coyotes got my buddies deer!

[jasons8387]

ive got a question for you guys. last week my friend shot a small 4pt buck and knew that he had hit him a bit forward, in the shoulder area. the buck crossed a creek behind him and went into a small crp field where my friend stated he saw him fall a couple of times and then get back up and move again until he was out of sight. upon inspection of the area the deer was shot, about 18 yards, there was trace blood but not much. we decided to wait it out about 3 hours and go search for him and see what we could find. it may have been the right decision to wait until morning but knowing there is a high population of coyotes we wanted to act quickly. after pursuing the deer we ended up finding a nice blood trail and found the deer about 180 yards away, with a hole through both of his shoulder blades[:-], and were disgusted to find that the deer had already been mangled by the coyotes. my question to you guys is, if you think you have made a less than perfect shot how long should one wait before the coyotes destroy your deer? i know jumping this deer would have not been any better but by morning the deer would have been just bones. my friend and i are just wondering what ya'll would do in this situation and if maybe there was just a case of bad luck involved.[&:]p.s. the deer was shot right at dusk and tracking was done at night, may bea different situation in daylight hours.

[Deleted User]

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[waiting_for_a_gift]

I lost a deer to coyotes once, and I still feel bad about it. On an evening hunt, if I'm sure of a poor hit, I'll wait until morning, not really much choice. The one I lost was a good hit, I just made a mistake in interpreting what happened. I waited overnight on a deer that was dead within minutes.

I guess one option would be to go to the site of the hit, with lantern (not necessarily lit)and firearm on hand, and just hang out and listen. If you hear yotes, move on them. Maybe this option could be exercised later in the night, say 3:00 am, when the deer should be dead.

[BrentH243]

I know what I'd be doing, hunting coyotes every tad bit of free time I have in the off season. They are fun and very challenging to hunt, especially with archery equipment. I watched a show the other day where someone was hunting with their recurve out in the mountains in a Westward state. He never got one close enough for a shot but the guy with him had his rifle and took one or two coyotes. Too bad the coyotes are that bad though. If you would have looked for him, you may have left human scent in the area which could have scared the coyotes off.