand shoot, buck was 85 yds away. Took broadside shot, he seemed to have staggered away for about 10-15yds and then went down a path to the right. I gave him 20-25 minutes while I reloaded my muzzy. I then went down to where he was standing and I found hair but no blood. I could see the ground behind where he was standing was ripped up like bullet hit ground, I was elevated over him shooting at a slightly downward angle. I figure 2 things could have happened, I shot over/under him due to ground ripped up while grazing him or bullet went straight through him. That is possible but the fact there is no blood worries me. If bullet was a thru & thru, why no blood anywhere for the 40 yds I can follow his tracks. Can't tell where he went after getting onto trail. I did take a short video of the tracks he made right after I took the shot. Can't seem to upload it though. Not a normal gait for a buck walking or running after a gunshot nor if he wasn't hit. Which brings me to this urgent help question:


Would a warden come out to help do a search if no blood found?
Does NH F&G have trackers?
Can anybody make some suggestions on helping to track the buck?

I have only gotten 2 deer in my hunting life, 1st dropped on the spot and 2nd ran 75 yds but I was able to track him pretty good as I also saw the direction he went which helped.

Any assistance is greatly appreciated
Click to expand...
40 yards with no blood trails is not unusual. My sons deer last weekend went 40 to 50 before dropping blood and it was a double lung shot.

Keep circling further and further out around the last sighting if where you saw the deer. Good luck
 
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So just finished what I would say was a full 100yrd radius search. Zero dead meat. Plenty of tracts that are all blended in so no way to tell if made this am or not. Sorry I'm b on that good of a bloodhound tracker.
So I'm going to notify NH F&G about it and see what they say.
Still can't fly drone to to the high winds right now.
I will however be ready tonight & tomorrow morning, just incase the general consensus, that I shot low, is true. Perhaps he will return to try his luck, same as me.
Thanks to all for your ideas and support. Always good to know NES'rs are helping people.
BTW, some of the hair blew away before I could take a picture. Stuff left is white & grey.
 
Hwy Htr said:
So just finished what I would say was a full 100yrd radius search. Zero dead meat. Plenty of tracts that are all blended in so no way to tell if made this am or not. Sorry I'm b on that good of a bloodhound tracker.
So I'm going to notify NH F&G about it and see what they say.
Still can't fly drone to to the high winds right now.
I will however be ready tonight & tomorrow morning, just incase the general consensus, that I shot low, is true. Perhaps he will return to try his luck, same as me.
Thanks to all for your ideas and support. Always good to know NES'rs are helping people.
BTW, some of the hair blew away before I could take a picture. Stuff left is white & grey.
Click to expand...
I'd say you did your due diligence as a hunter. No blood or sign for 100 yard radius there isn't much more you can do.

It happens. You did your best with that recovery attempt in my opinion.

My only advice.....85 yards off hand is a pretty long poke for a muzzle loader. You may want to shrink your max range a but next time.

My son shot his at 75 yards last weekend with an iron sight muzzy but he was in a sitting position against a tree using his knee as a rest. Much more stable and extends the range a bit.

I've lost one deer that I've shot about 5 years ago. Hit a doe at 30 yards with my 12 gauge. She went right down. It was a deer drive so I had to sit tight and wait for the drive to end to go to it. About 30 seconds later she jumped up and ran straight away from me! I was amazed. If I'd have known she wasn't deat I'd have put another one in her but she went straight down on her side when I shot. I followed a thin blood trail for hours and it dried up. Did the circles at the last blood sight out to 100 yards and never picked any sign up. I felt bad but considered my diligence as a hunter completed. You should too.
 
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So my 85 yards shot was due to me headed out to my tree stand and he walked out from my right. He was about 150+yds away at that point but I could really move at all as I was to his 10 o'clock. He then closed the distance and I wanted to make sure it was him so I glassed him to make sure it was a buck and the 1 I was after. So yup it was him and all I could do was kinda stay still. He move to a more broadside stance and stopped to eat some grass. I agree I could have done a few things differently. I did wait till it was 6:11 am, 1 minute after legal shooting time started, but should have maybe waited till he was closer, more daylight , waiting a few more minutes if possible, laid down and used my backpack as a platform. Nope, was to excited to miss opportunity to shoot him. I also forgot to use magnification on scope to really zoom in on him. My bad discipline and letting the excitement of seeing ( in real time not on trail cam) my 1st buck this year get the best of me. I obviously have much work to do on my hunting process , but at least I saw a buck this year!!LOL
 
So just got off a call with NH F&G. Told me to call a tracker off their website if its a deer I really want to pursue. Woman also told me I cannot use a drone to even use to search for the body to retrieve the deer. Said it's using an electronic device which is a no-no.
Well, I either call a tracker, she mention that there was no charge, I would say a tip may be involved as training dogs can't be a cheap endevour or I just let it go and see if he returns tonight or tomorrow morning....decisions decisions ...
 
Hwy Htr said:
So just got off a call with NH F&G. Told me to call a tracker off their website if its a deer I really want to pursue. Woman also told me I cannot use a drone to even use to search for the body to retrieve the deer. Said it's using an electronic device which is a no-no.
Well, I either call a tracker, she mention that there was no charge, I would say a tip may be involved as training dogs can't be a cheap endevour or I just let it go and see if he returns tonight or tomorrow morning....decisions decisions ...
Click to expand...
Sounds like you should just head out into the woods to take some aerial footage of the foliage........
 
Hwy Htr said:
So just got off a call with NH F&G. Told me to call a tracker off their website if its a deer I really want to pursue. Woman also told me I cannot use a drone to even use to search for the body to retrieve the deer. Said it's using an electronic device which is a no-no.
Well, I either call a tracker, she mention that there was no charge, I would say a tip may be involved as training dogs can't be a cheap endevour or I just let it go and see if he returns tonight or tomorrow morning....decisions decisions ...
Click to expand...

That’s a pretty nice buck. What’s a $50-$100 tip when you can be sure. If I thought I made an impactful shot, I’d be all over it.
 
Hwy Htr said:
So just got off a call with NH F&G. Told me to call a tracker off their website if its a deer I really want to pursue. Woman also told me I cannot use a drone to even use to search for the body to retrieve the deer. Said it's using an electronic device which is a no-no.
Well, I either call a tracker, she mention that there was no charge, I would say a tip may be involved as training dogs can't be a cheap endevour or I just let it go and see if he returns tonight or tomorrow morning....decisions decisions ...
Click to expand...
I was going to mention this. I did not think it would be legal to fly a drone for "hunting or deer retrieval".

Sounds like a low belly/or brisket hit, especially if the white hair was long. The longer the white hair the closer to the actually belly, the shorter your closer to the brisket area. Can still be a dead deer but it brings the odds a lot lower. Especially if its a low hit with no blood....low hits generally bleed due to gravity.

Though my friend sliced the belly with a broadhead under the paunch area one time (one blade actually cut the deer open (good reason for using fixed heads, as a mech would have not opened and passed it by) and we found the deer after a rather exhaustive search. Still alive part of gut hanging out and had to shoot it again. But this was very lucky......but we did find drops of blood for a long time, not a lot, but enough to get us to the deer.

One other thing you can do is if you know the area well, and can go to where you think the deer bed, take that trail.....see if you find some blood on it. That deer was probably cruising and headed to bed....so that's where he would end up anyway. Gut shot deer usually bed within 100yds......Unless you push them....then no way of knowing, I had one go 300 yards after I bumped it. I only found it because it had to go around the end of a beaver pond and I just followed the trail I knew it had to take....no blood at all. Was amazed how far it went without laying down again. But it was pretty open...so it probably didn't feel good about laying down.
 
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Mark from MA said:
I was going to mention this. I did not think it would be legal to fly a drone for "hunting or deer retrieval".

Sounds like a low belly/or brisket hit, especially if the white hair was long. The longer the white hair the closer to the actually belly, the shorter your closer to the brisket area. Can still be a dead deer but it brings the odds a lot lower. Especially if its a low hit with no blood....low hits generally bleed due to gravity.

Though my friend sliced the belly with a broadhead under the paunch area one time (one blade actually cut the deer open (good reason for using fixed heads, as a mech would have not opened and passed it by) and we found the deer after a rather exhaustive search. Still alive part of gut hanging out and had to shoot it again. But this was very lucky......

One other thing you can do is if you know the area well, and can go to where you think the deer bed, take that trail.....see if you find some blood on it. That deer was probably cruising and headed to bed....so that's where he would end up anyway.
Click to expand...
Spot on. A deer that was shot at but missed will not run far. Will likely stay in the general area as as far as it knows there was a shot. A wounded deer will run hard for a bit, then circle back around to check the back trail and then head to their bed in heavy cover.
 
As of right now, sitting in a blind near area he was last seen.
I contacted 2 guys on NH F&G tracker list. 1 got back to me and other hasn't yet. So 1st guy thinks his dog can tell us in minutes if the deer can be tracked or not. So he's stopping by after dark as he is working for another guy, who's elderly and his deer ran into a swamp & he can't physically retrieve it.
Fwiw, trackers can legally go out after dark and if they find animal alive can shoot it. I didn't know that. Hence them being licensed by the state. No fee but donations are not refused. I'm still giving him something whether the dog says lets go or not. His time, experience and willingness to stop by is worth it.
Thanks to all who chimed in on this topic to assist. Plenty of good advice for the future, that's for sure!!
 
Hwy Htr said:
As of right now, sitting in a blind near area he was last seen.
I contacted 2 guys on NH F&G tracker list. 1 got back to me and other hasn't yet. So 1st guy thinks his dog can tell us in minutes if the deer can be tracked or not. So he's stopping by after dark as he is working for another guy, who's elderly and his deer ran into a swamp & he can't physically retrieve it.
Fwiw, trackers can legally go out after dark and if they find animal alive can shoot it. I didn't know that. Hence them being licensed by the state. No fee but donations are not refused. I'm still giving him something whether the dog says lets go or not. His time, experience and willingness to stop by is worth it.
Thanks to all who chimed in on this topic to assist. Plenty of good advice for the future, that's for sure!!
Click to expand...
FYI my neighbor says they usually have a treat for the dog too. He usually gives the dog a bit of deer heart or liver if the handler says it's OK and if they stick around for field dressing.
 
How long do you have before the meat is of no use?
Why would someone be a no fee state tracker? Just a hobby?
 

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