How long do you wait?

[Schultzy]

Spot on Joe. There's NEVER absolutes with a wild animal.

[Stump]

To throw in another key piece that I think might be important to this thread is.....How truly confident is someone that they hit exactly where they thought they hit? I would think that would be a very key piece in knowing should I track right away or hold off. What you "think" happened can be vastly different than what really happened especially if you can't find your arrow. Or even IF you do have your arrow.


Example....

A couple Decembers ago I shot a doe at 20-23 yards slightly quartering to. I felt solid, felt super confident in the shot and just knew it was a slam dunk. Released the arrow and heard the typical crack that an arrow makes and she takes off. I looked down and saw my arrow on the ground. Awesome I thought! Double lung, pass through, she won't be far. Long story short, she went about 100 or so yards and didn't bleed a whole lot. Luckily there was snow on the ground because we tracked tracks for a good portion of it. Somehow....someway, the arrow went in mid line and near the crease and came out on the off side just before the rear leg. Did the arrow deflect? Was she not standing as I remembered it in my mind? Did she turn as the shot went off? I really honestly can't say. After the shot and as I replayed it in my head, I would've bet my paycheck that it was double lung, pass through, seal the deal. Obviously I would've been a few $ short on that bet.

[bblefty]

One factor is minimal blood from the very beginning, tracking but being in a setting where there deer could go any direction. I imagine its just difficult to chase 180 degrees. I'll try this in the future though using topo, tracking clues.

Very excited about seeing this on the new dvd. Tracking is one thing I will learn how to do before next season.

[BassBoysLLP]

ttt

[Zap]

I want to get down and look at my arrow/sign right away.
Depending on what I see I may move right out or wait.

[BassBoysLLP]

I want to get down and look at my arrow/sign right away.
[glow=red]Depending on what I see I may move right out or wait.[/glow]

X2. I figured this would be a good bump with more arrows being released.

[Badger]

Very interesting thread, Here is my take. Sharp vs dull- Sharp always wins in every way. Arteries and veins are very tough and a dull head will often push them aside instead of severing or slicing. Weather one bleeds more or clots faster than the other is completely irrelevant to me, a sharp head will do more damage period. Tracking- I always get down immediately and check for my arrow, blood or anything that gives me information on the hit. If it's a good hit I usually start tracking right away unless I'm on one of my more urban spots where pushing a deer would cause it to possibly enter an area I can't access, in that case if I know the hit is good I'll let it sit maybe an hour or so. If I have the space I will push it until I find it dead. I feel that everything Dan said was spot on with pushing a deer to keep it bleeding. It's doesn't take long for a wound to clot up, get plugged with mud or whatever and then it's usually game over. The only time I wait is a gut/liver shot.

[Stanley]

I never did weigh in on this one. I think every circumstance has different alternatives. Double lung, you see the deer tip over, you go retrieve it. Double lung that you don't see tip over, what would waiting 30 minutes hurt? Unsure of the hit (happens a lot) now we have some decisions to make. I hear so many guys say perfect shot and the buck is never found!!! Do you push this type of hit? Your best chance of retrieving a buck that has been arrowed is to see him tip over [glow=red]or a good blood trail[/glow].

A buck shot through both hams is normally a short recovery. Do you push this type of hit or wait? My experience has been you wait 30 minutes and then go look. So you jump him after 30 minutes he is still close and will bleed leaving a good trail. A gut shot buck you leave for 8 hrs minimum. Did that last year very short trail job. Liver shot buck you wait 8 hrs minimum. Most liver hits will die sooner, but why push him into the next county to find him? I have watched a few bucks over the years that I was sure both lungs were hit. I watched them bed down and take anywhere from 30-60 minutes to die. If I push those bucks much bigger tracking job than just walking up to them.

A marginal hit buck "muscle" hits. I see no reason not to take up the trail right away. Your chances are slim because they don't bleed much. By pushing this type of hit you keep the blood flowing. Remember I said a good blood trail is the key to recovery if you don't see them tip over. I am not basing my opinion on what I have read, but rather what I have done over the years. I do tend to be low impact and take that approach to deer recovery also.

[Timmy]

Last year I shot a buck quartering away at 25 yards at last light. My shot felt good. After the buck ran about 10 yards and I herd my arrow break off so I figured I hit his offside leg and he broke my arrow off. Perfect!.. so I thought. I herd him run maybe 60 yards or so and then it was quiet. Ran onto neighbors property so after getting the ok from him we took up the trail. Blood was pretty steady, wasn't pouring out, but steady enough to follow. Went maybe 150 yards and then I really started to question my shot. Maybe I didn't hit where I thought I did?.. Maybe I hit a little high?.. The blood started slowing down so we decided to come back in the morning rather than risk jumping him. Figured if he bedded down that would probly be where he would die if we didnt jump him. We picked up the blood in the morning where we left off. Wasn't much blood from that point, a drop here a drop there. Found him laying on the edge of the river stiff as a board. He went about 250 yards on one lung. Entered right behind the front leg and blew thru the offside leg bone. Pretty far up in chest cavity and a little bit high, and only caught one lung. I felt we made the right decision coming back in the morning. We could have kept tracking that night. Maybe we would've found him dead. Maybe we would've jumped him though and we would've had a lot longer track job than we did.

[binney59]

Great read. I hunt a lot of small parcels which keeps me from being able to continually push an animal but it makes sense on certain hits. The problem is that you have to know how you hit the deer or you could change a potentially good scenario into a negative by interpreting the hit wrong. Thanks for the input guys.

[dan]

BUMP

[oldrank]

I never push deer. If the deer is dead its still gonna be dead in 30 minutes. I usually take a few minutes to calm myself down then look at the situation. If I have a good looking arrow n blood trail I go n recover.. if anything feels off I wait till morning. Pushing deer is the single biggest way to not recover a deer.

[ Post made via Android ]

[dan]

I never push deer. If the deer is dead its still gonna be dead in 30 minutes. I usually take a few minutes to calm myself down then look at the situation. If I have a good looking arrow n blood trail I go n recover.. if anything feels off I wait till morning. Pushing deer is the single biggest way to not recover a deer.

[ Post made via Android ]

I can think of many deer we recovered because we pushed them... Not just a few, but many. It really depends on the hit. I have seen a lot of deer lost from pushing to soon too...

[oldrank]

I never push deer. If the deer is dead its still gonna be dead in 30 minutes. I usually take a few minutes to calm myself down then look at the situation. If I have a good looking arrow n blood trail I go n recover.. if anything feels off I wait till morning. Pushing deer is the single biggest way to not recover a deer.

[ Post made via Android ]

I can think of many deer we recovered because we pushed them... Not just a few, but many. It really depends on the hit. I have seen a lot of deer lost from pushing to soon too...

The only way I would push is I knew it was a muscle hit. I have tracked many many deer that have been wounded by hunters. Where I live our parcels n public are very small. The deer will immediatly go to safety which is usually unaccesable land. The risk far out ways the rewards imo. It may be different if u have large tracts of land. I have to respectfully disagree with u on this one.

[ Post made via Android ]

[Haus86]

I never push deer. If the deer is dead its still gonna be dead in 30 minutes. I usually take a few minutes to calm myself down then look at the situation. If I have a good looking arrow n blood trail I go n recover.. if anything feels off I wait till morning. Pushing deer is the single biggest way to not recover a deer.

[ Post made via Android ]

I can think of many deer we recovered because we pushed them... Not just a few, but many. It really depends on the hit. I have seen a lot of deer lost from pushing to soon too...

I once hit a deer too far back in the hams. When I got down out of my stand I looked at the blood, which seemed to be pretty heavy. I was hoping I hit an artery. While on the ground, I noticed him standing about 80 yards away. I stood motionless and watched him walk slowly until he later bedded down. I sat on the ground watching him and waiting, but clearly I had not hit any major arteries because he did not expire. I remember sitting on the ground saying to my self, "what would Dan do?" I remembered reading about pushing deer in certain situations. I felt like this was one, so I decided to crawl back and grab my bow and try to put a stalk on him. As I snuck through the creek bottom, I gained a lot of yards on him, but he noticed me, stood up, and decided to take off on a slow trot. That is when the chase was on. I sprinted after this buck for several hundred yards up and down creek banks, until finally he was too exhausted that he bedded down and allowed me to get another shot into him.

This hunt was nothing I was proud of, but I strongly feel if I would've let him go over night, I would not have found him. He was no longer bleeding by the time I finally killed him, and if left him overnight, I feel he would've clotted up and wandered just about anywhere. In this situation, I think it was a good idea to push him, but clearly in many others it would be better to let them go overnight.