Thanks for the replies everyone. It is just one of those things that until you see someone doing it differently you never question the way you've done it. My dad hunted for 40+ years and that's just the way we did it. We shot the deer and went after it. Maybe it was because we generally had several people with us and more deer to get so we didn't want to waste time sitting around and waiting. I'm not sure, that is just the way we did it and I never questioned it.

We hunted big open country so we were able to generally get away with it I guess. I remember one year when there were lots of deer and we could each shoot 5 deer and an antelope and an elk. There were 4 of us hunting at the time and we had some friends that would hunt with us and at one time that storage building had about 30 deer, a few antelope and an elk hanging in it. (After mid November in Eastern Montana an uninsulated storage building became a frozen meat locker)

Thanks again for the input.Looks like I'll wait a while after I shoot my next deer instead of running right after it.

Start the grill. Backstraps in 30 minutes!

bow: wait a good 10 minutes then go and track

rifle: put another round and wait 5 minutes then go look for it

thats what I do when I shoot a deer!

First thing I do is watch the deers reaction and whereit went as long as I can see it. Then I get a good landmark of where I last saw it. Then I catch my breath after hyperventalating. I'm cool as a cucumber before and during the shot. But, for some reason I get worked up immediately after I've shot a deer.

Then depending on the hit I got there are a lot of different options as to what to do next. If I'm 99.9% sure I double lunged or heart shot the deer, I'll look for blood and conformation by the type of blood I see. If I'm possitive I have lungs or heart this is the only time I'll start to track the deer within the first hour after hitting it.

On the other hand if I'm sure I made a not so go shot (gutshot, liver,single lung,or other), I get out of dodge quietly and as far away from where the deer ran as I can and come back later. Sometimes that can be 8 hours later(or the next morning if it was anevening hunt)on a less than perfect shot.

There are too many variables and different scenarios/type of hits to come up with a blanket statement of when you should start tracking. One thing I know for sure is the #1 reason deer are not recovered is because they were not given enough time to expire and pushed while tracking. This is a shame IMO. When in doubt back out!!! Most of the time a fatally wounded deer will bed down within a couple hundred yards of the shot. Give it time to expire, it's not going anyplace.

There are a lot of good recovery threads on this site that provide very good information.

Look it over and make sure it was a clean shot. If not, I shoot it again. Then I call it in and take it to my grandpa's shop and gut him.

Try and catch my breath . If i see it down in sight i go right over to it if not i wait 20 minuets than look for blood

Most of my kills are instantaneous lung/heart bang flops. I field dress it right away and rinse the insides with the two gallonsof clean water that is in my truck.

Has no one else noticed that the picture was photoshopped?

I usually go to where the deer was standing when I shot, find the place where the blood trail begins and mark it with an arrow or artical of clothing.Things tend to look different sometimes once you move or run out of daylight and missing the begining of the blood trail by a couple yards can be aggrevating as hell.Then I leave, come back to town, call someone to help track it then we go back out, usually it will be from one to several hours later.I like this way cuz when I find it I dont have to drag it out by myself and it gives the deer plenty of time to expire.The exception would be when I see it go down, Ill usually wait a few inutes then sneak in for a look or another shot, whichever is needed.

No. Is it? I just thought is was a sick and distasteful pic. Especially the deer without a head.

But thats just me.........