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Gut Shot
10-21-2005, 08:30 AM
#1
Nontypical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Central New York
Posts: 1,499
Gut Shot
I know that it is worst case senerio but it happens to the best of us.Just wondering,How many have gut shot and recovered the deer?? Also how long did you wait and how far did it go?
10-21-2005, 08:40 AM
#2
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Paoli PA
Posts: 898
RE: Gut Shot
i actually got really lucky! it was the first real deer of the season two years ago and i was shaking pretty bad. I shot and the arrow went through the gut and out right under her back knee. she fell as soon as i shot, got up and walked about 40 yards and fell over. i waited a bit but it was getting dark, so i walked up to her, she got up but couldn't run cause of that back leg. i pushed her about 30 more yards heard her crash again and then quickly put her down. i think she really died from the leg artery and not the gut shot. i was so glad that i was able to make up for my mistake quickly, sometimes you don't get that lucky
10-21-2005, 08:48 AM
#3
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posts: 3,784
RE: Gut Shot
I was lucky as well.I once gutshot a doe at 30 yards. She was startled at first but then showed the typical signs of a gutshot. (hunched back, walking very slowly, etc.) I watched her walk about 50 yards away, then surprisingly she circled back to my right and walked behind me at about 20 yards. I continued watching her and I could see she was bleeding badly. She ended up bedding down about 25 yards from my stand. Fortunately I was able to get a 2nd shot and it took out the heart.
10-21-2005, 08:49 AM
#4
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 3,913
RE: Gut Shot
I have recovered a few gut shot deer in the past. Most of the time I have seen deer gut shot was driving deer with a shotgun, and few of those are found. My neighbor has gut shot a few with a bow and had about a 50/50 shance of finding them. I have found most of the deer that I have hit poorly, but few were actually gut shot. Most were hit a little high and back a tad. Bad shots happen from time to time with everyone, regardless of weapon. The important thing is giving them enough time to lay down, and don't give up on them.
10-21-2005, 09:03 AM
#5
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Western Iowa
Posts: 1,179
RE: Gut Shot
I gut shot my first buck. I thought I hit him good but it was to far back. My second buck (140 class) I hit quartering to me barely. I got his liver and nicked a lung and recovered him about 28 hours later about the same time frame on the 6 point also. Just gotta give em time and don't jump em like I did my big boy. DUH never do that again.[:-]
10-21-2005, 09:29 AM
#6
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Southern WI
Posts: 1,766
RE: Gut Shot
Happened a couple of years ago. The doe stepped forward as I was shooting. Hit too far back. Watched the way she ran and then went back to the cabin. I hit her about 30 minutes before sunset. I waited until morning to go look. This is the cool part. I went back and started to walk in the direction that she went. I stopped for a minute to look ahead and all I could HEAR were CROWS. Got to thinking that there is no way I could be this lucky. Well about 150 yards away she laid down and died. Because I did NOT push her she expired over night. The crows did all the work for me by finding her. So if you EVER have to go out the next day be sure to pay attention to crows. They will be on a dead deer very quickly. Lets just hope I never have to deal with that again. I know I sure don't want to but like you said it can and does happen. Just give the deer time and you should find it.
10-21-2005, 10:16 AM
#7
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: SE Pennsylvania
Posts: 581
RE: Gut Shot
I have shot 2 deer in the gut. I have recovered one and lost one. The one I lost I didnt wait long enough. I now know that if I gut shoot one I need to wait a good 10-12 hours. The one I recovered I shot with a rifle. I was cold and it was raining and I was 13.. My first deer. When i got to it the guts were hanging out of its belly.. Those noslers did the trick! I put the finisher in the neck.
10-21-2005, 10:28 AM
#8
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Blissfield MI USA
Posts: 5,293
RE: Gut Shot
This is long, short version in next post under this one.
I haven't done it with a bow, but I did it with my muzzle loader the first time I hunted with it. That season was a fiasco any way. It was only my second year hunting, and the first with a gun. The previous year I went out with my bow and shot one half an hour after being in the stand on opening day. I thought "Heck, this ain't so hard?"[
]. Wrong
So now buddy talks me into getting an inline and gun hunting the folllowing year as well. I spend the summer finding a good load and zeroing my ML and practicing with it. Quite an impressive weapon out to 120 yards or so. Very accurate I thought.
The day before gun season I am cleaning my ML and the breach plug was stuck. I ended up breaking the trigger trying to get it out![:@]. Don't ask, that's another story in it's self. So now I have to take the mossy 500 smooth bore that is only good for about 60-70 yards with a red dot and winchester rifled slugs. Sure enough, this monster deer walks onto the property at around 100 yards. Too far for the shotgun. It mills around for a little while and hops the fence and is gone. Had I had my ML that would have been a piece of cake shot (so I thought).
Well I get POed and leave and decide to find a gunsmith that will fix my remington on opening day, or at least sell me a new trigger. I call all over michigan and no one can help me, well they can, but I won't get my gun back until after deer season. I find a place in ohio (clealands outdoor world) that said they would take a look at it. I grew up in this area, so I knew them, just hadn't been there in while. I drive over and they fix it while I wait! Took about an hour, but the archery guy there is Matt Clealand an olympic archer. So I bs with him most of the time. The smith put an older trigger assembly out of a center fire on my 700, cost me 90 bucks and I was ready to hunt the next day. Yaaay. And to boot this trigger is 3 times better than the stock one, breaks like a glass rod.
Well I didn't see anything the next day, but the day after I see a nice 10 point about 80 yards away. I rest my rifle against a tree (actually a real tree EZ hanger screwed into a tree) and take the shot. The deer hunches up and just starts walking around in a cirlce. My buddy had just shot a deer like 5 minutes before this and we were talking on the radio. I had to put it down to shoot this deer. Well he calls back and asks if I just shot a deer. I said yes and told him what it did. He said "reload dummy and shoot it again". I was a bit nervous you know. Well I do and the deer has no reaction. But it does finnally lay down a few yards from where I shot it.
I tell him what happened and he says I think you gut shot it, just sneak out and meet me at the barn. We will take care of my deer, and then go look for yours. About an hour later we go back to the same spot and jump the deer. I take another shot while it's trying to run a way from 20 yards or so and miss. I'm like WTF! Then my buddy shoots but it still doesn't bring it down. Finally we just follow it until it runs out of steam. We had to finnish it off with a knife because we were out of bullets (muzzle loaders and all). We examined the deer and found that I only hit it the one time right behind the diaphram. He clipped it in penis because it tried to jump when he shot. I was mad, sad and disgusted. I mean we got the deer, but what a goat rope it was. I was ready to quit hunting after that.
My two hunting partners talked to me and explained this happens sometimes, just study what happaned and learn from it. It can't always go perfect. They found it hard to believe I missed three shots, one at point blank range. They like to brag me up about what a good shot I am. I said I wanted to shoot the gun at a target to see if something was out of whack. Because the first two shots were pretty simple shots at a still target, and they felt good when I pulled the trigger. Come to find out my windage adjustment on my leupold rear scope mount was broke. One of the screw heads broke off. So my first shot was probably a bit off, and every shot after that more so most likely. The gun would not even print on paper at 25 yards!
Moral of the story; Check your equipment before EVERY hunt!
Paul
I haven't done it with a bow, but I did it with my muzzle loader the first time I hunted with it. That season was a fiasco any way. It was only my second year hunting, and the first with a gun. The previous year I went out with my bow and shot one half an hour after being in the stand on opening day. I thought "Heck, this ain't so hard?"[
]. Wrong So now buddy talks me into getting an inline and gun hunting the folllowing year as well. I spend the summer finding a good load and zeroing my ML and practicing with it. Quite an impressive weapon out to 120 yards or so. Very accurate I thought.The day before gun season I am cleaning my ML and the breach plug was stuck. I ended up breaking the trigger trying to get it out![:@]. Don't ask, that's another story in it's self. So now I have to take the mossy 500 smooth bore that is only good for about 60-70 yards with a red dot and winchester rifled slugs. Sure enough, this monster deer walks onto the property at around 100 yards. Too far for the shotgun. It mills around for a little while and hops the fence and is gone. Had I had my ML that would have been a piece of cake shot (so I thought).
Well I get POed and leave and decide to find a gunsmith that will fix my remington on opening day, or at least sell me a new trigger. I call all over michigan and no one can help me, well they can, but I won't get my gun back until after deer season. I find a place in ohio (clealands outdoor world) that said they would take a look at it. I grew up in this area, so I knew them, just hadn't been there in while. I drive over and they fix it while I wait! Took about an hour, but the archery guy there is Matt Clealand an olympic archer. So I bs with him most of the time. The smith put an older trigger assembly out of a center fire on my 700, cost me 90 bucks and I was ready to hunt the next day. Yaaay. And to boot this trigger is 3 times better than the stock one, breaks like a glass rod.
Well I didn't see anything the next day, but the day after I see a nice 10 point about 80 yards away. I rest my rifle against a tree (actually a real tree EZ hanger screwed into a tree) and take the shot. The deer hunches up and just starts walking around in a cirlce. My buddy had just shot a deer like 5 minutes before this and we were talking on the radio. I had to put it down to shoot this deer. Well he calls back and asks if I just shot a deer. I said yes and told him what it did. He said "reload dummy and shoot it again". I was a bit nervous you know
. Well I do and the deer has no reaction. But it does finnally lay down a few yards from where I shot it.I tell him what happened and he says I think you gut shot it, just sneak out and meet me at the barn. We will take care of my deer, and then go look for yours. About an hour later we go back to the same spot and jump the deer. I take another shot while it's trying to run a way from 20 yards or so and miss. I'm like WTF! Then my buddy shoots but it still doesn't bring it down. Finally we just follow it until it runs out of steam. We had to finnish it off with a knife because we were out of bullets (muzzle loaders and all). We examined the deer and found that I only hit it the one time right behind the diaphram. He clipped it in penis because it tried to jump when he shot. I was mad, sad and disgusted. I mean we got the deer, but what a goat rope it was. I was ready to quit hunting after that.
My two hunting partners talked to me and explained this happens sometimes, just study what happaned and learn from it. It can't always go perfect. They found it hard to believe I missed three shots, one at point blank range. They like to brag me up about what a good shot I am. I said I wanted to shoot the gun at a target to see if something was out of whack. Because the first two shots were pretty simple shots at a still target, and they felt good when I pulled the trigger. Come to find out my windage adjustment on my leupold rear scope mount was broke. One of the screw heads broke off. So my first shot was probably a bit off, and every shot after that more so most likely. The gun would not even print on paper at 25 yards!
Moral of the story; Check your equipment before EVERY hunt!
Paul
10-21-2005, 10:33 AM
#9
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Blissfield MI USA
Posts: 5,293
RE: Gut Shot
Short version;
I gut shot one my second year hunting with a ML. It didn't go too far, just milled around in a circle and bedded down. I came back with a buddy in an hour or so and we jumped it. We sort of ran it until it could go any more and killed it with knife (we were out of bullet for the ML's)
Probably the saddest thing I have done and I almost quit hunting because of it. Ended up being a broken scope mount that caused me to miss. I now check my gear before every hunt and carry a back up shotgun incase it happens again.
Paul
I gut shot one my second year hunting with a ML. It didn't go too far, just milled around in a circle and bedded down. I came back with a buddy in an hour or so and we jumped it. We sort of ran it until it could go any more and killed it with knife (we were out of bullet for the ML's)
Probably the saddest thing I have done and I almost quit hunting because of it. Ended up being a broken scope mount that caused me to miss. I now check my gear before every hunt and carry a back up shotgun incase it happens again.
Paul