BarnesX.308

My son shot a buck last year with a crossbow. Right behind the shoulder. We found the buck, bedded in a small depression in the ground. There was blood all over its chest and its head was drooping like a drunk about to pass out. He walked around to get a better angle for a finishing shot and it bolted. We never found that buck. We looked for hours that afternoon and into the night and all day the next day. Can't explain it. But, if we would have backed out, he would be dead in the depression.

Mickey Finn

All depends on that.

hunters_life

When archery hunting, my general rule of thumb is to wait till my heartbeat gets back to under 80 and I am over the adrenaline rush. This accomplishes 2 things, one it gives the deer time to lay down and expire, second, and more important to me anyway, it is much safer climbing down from a stand when you are calm than all jacked up right after a good shot. With archery equipment, I never go for the heart, always go for double lung. The spray you get is much easier to follow and usually you get the trail much more quickly than waiting for the cavity to fill to your exit hole. And of the many archery deer I have taken over the years, it seems to me that the deer tend to lay down much quicker with a double lung shot with a good broadhead. One of the longest well hit deer I have ever had to track was one that was quartered away a good bit and I took out the on side lung and the top of the heart. That deer ran over 400 yards before it even thought about laying down. Luckily I watched the first 200 yards as it was a big open field it ran across. Not a single drop of blood past the exit of the arrow till around 150 yards. Then it was a pretty good trail. You just never know how a deer will react to being run through with an arrow. I've seen well hit deer go lay down within my eyesight. I've seen poorly hit deer do the same thing. And I've seen the opposite from both. Generally though, if it is a kill shot, 90% of the time a well hit whitetail won't go very far before laying down, but there is always that 10% that you have to worry about. So waiting a good 30 minutes won't ever hurt you.

olsaltydog

Well I spent about 5 hrs today tracking. Pretty confident I missed but I was also pretty confident I was lined up on the shoulder. No blood, no hair, found the tree my muzzle loader round hit but was at a level it could have been a possible passthrough but with the rounds I was using not likely. Only reason we searched long and hard was after I shot we heard the deer crash into a downed tree below. After waiting half an hour we got up and the deer jumped up out of the bottom and ran. Have never seen a deer get shot at and bed close by. You never know how the day is going to go.

RaySendero

Years ago I changed to a high shoulder shot in the evening and
have never since had to track a deer after dark!

Yeah you loose about 1/2 of the off shoulder,
but have never bloodied the back straps.

YTCLT

I agree on tracking and finding the deer if you believe your shot is good. Somehow the "backing out and waiting till morning" thing seems to have become the thing to do on tv...why, not sure when they can see the hit. In my experience, if you put the arrow through the boiler room they rarely go much beyond 60-80 yards and are often dead within 60 yards. My rule of thumb is to track it, and if I get to that 80 yard distance and the sign isn't strong then I might decide to back out. If the sign is strong, I'll keep following. I don't know about you guys but I feel like by looking at the blood trail and asking yourself how long something can survive with that kind of blood loss gives me plenty of clues. Scattered drops...not so good, a steady stream w big splashes, frothy...that animal is close and probably dead already. They only have so much blood in them and if the blood trail is consistent, it's dead. Go get it home.

BarnesX.308

TV archers never get a pass-through. Seems like they get 3 inches of penetration.

TN Lone Wolf

I've noticed that too. Not that I watch too many hunting shows, but I can recall noticing how many bow-shot deer I've seen on the shows I have watched run off with the arrow buried not even halfway to the fletching.

BarnesX.308

You would think they have the best equipment, too. I always get a pass through, even back in the late 1980s with old compound and aluminum arrows.

The theory somebody told me is these guys use really light arrows to maximize speed/trajectory. When they couple that with aggressive mechanicals, there is weak penetration. But it seems really poor to me.

mrbb

I also seen a lot of them TV shows where they shot deer nice and light out and then its Pitch dark out when they get to it? and they say crap like it only went 50 yrds and seen it go down and such??
then why it take hours to go get it
OR they say they recovered it FAST and its stiff as a board when they show it??
I won't say all shows are full of BS
But I know for a fact , MANY things go on OFF camera or just never make it to be seen
I was p[art of a 4 yr hunting video series, so trust me, LOTS of crap goes on without you ever knowing, and that goes from LOST deer, poor hits, and so on!
even see things shot with "X" brand and CLAIMED to be using another??

TV hunting shows are NOT how 90% of real hunters hunt IMO
its more entertainment with a LITTLE Hunting mixed in!