How long should I wait?

[scoutm]

I read a great article last year about an archery hunter that gut shot a great deer. He searched for over 4 days. He enlisted the help of his hunting buddies and continued to search well after all his buddies told him he shouldn't feel bad about giving up since he had made every reasonable effort to find and recover the deer but he pressed on. On the morning of the 5th day of searching he found the buck of course the coyotes and birds did in the cape and meat. He concluded the article with the thought that had he given up he would have never felt right about it and if you are ever faced with this situation don't give up until you can feel right about it. The trick that he used to help locate the deer was he was sitting on a bluff and watched the birds. After a while he notice they kept flying in and out of a brushy area - he went to check it out and there the deer was.

 

So don't give up and follow the birds.

 

Good luck!

 

 

[Apatkelley]

The meat can spoil fast this time of year. When you don't gut them, the body heat stays and can cause the meat to spoil. One of my friends shot a buck on an October rifle hunt and we didn't recover it until the next morning. When we found it, we thought everything was ok but upon further inspection we could tell that the meat had spoiled. That was in the fall when it at least cools off a little at night. Good luck finding your deer but it might be too late for the meat.

[AZ RANGER]

I did not find him. ... I could not find much a trail from the last place I saw him. I found some blood about 20yds from where he was bedded but nothing after that. I took my Dad with me and we covered a lot of ground. We just could not find blood. The terrain he was in does not show blood well, nearly every plant in the area has red on it. I am guessing he went a long ways after I jumped him up. I wish I would have given him more time after the shot and maybe he would of expired there. I may go out in the morning before work to look again but I don't know where I would look that I have'nt already plus I am freaken beat-down tired. This sucks... I wish I would have waited for a better shot. The thought of his slow death bothers me.

[Huntn coues]

Sorry to hear that

 

Give it what you can and like others stated over the next couple of day's look for crows and yotes yacking.

 

Good luck.

 

Oh like Amanda said get a dog out there cuz they work wonders!

[CouesWhitetail]

I did not find him. ... I could not find much a trail from the last place I saw him. I found some blood about 20yds from where he was bedded but nothing after that. I took my Dad with me and we covered a lot of ground. We just could not find blood. The terrain he was in does not show blood well, nearly every plant in the area has red on it. I am guessing he went a long ways after I jumped him up. I wish I would have given him more time after the shot and maybe he would of expired there. I may go out in the morning before work to look again but I don't know where I would look that I have'nt already plus I am freaken beat-down tired. This sucks... I wish I would have waited for a better shot. The thought of his slow death bothers me.

 

Sorry to hear you didn't find him. It's got to be thoroughly depressing. See if you can't get a friend who has some experience tracking or perhaps a friend with a dog that likes to follow scent.

 

What unit were you in? My dog julie could probably find the deer, but we are going out of town for a couple days tomorrow....

 

Amanda

 

[bobbyo]

First off I am sorry about your situation. The sad truth is there is no right answer on what to do. because of the rain. I assume your in desert or chapparal terrain and the grass is at least a foot high. If he is dead you will have to stumble right over the top of him to find him. I feel your best shot is to hope he is alive and get him on his feet to locate him. It really depends on the shot. You really need to go CSI on the arrow to see what kind of hit it was. Blood color is most important, but also hair color and texture can tell you a lot. From what you said from your shot I see two scenarios, if shot on relatively flat ground:

 

1. You could of clipped the liver on entry and through the guts on exit. Arrow would have dark blood, but splotchy with the green gut material dominating the arrow. hair on arrow would be short, straight, 1/4 white and 3/4 dark color depending on color phase. This deer would likely be dead and hard to find. Glassing from highest point would be my first option. need to get all friends out on a search or if your luck is bad the 4 to 5 day bird method as mentioned. I believe this only works in the early hunt because the buzzards are actually migratory.

 

2. I think this choice is the most likely and the best case scenario for a recovery: You missed vitals entered through guts, exited out quadriceps of the deer. Arrow would be dominated by blood medium red color much like if you cut your finger, with some gut particles mixed in. Some hair would be like above, but some would be long almost all white and slightly curly. This is because it is from the inside of his leg. If this is the case he would likely be alive tomorrow morning. If my arrow looked like this I would still get as many friends as possible, but before a search, if possible, i would glass from the highest knob around in the morning. Concentrate near water sources, before employing the grid method to canvass the area. If you are lucky enough to kick him up you better bring lots of arrows!

Good luck,

Bob

[SilentButDeadly]

he's out there, if you can get a friend put him up on a ridge with big binos and a tripod, you walk the area below him with a tracking dog, either the buck is dead in the grass (my thinking) or he's under a bush and won't get up unless you really really push him. Unfortunately you can't watch the grass for blood or tracks AND keep your eyes on the ridgeline to see if he jumps up.

 

I wounded my first muley, shot him back and high; found him the next morning only to have him spooked up and run off by another bow hunter... Never saw him again, and I looked and looked! (The silver lining is that the next year I shot a muley who had a broadhead scar inside his ribs in the same spot I shot mine -- same buck? maybe, but it just shows you that they are tough as s#!%) If you never find your buck again, it may be because he's still walking!

 

Tyson

[Kevin]

Ranger, I'm sorry to hear this. It hurts for a long time. You already know where you made your mistakes. Patience for the right shot is critical to successful bowhunting and you trailed him too soon. It is a difficult decision to make when it looks like it will rain or when it is hot. That said, most likely if you would have just sat tight and waited several hours he would have been laying right where you jumped him. Once spooked, they can go for miles.

 

He will be difficult to find now because in general gut shots don't bleed much in the first place and obviusly most of the sign has been rained out. A spray bottle of peroxide will distinguish blood and gut fluid from water and red leaves or rocks even after several days. Spray the peroxide on suspect spots and if it is blood or body fluid it will foam. As others have suggested he may have tried to make it to water so check any nearby water sources.

 

As a National Bowhunter Education instructor, our curriculum says to wait at least 6 hours before trailing a gut shot animal. They nearly always will lay down within 200 yards and if not pressured will still be there six hours later, sometimes dead but generally not. It is important to "still hunt" the trail, alway scanning with your optics ahead of you. Sneak in and put a finishing shot on him. I highly recommend all bowhunter take this class as even long time bowhunter can learn something and they often provide some great insight from their experience to new bowhunters.

 

I hope you were able to get out this morning and look for him again. Coyotes sometimes are your best ally in these situations: They can lead you to him and if they have openened him up and not completely consumed him the meat won't spoil as fast.

 

Keep your chin up and learn from your mistakes, it will make you a better bowhunter.

 

Kevin

[AZ RANGER]

I did not make it out this morning I will go out later this afternoon and look some more.It is in unit 31 BTW. Thanks for all the advice and offers for help. I will take the dog with me and see if can follow the scent. I am afraid he is long gone. The closest water source that I know of is about 3/4 mile uphill and the opposite direction of where he was last going, but I will try that also.

Bobbyo, I think your second scenario is more likely.

It is hard to see in this photo but the hair is more like you described. The fletching is pink so it is hard to see color correctly. The guts were about midway on the arrow.

 

This is the blood where he laid down.

 

and this is the only spot where i found any bloodtrail.

 

[Rembrant]

For me its a full on broadside shot or nothing.

24 hours is the wait for a gut-shot animal. You will lose the meat. The animal is not likely to die from blood loss but rather septic poisoning of the blood. This will take a long time. tracking before 24 hours will push the animal and you may lose him. If you back off and wait he will have gone the 40 or 50 yds, bedded down and died there, because they do not want to move.

A slight quartering away is still a good shot. A quartering towards you is never a good shot and I will never take one again.

Sorry about what happened.

I hope you get your skull,

Mike

[reddog]

Form looking at that picture of the blood where he laid down, I would say that he is not leaking very much. You could loose that much blood touching up your braodheads. I guess he could be bleeding into the chest cavity?

 

Good luck!

[parothead]

Hopefully he will find him.

 

Good Luck and let us know what happens.

 

PH

[bobbyo]

I really think there is a good chance he will be still alive this afternoon. I would definately go out and try to find him. I would actually walk circles around the last spot that you saw him. Increasing in size. You might find more blood or the animal, and if it is appropriate have a glasser like silentbutdeadly suggested. This may not work due to the thick vegetation of 31. Also there is probably as much chance of a bear as a coyote finding the animal before you, so use caution in the thick stuff.

Good luck,

Bob

[HEADACHE]

I gutshot my first archery deer.

I walked over to where I had hit him and found my arrow, mostly green with a little blood. CRAP! I thought.

I didn't know much, but I knew there was not going to be a blood trail, (and there wasnt) so I didn't want that buck to get out of my sight!

I watched him go about 40 yards and lost sight, I slowly crept around looking for him.

 

Chased up his identical twin and two other 3 pointers that looked like his brother . . . I nearly shot one of them thinking it was him . . at the last second, I spotted movement and spotted my buck, hunched over and slowly humping over to a tree where he lay down.

 

I sneaked around behind him and as I got close I could hear him grunting and I walked all the way up to him and grabbed him, I just wanted to see how close I could get . . . he could care less, he was a hurtin unit.

I quickly backed off 10 feet and stuck another arrow through him. He died within 10 seconds.

 

Don't know how much that helps you out, but I would guess that your deer is dead within 150 yards of where you saw him last.

Keep looking, and looking for the next spot where may have layed down. Some other animal(s) may have drug him off.

Look for coyotes, and vultures/crows. Hunt downwind from where you think he may be, you will find him.

[AZ RANGER]

Well I got out again this morning for the third time to try and locate him. I hiked up to the spring and circled back around the the ridge above where I shot him. I glassed for about an hour looking for any movement from coyotes or buzzards. I found some buzzards perched up on the opposite ridge. I watched them for close to an hour and they never moved. I also saw a hawk fly into some brush down below me so I decided to investigate that, but there was nothing there. I decided I would give it one last shot at circling around the area near where I shot him, but I did not turn anything up. It was only a spike so it does not hurt as bad as if I had lost a toad but that did not make me want to find him any less.

Now I am trying to decide if I should consider myself done for the year since he is likely dead somewhere.I did have a good buck come in before I shot the spike that i would have love to take but he did not quite give me a shot. My unit 1 archery bull hunt is coming up so I have that to look forward to. I guess I will have to learn from this mistake.

Here is a shot of the buzzards.

 

And here is shot of the other buck. This pic was taken on opening day at 2:51pm I left my blind at 1:00. He came in again 1 hour before I shot the spike but he never gave me a shot. He looked like he had some more tine length this week also. He gave me the fever for a good while.