I am really hating myself. I shot a doe yesterday evening and made what I thought was a good shot. The deer was angling to me and I put my pin right behind the shoulder. After waiting an hour I found my arrow with some blood and green vial. I realized that I had hit low, but I thought I might have got part of the liver. I waited 3 hours and started to track. I found good sign and after about 30 yards nothing. It was getting very dark and flashlights were not helping much. After walking a grid for about 45 min. I realized that this deer is lost. Due to the heat mid 80's I knew that it could not of been saved. I am going out to look for this deer after work. Just want to find the deer.

Welcome to the board, perhaps you'll have better luck next time. Late evening shots are tough because of the potential tracking involved at night. The fact that it's meat spoiling weather adds another factor to consider before taking that late evening shot.

A friend of mine took a doe last year with a quartering-to shot like you described. We found the arrow in the dark because I smelled it before I saw it. It was covered with stomach matter. We were not enthused, but continued to follow the meager blood trail. Turns out the deer dropped with 50 yards, the arrow hit the on-side right behind the shoulder and exited the opposite side behind the paunch. The arrow took out lung, liver and paunch. The arrow was coevered with stomach matter because that's where it exited. The blood trail was meager because the wound was filled with stomach contents.

If what you saw was true, you may not have gotten the bad shot you thought you did. Sounds to me like you may have a dead deer nearby but gave up and panicked becasue you had shoddy flashlights. Get out there and find your deer this afternoon.

The meat doesn't spoil that quickly. A few years ago, a buddy and I shot deer almost simultaneously one evening around 6pm. We saw his go down in front of us, but mine went the other way. It took a long time to get his out and we didn't get to look for mine until the next day. The temps were near 80 and it was 4:30pm when we found my buck. It smelled bad because I also caught some guts, but I had it inspected by a meat processor who said it smelled, looked and felt fresh. I washed it out and immediately iced it. It was--and remains--the best deer my family has ever eaten.

BTW--We have eaten over 50 deer!

Today's small bucks are tomorrow's trophies.

I agree with you Dave, they don't spoil that fast. Last year, I shot a deer around 8:00AM and actually let it go till the next morning. temperatures were around 70 that day. Like you said, the deer smelled a little gamey when I opened it up, mainly because of the cavity filling up with blood. But the meat was still OK.

A few years ago I made a major investment in a flashlight. I bought one of the "Streamlight" rechargeable things that lineman and firemen use. It holds it's charge a LONG time when not being used. Depending on which model you got they lasted something like 8 or 10 hours. You can get them in a flood or spot. I choose the flood for tracking. I put it in my vehicle before the season and don't take it out again until the season is over except for charging. It also comes with a car charging attachment. It was something like $115 but I haven't had to replace flashlights or buy bulbs or batteries for a long time except for the two small lights I keep in my pack at all times. One of those is a super "Streamlight" also with a white and an amber LED.

In tracking... patience and persistance is the answer. It's far better to stand in one spot for 5 minutes looking for the next drop of blood or footprint than it is to get impatient and venturing off in to grid searches. They're a last resort. Arrows "GENERALLY" tell us what we got... but NOT always. An arrow passing through intestines LAST may have nothing but intestinal goo on it. BUT, it may very well have done the deed before it got there. The smallest drops of blood may lead to your deer. They're NOT all gushers. Slam bamm heart shots are deadly as all get out... but if the heart stops pumping you aren't goint to get a lot of blood. I've had 3 deer that didn't leave more than a tablespoon of blood on the ground... but they were quite dead in a short time.

I'm not about to flame anyone for an errant shot or a lost deer. If you hunt long enough it'll happen to everyone. If you miss, you could just as easily have hit the guts. You're not better... just luckier. If you haven't missed... you haven't hunted long or taken many shots. Your day will come.

I'm not expert on this.... BUT... I would think a gut shot deer would spoil more slowly than a lung shot deer. With a couple holes in the intestinal wall there's room for the gases that form bloating the deer. I'm sure there's more to it than that... but it seems reasonable.



Edited by - shortdraw on 10/02/2002 13:02:34

A gut shot animal requires at least a 5 hour wait, once you found that scenerio on the arrow, you should have waited longer. You probably bumped her. I wish you luck. Please read this link:

http://forum.hunting.net/bbs/topic.a...0&FORUM_ID=19k.

<font color=blue>Good Luck and Good Shooting</font id=blue>

<font color=red>Rob</font id=red>