Opening weekend LI

[A Sportsman]

Hey Folks,

yesterday afternoon was WARM 70s, last night was mild and Today was forecasted to be over 70 again. I completely understand the desire to back out if youre unsure of the hit and don't want to push a deer. But with these kinds of temperatures you have to weigh the decision to back out properly. I would think decomposition would ruin that deer by the morning under these conditions. Maybe I am wrong though. Just wondering what the general consensus is on this. Personally, assuming i thought it was gut shot, I would have waited 4 to 6 hours and then went in in the dark to track it. With cold temps, I would have waited til first light the next day.

Furthermore, knowing that you had to go to school in the morning, and couldnt get on that blood trail at first light (6:45), how do you wait til after class to get in there. You said you had good blood, but provided no information on the quality of the shot. Good blood is another good reason to get on the track sooner. If you hit the deer at 6 pm and went looking at 10:30 the next day, that deer could have been dead and rotting for over 16 hours. And thats assuming you found it right at 10:30 when you started to look. I'm sorry but this stinks of "unethical" to me. I'm sorry to cast judgement, but like I said above, maybe I am wrong. I'm curious to see what some of the guys on this site would think about the decomposition rate of the deer given these warm temperatures.

[Geno C]

the shot could have been gut shot BUT it also could be liver/ lung or liver. A liver hit deer could take 6 - 24 hours to expire assuming the degree of the hit. I would no doubt give a liver hit deer 12 hours to bed up and expire. Gut shot deer could take just as long... i personally dont think 4 - 6 hours would have been sufficient time BUT thats just me and with a deer as described i would have to air on the side of caution and fight the urge to pursue that animal.

also on a liver hit deer you will get great blood but after giving the deer time and perusing the bloodtrail and coming up on the first spot where the deer bedded up is a tall tail sign you should back out and give him time. otherwise you will push that deer and that good blood will turn to spotty blood in no time. These are the options he has to weigh out and i am certain the chance of the deer spoiling has crossed his mind more then once.

[ny hunter]

Nothing yet?This can't be good.

[Geno C]

also to throw in "unethical" is kind of un called for IMO... he has every right to let that buck expire THE RIGHT WAY. guys with the mentality of getting on that trail so soon are the ones who usually loose their deer quick... that deer would be fine over night into late morning with out a problem in my opinion...

[A Sportsman]

Good points Geno C. Maybe "unethical" was a little heavy handed. Truly, without us knowing how he thought the hit was, looking at the arrow (assuming pass through), hair?, how the deer reacted, etc., its probably silly to start to think about why he did what he did. Lets hope that he found the deer.....and he's not sharing the tenderloins with maggots.

[Long Island Bowhunter]

Well its official i give up i tracked this deer the entire day from the time of my last post i had my farther with me we searched high and low for this deer. Possibly the biggest deer i might ever see in

Ny let alone shoot. we lost blood once we got down in to a thick creek bottom. it was around 930 when my dad said i think its time to call it a day. I'm 18 years old and not ashamed to say i dropped to my knees and starting crying i just don't know how the deer ran that far now the only thing I'm going to do is search for him just to get the rack. sorry for the late post I'm so ashamed i couldn't share my story and pics with you guys.

[BizCT]

sorry to hear.....but just curious, how close was he that you saw he was a 12pointer?

[ny hunter]

Keep your head up and go look tom,Sucks but what can you do.

[Geno C]

i wouldnt be ashamed.. If you exhaust every avenue possible what else can you do. I would keep at it, honestly... even if you have to bang in sick tomorrow but thats just me. Its not a great feeling when you arrow one and are unable to make the recover. BUT it does happen... keep at it get in there and do circle patterns where you last picked up blood.

[cbx46]

I personally wouldn't eat a deer the swelled up in these temps. But in a case like this the deer is shot if you let it sit over night you might lose the meat, the rack. If you push it you run the risk of losing everything and the deer still dies. If you have confidence in your shot and actual good blood I would wait 4 hrs if you lack either come back in the morning. We pushed a deer last year into a swamp a giant 8 my bro shot had we waited he would have found in a few hours where we saw it bed down. Instead he found it by smell on the other side of the swamp 3 weeks later. It only ran 300 yards thru swamp and dropped. The only thing you have to keep in mind is that just bc you didn't push it a yote, or another buck being opportunistic and picking on a more mature buck bc its injured might.

[A Sportsman]

Regarding the liver, I thought I read that a shot that really gets the liver good is quite a bit better than a gut shot. I know i;ve seen significant blood from a liver hit deer that i recovered. but I think one lung was clipped as well on that deer.

[Geno C]

Good points Geno C. Maybe "unethical" was a little heavy handed. Truly, without us knowing how he thought the hit was, looking at the arrow (assuming pass through), hair?, how the deer reacted, etc., its probably silly to start to think about why he did what he did. Lets hope that he found the deer.....and he's not sharing the tenderloins with maggots.

i hear you, yeah there are many variables for sure... we can only envision a picture someone is telling us. Hard to know everything without being there. But if hes 18 im sure he got excited alittle buck fever perhaps and may not 100% have seen where the shot was and so on. hope he finds it tho.

[Long Island Bowhunter]

I might as well tell you guys the story even though it does know good without the picture.

Around 1230 me an my dad decided to pack the car and head down to our hunting buddies property my dad told me he heard of a big bruiser roaming the edge of the fields he said he wanted to get in stand by 2 and be ready. With this in mind i was excited to get in my stand 40 yards off of a corn field around 330 i had to does and a small 4 come in which i watched for around an hour and than they moved off. After the 3 deer moved off is was dead quiet. At 625 i radioed my dad and told him i was going to climb down ill meet him at the truck. No sooner that i hooked my bow up and began lowering it down i heard a twig break 40 yards in front of me i looked up to see this giant rack moving through the woods i slowly pulled my bow back into the stand an knocked an arrow as the deer walked towards me i counted 12 points when the deer reached 30 yards i drew my bow back with a perfect broadside shot i released the arrow I'm for certain that i hit a perfect lung shot because the blood i found sunday night was bubbled up. the reason i backed out was because i was so excited that i could barley move and new id end up pushing him. i called my dad and told him i just arrowed the biggest buck I've ever seen and that id wait till after class to go get him. (thanks for the support I'm not going to class tomorrow I'm giving another full day of searching so will see what happens I'm no longer looking forward to the meet but getting my hands on his horns)

[Long Island Bowhunter]

sorry miss typed 615 625 is when i came down from the stand to get my arrow

[Long Island Bowhunter]

which was covered in blood ill post a pic of the arrow tomorrow u guys tell me why u think

[A Sportsman]

Long Island Bowhunter, sorry for the "unethical" comment. You certainly don;t seem unethical judging by your last post. Obviously, you did what you could and paid the deer due respect. As mentioned above, this stuff occasionally happens. Its healthy to feel bad about it. you learn from the experience and move on. good luck to you.

[Geno C]

Regarding the liver, I thought I read that a shot that really gets the liver good is quite a bit better than a gut shot. I know i;ve seen significant blood from a liver hit deer that i recovered. but I think one lung was clipped as well on that deer.

liver/lung is not entirely different then hitting just liver but i guarantee you will not find a liver hit deer without waiting a decent amount of time. although a liver hit deer hit a more lethal hit compared to a gut shot, the waiting game is close and both hits should be treated the same and the deer should have enough time to expire.

[dave6x6]

Don't you dare be ashamed kid.. I feel pretty bad for you and i know you will think about this day for yrs to come. I know cuz i've been in your shoes myself. But you'll have other chances and you'll learn some things from this one , but to me you have presented yourself as being a pretty responsible hunter who did everything he could to recover this deer. Keep looking when you have the time and maybe you'll find him. If not , then get back up on that horse and keep ridin'..

[Long Island Bowhunter]

Thank you everyone it sucks maybe tomorrow will bring better news I'm just destroyed by it I've never lost a deer and to loose the biggest one I've ever shot is horrible.

[Geno C]

if it was a solid lung shot with good blood and signs of bubbles in it, call me crazy but i would have to assume a dead deer not to far from your shot. NOW having said that, being a 30 yard shot with little light on the horizon i am going to have to say there may be enough variables that could have happened that with all the excitement you may not have seen. The deer may have been quartering slightly to and thus produced a liver/lung. alls im saying is ya never know. one can only play back a shot in his head but with little light a spur of the moment bow retrieval and nocking of an arrow im sure something may have been over looked, it happens. I wish you great luck for tomorrow and i hope you can get your hands around him! goodluck bud

[Long Island Bowhunter]

Yeh i mean I'm sure i could have seen something i didn't being i was shaking to the point that i could see my pins spinning around the body of the deer. i took a deep breath the shaking slowed to the point i was able to put my 30 yard pin on the vital ill let you guys know tomorrow.

[dave6x6]

The other thing is it may not be lost yet. If you got a pass through and your pretty sure you hit him anywhere between the shoulder and the hips. then their is a pretty good chance that deer is dead. The question is did you or something push him into the nxt county before that happened? If he wasn't pushed then i'm not surprised he headed for the creek bottom and thats where i would concentrate my efforts tomarrow. He'll most likely stay near that water and he'll find something real thick to lay down in so check every briar patch and blow down. Also they sometimes will expire in the water itself so if it's clear enough to see, make sure you check. I think he's in there and you just have to find him..

[Geno C]

^^ thats deff a great start! Dave has a great point

[Matt Sasso]

Give these guys a call. I believe they have someone with a deer tracking license on Long island now.

http://deersearch.org/

I'd help you myself with my Beagle but I'll be traveling for a few days

keep looking, do circles around the last sign, and dive into the thickest shit you can find. I have found more dead deer in february climbing through briars and bush caves than anywhere else

[Long Island Bowhunter]

Hitting the woods early this may be a long long day.