wounded dear question

[deadminnowcatcher]

my nephew hit a buck tonight and his dad video taped it. It was a broadside shot and the arrow was low and back. the arrow had guts on it. The dear went about 10 yards and stopped. It was standidng with its back hunched up. It then slowly ran with its back hunched. Is this something we should wait till morning to look for???? They did not look for bloood and just quietly got out of woods. What has been your experince with these kinds of hits??? do they leave a blood trail???

[gurkster]

I would wait until morning. Hopefully you marked the last location that you saw him. The hope is that if he is not pushed, that he will bed down and bleed out. If gut shot and pushed he could run quite a ways. With the cool weather the deer should still be fine overnight as well. Good luck and take your time tracking it. One thing that I do is use toilet paper to mark the blood trail. At this time of year it is easy to see and looking back will help determine its course, and if you forget to pick some of it up later it is bio-degradable. Good luck on the search, and post when you find him. Also, if you haven't watch your video as that may give signs as to just how bad he is hit and possibly his course of direction depending on what was filmed.

[gurkster]

I should also add to look up ahead as you track in case you jump him, and it can also help you determine his possible course of travel. If he feels safe he will follow the terrain in a manner much like you might. The easiest path from A to B. Check the thick stuff where he may bed down. When tracking the more the merrier!!! Again, good luck.

[deadminnowcatcher]

They decided to wait till morning. there will be 4 of them tracking. they would have more if it were not pheasant opener. I will post what they find.

[fishermn]

Good luck! In my experience, they will usually bed down within 100 yards as long as you dont do something to push them further. As mentioned by others waiting overnight in this situation is definitely the best bet. You will probably find him not too far from where he was last seen.

[tunrevir]

Any luck with finding him? Had a doe that was feeding along last night and just about the time I let fly she stepped forewards and I got a smelly arrow. She went about 40 yards and bedded. I jumped her up an hour later and almost got a second arrow into her but she ran off and stopped about 60 yards away. At that point I backed off and decided to wait till this morning to find her. She went about another 60 yards and keeled over. Best to back off with a paunch hit and wait till morning. I was lucky that she didn't run further last night. The rain made for some real interesting tracking this morning. She is now cooling her heels in the garage. Good luck, I hope you find it. Water seems to draw those gut shot deer if there is any nearby, check it out.

Tunrevir~

[harvey lee]

I will agree with the water.I have seem numerous gut shot deer head for a water source.I would without a doubt leave it until morning as you will only push it further.

I have tried to find them a few hours later only because I cannot let it lay until morning due to many coyotes.

If possible I would wait at least 5 -7 hours.

[deadminnowcatcher]

we were unable to find the deer. we waited till morning and found a very light blood trail it crossed a river and we found a spot of blood where it went up the bank on the other side. This area is full of thickets. could not find any other blood. I checked the rive in both directions and nothing. also searched around in thickets and nothing. I would bet it was in the thickets somewhere but we could not locate it