What would you do?
 

This is a hypothectical hunting situation that has similarities to what I, and some other hunters, have encountered through the years. I would just like to hear some of your opinions.

It's early October and you are deer hunting on private land with a compound bow. You know this area well and have hunted this stand before. You are hunting from a 16ft treestand on a hardwood creek bottom that has many crossings. It is getting late in the evening when you spot a solitary doe crossing the creek to the opposite side. You take a shot at about 35 yards and hear a solid "Thwack". The doe runs off and you do not see your arrow. You are only somewhat confident about your shot and think it may have been a little too far forward. Shoulder?

You get down at dark and find the spot at which you shot the doe. You find a decent blood trail and follow it for about 75 yards, at which the blood trail has all but disappeared. You look around and realize that the doe has entered a really thick bedding area which you know is their sanctuary. It's late and there is rain in the forecast for the night.

What do you do?

It's early in the season, do you to push on and bust up the bedding area?

Are all cards down when there could be a deer down?

Do you cut your losses and chalk it up to a lesson learned?

Do you just wait until the next day?

The situation is what is. Please base your opinion off JUST the information I have provided.

I say keep searching as long as there's a reasonable chance to find the deer.

Keep searching. Besides being the ethical thing to do, here in Missouri it's the law. Short of tresspassing, you must make every possible effort to retrieve wounded game.

you go in after her. whether its right then and there or in the morning. morning would be the best if you are not sure of the shot.

Neither has ANY bearing on tracking a deer you wounded.

Any one who does should quit hunting.

The best option based just on info provided.

I would wait about an hour or so,(let her bed down and bleed to death) pull out the flashlights and take it slow.

Early season in the south, you might as well go ahead and try to find her. Temperatures ar probably going to be too high to keep the meat good anyway. Coyotes will get her also.

sanctuary and flashlight and buddies after cupla hours. you said she was a bleedin purty good. dont kick her up if sheeze abeddin to die

I would also keep looking.

I'd give her a couple hours, go get flashlights and what not, then go find her.

Most definitely don't "cut your losses" and give up.

From what you've said, I'd wait until morning. First, you don't know what the actual hit was. Even a good hit a deer doesn't often fall within that 75 yard mark. Waiting will give time for the doe to bed down and hopefully expire.

In the morning you can bring help and start from the last blood found. Pushing right away on a marginal hit deer can push further making finder her even more difficult, especially due to the rain. I've found all my deer hit in rain except one and 7 1/2 hours of searching went in looking for it. That was "back in the day" and believe now, depending on how I think it was hit, would spend even more time looking because it would be my obligation.

iSnipe

couple of important points.......
 

I believe ethical hunting starts before you hit the field. I always check the forecast before heading afield, if there is rain for overnight, I have a cut-off time for a shot period. I believe if there is a chance I can't recover, I don't shoot. I mark my blood w/ bio degradable tissue, in case I have to come back at first light, which has happened twice. The shot sounds to me like it was forward, no arrow sounds like it was stuck in the shoulder blade. Blood trail disappearing, also tells me shoulder. Now, I've lost a blood trail twice only to find out that the deer had doubled back on me, found them both back the same way it came from within 30 yards. I would not keep searching that night, I want her to lay down and "hopefully" bleed out, the hit really bothers me, the sound you say doesn't sound good. Next morn fer sure.

I would either wait 2-4 hours then go looking for the Doe or wait til morning and start out right a daylight looking for her....either way its going to be a nervous and sleepless night! :(

Look for her.

Me - I go get my big Streamlights, my tracking dog Mojo and a buddy if there's one hunting with me .... and start where the last blood was found. If she's down, she's found. I don't sweat "busting" the bedding area.

Go get the deer. Entering the sanctuary may or may not cause a problem in the future. If you were that worried about preserving the sanctuary to kill a buck later on, should have never shot the doe. You are obligated to get the doe now.

AMEN TO THAT!!!!!!:s2::s2:

If you shot the deer you own it, as that was your choice when you released.
You owe it to any animal you CHOOSE to end its life!
Hunters ethics, period...
At the very least you should put 4-5 hours of serious recon, IMO.

How about not taking the shot if you can't hit it lethally- hypothetically of course:)

Dude, you know that's bs. Anyone who has ever bowhunted for any length of time at all has made a less than perfect shot.

If it were me, I'd wait until an hour after the shot, and start looking again. During that hour, I would go get some help, if I could. If it started raining, then I would wait until morning and come back with all the help I could find.

Myself I never shoot at a deer that close to dark. Infact I do not prefer to bow hunt in the late afternoon and have stopped doing it. But you must continue to look for the deer all night and even miss a days work the following day if need be.

Some good responses here. The good thing is that everyone agrees that you press on searching, even if the chance of finding her is remote. I have to admit that I've helped other hunters look for game and after only a few hours of searching say something like " Well, coyotes gotta eat too..." .

I have one friend that somehow seems to lose a deer every year. Just rushes and takes a shot at a poor angle. I'm usually the first one he calls to help with the recovery. But more than once we have come up empty handed. He does try to find the deer, just not as hard asI do. I'll go back the next day and scour the place for any sign we may have missed, then start doing the circles. I'm not sure if he goes to that much trouble. I say friend because I've known him all my life. Sometimes I wonder though. And what so funny about is that he'll tell me about what happened, knowing that I'm going to bitch him out for taking a bad shot.



How about recovery percentages?

If you had to guess, what percentage of the deer YOU have shot at, have you recovered?

How many recovery missions for others have you been on that have turned up nothing?

First, bedding area has nothing to do with it. If there was a significant blood pool and trail to begin with then it is more than likely a lethal shot. You also stated that the doe went into thick bush so unless you are going to step on her, you are not going to find her in the dark (flashlights become useless in thick bush, if you've never tried one in such a situation, give it a shot for it's tough to describe the shadowing etc.). I would mark the spot where you last found blood and then also mark the spot where she went into the thick stuff (I always carry some blaze tape in my hunting pack). Wait till morning and come back with some help. With a lethal shot and with out being pushed she will lie down and expire. I had a similar situation occur a couple of years back. I looked for a couple of hours, didn't find the buck, it rained like hell that night, I couldn't sleep because I thought for sure I would loose him, went back at sun up, and found him. I'm sure I must have walked by him a couple of times the night before for he had lied down within some real thick bush (if I didn't notice a little white from his belly I may have even missed him in the morning). It is difficult to leave the search for a deer that you know is down but in thick bush it is near impossible to find it at night. Just talking from experience.

I feel that regardless of weather or not you may "bust" the bedding area that evening or the following day a hunter owes it to the deer to make every effort possible to find it. If a hunter is responsible enough to shoot the deer then they must also be responsible enough to try and locate it period.

I would have to say that I have a 99% recovery rate. I have lost exactly 1 deer.
Though I am very confidant that another group of hunters found him and claimed him. This is because we tracked him past where they were standing when we got there.

Originally Posted by Edcyclopedia
How about not taking the shot if you can't hit it lethally- hypothetically of course:)

Dude, how have you been you big BS'er. :wave:

#1 You believe you got a relatively good shot , judging from the 75yd blood trail.
#2 You know she has headed into and bedding thicket and will likely lay down to bleed out.
#3 It is early season and the weather is warm.
#4 There is overnight rain in the forecast.

The fact that it is early season and there will be more opportunities or that it is just a doe, doesn't even factor into the equation. Your concerns should be, can you give her enough time to bleed out before the rains come and still find her. You obviously can't wait until morning to look, or the meat will spoil. If you know the forecast and know about what time the rain will start, get a friend or 2 to help track her. Too many can be a bad thing, by trampling the sign. Give her as much time to bleed out and begin your tracking before the rain starts. At the point it is raining and has washed any sign away, all you can do is scour the area and hope to find where she bedded and hopefully bled out.

Give it another hour or so, call a few hunting buddies, go in with flashlights. Always have to give every effort to track an animal you've shot.

i'd wait until the next day. i did it this past year tracking for my dad. he shot a deer he was certain he'd hit well, but we couldn't find any blood. i took off the next day, and found it about 300 yards from his stand, never saw any blood, just where he was dragging his feet in the mud and leaves. when i got up on him, i found that my dad's broadhead had shattered when it came into contact with a rib bone. when he finally bedded down it looked like a murder scene. i'd have never found him in the dark, but wasn't going to let him have been shot in vain. so yeah go as long as you can that night, and then go the next day.