Has anyone ever had any experience with a deer living after being gut shot? I don't mean you didn't find the deer and think it may have lived, I mean you or someone else shot the deer, didn't find it, and either saw it later that year, got pictures of it, or found it's sheds.

My dad shot one years ago through the guts and seen the deer a week later. He said it looked to be healthy. It was grassing and carrying on like nothing was wrong. Needless to say he never got another shot at it! I'm not sure how it ended up in the end, but if it lasted a week I think it had a chance of surviving!

JMO. . . . .but it's real hard to beleive that an animal that has been gut shot in that his digestive track was punctured enough to cause leaks into the body cavity would live more than a short period of time. Tough or not infection is VERY likely and will eventualy take him out via a long slow painful death.

I've never ever heard a rumor of a deer that living after being gut shot. A gut shot is very lethal. Only probelm is it takes time for the animal to expire and there is little blood to track by.

Don't believe so. Never heard of a critter being shot through the guts and living over a few days. Hard way to go.

There is a picture of a deer in the Outdoor News this week of a deer that was gut shot then later killed and it is not pretty. The deer looks like it should weigh 400lbs but it is just swelled up from gas in the intestines. I guess the wound healed over then the gas that was coming out of the puncture wound had no where to go so it started filling in between the hide and body. I'll see if I can find a link to the picture.

I never have heard of anything living to long when gutshot[&:]

Gut shot deer will usually be found somewhere in the near future. Just a bad and slow way to expire. With no blood trail it is hard to track them and they are masters at hiding from us.

I have to agree with what everyone said. I've never seen or heard a first hand account of a deer living through a gut shot either. Thanks for the input guys.

The only way a deer could live through a gut shot is if none of the digestive tract was punctured. If any portion of the digestive tract leaks the animal will develop what is called peritonitis, a generalized infection of the abdomen, and die. This could take up to a couple weeks to actually kill the animal. It is pretty unlikely that an arrow could go through the abdomen and not puncture anything.