Last night just before dark I had a nice 8-point come within about 100 yds and I shot him with my 30-30. He layed down, got back up, and just stood there looking around. The does he was with ran off. It was almost dark so I fired again to seal the deal. I was pretty confident on my shot placement. He ran 20yds and dropped in front of a cedar tree. I could barely see his head turning for about 10 minutes and then his head dropped. I decided to indulge in some nicotine and text my dad the news. About 25 more minutes later and several minutes after dark I walked towards him. He gets up and takes off. Because it was dark, I couldn't see so I didn't shoot. I heard some leaves rustling about 30 yards from me so I assumed he had to be dying. Meanwhile the lease manager called to see what was going on and asked if I needed help tracking him. I told him that I didn't need help, but he insisted. He and his son searched with me until about 8:30pm. We could only find two little spots of blood and a 1/4" bone fragment. That's it. I decided to leave to get some food and buy one of those Primos tracking lights at Academy. I got back just after 10pm with the useless $50 light. Save your money, folks; I saw no difference with this bloodtracker compared to a white light. I searched until midnight to no avail.
I came back this morning around 8 and searched until 2pm. Nothing. No deer or blood anywhere. I'm so upset b/c this was my biggest deer. I have never lost a deer before so I'm just at a loss. I'm so sick about it that I couldn't sleep. I think I was posting on here until 3 or 4am. I decided to take the 30-30 with iron sights only because my 7mm mag blew a beer can sized exit wound on the doe I shot last week.

How do yall track deer at night...or anytime? I usually hit on the shoulder or right behind it so I've never had to track a deer past 100 yds(I'm too fidgety so I've never shot one with a bow). That's where I was aiming this time and apparently that's not where I hit him. Anyone ever have a "kill" shot and lose a deer? Are there tracking lights that work? What about sprays like they use on crime scences? Any tips would be helpful. Thanks.

hope you find him. look for buzards or listen for yotes.

Sorry to hear about this. Basically you find the next drop of blood. Then mark it and from there find the next drop of blood. A really good experienced blood tracker is handy to have .... like my brother in law lol. But seriously it's that next drop of blood you have to find it. If that fails, which it can, you do like it sounds you did and walk it out and hope you get lucky.

Being hit twice he should bleed I'd think.

I suck at tracking, but the lease manager is pretty good at it.
Being hit twice he should bleed, right? I just put on a Tru-glo front blade on my 30-30 and sighted it in about 10 days ago. It had to be bad shots. It just had to be. I can consistantly hit a snuff can lid at a hundred yards standing up. Too bad that 8-pointer wasn't a snuff can lid. I think I'm going to buy a fake European mount skull and glue a Copenhagen on it.

Next time use the 7 mag.... I've never had a deer take another step after the Winchester 140 gr ballistic tip hits them ...don't leave a large exit wound pretty much blows up inside

Sav7mag, I should've especially since it was getting dark. I currently use 150 gr, but I've been considering 140's.

Yeah the 140 gr work great just try to hil a little behind the shoulder they will tear up both shoulders if a direct shoulder hit

Sorry to hear about that. Sounds like you may have nicked him. Were you using an open site 30-30 and it was getting dark? That might be the problem. I'm sure you can hit the snuff can at 100 yards during a bright day. Low light can affect your aim. I have tried the red/blue light with no luck.

Use toilet paper to mark the drops of blood. Then you can see the travel direction. Then cast in semicircles until you find more blood.

Good luck

Yes. I refuse to scope the dirty-30; that's why I put the Tru-glo front blade on it. You're right. Next time I'm using the 7mag for evening hunts. Thanks for the tip about the tp. I was trying to think of a way to mark it. I have plenty of tp. We only found two spots of blood though.

The nice thing about tp is that it deteriorate over time. So if you forget to pick all it up, no problem. Wounded deer will do weird things when the run. Also, check any near by water/ponds. Wounded deer will sometimes get a fever and will go to water to cool off

Sorry to hear about your deer. Sounds like to me if he laid down twice that he was hit, but maybe just a little far back as he got sick enough to lay down. As fat as the deer are this year makes the entrance and exit wounds cover up depending on the hit. How thick is the cover you are searching? Which direction did the buck come in from and exit to? How large or far an area did you search? If the deer was hit far back and then jumped he might run a very good distance before going down again. Like Tye said search the water in your area for him also.

He's likely in water. I made a bad shot on one several years ago that went almost 600 yards, crossed two decently deep ravines, and made it 30 yards from shore in the shallow end of a tank all on two legs. I shot high on a downhill/quartering towards me shot and hit him in the back, exiting through his rear hips.

Tough, tough animals. If I were you, I'd get on GoogleEarth or something similar and get a good idea about what surrounds the area around where you shot him. From that, first look at water sources within a mile. Then, look at the thickest, nastiest, roughest cover in the area.

He's likely in one of those two types of spots.

I think I hit too high and back. The cover is mainly tall grass (waist deep) with large clusters of oak surrounded by a bunch cedar trees. There are some other shrubs, rocky areas, and cactuseseses(thank God for leather boots). I know where he went in and came out and I searched in that direction to around 400 yds. I thought he may have taken a sharp left and crossed the fenceline. I wouldn't think he would've been able to jump a fence, but deer are amazing creatures. The lease manager said I could cross to track a wounded deer without the land owner's permission. I didn't cross because I thought I needed permission directly from the other land owner. I set up my 6-foot ladder in that back of my pickup(not moving) to get a better view of the other property. I had a pretty good view and saw no sign. I even thought he may have doubled back (the initial sharp left and then another left at the fenceline) so I searched in the area where I was standing when I shot him. We covered a large area. The only water was a very small stream that is mainly dry and I walked it three or four times. It's pretty thick near there and down hill from where he was shot. Seemed like the best place for him to bed down and die. I searched for a total of about 9 hours plus I had 2 other people for a about 2 hours of that. That's a lot of walking. He could be 50 yds on the other property or 900 yards...somewhere. If I saw him across the fenceline, I would've made a quick grab 'n go. I'm not a big fan of watching things die. If I saw blood and/or hair across the fence, I would've made some phone calls.

Sorry to hear that. We had to trail one last night (shot by a 300 mag), as the bullet nicked a branch before the deer. We were tracking in THICK, THICK brush in pitch dark with a small flashlight and a headlamp. While tracking we found great blood although somewhat sporatic (drip drip squirt, drip, pool, etc.). We heard crashing in the brush (he most likely heard us) and found where he was bedded down last (the blood left at a bedding location can be very telling), as there was not a huge amount of pooled blood at the spot we marked it and decided to leave him over night. Thats a hard decision to make, risk leaving him for the coyotes, or push him farther and farther while already near the corner of the property.

They found him this morning still alive and finished him off. Don't know how he was still alive as the hit was still well placed even with the branch deflection, and he had a huge hole in the chest. Perhaps there was not significant expansion due to the deflection or a lack of kinetic energy (although it was a pass through), but there was good blood and it worked out. Poor deer had to deal with it for 8 hours, but the animal was recovered, and the meat (and rack) was saved.

Tough animals for sure. Good luck

if i can't find it within a few hours i get the tracking dog....

I'm sure there's gonna be a LOT of GOOD advice here.
I started to say, get everybody from camp, but the truth is too many people can hurt if they don't know what they are doing so...
First get the person in camp that you think is the best tracker and let him run the show. Bottom line is you need lots of good lights and something to mark the trail with (toilet paper works good). Move slow and try to keep other people from stumbling around way out in front of you, they could mess up sign or create false sign (broken limbs, turned over rock ect...)
For blood tracking you have to find a place to start, usually the best place is where the deer was when you shot him. Color of the blood and or hair and bone fragments are clues to where the deer is hit. Also it (hopefully)starts a pattern ... maybe a drop of blood every 8 feet or blood on brush that came from the exit wound ect. It also gives you and idea of where the deer is headed.

I could do 10 pages on tracking but those are the basics.
If your deer laid down like you described there "should" have been a puddle of blood there...

And last you asked about some spray for tracking, peroxide in a spray bottle works great to determine if a red spot is blood or not, just spray the spot, if it's blood it will foam up some and turn orange.

One of my dads favortie newspaper cartoons, Hipshot and Rick O'Shay, good sound advice.

Deer hit high and far back sometimes are gut shot, won't leave much blood at all, blood tends to pool in the belly and not bleed out, because of the location of wounds. Even laying down sometimes doesn't leave a pool of blood with high wounds.

Did the deer hump or arch his back when shot?

I'd search thickiest stuff a sick deer could crawl into and all watering holes.

I really appreciate all of your advice. Only 2 spots of blood and a bone fragment. No pool of blood anywhere. He must've been bleedin inside. I'm dumbfounded. After thinking about what I did wrong, I think I hit high. About 2 weeks ago I readjusted my new Truglo sights to where the target is on top of the front bead/blade instead of the front blade covering the target. Contrary to what I'm used to, I shot with the front blade covering the target for about a year (don't know why I left it like this). I got used to this so I think I aimed too high based on this. At the range, I get to think about my shot. In the field, I have to react. And hindsight is 20/20.

When in doubt back out!!!!! It's cold enough at night right now to just let em' go and die and pick the search up from start in the mornin'. My history has proved a pushed deer will never stop runnin'... A deer left to bleed out not knowing what hit him won't be too far.

You should always take a second shot if you get the chance.

Never heard of anyone saying: "damn shoudnt have taken that second shot".

Little blood and bone seems like shoulder to me.

What he said and get a bigger gun.

Get a dog & get it out there this afternoon. Quite stomping all over the place until the dog gets there. Your just gonna make the deer move & make the tracking for the dog harder.

KeithTT, I stopped that night at midnight and picked up the next morning.

Chafro, I took the second shot, but I guess it wasn't good enough. Apparently, I should've hurled 4 or 5. I'm usually a one-shot-one-kill type of guy, but not this time.

Jasb, I'm taking the 7mm mag or I'll sight in the .32 Winchester Special.

LFD2037, too late. I already ruined it and stomped around the whole place. I have no access to tracking dogs. Because we live in suburbia, my chocolate lab is a yard dog. All he wants to do is play. That'll change soon.

You would be surprised on some dogs with good noses that havent had any training on blood and keep them on a leash an let them smell the Blood.They will lead you every step the deer went some times.