I shot at a blackbuck Sunday mornin and coulda sworn I nailed it. 22 yards, quartering away, steady rest. I had a perfect shot and a perfect release. He buckled and ran into the brush. I waited thirty minutes and went to find the animal. I recovered my arrow to find it didnt have a stitch of blood on it...bone dry!! It had three or four white hairs towards the broadhead. There was a blood trail, but I didnt follow it very far because I was convinced I just knicked him. How can an arrow pass thru an animal and not have blood? I talked to a buddy yesterday who said he shot a blackbuck and saw him fall, but had nothin on his arrow!! This made my heart sink. Im kickin myself for not following the trail more. What do you think happened? Its five hours away, so I cant go back and look some more. I hope I just knicked him and he is still alive. Any thoughts?

If you have a blood trail it is YOUR responsibility as an ETHICAL hunter to track the animal until you recover it or lose the trail!! NEVER assume you "just nicked it"!!

Ok im not going to tell you that i was a nick or not but imo if you have a blood trail you owe it to the animal to do everything in your power to recover it. Ive shot several animals that i hit perfect an didnt have much blood on the arrow but i found blood and found my animal. just like my wife this yr she shot a spike an i thought she missed got down an arrow had a lil blood on it started looking and there was a blood trail that ray charles could follow. i would have followed the blood trail regardless cause you never know. but without being there its hard to say

haven't seen it but never stopped on a blood trail as long as fnding blood.

yeah...I screwed up...really kickin myself

Yep, I have and we couldn't find her that night but she was only another 25 yards from where the blood ended and we found her the next day. Along with the buzzards.

had blood on the arrow and no blood trail. herd the animal fall in the leaves sounded like someone jumped in a swinning pool. waited 30 minutes. never found a blood trail and the arrow was covered. this was right before dark. I looked till 10 pm walking in circles. went back to the stand the next morning and watched for the buzzards and none showed. got out of the stand and looked for the deer till noon and never found any sign at all. when the arrow hit the deer it turned and went down the trail it came out of.

What he said. I shot a spike in Wisconsin 3 years ago. One strek of blood and white hairs on the arrow. I thought I grazed him. Looked down and saw a SPEC of blood and decided to follow it. Anfter loosing the trail numerous times, it opened up to about a 2.5 foot blood trail after about 150-200 yards of tracking. Found the deer roughly at 300 yards. Shot was way far forward thru the brisket and he bled out. Lucky shot and even luckier find.

X2

thats what I get for "thinking"...in my mind an arrow had to have blood on it if it passed thru a body...now I know. tough lesson