Tracking/trailing question!

[BAK]

OK, here is the scenario;

5:30 PM, broad side shot at a nice 6 point, distance about 18 yards from a ladder stand.

48# recurve with 15/35 gold tip and 125 grain Zwickey head.

Shot hits centered top to bottom, and farther left(rear) than it should have.  No pass through.

Deer hunches its back and takes off running with just fletching showing.

What are the odds of recovery?
How far will it go?
How long should you leave it before tracking?
How much of a blood trail?


More to follow!

[V I Archer]

Too far forward or too far back?
Blood at site?
Walked off ir full out run?

[John146]

Leave it overnight. With the arrow still in the deer not sure how far. If they don't get bumped they will usually bed down within 100 yards.

[Scott Barr]

Yep.  I agree with John 146. Will likely run down hill if the terrain allows.

[TURKEYFOOTGIRL]

If hunched gut shot. Leave minimum of twelve hours. If you sneak out and sneak in bloodtrail have very high probability of recovering deer within 100 yards. If you jump deer odds to down dramatically as guts plug hope.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Hard telling without looking at the blood on the ground what internal damage was done. If you poked a hole in the bottom, you should have a decent blood trail....

Personally, i'd never leave an animal out over night unless i loose the blood trail. I'd let it set 2-3 hours on a questionable shot, then i'd go track it with a lantern..... Out here in early archery season, that meat goes bad if you don't get it field dressed in 8-10 hours... if the coyotes, bears, and lions don't find it first...

[dbd870]

Agreed, from the deer's reaction it sounds like a gut shot. Let us know how it goes this morning.

[BAK]

Good advice from everyone. Here is how it played out.

The deer ran west along a steep ridge line. I waited a half hour, then checked the trail before it got full dark.

I found some blood, but very little. I could see the line of travel was parallel to the ridge line.

I went home, had supper, and waited till 7:30 PM. I guess I had a gut feeling it was a liver hit and figured he'd be down.

My wife loves this stuff and she went with me back to the site. It was some very rough walking, with thick brush. About 200 yards from the hit we found the back half of the arrow. Still very little blood.

It was slow going but he was piled up about another 100 feet on. We got him up to the trail and then to a tree we could hoist him up and field dress him.

It was just as I had thought, a very solid liver hit. He had bled out internally leaving hardly any blood trail. Total distance from hit to recovery was about 250 yards.

[John146]

Glad you got him and glad it was a liver hit. If it would have been gut shot you probably would have bumped the deer and chances for finding him would have been slim.

Congrats!!

[VA Elite]

nice job brother!

[toddster]

Like everyone said, let the deer alone for 12 hours.  Then go to where you shot it or the very last spot you seen it run.  If no sign, I will go CSI, set up a grid pattern of 10 yard increments, and mark with toliet paper.  I will search this way till I find sign.  If downhill leads to water I would start that way.  patients and persitence is the key.  I have taken my time several times on bad shot, and stayed with it up to 4 hours, and have found my deer.

[ChuckC]

If you don't hear it drop or see it drop, sit still and watch.  

Everything eats deer, so they run.  If there is not huge trauma, like breaking their leg ( another good point about a sharp broadhead) the deer will likely run to the first available cover, stop and stand there, watching to see if what ever it was is following them.

If you sat still, didn't scream " yeah I put the smackdown on that sucker" and dance in the tree for all ( including that deer) to see, then it will likely bed near where it stopped, still watching.  It just got a sharp pointy thing run thru it and although there is very little pain from that, it is bleeding heavily.

Wait for a minimum time ( your time) unless you are worried about a too far back hit.  Then sneak out of the woods and come back in the morning.  It will likely be very near that initial bed.

If you hit it in the muscle ( butt, high leg, maybe neck) another tack is to get on the trail pretty quickly and keep it moving and bleeding freely.  I have tracked deer that way and was successful, but it was a hell of a track and covered a bunch of property.

Just my thoughts

CHuckC

[dbd870]

Glad to hear it was a liver hit - congrats on your deer.

[highlow]

Don't have a choice here in NW NJ. Too many bear and yotes. No matter where you think the shot hit, can't back out and try to track in the morning. If it dies there won't be much left even if you do find it. Will give it a couple of hours but that's about it.

[Bladepeek]

I would also check out UBT website for a blood trailing dog near you. They can work wonders if you don't mess things up too badly first.

And yes, I do understand coyotes. They're everywhere and a lot of times you can't wait 'til morning.

[Michael Arnette]

Glad you found him! Liver can be pretty deadly

[Sam McMichael]

Glad you recovered the deer!

Glad it worked out. Losing one sucks rotten eggs!

Bisch

[bunyan]

The other factor to consider is the deer's age. In my experience 6 month old deer die pretty easy. It's still important to give time on any suboptimal hit though.

[joe ashton]

Thanks for sharing.. good job.
Joe