Update:How long does he need to lay?
 

I shot a good one this morning at about 8:00 and I hit him pretty far back. I've got blood & intestine on the arrow. He jumped back a couple of steps when I hit him and then he walked off real slow. I grunted and he stopped and looked and then walked off slow again. I eased out of there about 45 min later. We're gonna go look for him at about 6 o'clock after everybody is out of the woods. Anyway....do you think that he's been layed up long enough?


We went to look for him and it started raining on us. We only found 4 or 5 specs of blood in a 400yd stretch and no deer as of yet. I'm pretty sure I hit him in the liver and it appears to be an arrow deflection that caused it. I'm almost positive that he's dead and I think he went back into the clearcut somewhere, but I have no idea where. Going back in tomorrow to comb the area.

RE: Update:How long does he need to lay?
 

Keep at it. He should be done by tomorrow morning OR in pretty bad shape.

Good luck!

RE: Update:How long does he need to lay?
 

That sounds like a good plan. If you did hit guts, you may not find much if any blood. They tend to plug up any entrance and exit holes. You may have to go by tracks or just grid search the whole area. If you got liver he is dead. Even if you only got guts, he will die, more than likely.

Let us know how it goes in the morning, and best of luck on recovering your deer.

RE: Update:How long does he need to lay?
 

Good luck, Hope you find him!

RE: Update:How long does he need to lay?
 

I agree with jmbuckhunter

RE: Update:How long does he need to lay?
 

good luck go search hard for him and tell us how you made out finding him

RE: Update:How long does he need to lay?
 

Good luck, keep us updated!!!!!!!

RE: Update:How long does he need to lay?
 

Agree with those above: he'll die within a day or so. Do a complete gridsearch of the area. Goodluck and let us know if you find him.

RE: Update:How long does he need to lay?
 

My cousin got a deer with a gutshot early in bow season. He shot him at 5:00 PM and we started looking for him in the dark around 8:30 PM. Didn't find any blood more than 15 feet from the spot where he was shot. We found at 10:00 about 300 yards from where he was shot in some really thick brush. He still wasn't dead but was wounded bad enough that he wasn't going anywhere. Went back to the house and got my bow, went back and finished him off. You'll have to look real hard, but don't give up. Hope the coyotes didn't get him.

RE: Update:How long does he need to lay?
 

We went back today and looked for about 3 1/2 hrs, but didn't find anything more than we did last night. There was only 5 or 6 specs of blood that we found , over a 150 yd stretch. There's a grown over clearcut on the right side of the bottom and planted pines on the left side. We combed the clearcut as best we could, but it's pretty thick with briars in there. I think that my only option at this point is to watch for the buzzards, coyotes or crows. It'seating me up toknow that I didn't make a quick & clean kill. And I think this was my best buck ever...bow or rifle.

RE: Update:How long does he need to lay?
 

Unfortunatley thats how hunting goes sometimes. I wonder if something didn't chase that deer or spoke it bad after you left it the first time. The same scenario happened with my dad and abear one time. He had gut shot it that night so we waited till morning before tracking it. While tracking it we came upon a bunch of ruffed up dirt and grass.After looking closely to the ruffed up dirt and moss we found Timberwolf tracks and dung. We never found that bear, i'm sure the wolves chased him for a long ways before they got him. Sounds like you did everything right, there's nothing a guy can do sometimes. Mother Nature does what it wants at times.