Tougher than hell. Going back through this years and last years hunts with our family and thinking of the 3 instances where doe were heart shot by three different people and were never recovered. All were verified as at least shoulder shots, all bled like stuck pigs, all disappeared into the thickets.

Any you east Texas guys and gals ever notice something like this? Instead of waiting 30min should we be waiting 45? An hour? More?

It's just absolutely nuts to me, especially when you take the blood trails into consideration, that these doe were never recovered.

thickets can do strange things hiding dead deer. I have come within 10 feet of dead deer before only to find later after more searching or letting the dog find them. Put the dog on one that bleed well enough they trailed him about 3/4 mile from his perfect shoulder shot, dog found him about 150 yards further along with very thin blood trail to no blood trail that distance, what was described as a perfect shoulder shot was in fact hit in the butt yet they were able to trail him that far.

Not to be rude but probably weren’t heart shots if you didn’t recover 3 of them.

No doubt, and no offense taken, these were shot by a couple of our older members who I know have seen their days of better shots. I'm having trouble though still, from the amount of blood on the ground, these gal's should've been recoverable. It's really as if someone came along and picked them up and just split.

I would consider Houston County "behind the pine curtain." I've never hunted true east Texas, but I do know enough to know it's a different world. Therefore, I don't think I should comment on not being able to find a deer.

You don’t lose a heart shot deer, they don’t go far. Might have gotten up under some heavy stuff and you can’t see them, but even a lung shot deer isn’t going more than 50 yards most of the time. Unless you’re shooting a small caliber, which those who have little experience should not be using, I’d imagine all 3 were recoverable.

What caliber and bullet are we talking about?

Here we go.

I shot a Mills county doe with 150gr .308 Win Silvertip in the heart/lungs one evening. I saw her run, knew she was going down. The blood trail looked like a crime scene and suddenly just came to a stop after 150 yards. Poof, NO DEER! I radiated out, walking circles back and forth from the last spot; still no additional blood trail. I went back down the trail about 25 yds to see if I missed everything. BAM! Deer. She had perfectly backtracked her own trail and veered off, dying under a cedar. I'd walked by her at 8-10 feet and never knew it.

TL, DR:
If you get to the end of the trail and there's no deer, BACKTRACK. They're dying at that point and staggering, could end up back the way you came.

If they make it to the thickets at our place in Houston Co.... good luck. Shot a hog a couple weeks ago that painted a path to the yupons but couldn't find him once he entered.

No sir. Heart shot deer don’t come un-shot. They almost always run but they don’t go far. Houston County is in the yaupon belt. I am just south of you in Trinity County. Heart shot deer expire quickly. They will almost always donkey kick or buck when hit. Then run full tilt till they pile up. 60-150 yards is what to expect from a heart shot deer. If the deer were heart shot you may have lost their trail but they were dead when you took up the trail if you waited 30 minutes. The deer probably turned and most likely into some really thick stuff. Stick with the blood on a heart shot deer. Especially in a yaupon thicket. You are most likely going to have to almost step on it to see it in that kind of cover.
If they go much further than 150 yards, they are not heart shot or double lunged for that matter. Tracking skill or a good dog are a prerequisite for hunting those yaupon thickets in the piney woods.


Good luck guitarman. Hopefully your group will get it sorted out and start hanging those does on the meat pole.

If you can’t find them don’t be afraid to use a dog. Even your wife’s toy poodle can follow a blood trail better than we can and in most cases won’t need much motivation

I have a blue lacy. I love her dearly. But, when it comes to a blood trail, she's an absolute idiot.

Some dogs are naturals at it others are not. We have 2 and one is good the other not so much. One I have drug the shank and foot around the woods and the one finds that. Drag one across the yard to where we skin them and she will follow that for 2 or 3 days. My old Brittnay was good but after he licked the blood off he was done but he found one they had lost the trail on 16 hours before he hit the trail. That one was perfect shoulder shot according to the hunter, it was shot in the butt. Let him out on a high shoulder shot that was too high and he winded that deer from over 200 yards threw his head up and took off and was gone for about an hour before coming back and hitting the tank for a drink and swim. That buck I told the man he would see later and he did and called me 2 weeks later saying he got him at the same feeder.

To me pine straw covered ground makes for tough tracking.

My double lung shot doe Saturday went perhaps 40 yards after being shot there with a 6.5 Grendel and that is about average for it on lung shots. Not a big fast shooting gun.

Agree. And sometimes you find people, who for some reason, can walk right past a downed deer and fail to see it. I've found this occurs more at night when people depend on a light that's too bright and/or has too tight a beam. IMO, this makes it easy to miss deer when all the focus is where the beam hits while ignoring the shadows.

I'm reminded of the night a fellow hunter came to get me to help looking for his deer that he shot in an open area. He had been looking for it with his flashlight for well over an hour before he came to get me. I grabbed my trusty ole Coleman lantern and we both headed that way. After scanning the area briefly, I decided to walk along the edge of a stock tank since everyone knows deer run to water after being hit. (Not really but it's something that I always keep in mind when looking for downed deer.) The deer laid just at the edge of the short dirt bank that circled the tank. The guy told me he had walked around that tank several times and never noticed it. IMHO, when you use a lantern instead of a flashlight, the eyes and mind are forced to work the same as they do in the daylight but with more attention to scanning the details. It can be nothing more than a small piece of white from the tail or belly or a piece of antler, but it seems to show up more easily with a lantern as opposed to a flashlight. Or maybe it's the greater contrast over a wider area that some claim nothing works better than a propane or gas lantern when looking for a downed deer.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
That right there
No animal can function without oxygenated
blood to the brain.
They can get an adrenalin shot that might
let them get some distance, but they WILL
die, and they don't dissolve when they fall
and die. I've had people tell me that they
go straight to water, that they avoid water,
that they take the path of the least resistance,
that they head for the bedding area, etc. etc.
blah blah
Deer do whatever happens to flash through
their brain at the time

Do whatever you have to do and get whatever
help you need to get to find your animal.
If you wiped out the pumphouse, it's dead
somewhere.
Like Arnold said- if it bleeds we can kill it

OR, you could just neck shoot them and you won’t have to follow any blood.

It's been my experience in my 60 years of deer hunting that does will try to find the thickest brush to get into and die.

Go get a .270 with a SP bullet and get back to us====you will find the doe within 30-40 yards every time with a heart/lung shot

Hey, seriously though, both those hunters from last season that missed on the recovery have each taken a vow of neck shots this season, each has a pair of doe and good a cull buck thanks to that.

It's funny to me how taboo the subject of the neck shot is. To me, whatever results in the quickest death and retrieval in the moment is the best, and in the case of the majority of those in a box blind hunting over bait, neck is best. IMHO

This!

LOL. I shot a doe in the neck in houston county at 50 yds. she raised up on her hind legs about three feet and fell straight down. Setting in the stands about 15 min later i see her start kicking, gets up and takes off. Never found a drop of blood or the deer. Shooting A 25-06