RE: Tough Night tonite
sorry for some reason i thought read that it was your first season with a bow this year...but i didnt think it was till i read that....dont take that personal...i could sworn i read you post it was your first bowseason...either way, it sounds like you guys are still learning to bloodtrail...
either way stuff happens....gotta learn from it or you'll never become a better, more educated hunter. thats what we all strive for. or should.
heat or not you were uncertain of the hit and admitted in the post a few times that you thought you had guts. then jumped back and forth to guts to lung and liver. you didnt know, i dont know, noone knows. best thing to do? wait a half hour or so in the stand...sneak down, retrieve the arrow if possible or look around the point of impact to try to decide what kind of hit was made...if you cant decide, wait a bit longer. a dead deer isnt going anywhere... i understand its warm out and it can spoil....but, thats part of hunting in the heat. no way around it. pushing a poorly shot deer just doesnt help no matter what. all it will do is cause you to loose the trail then you loose the animal forever and it dies a death in a nasty briar thicket where noone will ever see it again. on the other hand, you wait, maybe it spoils...maybe it dont. meat cant spoil till the animal dies...remember that. but either way, you found the deer and can learn from it and get the antlers etc if it was a buck....much better option than pushing a poorly/unknown shot animal.
im not blood trailing expert....but really im not giving advice other than wait when your uncertaint. its a hard rule to learn. im lucky, i havent lost a deer to not waiting yet, but know many guys that have. gotta learn from your own mistakes, but when you can learn from OTHERS, well, thats awesome because that means you dont have to make that mistake!
good luck the rest of the season!