Waiting after the shot

[Chef]

This is something that I find very troubling both on here and the hunting shows on tv.... People always say shot looked a little far back so I backed out and gave it some time..... That's great and exactly what you should do for a liver or gut shot deer! BUT look first, I'm not saying to track your deer I'm say go get some info. Find, look at and smell your arrow. Does it smell foul? No? What color is the blood? Dark red, pink? Follow blood for a little how much is there? What color is it? Does it smell? Do all this and maybe some more before you back out!! No need to let deer sit over night because you think you hit too far back do your research

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[chas0218]

I somewhat agree, if you hit far back the deer will generally lay down in a short distance (at least this has been my experience). My wife shot a really nice buck one year and said it was back but we had some blood. We had given the deer 2 hours from when she shot it till we got down to look for the arrow and blood. When we got to where her arrow was (complete pass thru) we heard the buck jump, backed out and came back the next morning. When we got there we immediately found his bed, it was less than 20 yards from where she hit him.  There was a descent amount of blood in the bed, the trail quickly dried up and were finding droplets of blood less than 1/4" across about every 50 yards. I would rather back out and make sure the deer is dead.

Granted it isn't going get more dead after it has died but sure beats bumping a deer that is wounded and not finding it.

[grampy]

6 minutes ago, chefhunter86 said:

 

This is something that I find very troubling both on here and the hunting shows on tv.... People always say shot looked a little far back so I backed out and gave it some time..... That's great and exactly what you should do for a liver or gut shot deer! BUT look first, I'm not saying to track your deer I'm say go get some info. Find, look at and smell your arrow. Does it smell foul? No? What color is the blood? Dark red, pink? Follow blood for a little how much is there? What color is it? Does it smell? Do all this and maybe some more before you back out!! No need to let deer sit over night because you think you hit too far back do your research

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I agree with this especially if you have a coyote population on the property. My partner hit a nice 8pt. on sat, half hour before legal shooting time ended. He said he thought the shot was good but it "sounded" funny. He went to the hit site and found the arrow, with evidence of a gut hit. So he backed out and we met up, deciding to let him go over night, based on what the arrow told us. We are both NYS lisenced deer trackers, so the next morning we got a young dog, and took up the trail. we found the deer a little over 75 yards away from the hit site. When he shot at the broadside deer at 20 yards the deer must have turned toward him, a bit at the shot, as the arrow went in behind the shoulder, took out the heart and one lung, clipped the other lung and exited the front part of the gut. the deer was dead before he even got out of his stand! But based on what that arrow told us, we did the right thing by letting him go overnight.  And our coyote control must be working, as he was untouched!

[Chef]

I somewhat agree, if you hit far back the deer will generally lay down in a short distance (at least this has been my experience). My wife shot a really nice buck one year and said it was back but we had some blood. We had given the deer 2 hours from when she shot it till we got down to look for the arrow and blood. When we got to where her arrow was (complete pass thru) we heard the buck jump, backed out and came back the next morning. When we got there we immediately found his bed, it was less than 20 yards from where she hit him.  There was a descent amount of blood in the bed, the trail quickly dried up and were finding droplets of blood less than 1/4" across about every 50 yards. I would rather back out and make sure the deer is dead.
Granted it isn't going get more dead after it has died but sure beats bumping a deer that is wounded and not finding it.

Agreed or you could come back in the am and find a deer completely destroyed by yotes


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[chas0218]

5 minutes ago, chefhunter86 said:

Agreed or you could come back in the am and find a deer completely destroyed by yotes


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I haven't had an issue with yotes destroying the deer I have left overnight, done it couple times to find the deer 100% intact. How many times has it happened to you?

[LET EM GROW]

I agree some (for lung hit deer)... But a liver hit deer will bed typically within 50-75 yards of being hit.. that being said. hes going to probably see you or hear you as you check your arrow and the crime scene. its happened to me before. If you are most certain you didnt hit lungs, or the chance was very very minimal that lungs were hit. There is no reason IMO to not wait.. especially during bow season where your chance at a good follow up shot on a bedded wounded deer are very slim. Liver hit deer deserve at least 3 hr minimum to wait. 6 hrs being more accurate i believe. Gut shot deer, ask some of the deer search guys.. they can live up to 24 hours with scrambled up guts.. 

 

My rule of thumb, since ive lost 4 pope and young bucks in my teens and early 20's due to tracking to soon.. is if i dont see the deer drop within sight, its a minimum or 1 hr wait. that is if im most certain it was double lung. if it was an iffy shot.. lung/liver.. several hours will have to pass before i check.. 

 

I lost  a few awesome bucks from trackign to soon.. and i wont do it again as long as i can help that.. 

Whether you wait an hour or a day.. if you made a killing shot the deer will e there regardless.. and not pressured and pushed form being tracked.. regardless of coyotes. i wont push a deer unless i know ill get a 2nd shot

[Bowguy 1]

6 minutes ago, chas0218 said:

I haven't had an issue with yotes destroying the deer I have left overnight, done it couple times to find the deer 100% intact. How many times has it happened to you?

In my area coyotes are bad. Theyll tear a deer up but the bears are way worse. Almost everone I know has lost one to a bear or had bears follow them out to.

[Chef]

Yea I'm not saying rush and track that deer I'm just saying it's ok to look for your arrow smell it and look at the blood and make a educated decision..... Then again if you saw the arrow hit the deer you probably peeked and did make a bad shot


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[LET EM GROW]

Right, if it was a liver hit and the deer bounded  quick then walked away hunched, he wont bed very far from there, and i would want to get out quiet as possible then come back and check. there are a lot of signs deer make and do after the shot, that may help tell you where you hit.. if the deer ran like a bat out of hell when it got out of there, id check the scene sure, but otherwise i wait.. the arrow will be there along with sign.. unless rain or snow fall is on its way

 

My buck last year was single lung and liver hit.. he ran for 10 steps then walked another 20 and bedded down and layed his head right down.. thought he was dead.. he then raised his head up 10 minutes later and layed there.. repeated the process several times until he got up and moved 30 yards and bed down again to do the same dang thing. here i am pinned in the tree.. 

[chas0218]

16 minutes ago, Bowguy 1 said:

In my area coyotes are bad. Theyll tear a deer up but the bears are way worse. Almost everone I know has lost one to a bear or had bears follow them out to.

I'm lucky enough that we don't have a bear population to worry about. Coyotes roam the woods where I hunt but  have never lost a deer to them. I have had deer that were poorly hit and die on my property to never be touched by coyotes.

[chas0218]

16 minutes ago, chefhunter86 said:

Yea I'm not saying rush and track that deer I'm just saying it's ok to look for your arrow smell it and look at the blood and make a educated decision..... Then again if you saw the arrow hit the deer you probably peeked and did make a bad shot


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No I understand completely, I'm not trying to start anything or come off as a jerk I just wanted to know if it had happened to you before and if that was your reasoning. I usually can see my shot with my lighted nock as it hits the deer and can make a judgement call from it. I would like to clarify that I wouldn't leave a deer overnight if I shot it in the morning. I would wait at least 4 hours possibly more depending on the shot. 

[jjb4900]

I always stay in stand for 30 minutes regardless of the hit, climb down quietly, inspect the arrow and make my decision from there.....but yeah, a lost deer is a lost deer whether it be to weather, coyotes or a bad hit. I would never climb down right away and go to the hit site, many deer will bed right down and that commotion can send them packing.

[Jeremy K]

I get down right away and find the arrow ,do the usual checks on it and find the start of the blood trail and mark it. The amount of time I wait after that would depend on the situation.

[Fantail]

Why yes, I do wait after the shot.
Can remember seeing the deer drop after 40 yards, no matter time to soak it all in. I think some will feel pressured for example when you have some rain & your thinking you'll loose the blood trail.

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[Chef]

I always stay in stand for 30 minutes regardless of the hit, climb down quietly, inspect the arrow and make my decision from there.....but yeah, a lost deer is a lost deer whether it be to weather, coyotes or a bad hit. I would never climb down right away and go to the hit site, many deer will bed right down and that commotion can send them packing.

Yes I'm not taking about waiting 30 min, that should for sure be done... I'm taking about the leaving deer over night without even checking the arrow or blood


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[Steuben Jerry]

1 hour ago, chas0218 said:

I haven't had an issue with yotes destroying the deer I have left overnight, done it couple times to find the deer 100% intact. How many times has it happened to you?

I believe we've let deer lay overnight four times, and the yotes got at them twice. So 50-50 for our place. My neighbor let one lay two years ago, and we went back out around 10:00 pm with lights to track it, and found it destroyed by a bear. The crime scene covered a 50 yard area, and then he dragged what was left through the woods. There was good snow on the ground so it really did look like a crime scene. We went out again in the morning and found where he stashed it in the woods.

[LetEmGrow]

I do not go anywhere near it nor do I even think of getting out of my stand for at least 30 minutes and 45 minutes before I ever make it to the shot site.  If I am unsure then I like to wait a couple hours.

Sometimes deer do not go very far at all before laying down or stopping to analyze their situation.  I have learned this the hard way.

The best way to address the yotes is to probably plan on a night in the woods and stay at the base of your treestand listening for them.  People claim they howl at a kill.  I am not sure whether or not that is the case.  But you may be able to pick up on any rustling going on.  And your own scent may keep it from happening if the deer did not go far.

I think tracking it too soon is the worst of ideas.  If you believe it is gut shot then it is almost guaranteed you will bump it within a few hours of the hit.  Most people say to wait 8 hours.  I might run home and grab a blanky and rough it out.  I am the one who made the bad shot after all.

[The_Real_TCIII]

Finding the arrow is so important. It's why I hate camo shafts


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[growalot]

Deer search told me  I was one of few hunters that did the right thing...If in doubt back out...now I did go get the arrow...but I then left immediately...for I did not know if by his actions that he wasn't just over the knoll where I'd seen him disappear. Had I snapped twigs or shifting winds caught his nose,  he would have bolted down hill...Though he actually never stopped.

This deer was so big I immediately called deer search when the sound of hit was totally off to me..I discovered a year later, two day deer search was in vane. Though they got a 100.00 donation for trying..It was the biggest buck I've ever encountered...came through the trees having to turn his head to not hit tree trunks....bases not too much smaller than coke cans ...he'd been picked up buy a local....

Edited October 12, 2016 by growalot

[phade]

It's been a while since I was unable to recover the arrow from a pass-through, but that happened this weekend.

I'm sure its out there, but it made for a dicey few minutes as I physically didn't see arrow impact other than hearing what I thought was a shoulder/rib cracking. Turns out that was a dead deer running and he died leaning against a tree after the oil ran out of the engine.

The arrow tells a lot of the story to back-up what is usually seen (or not). Last year I had a lung and liver hit. Arrow stayed in the buck for some reason. He bedded in between me and a hunting partner (without me knowing) and subsequently pulled the arrow out with his teeth. My partner jumped him walking back to me so we got out of dodge before we made a search attempt. Moog came by and we got some dinner and then the three of us went out for the search - four hours after the shot. We found the bloody bed and the arrow and the dark blood showing the liver hit, but once he left the bed from being bumped initially we didn't find the buck that night - no blood to be found after the bed. Next morning Larry302 came out and we ended up finding the buck about 60 yards from the bed a couple rows in the corn.

Bumping a deer that will clearly die is a horrible experience. It happens despite best efforts from time to time, but you just need to keep composure and make the best decision possible after it happens. Avoiding it in the first place is paramount.

[Taylormike]

Never look first.   If you indeed know you hit the deer, get out.  Sometimes you don't  know when the arrow is removed or broken.  Many times the hit deer will literally run a short distance and look back.   Sometimes they'll even bed.  Why risk it!?!?  A questionable shot should be a minimum of 4 hours.  Probably more like 8.  It takes a mature deer 6-10 hours to die from septecemia or blood poisoning.  This is from a gut or intestine being severed.  This is why I do.

Edited October 12, 2016 by Taylormike

[Hock3y24]

The first deer i ever shot with a bow i literally flew down my tree stand and ran looking for blood. I found blood and no deer. I had no one teach me the things that i know now, and have learned alot on here. I lost that 8 point i believe it was 6 or 7 years ago and have only lost 1 bow deer since then with an obvious shoulder shot with lack of penetration. I usually wait 1 hour, check arrow and see what to do from there.

[Larry]

This is what I do after shooting a deer with  a bow. I wait 15min. then go and try to find my arrow and blood where I shot the deer. If I find my arrow I look to see what kind of hit I made I look to see how far up the shaft the blood goes, and if it is a lung, hart liver or a gut shot. If it’s a lung shot I’ll wait a ½ hour, hart liver 2hr’s and a gut shot 6 to 8 hours. If there is no blood or arrow I wait a 1/2hr and track till I find blood or the arrow. Then decide how long to wait. This is what I do if I don’t see the deer go down. If I see the deer go down then I wait a ½ hour the go look for my arrow and follow the blood trail to the deer. I all ways follow the blood trail even if I see the deer go down.

[Bowguy 1]

4 hours ago, chefhunter86 said:

 

This is something that I find very troubling both on here and the hunting shows on tv.... People always say shot looked a little far back so I backed out and gave it some time..... That's great and exactly what you should do for a liver or gut shot deer! BUT look first, I'm not saying to track your deer I'm say go get some info. Find, look at and smell your arrow. Does it smell foul? No? What color is the blood? Dark red, pink? Follow blood for a little how much is there? What color is it? Does it smell? Do all this and maybe some more before you back out!! No need to let deer sit over night because you think you hit too far back do your research

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You know why the TV guys shots are always off? They're shooting Mathews! Just kidding kinda guys

[Buckmaster7600]

I learned long ago dead deer don't travel far but a dying deer can go a long ways after its jumped. Unless I see or hear them crash I'll give them 4-6 hrs or over night. I have never had a coyote bother them. The one thing that can make a bad shot worse is jumping the deer.


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