shedhead

I hunted this morning hoping to get in a few hours before the heavy rain they are calling for in NY. Well at 7:45 am a real nice buck came by my stand and I hit a litle far back on him. I believe that I caught liver on entry but guts on exit. He ran about 35 yards after the hit and stopped and just stood there very humped up. He stood about 15 minutes. I thought he was going to go down. He then moved off very slowly and when he went about 15 yards into or behind a small patch of rhodederons I slipped out of the stand and snuck out. Heres my dilemma. I know it is going to rain hard later so when I go back to look I won't have blood and if I started to track immediately I would ahve spooked him out of the small piece of woods that he is in. Did I do the right thing buy leaving? I think I did even though I won't have blood I believe I will recover the animal. We have my daughters one year birhtday party at 1 and I t ends 2:30 so I will go back then and hopefully find it.

5 shot

You did the right thing. If the hit is as you say he will bed down quickly and should stay there. I would give him at least 8 hours and go back, checking the last place you saw him. work slow and get some help doing a grid search. Liver hit deer don't seem to go more than 100 yards, and the bed down fast. I guess it is painful or really zaps their strength, but in any case he should be close. Good luck on finding him and let us know how it turns out.

TAKE YOUR KIDS HUNTING AND YOU WON'T BE HUNTING FOR YOUR KIDS

royak

I agree with 5shot I think he will be in that small stretch of woods and if possible give him 6to8 hours.

Deleted User

[Deleted by Admins]

wimp

The longer you wait the better, chances are he will be within a short distance if not pushed. Good luck in finding him.

shedhead

Well I waited 8 hours and went back with a buddy and we went to the last place I saw him and we could not find anything. We looked in the thick stuff and behind every blow downs but nothing. We looked for 2 hours and I will return tomorrow. I also forgot to mention that when the deer was standing there after I hit him there was a foot section of gut hanging down. There is no way this deer can still be alive is there?

deadcenter

well i don't think the deer is alive,but i do think it ran farther than what you might think (not all deer run far,but some do,mine did). when i shot my doe,my broadhead gutted her from the rectum to her ribcage.she ran about 150-200 yards in a straight line then dropped over,i had a heck of a time finding her,cause i really wasn't sure that i hit her because it was getting a litle dark outside,BUT...I knew that i hit something cause i heard a THWACK!,and all 4 does bolted.and there wasn't any trees around(hunting a field line)so i knew i didn't hit a tree,and the ground wouldn't have made a thwacking noise.the main thing i was trying to find was my arrow to see what kind of a hit it was,but i couldn't find it either.as there wasn't even a drop of blood anywhere,except for where she laid at.while i was walking along a row of pine trees there she laid,the arrow buried all the way in her from rectum to ribcage,the only thing showing from my arrow was the feathers sticking out of her rectum.all i had to do was cut the esophagus(hmmm might be spelled wrong) and everything fell out,the rest of her guts were already hanging out.it saved me some work! look a little farther,if need be you can get some starlight bloodhound to make the blood trail show up(glow in the dark) www.starlightbloodhound.com you can also buy it at Wal-Mart. Good Luck on finding your Deer,let us know the outcome!

Edited by - deadcenter on 11/16/2002 19:30:19

CLOUD 9, MN

Good move. You'll find him. You didn't push it. It will lay down pretty close, and that will help greatly in recovery. Once again, good move, you didn't push it and you waited long enough to let it die! Now finding it will be easy!

Good Luck!

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

shedhead

Well after searching for a total of 7 hours crawling through every piece of thicket and every piece of woods on this property I could not find this deer. I even crossed a road that the deer used and looked thourghly in that piece also. I am sick to my stomach over this. It was a easy shot and even with muffing the shot I thought I would have been able to recover it. Looking back now I think I still did the right thing but maybe I could have snuck a little closer and got another arrow into him. What does everybody think? It was a really deer and I am thinking maybe somebody else found him. If anybody was hunting in the Speonk area of Long Island let me know if you here of anything of a large deer found Saturday morning. It is like he disappeared without a trace.