Possible shot deer, what would you do?

[Rippinlip]

My darling wife went out by herself tonight and she seen deer.

When she got to the truck where I was waiting this is what I got from her. It was about 5'ish and a small buck got within range and she let an arrow fly, she said he bucked up quite a bit in the rear, she was unable to follow the arrow flight, was unable to find the arrow. I told her she did the right thing by getting out of there.

Now my question is do you think he may have hit too far back to react like that?

She said he may have taken a step when she was hitting the release. Do I wait til tomorrow morning to go look for the arrow and any signs of blood?

He may not have been hit at all, but the way she explained it I am thinking a gut hit.

Next question is if I go look without her(work thing) in the morning and find out it was hit and I do recover it, do I let it lay until she gets off work or can leave from work to get a tag on it?

Any ideas on this topic would be helpful.

This is her first year bow hunting and I do not want to loose a possible first buck. I hate loosing any deer, period..

Mark

[harvey lee]

If it humped up in the back and or kicked it legs, It could be a liver hit as that is how they will react.

I would at least go out and look for a blood trail. If its heavy and it been 3-4 hours, I would slowly walk and look. If the blood trail gets less, then I may back out and wait until morning. I guess I would need to be there to know exactly what to do by the color of the blood and I would also look at the arrow for fat tissue and hair color if any is present.

One does not want to jump a wounded deer as it could go far enough without a blood trail and you would never find it.

If you have never tracked one in the dark and the temps are cool with no coyotes in the area, the I may leave it lay until tomorrow am.

If it is hit in the liver, it should be dead by now.

[T.S128]

first thing that came to my mind was that the shot was far back... if its as warm there as it is here i dont think i would wait till morning.

question for everyone else...

has anyone heard that it is illegal to track a deer with a flashlight? i swear someone told me that but it doesn't make sense.

good luck finding it, hope everything turns out

[jeffreyd]

i would not think that tracking a deer by flashlight would be illegal. i would think taking deer would be. you would not be the first to have to track at night. i think i would give it a double check tonight since your wife cannot tag in the am if you were to go and find it then. good luck

[Rippinlip]

Thanks everyone for the response, the suspense was getting to me and after what Harvey said first I had to go check, since it is only about 1/2 mile from the house I went.

The news is I found the arrow and there was NO blood on it.

Good for my conscious and wife is a little depressed, but also happy she did not wound a deer.

She must have came close to have him react like that.

Thanks for the responses and the buck is still out there, maybe she will get another crack at him.

Mark

[T.S128]

good to know hes not gonna go to waste. best of luck to your wife, hope she gets another chance. maybe something bigger

[blackdog1101]

Good on you for taking the time to check it out and see what happened. That's great sportsmanship. I hope your wife gets another shot soon. And congratulations on having a wife that hunts. That's awesome!

[mnguy152]

she must have gave him a hair cut that why he acted that way

[BlueLundFishrman]

Deer have such great hearing and sense. I have heard many times hunters thinking they hit a deer when it acts as described in original post, only to find the deer wasn't hit. It had just reacted to a noise it had heard and/or caught a bit of movement from the arrow release/shot.

[Deitz Dittrich]

I was thinking it could have been a string jump.. Glad you found the arrow!.. without the arrow you would have to assume a hit. Sorry about the miss but best of luck to you and your wife the rest of the season.

[Scoot]

If it humped up in the back and or kicked it legs, It could be a liver hit as that is how they will react.

Sounds like this is somewhat resolved, so hopefully I'm not going to get in trouble for side-tracking:

Tom, I've always thought of the back leg kick as an indication of a heart shot. Isn't that the common wisdom about that behavior? Or... am I misinformed and it's a liver shot? Or... is it both?

[DonBo]

Originally Posted By: harvey lee

If it humped up in the back and or kicked it legs, It could be a liver hit as that is how they will react.

Sounds like this is somewhat resolved, so hopefully I'm not going to get in trouble for side-tracking:

Tom, I've always thought of the back leg kick as an indication of a heart shot. Isn't that the common wisdom about that behavior? Or... am I misinformed and it's a liver shot? Or... is it both?

I've most often seen the "mule kick" in a heart shot deer. Don't remember the last one I only hit liver.

[Heartman]

Good ending to the story - good job on your followup - it worked out good(not so great for wife though).

[harvey lee]

My son shot one this season with his bow and it was liver shot and it kicked up his back legs.

Maybe a heart and and a liver shot they will do this.

Of the deer I have shot with a bow in the heart, I have not had one do a mule kick. That surely does not mean they won't do it though.

[spivak]

I shot a deer through the liver a couple of weeks ago. The arrow went straight through and the deer just took a quick step or two. It walked off and stood for a minute before raising its flag and running off. I found it 70 yards away.

[96trigger]

I shot my buck low in the rib cage behind the front shoulder this last weekend, he mule kicked and hunched up.

[MNUser]

I think if you were shot with an arrow you would kick and buck too. Can't feel that good no matter where you are hit.

[Scoot]

I think if you were shot with an arrow you would kick and buck too. Can't feel that good no matter where you are hit.

We're not talking about how it feels. I'm wondering to what degree the "mule kick" behavior is an indicator of where the animal was hit.

96, did you do any autopsy work on your deer? Was it a heart shot? You didn't say anything about the angle, but unless it was quartering towards you, it must not have been a liver shot.

The more I think about it, I'm not sure if I've ever hit a deer in the liver. I've shot at least three of them right through the heart and none of them mule kicked. However, I've always heard that heart shots resulted in the kick. Maybe it's not a very good indicator of shot placement?

[splakeshaker]

I think individual deer act as they act. No set of rules as of dictating shot placement to animal reactions. I was ground blind hunting when I shot my buck and hit both lungs and the top of the heart. Didn't know what hit him. Just trotted off and piled up 40 yards later. I've heart shot with a rifle before and had the "mule kick" and liver shot twice in my life, one bow and one rifle, and neither "mule kicked". There are no rules IMO.

[bigbucks]

I agree they can do whatever. In my experience if they take off charging hard & keep going, they're generally dead & will just collapse. It's when they only jump a little or just walk off I get worried. Plenty of those have still been good hits, but the percentage of bad ones goes way up. I can only remember one liver shot deer with the bow & it basically walked about 15 yards to get out of the clearing & it was dead. This was a pretty small deer though.

[96trigger]

I hit him low, He was up above me about 40 yards, so unlike most shots where the entrance is higher than the exit, mine was the oposite. My exit was higher than the entrance. I just missed the heart.

[Steve Foss]

I think individual deer act as they act. No set of rules as of dictating shot placement to animal reactions. I was ground blind hunting when I shot my buck and hit both lungs and the top of the heart. Didn't know what hit him. Just trotted off and piled up 40 yards later. I've heart shot with a rifle before and had the "mule kick" and liver shot twice in my life, one bow and one rifle, and neither "mule kicked". There are no rules IMO.

I agree. All of my bow deer were heart/lung (except for one spine), and a couple mule kicked and some didn't. Same thing with rifle-shot deer. I've had some kick and run off and others just drop straight down.