Waiting after the shot

[Fletch]

I always wait 30-45 min after hit. Then get down and check what the hit site tells me . I do all I can to not let one sit overnight unless the signs show me I have too. I have lost a few to coyotes. I have had 160 pound + deer gone except hide and bones in less than 10 hours.


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[Cabin Fever]

Funny this topic should come up today. Just today, a friend texted me a pic of a doe that he shot this morning in PA. He waited and found it 90min after he shot it! THIS is what he found!! Either coyotes or a bear found it before he did! He was sick about it!

Another friend of mine in PA shot his first deer with a bow. Within minutes he heard crashing where his doe fell. A bear grabbed the dead doe by the neck and started dragging it away, right past him!!

[Taylormike]

1 hour ago, Buckmaster7600 said:

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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This is spot on and I completely agree.

[Taylormike]

56 minutes ago, Cabin Fever said:

Funny this topic should come up today. Just today, a friend texted me a pic of a doe that he shot this morning in PA. He waited and found it 90min after he shot it! THIS is what he found!! Either coyotes or a bear found it before he did! He was sick about it!

Another friend of mine in PA shot his first deer with a bow. Within minutes he heard crashing where his doe fell. A bear grabbed the dead doe by the neck and started dragging it away, right past him!!

Btw, if that's the case he should be very happy he waited. Maybe he would encountered that bear head to head...

Edited October 13, 2016 by Taylormike

[Chef]

Btw, if that's the case he should be very happy he waited. Maybe he would encountered that best head to head...

If it was you do you put a tag on that deer?


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[Taylormike]

If a bear ate it.  No.

[wolc123]

For a shot taken earlier in the day, I would stay in my stand for a half hour after the shot, unless I saw the deer fall (I would go to it immediately in that case).   After the half hour, I would go put down some orange biodegradable tracking tape where the deer stood at the shot and find my arrow.  If the evidence pointed to a heart/lung shot, I would follow the blood trail right away, putting down more tape at the last blood found each time along the way.  If the evidence (after finding the arrow) indicated the hit was behind the diaphram, I would back out for 3 more hours, then return to my last tape marker and continue the search.

If the shot was taken near dusk, I would wait 15 minutes in the stand, then go find the arrow.  If the evidence indicated a heart/lung hit I would get right on the blood trail with my flashlight.  If the evidence indicated a hit behind the diaphram, I would go back to to my truck/house/cabin and mix up a batch of bloodglow in a sprayer bottle and return to the trail about 2 hours later.  They say liver and gut hits are easy to find with that stuff.  I can't say for sure from personal experience, because the three deer I have killed since getting it 2 years ago have dropped dead on the spot or within 40 yards.  Even though I have not got to use it, having it available has given me the confidence to hunt right up to legal sunset every time, and should also eliminate the possibility of a coyote ever getting some good venison from me.  That alone was well worth the $20 purchase price.  

It is mostly about the meat to me, so I have never and would never back out and wait until the next day.  I reluctantly accepted a doe one time from a friend who had left it overnight (when the temps were in the mid 30's).  She hit it in the late afternoon, and recovered it just after daybreak the next morning.  I could taste that the flavor of the meat was off a bit.  I will decline such an offer again, even if my freezer is empty.  If I can't get the guts out in a few hours, the coyotes can have it.  I am very fussy, when it comes to venison, and if it does not taste as good or better than fine beef, I don't want it.    That "overnight doe" was the only one, out of about 100 that I have prepared and tasted, that fell into that category.                 

            

 

[Zag]

You have to see the evidence to access what happened. Ill check the impact site after around thirty minutes to decide the course from there. Ive been bit by the coyote bug before and would hate to leave over night.

If you haven't had a deer tore up by yotes your lucky but your odds are increasing.

[The_Real_TCIII]

I left my first buck ever lay overnight and the yotes tore up the back end pretty good. This was in Elma in 1998, I didn't really even know they were around back then

[2012_taco]

Not to derail the OP but, if you gut shoot a deer and find it the next day, can you salvage any meat? My experience is the entire deer smells like guts and is unfit for consumption. As for the OP, I gut shoot a nice buck at 8:30 in the morning on the last day of bow season (years ago) I sat in my stand till 10, got out quietly, went back at 3:30, lost the trail within a 100 yds, couldn't find the arrow, a good friend started to do a body search and found the deer still alive. He had stiffened up enough so he couldn't get up. I actually walked right up to it and put another arrow it it's chest. He bolted like a rabbit, went 50 yds. and flipped over dead. Unbelievable but goes to show you a gut shot deer can and will live for 8 hours plus.  

[turkeyfeathers]

11 hours ago, Cabin Fever said:

Funny this topic should come up today. Just today, a friend texted me a pic of a doe that he shot this morning in PA. He waited and found it 90min after he shot it! THIS is what he found!! Either coyotes or a bear found it before he did! He was sick about it!

Another friend of mine in PA shot his first deer with a bow. Within minutes he heard crashing where his doe fell. A bear grabbed the dead doe by the neck and started dragging it away, right past him!!

No expert on bears but by the looks of that it was coyotes. They always go for the haunches and rear end first. 

[chas0218]

12 hours ago, Cabin Fever said:

Another friend of mine in PA shot his first deer with a bow. Within minutes he heard crashing where his doe fell. A bear grabbed the dead doe by the neck and started dragging it away, right past him!!

Would that be considered baiting if he shot it too? haha

[Four Season Whitetail's]

5 hours ago, turkeyfeathers said:

No expert on bears but by the looks of that it was coyotes. They always go for the haunches and rear end first. 

I say just the other..Yotes will shred the thing quick. By the looks of the hair on the side of the deer it almost shows the spot where a bear may have rolled it around a bit before dinner, almost like bear prints in the hair? Hard to say really but a nasty ending for the hunter either way.

[LetEmGrow]

Its funny how fast a yote can find a deer but you rarely have pictures of them on trail cameras.  Weird.

[nycredneck]

I watch 4 out of 5 deer I shoot go down and I know they are dead and waste no time going to dress and drag. I can usually tell where I hit and know if it's a double lunger and can see the blood from the tree. The unlimited bag limit on doe in NJ gives me lot's of practical experience shooting many deer each year.

Edited October 14, 2016 by nycredneck

[nyantler]

The only time I leave a deer overnight is if I've given it ample time to die and bump it on the first trailing of blood. Whitetails are so unpredictable... they are very resilient with some older bucks having the fortitude to last a while even after a good placed shot. If I can help it I'd rather not have a night of little sleep waiting for the next morning to come to recover my deer.

[YFKI1983]

So far on my property we've had to leave 2 deer overnight. Found both early next morning. Both were decimated. Never again. Next time I will wait until around 11 o'clock pm and go out looking.

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