Justin

Courtesy of "The Man" - Rob/PA Bowyer and edited by the HNI staff.

One of the biggest reasons why many animals are not recovered after being shot is that all too often bowhunters take up the trail too soon, simply bumping the animal away never to be found again. What you do following the shot can make or break a successful recovery.

When mortality wounded 90% of deer will bed within 250 yards of the shot. If an animal dies beyond this most likely some outside factor pushed the animal. Think about all of the animals you've taken, found or lost. You've probably found at least one if not mutliple beds within this distance.

Now I' m not proclaiming myself the ultimate tracker/hunter but I can testify that my hunting partners and I have not lost an animal in many, many years and several of these recoveries were because of waiting for the right moment to trail the animal, rather than the initial shot placement.

I'll give you an example of an animal that I made a poor shot on because I neglected to stop the animal and shot him on the move. At 25 yards I placed my arrow too far back on the buck...seen here at www.rivervalleygamecalls.com under Team River Valley. As soon as I saw the arrow hit further back than I wanted, I knew immediately not to take up the track until at least 6 hours later. I shot this animal at 7:30 am and got out of my tree at 11:00 and left the woods. At 3:30 I returned to the woods and found my buck not 50 yards inside a woods at the last point I saw him. Had I not waited, there is a very good chance that I wouldn't have found him due to the standing cornfields surrounding the woods he was bedded in.

In this particular case I also glassed the animal immediately following the shot to verify the hit. One important note I always make is that binoculars are invaluable for archers not only to glass an animal post shot, but to watch for his movement once he moves off. Quite often we as hunters get caught up in the heat of the moment and become unsure of our arrow's point of impact. A good set of binoculars and some quick thinking can help you verify your shot placement and help you formulate the proper game plan for recovering your animal.

The following is a list of several tips that I feel are invaluable for bowhunters to use when deciding what to do both before and after the shot. In the past, many members of the HuntingNet.com Message Board have helped to tweak and add their own priceless tidbits of information as well.. Hopefully one of the tips here or posted herein will aid you in a speedy recovery this hunting season.
[ul][*]Use bright fletch. You need to be able to see your arrow in flight, in the animal, and on the ground afterward. Dark arrows don't do you any good if you can' t see them. If bright fletchings aren't enough, try using lighted arrow nocks for better visibility in low light conditions.[*]Binoculars - use them post shot! They may be the most important tool you have after the shot.[*]Watch the animal after the shot. Quite often an animal's body movement will help indicate to you what type of shot you got. An animal that jumps straight in the air and bounds off out of sight is most likely mortally wounded and will not travel far. However, if the animal hunches up and walks off or moves off slowly there is a good chance the hit was too far back and you need to wait at least 6 hours before taking up the trail. [/ul]"I hit him, now what?"

Here are 7 surefire steps towards recovering your animal safely and securely:
[ol][*]Unless you witness a double lung pass through, I firmly believe to let an animal go for a couple hours rather than the common misconseption of half hour wait. Too many times a half hour isn't enough. The only shots that put an animal down quickly are double lung hits and heart shots. If you don't see your animal fall within site, your best bet is to wait it out.[*]If you are not 100% sure of your hit, simply put.... wait!!! The animal isn't going to go anywhere, he's dead, why hurry? Sit back, collect your thoughts, replay the shot, the hit, and where the animal went. Also, this gives you a chance to listen and relax. If your arrow was a pass thru, get down and get the arrow and study it and wait. Mark the direction but don' t pursue, if you wait, he'll be there or he'll live another day.[*]If you think it' s a single lung hit because of angle, wait at least 4 hours. This includes shots that are just under the spine and because of the angle you might have caught the second lung but missed the first. Wait and let him expire. Many people belive in "the void" which they claim is an area between a deer's lungs and spine where no vital organs reside. This is a myth - if you place an arrow under the spine, you will catch at least one lung.[*]If you think you caught the liver wait and the animal will bleed out. Wait at least 4 hours to take up the trail - the animal will not go anywhere if given the chance to expire. Jump him and he may go forever.[*]If you catch the guts only, you're in for at least a 6 hour minimum wait with 8 hours being more preferrable and overnight being the best case scenario. In case of rain or snow you should get down, find your arrow, find the blood trail, and wait for the next morning. If you know your property, you' ll find him close.[*]Coyotes can and will give the location of your animal, if your worried about them, get down, listen for the them and move on them if you know they are on your animal. IF they are there, your animal won' t be so move on the coyotes and they may lead you to the animal.[*]Whether your shot hits lungs, liver,or guts the key to a successful recovery is to wait. The animal is going to die just wait him out and your blood trail should be adequate a couple hours later. [/ol]Let' s recover the animals bowyers, we owe it to them, we owe it to each other, and we owe it to ourselves. Good luck out there....

Scoobiedoo

"If you think you caught the liver wait and the animal will bleed out. Wait at least 4 hours to take up the trail - the animal will not go anywhere if given the chance to expire. Jump him and he may go forever."

I agree. I shot a nice 8-pointer (my 1st deer with the bow) in 1998 and had a complete liver pass thru. 50# Bear Whitetail 1970's bow, 125-gr Thunderhead tipped 2117. The deer ran off...
I got down from my TS and recoved my arrow and decided to wait some time. I had read a copy of Trailing Whitetails by John Trout Jr. and his instruction in a liver shot was to wait like 6 hrs.

My brother-in-law and I decided to get right outta the woods and go get breakfast. We came back about 4 hrs later. At 25 yrds the blood trail STOPPED. I starting making increasingly-bigger and bigger circles looking for the deer. After a little while my brother-in-law said "You have a million to one chance of finding this deer" and headed off to do some farm chores. I however never gave up.

Forgetting where I thought the deer decided to run and just keeping with the circles I stopped to overlook the large field and scracthed my head confused on why I could find this deer! In less than a minute I turned my head and spotted the buck laying on his side as if asleep in a water drainage culvert about 10 inches or so deep. There he was!

Learned a lot from that deer. Such as:

*Never pressure a deer.If in doubt - WAIT! Like you said "He isn't going anywhere" if he's severely wounded.

*Get out of the area! Too many over-eager trackers spoil their own success by smelling up the area more or destroying what blood trail or evidence there IS. LEAVE! Slip out as quietly as possible in a way to stay away from the direction where the deer ran off into.

*Be PATIENT! Your mind is going to play games on your during that time. If you planned on 4 hrs - STAY OUT for 4 hrs (unless rain has come in and weill ruin any blood trals).

*Read that book! Its GREAT!

Washington Hunter

Weird, so I have been here seven years.

Woo!

Stone316_74

I love this kind of information. I jumped the gun on waiting last year. I shot a big doe at 8 yards sitting on a pale on the ground and got a complete pass through. She however just kind of wandered off down hill. I immediately went and found my arrow covered with blood and dark chunky stuff. I figured liver and maybe even guts. I ended up giving chase right away and lucky for me I didn't find her right away. I called up my buddy and he came over to help me out. Over all I think she lay for about 45 min (i know i know not enough time) but I lucked out and she tipped over as we stood on the trail looking at her from the back. I gut her out and sure enough, liver shot. I was real lucky that she never took off on me. I agree with the when in doubt back out motto. I'd rather have a long day/afternoon or even a sleepless night and finding my animal rather than not finding it at all. Awesome post!!!!!

PABowhntr

As always, a great post. This is probably one of the most important aspects of hunting and yet it is probably the most often overlooked.

rtread

Great information for a first-timer! It will be hard for me not to take off after a wounded deer like I did gun hunting. I've been conditioning myself to the "half-hour wait" but after reading this I'll probably go back to the house and put on a pot of coffee and wait a while longer. Patience is not one of my stronger points.....we'll see.

Scoobiedoo

rtread,
After you have lost a deer of two you'll 'learn' the art of patience.

As a ICU Cardiac Tech and RN Student I can tell you that death by hemorrhage takes time. Only when major arteries are severed would the animal bleed out quickly. If only veins are cut it will be slower. Now imagine if fat, muscle, organs, tissue, etc.occludes the artery or vein closed and you have a situation where death may be longer. Now a wound to a non-vital organ (liver, gut) will certainly take much longer than if it were the heart, lungs, brain, or spine.

Its a issue of anatomy and understanding how an arrow kills. Remember, in the deer's world time means nothing. It is in OUR world that we are so concerned with time - or lack of it. In their world they have nothing but time. They have no place they need to be at any particular time. their lives are not governed by a clock as ours is.

Gut shot can take up to 24 hrs to kill an animal until severe dehydration or sepsis sets in. Just thin of what you do when you have a bad stomach ache or feel ill - you go lay down and rest and you don't wanna move. Same for the animal. They are not sure just what is happening but they do know they don't feel well. To continue to keep pushing a deer in this state is foolish and the deer can travel - albeit pressured - for miles.

You need to read John Trout Jr.'s book...

Hope this helps...

rtread

Scoobiedoo....thanks...good info! I did a search on John Trout Jr. and found a variety of subjects and books...do you happen to know name of book?

sprintflyer

One of the, if not the most, important thing to tracking I have learned over the years is to walk next to but not in the blood trail. If you are off to the side and mark the last spot of blood with toilet paper (biodegradable) you can easly go back to the last spot you found blood. If you walk in the trail and don't mark it you may destroy the trail and lose the deer.

SF

Dairy King

I've been waiting for this to come up. I loved last years, I still remember most of it, but Im going to re-read this one. If it wasnt for this post, me and my cousin wouldn't have found one of his deer last year. It was a gut shot, and he only wanted to wait for an hour before going to find it, but I told him I think we should sleep on it. We found it the next morning. Thanks to you guys!

Thanks!