I'm wondering, generally how long does it take for a deer to die after being shot with an arrow? I've heard stories of animals living for hours after a well placed shot. Thanks for the info and happy hunting.

Well heres how it is. A well placed shot would be in the lungs or the heart and nothing is going to live long without those two organs. What people tend to forget is that deer have the same organs as us humans have. If you collapse one lung the deer can get farther and live a little longer but not live for long. Maybe 10 minutes tops. A heart shot is death, almost instantly. If you hit a artery your looking at 5 minutes tops. Both lungs hit, that deer is dying very fast, it can't breath. If you miss these critical kill spots you may have a problem. I shot a deer three years ago and to this day I still see that doe. If you miss the critical spots you better hope you hit a spot that will bleed out. Just like us, if you loose enough blood the body goes into shock which leads to cardiac arrest. Once in shock you aren't moving. So the moral is if you don't hit the critical kill spots, or a spot that will bleed good, you could be in trouble. Your best bet is to sit and hope he/she sits too for about an hour if your not 100% sure of your shot placement. You don't want to have to follow a deer across the country.

dwd here is a simple rule of thumb, if you know you double lunged the deer, unless it goes down in plain view always give them half an hour before you even leave the stand, even if they go down in plain sight and you are sure it is dead wait at least 15 minutes. If you have hit high or did not get a passthrough wait at least an hour, if you hit to far back, just behind the ribs and get a pass through, wait about 15-20 minutes and slowly get out of your stand and check the arrow, if it is dark dark blood and no green/guts on the arrow you probably hit the liver, wait at least 2 hours or if it is starting to get dark and it will be cool over night come back first thing in the morning.

The worst thing you can do in any situation is to push the deer, most deer if hit hard will not go real far and they will lay down and unless pushed will stay there until they bleed out. If you push one, you will find out how far adreniline can take a deer with both lungs blown.

The Tazman aka Martin Price
Founder and President of
Virginia Disabled Outdoorsmen Club

Good rule of thumb Taz.

It all depends. More time you wait the easier it will be to find. You go after it to soon you might track it for miles. My second bow kill was that way. It fell in sight, I got excited and went after it after waiting only 30 min.. The buck jumped up and ran. I found it about 4 miles away. It took all day to find it.

Lifes a garden, dig it.

I asked a similar question not long ago. You can go to smitty03 and look under "how long should I wait" and there are several other responses if you want to see more.

RYAN SMITH