Hello all. First time posting.
Generally I end up dropping a buck almost every year within eyesight if not in place, sitting during shotgun season. This year I had a couple bucks jump me while I was trailing a couple blood trails that went right through where I hunt on private land. After that and the temp shift with that cold front, I didn't see anything for 2 days and was just begging for one last chance.
A doe I had seen the first night came out last minute on the last day, and she doesn't stay in the field long. Knowing she was making for the other fence line on that corner, I waited till she was mostly broadside and shot. She apparently was quartering more than I thought (literally the very last minute of shooting hours so minimal light and about 85 yards slightly uphill with a 870 magnum youth model 20 gauge I have had for..... 16 years maybe) and I clipped the back of one lung and destroyed the liver. Clipped what looks like the rumen maybe and came out just above the back hip.
She spun around hard and started bleeding heavily. Got over one fence, across some CRP and into the next timber. As much as she was bleeding, which was a lot before the open CRP, I was going cross eyed trying to look at every blade of grass trailing her in that. In the next timber she had stopped a sec and had a little bubbling in the blood. Initial blood was about half bright and half super dark red from the liver shot. We lost the trail completely after a few hours, left, and I came back after work. I walked that area up and down, back and forth, down to a creek twice and back up, nothing. Last ditch figured what the heck, one more time halfway up the bank of the timber draw. Saw her ear sticking up. She was laying 5 foot from a trail I checked 2 or 3 hours earlier. Wet bright red blood pooled up on a nearby leaf, she wasn't even remotely stiff, she felt like full body temp, and was steaming when I gutted her. Freezing overnight and mid 40s from 9 or 10 am till I found her at 4 something PM.
So, details out of the way. Only one lung, deer can go far still, especially just the back being nicked on the one lung. But liver shot.... I was under the impression that was a 3 or 4 hour death. But given that she wasn't there, then happened to show up with that fresh blood and whatnot right where I had checked hours before and the night before... I assume she had just died within minutes of me finding her. The blood I had found was almost completely dried by the time I had her gutted.
Is it really possible for a deer to live with a perforated lung and exploded liver for somewhere in the neighborhood of 23 hours? With a ridiculous amount of blood lost and chest cavity filled completely with blood. Let me know what you all think.
Sorry for the long post but I am curious. Relieved and ecstatic, but curious. I have had one small buck i shot with a bow chased off by someone I was hunting with (not recovered) and one buck I shot years ago that was recovered by a neighboring group that kept it. I am relieved I didn't lose this one. 18 years of deer hunting so far and have only missed a few shots and those 2 not recovered by me. I would like to keep the numbers that way.
Oh, and I found a bonus while searching for that doe. 8 point buck had died and gotten eaten by the coyotes I assume so I found an intact top half of a skull with the rack on it completely stripped of tissue. Mice hadn't even touched it yet, most of the time I cant even find sheds because of the mice gnawing them away.
Generally I end up dropping a buck almost every year within eyesight if not in place, sitting during shotgun season. This year I had a couple bucks jump me while I was trailing a couple blood trails that went right through where I hunt on private land. After that and the temp shift with that cold front, I didn't see anything for 2 days and was just begging for one last chance.
A doe I had seen the first night came out last minute on the last day, and she doesn't stay in the field long. Knowing she was making for the other fence line on that corner, I waited till she was mostly broadside and shot. She apparently was quartering more than I thought (literally the very last minute of shooting hours so minimal light and about 85 yards slightly uphill with a 870 magnum youth model 20 gauge I have had for..... 16 years maybe) and I clipped the back of one lung and destroyed the liver. Clipped what looks like the rumen maybe and came out just above the back hip.
She spun around hard and started bleeding heavily. Got over one fence, across some CRP and into the next timber. As much as she was bleeding, which was a lot before the open CRP, I was going cross eyed trying to look at every blade of grass trailing her in that. In the next timber she had stopped a sec and had a little bubbling in the blood. Initial blood was about half bright and half super dark red from the liver shot. We lost the trail completely after a few hours, left, and I came back after work. I walked that area up and down, back and forth, down to a creek twice and back up, nothing. Last ditch figured what the heck, one more time halfway up the bank of the timber draw. Saw her ear sticking up. She was laying 5 foot from a trail I checked 2 or 3 hours earlier. Wet bright red blood pooled up on a nearby leaf, she wasn't even remotely stiff, she felt like full body temp, and was steaming when I gutted her. Freezing overnight and mid 40s from 9 or 10 am till I found her at 4 something PM.
So, details out of the way. Only one lung, deer can go far still, especially just the back being nicked on the one lung. But liver shot.... I was under the impression that was a 3 or 4 hour death. But given that she wasn't there, then happened to show up with that fresh blood and whatnot right where I had checked hours before and the night before... I assume she had just died within minutes of me finding her. The blood I had found was almost completely dried by the time I had her gutted.
Is it really possible for a deer to live with a perforated lung and exploded liver for somewhere in the neighborhood of 23 hours? With a ridiculous amount of blood lost and chest cavity filled completely with blood. Let me know what you all think.
Sorry for the long post but I am curious. Relieved and ecstatic, but curious. I have had one small buck i shot with a bow chased off by someone I was hunting with (not recovered) and one buck I shot years ago that was recovered by a neighboring group that kept it. I am relieved I didn't lose this one. 18 years of deer hunting so far and have only missed a few shots and those 2 not recovered by me. I would like to keep the numbers that way.
Oh, and I found a bonus while searching for that doe. 8 point buck had died and gotten eaten by the coyotes I assume so I found an intact top half of a skull with the rack on it completely stripped of tissue. Mice hadn't even touched it yet, most of the time I cant even find sheds because of the mice gnawing them away.
