Uncle shot a deer early Thanksgiving. Went to camp for help tracking and returned 2 to 3 hours later. Had a good trail and got the dog (who we worked on a deer coat previous day) for help. She got going on it but this being her first deer i had no idea if she was on it or crossi g other deer trails. She led me to the same bush twice and the 2nd time (i pulled her off first time) she jumped the buck but we never saw him. We went into the thicket and saw lots of blood, pieces of meat and his entire gut, yes entire gut. We got the crew around the spot and circled 50 yards then 100 yard radius to no avail. The 3 guys quit on me and dog was wearing out. I was furious. My thoughts were, his guts are on the ground, hes dead, and hes got to be close.

We went to camp to eat and rest the dog. We made 1 mistake as i pondered at breakfast. We thought some entrails in a bish was left when the deer initially ran and laid up in the thicket. We failed to realize this was his exit point as well and we need to get the dog on it. I returned with dog and uncle as other 2 quit and we got the dog rolling. She must have went 300 yards then stopped. I looked down and had some blood. I hadnt seen any for a good while and trusted her instint. She continued on and later i saw another spec of blood about 200 yarfs further. Keep in mind the deer has no gut and lost lots of blood. Dog led me on about 250 yards further and my instinct kicked in and we returned to last blood we had. She (dog) was done, been on ground a total of 4 hours. We followed drop by drop and it led us to a huge grassy thicket where we lost the blood trail. We cut about 5 to 6 times around the last of the blood and finally gave in to god having a hand in this deer running off a mile without his gut after being shot 3 hours earlier.

I was just simply amazed. I am still in shock. Has anyone ever expeirenced anything similar? Dog is not 100% trained yet but she dam sure put us on the deer then the blood many hundreds of yards away which we would never have picked up. Unfortunately we were probably very close when we lost the trail. That was my Thanksgiving!!!

Learning experience.
2 hard things to do; 1: trust your dog, #2: know what your dog is telling you.

Good Luck

It happens, seen deer shot everywhere, guts hanging out the bottom of their belly---and still walk. By the way, a human can do weird things also.

How did it loose its whole gut?

With a gut shot deer, leave it for at least 6 hours. ITs hard to be patient but is the best thing to do. The first deer my brother killed had been shot low by my uncle first opening the stomach cavity and she ran a very long ways before my brother finished her off going past him. She had no guts inside of her, stomach and all intestines were gone. ITs amazing what they can do with wounds like that, you can destroy the heart and both lungs and they still run.

Trust the dog next time. Lots of dogs don't have to be trained to track a deer. My border collie/blue healer cross is just a natural for it, but when he finds it he doesn't bark he just sits there and tugs on it. He is too fast to keep up with, I need to put a bell on him in order to find him with the deer.

Snagged on brush and drug out....

Go look in water if any is close. Had a similar thing happen many years ago. Found the buck 700 yards away, 30 feet from shore, in shallow end of stock tank. Had gone all that distance without the use of hind legs, crossing two 10+ foot deep ravines, uphill the whole way.

Thanks, lesson learned on waiting longer. I will definitely trust her next time. Funny thing was she ate all the bits of deer on the trail! There was no stopping her. 29 years of hunting and this is a first for me, just an awful feeling all the way around. He went around the hill and down to a dry ravine where we lost the trail.

Thanks for all the info on the dogs. Shes a mutt out of the Rio Grande, saved her at 2 months old. Best dog ive ever owned. Shes 11 months now.

A buddy has had a couple of those that I helped on and I've had one...every time I think about it I get a hole in my stomach!

This. Gut shot deer try to get to water.

I shot a deer one time that I tracked for almost a mile....piles of blood and gut splatter. I couldn't believe it survived more than 100 yards as much blood as we found. Never found the deer....blood trail dried up.

I also found a deer I shot a little far back in a creek....yes, they will try to go towards water and usually downhill.

Water or close to the area it was shot. Tracked one this week that traveled in a huge circle and ended up finding it 30 yards from where it was originally shot.

Arteries will spasm down after a short period of time so a blood trail can be lost and an animal can survive with drastic injuries. Veins will not spasm as much but blood flow back to the heart requires blood flow from the heart and as flow decreases venous return will decrease as well, causing a blood trail to dry up. Of course this type of injury is fatal and an animals instincts when in hypovolemic shock (massive loss of blood) is to replenish volume, and the only way we can do that quickly is with blood transfusions (not available to most deer) or by drinking fluids...hence the reason deer will go to nearest water source when they have a mortal but not yet lethal wound.

Go to the nearest water sources and check those. The deer is either at them or died getting to them.