Bad hit - hind quarter

[Radford]

Hit a doe in the hind quarter this evening. She was quartering away at 20ish yards. Just made a bad shot. Great blood for fifty yards. I was hopeful thinking I may have hit an artery. Then suddenly the blood stopped and I couldn't pick up the trail. Gonna go back in the morning and hope to pick up blood again. Curious what y'all experience is with this type of hot? I've read old stories of lots of deer killed like this, and lots that were never found. Seems 50/50. Arrow was in deep. Maybe 15 inches.

[Radford]

Something else to add that was important. After the hit, the doe didn't react all that much. Bounded off and stopped. Looked around trying to figure out what happened. After maybe two minutes of just standing still or walking in a circle she finally bounded away.

[Tajue17]

after the blood stops start looking in circle patterns unless you see deep dirt digging hoof prints where you jumped the deer?,  not leg hits but i had a few where the blood stopped then i found the deer within say 20yds but always off to the side as if the deer was turning to back track.   

[dnovo]

I've hit one or 2 in the hind quarter over the years. Recovered all of them. Even if you don't hit the femoral artery there is a lot of blood loss from the hind quarter with all the blood vessels.
If the blood stops, I would be circling looking for where she went off. That's sometimes a good sign that they're down fairly close when they stop bleeding and there may be a lot of internal bleeding.  Good luck

[Radford]

So I did not find the deer. Disappointed but a good reminder to slow things down. This was still a fun hunt.

Two does woke me up crunching leaves and they were on top of me. I hunt on the ground and was asleep flat on my back. One of the does ran out in front of the other and winded me, then ran back and stomped and blew. The other one never smelled me and seemed to ignore the other for a while. I could see both does from the corner of my eye and watched them for about five minutes. Both turned their backs to me and I sat up and loosed an arrow. And of course that didn't go well after that.

I set up in between two trails with my wind dropping down into a draw. I was being greedy and should have set up on the low side knowing my scent was crossing the lower trail. I thought I could shoot a deer before they got to me. If I had done that, the deer that ran out in front would have never smelled me and I think of that would not of happened I would not have rushed the shot. With that deer blowing and stomping I felt the other unaware doe was seconds from running due to the alarm and I rushed the shot. Lessons learned: slow things down and don't be greedy with my setup. On to the next one.

[Stringwacker]

I'm sorry to hear you didn't find her. The disappointment surely stings for a while. As people often say, if you hunt long enough that these sort of things happens at some point. It doesn't make you feel any better though.

I have hit a few in the hind quarter and maybe its just pure dumb luck, I have been blessed to recover 'most' of them. I shot one last week in the hind quarter and she made it less than 100 yards. Sometimes luck errs on your side.

Good luck on your next hunt!