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Pretty sure I know the answer

I didn’t find any sign of intestinal matter. I thought I heard him ahead of me so I immediately stopped and reversed my direction. It was dead quite and I heard some rustling and didn’t want to bump him.


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Arrow to me looks 100% like guts. Gut shot deer arnt that hard to find if, and only if, they are not pushed. Tracking too soon is the problem 90% of the time in these scenarios that don't result in a recovery.

Folks should really take note to walk other way and not track at all. If arrow is right there, grab it, investigate sure.... but gotta wait. Its not fun to wait but the risk of bumping the deer is far too great imo.

Goodluck and keep us updated.
 
Arrow to me looks 100% like guts

I agree, looks intestinal to me. Happened to me over 20 years ago when my arrow clipped a twig. I knew right away the hit was in his intestines and watched him lay down about 50 yards away. I backed out sick to my stomach and went back 8 hours later sneaking in from down wind and another direction. I found his bed but he apparently moved during that time period. No trail to follow and a very thick area so I assumed he headed toward a stream about 150 yards away. Never found him until I smelled him about 3 weeks later in a gnarly thicket about 40 yards from the stream. It's so hard to wait but gut shot requires 24 hours from my experience, you may have to shake it off and keep hunting as hard as that is. Wish you luck Andy
 
Any luck finding him?

Didn’t spend much time last night as I was on call for work, but going back out at noon to look. Didn’t see much blood, lost the trail about 50 yards from where I saw him last yesterday


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Looked all afternoon to no avail. Fairly sure my movement to check blood flushed him out and he is long gone. Not much blood further then the last spot I posted... and unfortunately not sure if I will be able to hunt again this season due to elbow surgery tomorrow. Thank you all for your advise and support as I looked for him


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Bad deal, I hate to be the bad guy but this story bothered me! You asked for advice and did the opposite. If you backed out you'd have your deer.
 
Bad deal, I hate to be the bad guy but this story bothered me! You asked for advice and did the opposite. If you backed out you'd have your deer.

I backed out like it was suggested and did what those who gave the advise said. I didn’t go far at all and I am sorry you feel that way. It was my first bad hit and a lesson is learned from the situation and of I get another arrow like that I will know immediately what to do, haven’t been bow hunting that long and learned a tough lesson from this


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Bad deal, I hate to be the bad guy but this story bothered me! You asked for advice and did the opposite. If you backed out you'd have your deer.
Easy there dude! I don’t know either of you guys but I know I’ve made mistakes and learned from them. Guarantee you’ve done the same. If you feel this way, keep your thoughts to yourself and just don’t post. He asked for advice not critique. He’ll learn from the generous people on here who genuinely care about helping people out. He doesn’t need your big timer, holier than thou attitude. That’s not what this site is about.
 
Sucks and happens from time to time. Use this as a learning experience. Going that first 150 yards without giving the deer ample time is most likely what cost you, and I'm not saying that to beat you up, just giving advice for next time since you said this was your first bad hit. Gave him time clot up up but not enough to expire. Hope the surgery goes well.
 
Yeah, that arrow clearly had an encounter with the guts. For any inexperienced bow hunters that might be reading this, going 150 yards down the trial is not backing out. On a questionable hit at most go look for your arrow and then head back to the truck. I know it's tempting to just follow a little ways, but you're not going to do yourself any good. And while we're beating a dead horse, quartering towards shots really aren't ideal either.
 
Not to pile on, but hopefully to help avoid a repeat scenario in the future. A gut shot deer will often bed within 100 yards of the hit...and be laying there dead about 20-24 hours later...IF they are not bumped. I had a gut shot once and the deer stood 76 yards away from me for the longest time, probably 30 minutes, before laying down. I remember the range because I was seriously thinking about sending another arrow at him at that distance. I knew by his reaction that he had been gut shot. I returned about 5 hours later and jumped him right where I last saw him. As I now know...even 5 hours was too short of a time. I then let him go overnight and found him the next morning about 200-300 yards away.

Gut shot deer die a death of septic shock, not blood loss per se. That's about a 20-24 hour process unfortunately. Another time I was hunting with one of my boys and he hit the guts...that little buck bedded about 40 yards away, we waited for dark and snuck out and returned the next morning and promptly jumped right where we last saw him. Let's just say that he ended up as a "shed season find". Overnight, 12'ish hours, was not enough time.

Another time, I helped another hunter who hit a nice buck in the late afternoon. It turns out that it bedded down within 60 yards of the stand. He knew he had a marginal hit so we waited overnight and yep, you guessed it, we jumped that buck from that bed the next morning. We were able to follow his trail to another bed about 150-200 yards away...but not knowing better, we jumped him there and then never found him. The neighboring landowner found him while shotgun hunting a month later.

I could share a few more very similar tales. Bottom line...if you are in the guts...DO NOT trail it, slip out and come back 24 hours later. Your deer will be dead within 100-150 yards of where you shot it. If you bump him...your odds of recovery NOSEDIVE severely.
 
I backed out like it was suggested and did what those who gave the advise said. I didn’t go far at all and I am sorry you feel that way. It was my first bad hit and a lesson is learned from the situation and of I get another arrow like that I will know immediately what to do, haven’t been bow hunting that long and learned a tough lesson from this


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Good luck in the future, sorry it didn't work out!!!
 
Easy there dude! I don’t know either of you guys but I know I’ve made mistakes and learned from them. Guarantee you’ve done the same. If you feel this way, keep your thoughts to yourself and just don’t post. He asked for advice not critique. He’ll learn from the generous people on here who genuinely care about helping people out. He doesn’t need your big timer, holier than thou attitude. That’s not what this site is about.
Far from a big timer, my bad!
 
A friend shot a buck Saturday right above his pen**. He retrieved his arrow and left. Sunday morning the buck was found 75 yards from the shot. He reports the buck had to see him get down and recover the arrow.
Keep at it Andy cause none of us will never stop learning about hunting whitetails!
 
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