How long should I wait - advice needed

[incognito]

I shot a deer late this afternoon at about 3:45.

I thought it was a good double lung shot right behind the front leg but I did not notice any bubbles in the bright red blood.

The deer staggered as it ran.

 

I put my tree stand away and started slowly tracking at about 4:30.

I got a good blood trail - real easy to follow. I saw some pooling where the deer must have stood still for a moment or two. At about 5 o'clock and 200 yards in I jumped a deer and I decided to pull out when I got close to some houses since I was in real thick stuff and I am not so familiar with the section of woods I was in. There is still plenty of blood flow.

 

It is going to be around 32 degrees tonight here on the north fork of Long Island. It will be a challenge trying to follow the blood path out dragging the deer in the dark and really easy in daylight. Safety is not an issue, I can see street lights almost from anywhere where I will be.

 

My question is should I go back in after having something to eat or should I wait till morning?

 

ETA:

 

I don't know if the arrow passed through.

I stopped looking for it once I picked up the blood trail since I was running out of daylight.

 

Edited November 23, 2015 by incognito

[monkeyman2269]

Just go in the morn

[LetEmGrow]

Call Deer Search and see if they have someone in your area.  Deer Search is the way to go.  If it is bleeding that good then the dog will get you to your deer.
http://deersearch.org/contact-us/

[incognito]

I was not concerned about finding it.

I think I can do that on my own if I let it bleed out.

It is possible that the deer that I jumped is not the one I shot.

[landtracdeerhunter]

She'll keep overnight, Might be a little bloated, but at that temp, the meat will be fine.

Hunt in the morning, then go get your deer. I've taken two home sometimes. 

[Critter4321]

let it lay overnight if you have a good blood trail and know where you left off finding it in the morning should not be a issue Good luck

[cdmckane]

Wait til morning.  If you jumped it, it's not hit as well as you thought.  Go out at first light and  get your deer.

[ants]

Get on it at first light..From everything you said, you'll probably find it dead..( hey..that rhymes!!)

Edited November 24, 2015 by ants

[nycredneck]

Meat will be fine in the AM, unless you have yotes in your neck of the woods.

[Taylormike]

I too agree with everyone.  Go in when light.  You benefit nothing by going in now.  Go in first light, find your deer, gut, and drag when you can see.

 

From the sounds it's definitely a dead deer, I think you may have pushed it though...  Let her go, you may be farther back then you think and hit liver.  Deer can last a long time with a live hit, up to 5 or so hours and travel hundreds of yards if pushed.

[Buckmaster7600]

Dead deer don't go anywhere when jumped let it lay it will be there in the Am

[incognito]

Thanks for the replies.

Let's hope I find it in the morning.

[WingNut]

Make sure you get back to us with results! Good Luck!

[Fletch]

Not a good sign

[ApexerER]

What happened? Did you find it?

[incognito]

Quick update:

I found him at about 10:00 this morning.

Bad shot, low forward.

I crippled his far front leg and slice the bottom of his brisket.

 

Long version to follow tomorrow.

Edited November 24, 2015 by incognito

[WingNut]

I hope found means "Recovered"

[incognito]

I hope found means "Recovered"

 

Recovered and donated to the food pantry.

[WingNut]

Good for you.

[incognito]

I was 20 feet up in a climbing tree stand.

I was using a Rage mechanical broadhead.

 

I spotted the deer slowly moving from my right to my left.

He was just on a trail just beyond a small clearing where multiple paths cross at about 20 to 25 yards.

I drew and held for about a minute waiting for him to emerge from behind some trees.

I shot as soon as I saw his front leg clear the trees.

I learned there is a balance between rushing a shot or waiting for the better shot that you never get. I may be guilty of rushing the shot in this instance.

 

I hit behind his outstretched left leg but I did not account for where his organs were in relation to his leg. I also hit low, just catching the bottom of his rib cage. I hit forward of his heart. The heart was intact.

The arrow did not pass through. I never found it. However, the pit of the far leg was cut open slightly and the vein/artery of the far leg was severed (visible when I opened up the cut in the pit). Interesting is that the exit wound is higher than the entrance wound and I was shooting down from the tree stand. The far leg was crippled and twisted when I found him - either broken or ligaments and tendons severed - I did not examine it closely. So it will remain a mystery of what damage was caused upon impact and what damage was caused by the deer's movement with the arrowhead still in him. Since I did not find the arrow, I was not about to reach into his chest cavity and pull out his lungs in one shot. Therefore I don't know what damage was caused by the arrow versus from slicing into him with my knife.

 

Since the ground looks a lot different from 20 feet up, I was not sure exactly which group of small trees he was behind when I shot when I got down. With a thick cover of leaf litter, I gave up looking for the arrow on three separate attempts - after the shot, the following morning and when I went back to pick up the surveyor's tape I use when tracking. I never marked the first place I saw blood on day one. Another mistake.

 

On the first day I started tracking before sunset. The blood was wet and shiny and easy to spot in the beginning before sunset. Since I thought I had good shot placement, I figured he would bleed out fast even though I did not hear him crash. There was a good blood trail and it did not take long for me to track 200 yards before I jumped him on the first night.

 

I did go back around 8:30 p.m. the first day to see if I could track further. That did not work well at all. It took a while to find where I left off and the blood trail was thinning. I don't know if I made more than 20 yards of progress in the dark in an hour and a half before I gave up.

 

The following morning had its own challenges. The blood was absorbed into the leaf litter so there was much less contrast and it was no longer shinny. The amount of blood was also significantly less at this point. Most of the blood trail was reduced to pin head sized droplets with an occasional splatter here and there. It was interesting how the larger splatter marks would disappear for a while and then reappear further down the trail The next 60 yards was fairly open with multiple crossing trails, so it was possible that he could have gone any direction from the last blood found. Many of the trails had disturbed leaves from either the deer I was tracking or some other one. Luckily I could tell from the splatter pattern on the leaves which way he was traveling and so much blood had run down his legs at this point that there were dots of blood when there were no larger splatter marks. This was a slow hands and knees operation. It took three hours to track the last 60 yards. I got discouraged many times but I kept telling myself that this is part of the experience and it was my job to persevere.

 

Ultimately I found a large pool of blood where he had bedded down. Then at some point he got up and collapsed about 10 yards away.

 

The bottom line is next outing I will spend an extra few seconds to make a better shot and hopefully avoid an multiple hours long tracking job.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Timeless]

All hunters should have perseverence like you.  Well done!  If there was a "cheers" or "toast" emoji on this forum, I would use it.

[william.m.deck]

Nice job!

[philoshop]

Glad that you were able to find the deer. Perseverance pays off.