I have heard so many condricting stories on whether a deer can live through a pure intestine shot that I don't know what to believe. What are you opinions? Personally, I think that most deer will die from a pure (no other organs be hit) intestine shot.

I would say 99.9% will die. I would imagine some folks say that they lived because they never found their deer because they pushed them to kingdom come and believe me, that is as far as a gut shot deer will go if pushed.

As much as I'd like to think they could live through it, they can't. Once the integrity of the intestines is broken, bacteria quickly invades the body cavity and multiplies causing massive infection and eventual death. It's not a pretty sight. Sometime predators will capture these deer before they succomb hastening the inevitable, but finding them is difficult because they are able to evade us for quite a while and leave little to no blood trail.

Today's small bucks are tomorrow's trophies.

I agree. It is the bacteria that gets them. Wound them in some other areas and they've got a chance but they have no chance with a gut shot.

It seems to me I read an article a while back that suggested up to 60% of gut shot deer lived (shot with an arrow). It said something about deer intestines being able to seal back up after being punctured. They claimed this was because the intestines are often punctured by sticks and vegetation that the deer eat. I might have got it wrong since it has been a while since I read it, I don't even remember what magazine it was in. Maybe someone else remembers seeing this article?

I think Wolfen could put a few more 999999s on the end of his questimate. They die.

I've never seen a gut shot animal live more than 10 to 12 hours.

Dick

I have tracked deer that have been "gut shot" and they live!---FOR A WHILE!
This year I killed a 6 point (3 on each side, I'm from Missouri) and it was shot in the ass with a Wasp Cam Lock! Lord only knows when the deer was shot, but the meat was all black and NASTY!
I saw the deer was walking kind of funny--and saw part of what looked like an arrow sticking out---yep! It was in there a while...the hide was all grown around it and "sisted" over! (if you know what I meen!) I guess it was a mercey kill! I couldn't have eaten it! That's for sure!

IN THE KILLZONE!

With a good deer recovery dog you will find 100% of the gut shot deer. Just make sure to wait 10-12 hours to let them die. Jump them before they are dead and you are going to have a long, difficult trail to follow. 100 % of the gut shot animals will die, ask a vet if you disagree.
L & O

My guess would be that it would be fatal nearly every time assuming we're not talking about just a nick. I have found deer that were alive 24 hours later but they were so weak from "septic shock" they could go no farther.