Confirm my thoughts please? *UPDATED*
 

I'm a bowhunter which is the reason I am posting this here.
Tonight I took my teenage sister out to try and get her a deer with the slug gun. She has gotten only one beforeand always has luck against her so I tried to help her out.

We had 7 does come out at about 60 yards and after making her calm herself down and take a very steady rest on the downed log in front of her i told her she could take the shot. She shot and the big doe sprang straight up in the air. A little bit of a hind leg kick but more of a spring straight up and she took of across the field with 6 other deer. They all travelled about 50 yards and stopped and started walking and eating again, except her. Her tail was down and her back hunched high just like a cat. First instinct was gut shot. We backed carefully out the way we came so as not to diturb her and we made a big cricle to view the field from about 200 yards away. The other deer were still in the cornfield and eating, but she was laying down. We stayed there and watched her until it was dark. The other deer eventually moved 50-60 yards away from her as they ate and then she got up. She walked hunched over to the other deer and layed back down and they once again started feeding away from her. Then it was dark. We wathed her for about 20 minutes.

This was at 5pm and my thoughts are still gut. I plan on going back at 6am when it is light, 13 hours, and I plan to find her dead in that field.

My sister feels horrible and I feel terrible for her and the deer but I think we have handled it perfectly. BUT, the springing straight up confuses me. I have never seen a gutshot deer do this. Has anyone else seen a gutshot deer spring straight up?

RE: Confirm my thoughts please?
 

I agree with your gut shot theory. I have not noticed one ever do the old
high kick but they can be unpredictable. You did the right thing by backing off
and observing. Since you did not push her, I would suspect you will find her in the
field in the morning. Good luck and tell your sister to keep her spirits up, it happens
to the best sometimes.

RE: Confirm my thoughts please?
 

Poor ol' doe. Good job getting out of there quietly and observing. As for the shot placement, I don't know for sure but your gut shot theory sounds pretty good. Though you feel bad sometimes, it does happen sometimes. Good Luck!

RE: Confirm my thoughts please?
 

It's definantly not lungs. Maybe liver, or gut. I feel like it is probably a gut shot. I'd jump straight up too if I got hit witha deer slug.

RE: Confirm my thoughts please?
 

Sounds like a gutshot to me. You did good getting out of their quickly and watching her from a distance. I once watched a gutshot deer that we were tracking during a muzzleloader hunt, spring up and in that time we took two more running shots at her to see if we could put her down. She only ran another 60 yds before bedding down. It was obvious she didn't want to move. We finished her off with one more shot.

Listening to your story of the doe's reaction reminds me of exactly what that doe did.
I truely belive that when you guys go out to the field in the morning, you will find her dead. Use this doe as an example for your sister to teach her about why this shot killed, and how she should try to improve in the future. Turning a sad situation into a learning situation is always a good idea.
GOOD JOB on getting out....and I want to see a harvest pic tomorrow afternoon!
Steven

RE: Confirm my thoughts please?
 

I think the deer jumped straight up as a reaction to the sound of the slug gun.

It definitly sounds like a gut shot, perhaps liver. You should find this deer since you didnt push her.

RE: Confirm my thoughts please?
 

if somebody shoved a red hot poker through my innards i'd jump like a #@!%***

RE: Confirm my thoughts please?
 

Did you have any luck finding her?

RE: Confirm my thoughts please?
 

Did you get her yet???

Since its already 10.15 I have a feeling that you are butchering her up right now....but remember I WANT PICS!:D

RE: Confirm my thoughts please?
 

I agree with all above. If she was mortally hit and you DID NOT push her. She will be dead just out of the field. You should find a few beds close together. I think she would get up and try and make it to some cover before expiring.

RE: Confirm my thoughts please?
 

We got back at about 6:45 this morning and she was not where we left her laying in the field. And, the weather forecast was extremely wrong as we had a thunderstorm last night which got rid of most of the 5 inches of snow on the ground. Tough road ahead....

We found the two places she bedded in the field and each had a little bit of blood in them, not much though and there are so many deer tracks in the field that we could not pick hers out, and there was no blood anywhere. This is a 30 acre picked cornfield surrounded by cattle pasture and a 4 strand barb wire fence. We started walking the fence all the way around the field looking for where she may have had trouble getting over or through it. No luck. A small finger of the fence juts into a piece of woods filled with deep ravines so I headed into there. Just off the field I looked and saw a deer bedded 30 yards ahead with her neck stretched out on the ground like how a dog lays. I put the gun up and and slowly moved towards her but she did not move. I got within ten yards and there had been no movement then suddenly a blink and I finished it from there. We got her!

Everyones, inluding mine, guess was wrong. The 20 ga slug entered back from the gut at the very beginning of the back ham and there was no blood around the entry hole nor in the three beds she had spent the night in. It hit no guts or vitals. The way she hunched and walked away I was sure of a gutshot

BUT we waited, we gave her 13.5 hours before starting and we found her in her bed. I am assuming she got very stiff over night and attempted to hide rather than run. I CANNOT PREACH ENOUGH THE IMPORTANCE OF WAITING TO TAKE UP THE TRAIL. Had we started after her she would have been gone with zero blood loss and nothing to follow. IF YOU DONT KNOW WHERE YOU HIT THEM AND WEATHER IS NOT A FACTOR, WAIT WAIT WAIT!!! Anyway a happy ending and a excellent lesson for my sister.

RE: Confirm my thoughts please?
 

congrats on the follow thru and recovery. That's a big ole doe, I'm sure your sister is happy she found her deer.

RE: Confirm my thoughts please?
 

way to go!!!

RE: Confirm my thoughts please?
 

Good job to you and your sister. With that cold weather you will still be able to enjoy the meat too. Good work.

RE: Confirm my thoughts please?
 

AWESOME!!!!! GLAD TO SEE YOU GOT HER!!! WAY TO GO!!!!
Tell your sis congrats!!!

So the slug actually entered behind the guts? Didn't hit anything vital....just through the hams? Nontheless....glad to see you found her!

Nice pic too!
Congrats again..I was rooting (sp) for you.
Steven

RE: Confirm my thoughts please?
 

good job!

RE: Confirm my thoughts please?
 

Very nice job. Thats a real good doe.

RE: Confirm my thoughts please?
 

Glad to hear it. You did the right thing. My thought was a gut shot also. Man that is a big doe...wow.

Congrats to sis :D

RE: Confirm my thoughts please?
 

Duh....excuse me but maybe I'm mistaken. You say back at the beginning of the ham. The guts go all the way back there too you know. Still sounds like a gut shot. Nice doe. Congrats to little sis and a great job of getting out of dodge.

RE: Confirm my thoughts please?
 

nice big doe! great job

RE: Confirm my thoughts please?
 

Great job on your recovery but I would call a deer suffering overnight anything but a happy ending. You can just imagine what she went through trying to stay warm and comfortable with a wound like she had. Not trying to start anything here but the only happy ending to a hunt is a safe one and one where there is no suffering from the animal.

RE: Confirm my thoughts please?
 

I am happy you found her. And I am happy the Vikings won again.

RE: Confirm my thoughts please?
 

Great job on your recovery but I would call a deer suffering overnight anything but a happy ending. You can just imagine what she went through trying to stay warm and comfortable with a wound like she had. Not trying to start anything here but the only happy ending to a hunt is a safe one and one where there is no suffering from the animal


WOW some people...[8D]I say nice job and on the recovery of that deer. You definitely did the right thing. Tell Sis Congratulations!!!

RE: Confirm my thoughts please?
 

Glad to see that you got the deer. You done a good job of waiting it out and actually going back and tracking her. Some people won't even give that much effort. Everyone would love to see them fall in their tracks but it doesn't always happen.I'm sure your sister learned about shot placementfrom this one.

RE: Confirm my thoughts please?
 

I wasn't knocking anything he did because he did the best he could have done in the situation. All in all what I was trying to say is I would rather miss than to have a deer suffer through the night. That deer wouldn't have been recovered by 2% of the hunters where I live. And yes I have killed in excess of 100 deer in my 28 years of hunting and realize that these things happen.

RE: Confirm my thoughts please? *UPDATED*
 

deer do crazy sh#t when they get hit. to bad about the shot placement. maybe your sister should shoot a couple boxes before the season just to get use to the gun. it helps me. hope you find her before the yotes do. if ya do tell your sister jimmy says congrats:)

RE: Confirm my thoughts please? *UPDATED*
 

Congratulations on the recovery. I had not been able to follow up on this thread
until now. Give sis a pat on the back. You guys did a textbook job in that
situation.