bad shot please read
 

i shot a deer tonight (20 yards), but it was a gut shot and the blood trail stopped. should i keep looking or is it a lost cause?

RE: bad shot please read
 

if it helps i waited for 2 hours before lookin and the blood stoped at about 200-250 yards.

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Keep lookin!!! The deer is down, it will just take a bit of effort to recover it. Good luck and keep us posted.

Shots that are True....Pass right Through!!!

RE: bad shot please read
 

HCU,
If you knew it was a gut shot.......You should have waited a lot longer than 2 hrs. I would wait personally minimum 6hrs. Preferably if weather/work allowed.... overnight.

A gut shot deer will die......I would never call the possibility of a dead deer 'A lost Cause'. The reason the deer stopped bleeding is probably that the wound has clogged with gut material.
You have 2 options.......wait a lot longer tonight and retake the trail with help. Even tho you've probably compounded the difficulty of the tracking badly by most likely pushing the deer, you owe it to the animal to NOT just give up because the blood trail ended.

Or wait until first light and try it then.....I would opt for that if possible.

If you are a hunter......a TRUE hunter......you'll go back out later tonight or even better tomorrow morning and try again. Take lanterns if you go tonight...or some bright flashlights and some help. Think like a deer, path of least resistance....probably level or downhill travel and possibly the animal will head for water.

"Lookin" doesn't mean heading home when the blood stops.

Keep us posted of your progress.


Edited by - Matt / PA on 11/04/2002 17:39:13

RE: bad shot please read
 

On A gut shot deer it is best to wait at least 5-6 hours or more, I like to wait at least 6 hours, or go back the next day. But, yes you can find gut shot deer if you don't push them.
Good luck

Edited by - p-tone on 11/04/2002 17:38:47

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The deer is probably dead or going to die. Two hours s not long enough. wait untill mourning and resume your search, there is a good chance you will find it.

RE: bad shot please read
 

If you knew it was a gut shot you really need to wait overnight or like Matt/Pa said.(I'd even go 8 hours) On a good absolute shot wait an hour. On a good decent shot wait 2 hours. If your not sure or a bad hit, wait 8 hours or overnight. You have to let the deer expire before you take even one step in the direction that deer went! Learning, following and having the patience to do this will make you a real, successful bowhunter. Next, spend the next day with a couple buddies combing the entire area, the deer is there waiting to be found!


Good Luck!

PRACTICE....PRACTICE....PRACTICE......SUCCESS!

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Get out there and keep looking for the deer whether you have blood to follow or not. There is much good info on some of the other hit deer threads on the board. Hopefully you will realize your mistake of tracking too soon on a gutshot and never make it again. Good luck.

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From the last spot you found blood, start a grid search. Mark that spot, and work around it. If you end up not finding the deer, make sure you are comfortable in the fact that you did everything you could to try and find it.

--Jim

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Go in the morning with some help and go find him. He is out there probable dead its just a matter of finding him.

brian

RE: bad shot please read
 

ditto Matts comments but I would wait till tomorrow to let the buck lay and stiffen! Also its much easier to track in daylight WEATHER PERMITTING! Lantern tracking works great but can sometimes be difficult. The buck is going to need time, give it to him and start over again tomorrow!

Look for water, thick cover, and movement corridors that the buck might use to aid in your searching! Do semi circles when you loose the blood to maybe find it, or the buck! If you find where he is bedded and you DONT push him out or another animal doesnt, he should be within a couple hundred yards of there in the morning stiff as a cardboard box....no matter what happens, that animal is dead, and I wish you the best of luck in recovering him!

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I have shot 2 deer through the gut. Believe me, if you can, wait at least 12 hours or more. If you shot it this morning, I would probably wait until morning, if possible. I made the mistake on the first deer, and I tracked it with my brother in law. We jumped her up ( she had bedded down; as a gut shot deer will do) and I never saw her again. I waited with the second deer, had three buddies help me track her 24 hours later, and we found her.
My advice would be to wait. The deer will die, just be patient.

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According to John D.Gill and David C. O'Meara in their 1965 study "Numbers of rigor mortis in deer" in the Journal of Wildlife Management: Stiffning of wounded deer does not occur until after death.
[From Trailing Whitetails; John Trout Jr. copyright 1987; Stackpole Books ISBN:0-89621-109-6]

Although John Trout Jr.'s Trailing Whitetails is out of print, he now has a new version "Trailing Wounded Deer." I've been a bow hunter since 1963 and got this book a year ago and I have learned a tremendous amount from this excellent must read book.

Bowhunter

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As a last resort, if you know someone who has a tracking dog you could try that.

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I shot a doe in 1994 and I had a similar situation.I was hunting on private property and was hunting with a 30-06 well I shot this doe as she was running and only caught her hind quarters well she took off and we couldn't find her I waited for about 4 hours after I shot her to get out of my stand.We must have looked for her for 6 hours or so and no trace,so,we tried the next day and only looked for about 2 hours and found her leaning up against a tree deep in the woods,she was still alive a bleeding heavily so I finished her off with a 4/10.It was a miserable process but the point is that I keeped looking not giving up.

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If you are alrady thinking 'lost cause' after two hours of looking maybe bow-hunting isn't for you.

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I hesitate to throw stuff in the fan, but "gim reaper's" point is becoming indisputably valid.

There comes a time when diplomacy has run its course. If you have to come here to ask how you can find your wounded deer, hang your bow up and get out of the field.

By the time you find the buck, if ever, he will have been so stressed you had better have nothing but gound venison made, and with a lot of spice added.

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Keep looking. Spend at least a total of 8 man hours looking for a deer.
Next time, don't shoot unless you're sure of your shot.

[Deleted]
 

[Deleted by Admins]

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I jus't have to say something I shot A dear in the tarsal gland A couple of days ago and I pushed it that night and went back the next day still kicking it up but finally I got up to him and he was laying down looking at me with nothing left in him and shot this 8 pointer again..I did not give up...The farmers land I hunt here in wisconsin only lets me hunt on his land..BECAUSE he finds bucks ever year with arrows in them..And that makes him very angery..

PS:I aimed for the front showlder on this deer but he jumped and the arrow hit him right in the tarsal..I thought it was an ass shot but it wassn't when I finally got him it was right in the tarsal..He bleed ever where that is why I would not give up..I would have looked for A week if I had to..

Oh yah I shot him at 55 yards..Got to get A hoyt and A rang finder..



Brent Schroeder

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Dont give up its all ways worth another try to find it
Jeff
"Stop Hacking, get out of the woods"

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well i got me arrow back...the coyotes ate the deer

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I hit a big buck last year and looked for 2 days before finally giving up, all my friends said dont worry because the other animals have to eat but it made me sick not finding him

Evan
Archery Accessories
301-872-0110

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Ever feel like you are peeing into the wind......uphill.... both ways?<img src=icon_smile_dissapprove.gif border=0 align=middle>

sigh.

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<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote<font size=1 face='Verdana, Arial, Helvetica' id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>[b]well i got me arrow back...the coyotes ate the deer<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote></font id=quote><font face='Verdana, Arial, Helvetica' size=2 id=quote>

And that is all!!!

Instead of staying on the trail until the deer was found, and it is now obvious the odds of finding the deer was high, you came here to ask what you should readily know before you take a shot at any animal. Now, the coyotes ate the deer but you are happy you got your arrow back. I am at a loss for words.

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That's all the reply you can give after all the advice you were given, don't expect too much help the next time you come, at least I wouldn't expect it if I did that.....

HERE WE GO STEELERS, HERE WE GO!