Trailing wounded deer

Trailing wounded deer

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Trailing wounded deer - 7/19/2008 6:51:21 AM

bingsbaits

Posts: 775
Joined: 3/1/2007
From: spartansburg,pa
Status: online

Was watching the new round of tv hunting shows.

On an evening hunt if a deer that is hit doesn't fall within sight of the shooter and camera they will let it go till morning. Seems to happen way too much..

How many of you guys smack a trophy and let it lie in the woods all night?

I can see with a marginal hit you mabee need to leave the area for a few hours and collect your buddies and your night tracking gear. But I will be on that deer before morning..

I would think that the deer wouldn't even be edible by morning with some of the temps during the beginning of archery season..

I know of one fella let one go all night and the coyotes beat him to it..

Or is it all just crap for the tv show cause it is to hard to film at night?

I'm not a big fan of the tv crowd they stage alot of their crap and try to pass it off as naturally happening..
And yes I watch them I like to see the nice bucks....

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RE: Trailing wounded deer - 7/19/2008 9:07:45 AM

dpms

Posts: 474
Joined: 8/28/2006
Status: online

If I am confident in the hit I am going after him every time. I just don't like the thought of a deer laying in the woods with it's entrails in for 12 hours or more. If the hit is questionable, I would wait. I had to do this once and never found the deer in the morning. By the look of the sign and the deer never laying down I beileve a harmless flesh wound was the result.

I also believe that much of the meat in these guided hunts is donated to food banks. So the worry of the quality of the meat is the last consideration to some of these guys. They just want to show a dead deer and the antlers to the camera for the good show.

(in reply to bingsbaits)

Post #: 2

RE: Trailing wounded deer - 7/19/2008 9:28:34 PM

S-10

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There is a school of thought that unless you see or hear the deer go down, wait until pitch black and sneak out the opposite way the deer went. The feeling being a double lung or heart shot will fall within sight or hearing and a lesser hit will go less than 150 yds before lying down but once kicked up will go as far as it can. I've been chasing them with a bow since the season started in the fifties and the more I hunt and am involved with tracking my own or others the more I am inclined to believe you should wait for morning unless rain or snow is forecast or the night temp is above 60 degrees. You can walk right by them at night or jump them and lose the track. They will be stiff and smell like hell when you open them the next day but seldom will the meat be spoiled. It is best to hang them in a cooler a few days if possible with the hide off before butchering. Even if the meat isn't quite as sweet as you may like, if you jump it and lose the trail you have no meat.

(in reply to dpms)

Post #: 3

RE: Trailing wounded deer - 7/20/2008 12:09:30 AM

MuskyMastr

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From: 20' up a 100 year old white oak
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All depends on the situation. Under 50 and they will be fine. Temp is a key, so is the hit. I almost always try to find blood or the arrow if I had a pass through, if I can do it without disturbing the deer. From there I make a lot of decisions based on what I see. I have second guessed myself many times. But I track a LOT of deer in the fall, seems other guys like to have me on the trail. And I have seen MANY deer that should have been left alone longer. Maybe not till morning but a lot of those 7 pm hits should wait until 2am instead of 9:30 or 10. Common sense should dictate, but longer is better.

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RE: Trailing wounded deer - 7/20/2008 6:48:03 AM

matthoops33

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Joined: 2/26/2008
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This situation happened to me last season. I thought I made a good shot on a deer around 5 pm. I watched him run off, waited until 6, got down. It was starting to get dark, but I had good dark blood on the arrow. I called my Dad to bring the spotlights and help me track. By 10pm we still hadnt found it, so we decided to return in the morning. We came back early and walked to the last spot we saw blood. From there it took about 5 minutes and 50 yds until we found the deer.

In retrospect, we should have backed out earlier. However, we knew the temps were going to be in the mid-40s, and there is definately no coyotes in suburban Pittsburgh.

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RE: Trailing wounded deer - 7/20/2008 1:02:29 PM

MuskyMastr

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Matt, you made a good move and one that is difficult for many hunters to make, no matter how many deer they have trailed.

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I love the smell of a warm gut pile in the morning.

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RE: Trailing wounded deer - 7/21/2008 7:49:09 AM

griffon

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Joined: 10/30/2003
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Agreed, if conditions allow and you are unsure about the deer being dead within a very short distance, back out. More deer are lost at night because guys get impatient and begin to push them than ever should occur.

As for coyotes in suburban Pittsburgh, don't count on there not being any. There are coyotes all over suburbia Pittsburgh from the South Hills to the North Hills. They are quite resourceful and very capable of avoiding human detection, but they are definitely around.

(in reply to matthoops33)

Post #: 7

RE: Trailing wounded deer - 7/21/2008 7:56:36 AM

SilverKype

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From: State
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Love those 50-60 yard shots on TV. At least they don't show the ones they don't get. They never show doe either.

Doe are fun too!

I usually see where the arrow hits due to white arrows but other than that the blood will usually tell me what to do.

Thick dark blood is liver, let it the animal go a few hours.

Lighter blood is somewhere in the goody box. Lighter blood with bubbles is certainly lung. Going after these ones.

Green is guts .. back out immediately, 4-6 hours.

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RE: Trailing wounded deer - 7/21/2008 2:14:24 PM

MuskyMastr

Posts: 1804
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From: 20' up a 100 year old white oak
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Lighter blood can also be non lethal as well, shoulder, graze of neck, leg, back. Then you need to start looking at hair, and put all the pieces together. Bottom line a marginal hit has a better chance of recovery with time. A definite fatal hit will still be dead no matter how long you wait. I am careful sometimes about when I shoot deer according to conditions.

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I love the smell of a warm gut pile in the morning.

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Post #: 9

RE: Trailing wounded deer - 7/21/2008 6:30:21 PM

DanesDad

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Temperature would be a concern to me. Last year, I hit a doe. I waited a half hour, then got down and found my arrow coated end to end with bright red blood. It was stuck in the ground exactly behind the spot I aimed on the deer. Altho there was a lot of blood initially, it petered out soon. It was early, and the woods were real green. I never found that deer and I still second guess myself about everything I did after the shot. In retrospect, I wish I would have waited longer...even tho the temperature was in the 70s.

(in reply to MuskyMastr)

Post #: 10

RE: Trailing wounded deer - 7/21/2008 7:11:07 PM

bingsbaits

Posts: 775
Joined: 3/1/2007
From: spartansburg,pa
Status: online

It just seems like they(the tv hunters) have one advantage they can replay their shot.

They know what kind of hit they put on the deer..

I saw one where they double lunged him. I would have been proud as hell of that shot.

They played it back a half dozen times and acted like they couldn't tell it was a good hit..
And they let the deer go till morning...

I know reading the arrow tells the whole story..Did have one once though show me what I thought was nice bubbly lung blood...Turned out to be just a flesh wound under the brisket...

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......"Don't Piss down my back and tell me its raining!"....

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Post #: 11

RE: Trailing wounded deer - 7/28/2008 12:26:43 PM

Carpet Bagger

Posts: 2025
Joined: 4/18/2001
From: Greenville, PA
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: bingsbaits

Was watching the new round of tv hunting shows.

On an evening hunt if a deer that is hit doesn't fall within sight of the shooter and camera they will let it go till morning. Seems to happen way too much..

How many of you guys smack a trophy and let it lie in the woods all night?

I can see with a marginal hit you mabee need to leave the area for a few hours and collect your buddies and your night tracking gear. But I will be on that deer before morning..

I would think that the deer wouldn't even be edible by morning with some of the temps during the beginning of archery season..

I know of one fella let one go all night and the coyotes beat him to it..

Or is it all just crap for the tv show cause it is to hard to film at night?

I'm not a big fan of the tv crowd they stage alot of their crap and try to pass it off as naturally happening..
And yes I watch them I like to see the nice bucks....

As far as edible is concerned these guys on TV arent hunting meat....

As far as a bad shot, there should be no such thing. I have always been told and drilled into my head if i cannot make a clean, accurate, and quick kill shot to let the animal walk. I have made some questionable shots and was able to recover the animal in a quick fashion, but it was not a fast death...

Shoot...let em go for 30-45min then start looking...almost natural for them to head to water if you rip their guts up...If you wack em with a good shot through the lungs...they wont be going too too far. With todays advances in broadheads, arrows, bows, ect you should be able to get it done without leavin em lay...I couldnt sleep if i knew i had a trophy laying out in the woods somewhere...

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CB

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Post #: 12

RE: Trailing wounded deer - 7/28/2008 12:56:57 PM

griffon

Posts: 1241
Joined: 10/30/2003
Status: online

I shot a doe a few years back in the evening (about an hour before dark). She was quartering toward me and I went through the front shoulder, exiting back by the liver (10 yard shot). She ran about 50 yards and layed down, head up but definitely down for the count. Five minutes after my shot, a small buck came in got a whiff of her. He went right to her location and began to head butt her hind parts, as he tried to get her to her feet. She managed to get to her feet and took off like a shot across a 1/2 mile field, making it to and disappearing on the other side. I backed out and went in the next morning, finding her within twenty yards of where I had last seen her. The point is, had I not seen what happened and began tracking this deer too quick, I could have bumped her and she likely would never have been recovered in a thicker, wooded setting.

I made the exact same shot on my really big buck a couple years previous with the same exact results. When I left, he was laying down two hundred yards away with his head up (I could glass him on the adjacent hillside), almost 45 minutes later. I came back the following morning and he was dead in the same bed I left him in the night before. It was a long night to be sure, but going after him too quickly could have almost resulted in disaster.

(in reply to Carpet Bagger)

Post #: 13

RE: Trailing wounded deer - 7/28/2008 4:23:33 PM

Carpet Bagger

Posts: 2025
Joined: 4/18/2001
From: Greenville, PA
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if you double lung em...its all over...let em run...bed down for 30min to an hour and let em bleed and lose the adrenaline and they will have no ambition left in em to get up and run when you come searching...

If you are lucky enough, and patient enough to get a shot with a bow...you can least wait an hour to claim your prize and let that animal expire. Watch em as close as you can...generally you can see their 1st 20 or 30 yrds of running before you lose them...

Its nice to get a morning shot cause you have daylight on your side, but that is not always an option when deer hunting.

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CB

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Post #: 14

RE: Trailing wounded deer - 7/29/2008 8:18:59 AM

griffon

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I think guys get impatient/scared on evening shots. It almost seems like they panic. I really think that subliminally a lot of people are a little bit apprehensive about staying in the woods after dark (maybe the fear of the unknown or the fear of getting lost), so they get down almost immediately and begin to look around. If and when they bump the deer, rather than backout and wait till morning... they just keep on pursuing. Even a deer with both lungs taken out can travel a long ways if pushed too quickly. We lost one in Ohio that a member of camp shot last year and this is exactly what happened. Rather than wait it out for others, or returning to camp the hunter got out of his stand and started the pursuit immediately. He claimed to have hit the deer well (I was/am sceptical), but we never found the arrow and ran out of blood after a couple hundred yards the next morning. 5 of us combed and scoured the area and never found the deer. Had he just let it lay (cold, frosty night) we likely would have found that deer laying very close to where it first layed down and he would have put a nice buck on his wall. It is ironic, because I passed a monster right at dark that same night because I was not comfortable with the shot. Had I been given 5 more yards, I would have recorded my biggest buck to date. I can guarantee that buck would have laid until morning unless he dropped right there. If he had run back toward camp, I would have stayed in my stand for the next several hours and figured out another way back to camp. Needless to say, I am patient to a fault...

(in reply to Carpet Bagger)

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RE: Trailing wounded deer - 7/29/2008 11:57:22 AM

Carpet Bagger

Posts: 2025
Joined: 4/18/2001
From: Greenville, PA
Status: offline

let em lay and hang out is my preference...Bring your flashlight and claim your prize...

Very honestly alot has to do with where you are hunting...if your local and know the area id stay

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CB

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Post #: 16

RE: Trailing wounded deer - 7/29/2008 2:41:14 PM

FishHuntForever

Posts: 199
Joined: 12/7/2005
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I agree with most it depends on how well of shot you made on if you can track right away (min wait 30min even if I see/hear them fall), most of the time if unsure of shot will wait at least 30min then go look at arrow and blood and decide on if I have to wait longer or can go get my deer. I must do a good job of tracking only lost one deer in the last 30 some deer I shot.
I also have a pretty good record when it comes to helping out friends. Learn from experience and friends. Many of my friends will shot a deer, get out of the stand 30 min later and call me, I either give them advise over the phone or come and help them out.

Sign can be tricky. Have seen deer go a long ways when then ran off with blood shotting out of them into the trees and have seen deer fall over in 50 yards with little to no blood on the ground.

Good luck this year and be safe.

(in reply to Carpet Bagger)

Post #: 17

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