early in

Talk about symmetry. Glad you finally found him.

Indiana Chris

I think what causes death is septic shock.

How long will the meat be good? What kind of conditions?

Chris

gri22ly

Gut shot one and tracked himall day, jumped him 4 times before he let me get close enough to shot him again, GPS said he went 1.3 miles. I want do that again.

RobinAim Low

Maybe,but definitely not always.I have either shot myself, or helped recover4 different mature bucksthat werestraight liver hits (confirmedwhile gutting) that were alive when found ranging from 8-14 hoursafter the shot. Then again, I have liver shot a coupledeer thatwent down in sight and died within 5 minutes. I think it all depends on what arteries you happen to get within the liver, and also the size/age of the deer. On a mature buck especially, I will give a known liver hit 8 hours.

I have gut shot 3 deer that I can think of. All recovered, without blood trails. Got lucky on one cause he did not go where I thought and I bumped him on my way out. Neighbor found him the next morning across the road after we told them I was sure my buck had went into his weed field. The other two were easy recoveries by backing out, giving at least 8 hours and starting search at last place I saw the deer. Undisturbed, they will not go far at all before laying down for their last time.

heo kyle

I gut shot a doe last year in low light. I think the arrow may have deflected off a sappling. I appeared to have a clear shot at the time, but when I looked up at my tree from the spot I found my arrow there was quite a bit of brush in the way, only a 12 yard shot though. The arrow had feces on it so I left her 'til morning. I found her 40 yards from the shot and the coyotes got her already. They ate up half a hind quarter, but the rest of her was delicious. Muzzy 100 grain 3-blades, all I ever use.

heo kyle

I'm glad you found your antlers ducsauce. I don't think I would be very happy with myself wasting all the meat knowing the whole time it was only 400 yards away.

Finch

I appreciate it. I was happy/relieved that I finally found him. I still feel guilty about the wasted meatand poor shot but I'm grateful for the recovery. No more bad dreams.

Buckless1

[:@]I have gut shoot 2 deer in a row back to back seasons, ouch.I lost them both.Not a single drop of blood. I watched them both bed down waited for at least an hour before going towards them. I marked the spot where I shot them on the GPS but after reaching the area where they had laid down, and searching for several hours, with i'll add, our entire camp. kids and all. No blood, no deer. I am stillcatching hell from my buddies and that was over 10 years ago.

mez

I gut shot one. Broadside at 30 yards looking the other way. I made a bad shot, pretty sure I didn't follow through and peeked to the left to see where I was going to hit him. Well I hit him square in the flank behind the ribs. I hit him about 6:30 am. I went back late the same afternoon, about 4pm, and found him dead in his bed about 75 yards from where I hit him. Wasn't much sign but found him by tracking on my hands and knees.

Several things can and do kill a gut shot deer. They will bleed out faily quickly if you cut a mesenteric artery. These arteries are located in the connective tissue that suspends the small intestine. Once gut shot and bowel contents start to leak into the abdominal cavity a whole cascade of events starts to occur. Over time they will begin to absorb bacteria into their blood stream. The cell wall of some of the bacteria act as a toxin when it gains access to the circulation. This basically sets off a shock type reaction termed Systemic Inflammatory Response syndrome. It is a form of shock and eventually kills the deer. They usually lose enough blood to be in a hypovolemic shock state so the two work together. How long it takes depends on several factors, how much blood they have lost, how much contamination they have in the abdominal cavity, what else was hit besides one of the stomachs or intestines. Can be within a few minutes to a day or longer.

oldsmellhound

Unfortunately I gut-shot a deer this past season. It was the first time it happened to me, and I still feel terrible about it.

I was in a tree stand, about 17 feet up. It was an 8-pointer, and I had a broadside 15 yard shot - one of the easiest shots I've ever had on a buck. I'm still not sure to this day what happened - either it jumped the string or the arrow hit a branch in flight - I was shooting in a thick area, but thought I had a clear shooting lane. Like one of you guys said, sooner or later it is bound to happen - call it bad luck. Broadhead was a 100 grain Slick Trick magnum.

After the shot, I knew that I hadn't double-lunged it or heart shot it from the reaction- at first I thought liver. So I crept out and waited for 6 hours to track. Came back, good blood for about 75 yards, then blood trail just disappeared. I spent the rest of the day searching and found nothing.

I ended up finding the deer a week later about 300 yards from where I shot it - travelling uphill and away from water, which was opposite of everything I've heard. I might have been able to find it the day I shot it, but I had concentrated on searching downhill and towards the creek bottoms where it was "supposed" to run.

It was a gut shot that angled forward and exited close to the rib-cage - might have clipped the liver.