RE: Recovery, What to do after the shot.
 

No one has mentioned Hydrogen peroxide yet???
That' s the best and cheapest tracking tool I' ve found yet. When in doubt over a red/brown spot on a leaf, give it a squirt of peroxide. If it foams up- it' s blood (or some sort of animal fluid) if it doesn' t, it' s just a natural discoloration.
It will even foam days later.

Another thing I' d like to add-(not that I' m any sort of expert)- if it' s a marginal hit and you know it- don' t quit hunting after the shot. Chock another arrow and " hunt" (be still in your stand) for a while after the marginal hit. It was mentioned earlier in this thread and it' s happened to me. Once on the blood trail the buck made a large arc and wound up withing 35 yards of my stand, within plain view. I at the time had my feet propped up and was reading a book. If I had been " hunting" on the stand waiting while the clock out ,I might have spotted him spotting me and saved myself a 350 yard tracking job-(yes I got him!!)
Best I can figure he came back to see what made him hurt so bad.

RE: Recovery, What to do after the shot.
 

Rob,
Being new to bowhunting, I really appreciate a ton of information with examples. Great post!

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RE: Recovery, What to do after the shot.
 

I have to admit in Va. we do have a reason not to get right on a deers trail besides the mandantory wait, we are allowed 2 deer a day, so if you sit tight you might get 2 instead of one. I will be honest though and say that I would have a hard time releasing on a second one unless I saw/heard the first one crash, or it was the buck of a life time.

RE: Recovery, What to do after the shot.
 

Been holding back, but I can' t help myself. I have to disagree. I can understand if you think that you caught something else (another organ) besides just the single lung. But on a pure single lung hit, do you think that the deer will actually expire after four hours,especially on a passthough? Cause he is not. Actually on this type of hit you would be better off if the arrow reamins in the deer because of the possibility of it also puncturing the other lung or another organ. A single lunged deer may not even bed down after the hit. I would suggest if you are sure that you only have one lung and you have a passthrough, it would be better to get on the deer within a few minutes and keep him bleeding. But in any case, you can expect to have a real time tracking a single lunged deer. And another problem with this hit is the identifiaction of only hitting one lung.

RE: Recovery, What to do after the shot.
 

My doe took a step as I was releasing last year and I wound up getting a one lunger and liver. One of my partners thought it was a ham hit and we started moving as soon as she got out of site. We picked up a large pool of [lung blood] blood wihthin about 30 yards. After tracking another 30 yards the lund blood petered out and changed to red blood. We tracked single drops of blood about every six feet or so. She bedded down [uphill from where I shot her] on a hill, 264 [by GPS] yards from the first pool of blood. But she was unable to move from her first bed and I was able to put her away quickly. On a liver hit I would have normally waited two to four hours to start tracking where on a muscle or bone hit I always press the animal slowly to keep it bleeding. In this case I am glad we started pressing withing a few [5 - 10] minutes

RE: Recovery, What to do after the shot.
 

BobCO,

You have a point, however I am not wrong.....that is why the words, at least are part of the equation. I' d want members to wait longer. Actually, single lung hits are not that hard to identify. If your arrow goes high in the lungs, under the spine and you don' t see/hear your animal go down, chances are you didn' t get both lungs and there are no other vital organs above the lungs unless you happen to catch the artery. Waiting a couple hours won' t help you here, perhaps even 4 hours isn' t enough but getting down and pushing this animal isn' t the right answer either.....it' s a judgement call and suggestive.

RE: Recovery, What to do after the shot.
 

Rob, didn' t mean to sound like I am saying you are wrong. I don' t believe I said that, and if I did, then sorry. Just meant I disagree. When I mentioned hitting something else besides a single lung, I meant hitting something more behind the lung, like a liver, especially at an angle where the deer is walking directly away from you from a stand.

Sure, this is a judgement call tracking shot, and it depends on what a hunter believes in. Personally, from the experts trackers that I have read up on, what I have experienced, and what I have heard from other experiences, I believe, that if I have a pass through single lung only shot, I would get on the deer right away, to keep the blood flowing. If enough blood is lost, you then at least have a chance in recovering the the deer (putting another shot into the deer will probably be required). Chances are that the deer will not bed down anytime soon, will not seek water, and will not feel sick (the natural reaction to a deer feeling sick is bedding down, as experienced by a stomach, intestine, or liver hit).

Many expereinced hunters believe that this is one of the toughest shot recoveries on a deer. It will be tougher to recover this hit then a stomach/intestine hit. Now none of us (I hope) would ever try to hit a deer in the stomach or intestines, so my only advice that I would give would be that if you are not sure that you can take out both lungs, do not shoot.

RE: Recovery, What to do after the shot.
 

I have lots of experience with single lung + one other organ hits(usually liver) if you give them time the other organ will catch up and you' ll have a dead deer to find fairly easy. I have one experience with a single lung only hit. It was on a doe that moved upon release and I hit the shoulder bone at a funny angle and got next to no penetration. I waited an hour and got down to investigate. Very shortly I found bubbly blood:) I took up the trail and followed it a good ways past another hunter who saw my deer limping, with its head down. He said it bedded down just out of sight. It was then I made the decision to stay on the deer. We jumped the deer and noticed it struggling to move, so I stayed right after her. She ran maybe another 75 yds from this point before collapsing. I agree that at certain times it is a call to be made right then, and something not really planned for. In my situation I believe I' d have found the deer either way.

RE: Recovery, What to do after the shot.
 

Bob, I understand what you are saying and I have pushed a deer to it' s end but it was an artery shot in the rump that my cousin made, we kept jumping the deer until it was exhausted......pushing a single lung hit could go either way....it' s a tough call and if you are experienced enough at it and know your property, by all means that may be what' s in order, however...they can travel great distances when pushed and if you don' t have those resources...the animal is gone. I guess it has to be up to the individual. If other organs are hit though, like Wimp mentioned above, waiting might be the key.

:)