kjclark7

heres the situation. i shot a doe 20 minutes before dark tonite. thought it was a perfect double lung shot. the deer walked off flicking her tail a lot side to side and bed down and got up like 6 times in 25 minutes. she was less than 40 yards from me so i just kept on watching her. she got up again and started walking through some thick stuff. could tell if she bed down again or kept walking because of lack of light and it was thick cover. i saw some deer walk off but couldn't tell if it was the one i had shot. i waited till after dark to climb out of the stand and look at my arrow. the blood wasn't dark or light blood, just normal i guess and there was white hairs on it. i'm going to go back in the morning to try and recover her. what do you guys think?

kevin

farmcntry

White hairs and no bubbles in the blood? Perhaps gutshot. I would wait until in the morn if I were you. Even if she is not gutshot I would still wait just because I didn't know the condition of the deer.

Shootem up870

well if there is any chance of coyotes getting to her i would call up a brother or friend and ask them to come help u track it. if they get to her she could be completely eatin by mornining. also it is pretty warm out still here in illinois and i dont no where ur from so u need to take that into consideration also. good luck!!

DaveH

From what you described, it sounds like you hit a little low--the white hairs and not racing away from you after the shot. The continual laying down/getting back up and just walking off sounds more like a gut shot, but you didn't say anything about stomach contents on the ground or the arrow. Getting out of there without looking for her was the best thing. There's no rush to get back out there too early tomorrow morning--9 or 10 am should be just fine unless you are expecting rain. If there isn't much sign, remember that wounded deer tend to run down hill more than up and often seek water.

Let us know what you find and good luck.

kjclark7

i am in jersey and right now it is 32 degrees and we are expecting some rain tonite. there was no stomach contents on the arrow so that is why i don't think it was a gut shot. i don't want to go after it now cause its in a residential area so i don't have to space to just go pushing it. i am hunting in this private gated community and its about half and half with anti hunters and people for hunting in there. i guess if worse comes to worse the area i hunt is not that big, if it does rain i can just make circles.

so you guys think its a gut shot. nothing on the arrow to make me think that. thanks for the info guys.

kevin

Shootem up870

if it rains it will be harder to drag out unless u can use a 4 wheeler and it may weaken the blood trail

captain backstrap

That deer is hurt pretty bad. I would bet a million $ ( a billion if I was Bill Gates) that deer did not make it very far. The tail flick is a sure sign of a gut shot. White hair could have come from the arrow exiting, but either way it sounds like a low gut shot. I've seen a few deer do this exact same thing and it was always a gut shot. You said you watched her for 25 minutes. If your arrow went through the outer edges of the liver the deer could live that long but not much longer. Sometimes there will not be a lot of gut matter depending on shot placement. The problem is , she may have died right after she went out of sight, and she might not die until tomorrow. My guess is she's probably already dead. Too much tail flicking and getting up and down without traveling very far.
At this point , consider your conditions, such as rain, cold, coyotes, etc. If it were me I would probably wait till around midnight and go buck with some good buddies and good lights - and my bow. You may need a follow-up shot.

Start the trail and let sign tell you what to do. As long as you have good blood, keep going, cautiously and quietly. Probably won't be a lot of blood though, so if I didn't find much sign and didn't find the deer within a 100 yards or so, I'd back out and go back tomorrow. If it will be really cold and coyotes are not an issue, then maybe wait till morning.

Good luck!!

Belle Island

Classic gut shot symptoms. Depending on the severity of the wound, it could take several hours for the deer to die. If the situation allows, I would wait until morning.

Swamp Dawg

Sounds like a gut shot to me as well. That's a tough one. If there are not many coyotes in your area, I would wait till morning. If the coyotes are thick, you may not have a chance. You could try looking tonight, but could run her out if she has not expired. It's 6 one way, half a dozen the other. Good luck and let us know what happens.

CLOUD 9, MN

As long as you didn't start to track it and got out of there, you will easily find your deer in the morning! Its will bed down for its final time and that will help it not be to far. Let us know!

Good Luck!