Well, I'll fill in some of the blanks. On one side of me was a creek bottom and creek, and on the other side was a cut alfalfa field. I was in a narrow tree line between the two. I could see about 100 yds down the creek and field, so I knew he didn't cross before that, and I didn't see nor think he would head into an open field. Even a shot deer, will usually run down a path and would want to stay in the cover. I followed the trail in the tree line for about 100 yds, hoping to find him within that distance. When I didn't, I searched the creek edges for sign of him crossing. There was a cut path in the woods on the other side of the creek that I followed for a while but saw no signs. At that point I went back to the tree line and crossed the field at about the point I couldn't see from my stand. I searched the opposite edge of the field. I knew he didn't go much beyond that since there was a very steep incline. The end of the field was probably 250 yds from my stand, so I took up the tree line again (between the field and creek) and went backwards the 150 or so yds that I hadn't covered. Soon I found him. He stayed in the tree line and pretty much on the trail, only departing from it near the end. A hit deer, in my experience, will follow a normal path only leaving it when they are near expiring or to hide in thick cover. Sometimes they will go into a creek bed. They won't generally go into difficult terrain (relatively speaking) such as up a steep slope or such. My experience has been that they go down hill. Of course, they sometimes do the unpredictable. My search wasn't that long, only between 1-2 hours.
Topic: Trad First (Read 978 times)
