How do you lose a blood trail?

My nephew and I were out bow hunting today. He shot a doe right before dark and waited for me to come meet him to start looking for it.

We had a good sign of blood where he shot it and traced a pretty strong trail into the woods for about 50 yrs. When we got to a bone dry creek we still had a pretty strong trail but it stopped there. We went into the creek, up and down in the creek, up and down both sides of the creek and about a 50 yd diameter around where the blood trail ended. We could never pick up the trail again and never found the deer.

How can the blood just stop and there not be a deer there?

What did the blood look like? Was twit a good shot placement? How far from point if impact to the last know blood drops(50 yards?)?

Maybe it clotted and she bedded down somewhere close by. Check again in the daylight. I'm sure she's there somewhere. Good luck. Post some pics for us.

The blood was pretty thick and bright red. Not pink or bubbly. He can't really tell me where the shot hit but we are now just guessing that it must have been a gut shot.

I just can't figure out why we would all of a sudden stop seeing blood all together unless like you said the wound clotted.

We will be checking again tomorrow but unfortunately I don't think the temperature will leave her still fresh.

Bright red blood sounds like a muscular shot, was the arrow recovered? Any gut material or foul smell to the arrow if recovered?

Wish I could help you. One trick an old man told me about was to carry a spray bottle filled with hydrogen peroxide. If you have trouble finding a trail or identifying if something is blood, spray around and the blood will show itself. Good luck on the recovery.

I know how you feel. We tracked one on Friday night for 300 yards with a strong blood trail. That deer couldn't of had any blood left. Then the trail stopped, nothing. Saturday we looked for two hours walking a grid in every direction, still nothing. Sometimes it just cannot be explained. So now we hope the buzzards will give us the rest of the story later today or tomorrow.

Man we searched another 1.5 hours this morning and no luck. The blood definitely ends at the creek and then never picks up again.

I'd really like to try out the hydrogen peroxide trick. That would be really cool if it made the blood glow are something.

I lung shot a doe with my .308 a couple of years ago and watched her run off. Gave her 30 minutes and started following a huge blood trail. After 60 yards the blood just stopped, just like yours. Finally figured out that she was nearly dead on her feet at that point, and had staggered about 20 yards exactly back down the blood trail and then veered off under a cedar bush. But if you did a 50 yard circle you'd have likely found it if she doubled back on you.

Hydrogen peroxide won't make blood light up or glow or anything super fancy, but if you see something you think might be blood you spray the hydrogen peroxide on it and it will bubble a little as it reacts to the blood. If it doesn't bubble, then it is probably not blood....but never tried it on old blood and don't know how long it works for.

Okay well I guess there's just no magic pill then. I've read up quite a bit on all the blood lights and there isn't much good said about them.

Nearest thing to a magic pill on a sparse or lost blood trail is a dogs nose.

That's what I'm noticing. I'm now following a couple of guys in my area that gave dogs. Next time........

You'd be surprised at how they can survive that. In college I put what I thought was a good shot on an UGLY curly-que buck in Sonora. I'd bet my life savings it was a double lung hit. We followed a heavy blood trail, bright red blood, no bubbles for 3-400 yards and then it disappeared. We circled around the rest of that day and most of the next and never found another spot of blood. Two weeks later my buddy sent me a pic of that same buck with a black spot like a target on his 'vitals'. Don't know what happened but made me feel a lot better knowing he was still running around out there.

You might see that same doe again in a week or two!

They are very resilient animals. I have been lucky and only lost one animal in over a decade of bow hunting. I thought I’d lost this management buck pictured below. Shot was a few inches high but have killed plenty with the same placement. Followed blood for 2 days and over 800 yards and finally lost it completely. Two weeks later he showed up at the same feeder wheezing and my son took him a couple of days after that. Look at the photo between the “11” and you can see where the arrow hit. It hit a rib as square as it possibly could breaking the rib and only penetrating enough to barely catch one lung. Its bow hunting…weird things happen.

Thanks for backing me up with that pic! Tough animals!