UPbowhunter wrote:I'm not trying to be a stick in the mud here, I'm really trying to understand this, so no gut shots, no liver shots, proceed like this, but if it's shot any where else proceed fast, and push. Most other hits deer would be down and dead by the time you got down from tree with the exception of a one lung, or high low hits, so I guess this is making some sense. If your arrow smells and has matter on it, give time. If your arrow has dark blood give time, good lung blood proceed now, and anything else proceed now. Throw in a little common sense and reveiw your minds eye of how the shot went down a few times and I guess how this may be helpful Dan. My thing is there is hundreds of thousands of deer tracked with the rules we have be going by for years, every year why change. But if there is a few more deer found than not by the old rules its worth trying to look at better ways.
You pretty much nailed it now... Liver I wait 6 hours. Guts I wait at least 12 hours. Anytime I am unsure of guts, I would suggest treating it as guts and backing off. An experianced hunter should be able to determine guts or liver by blood, hair, smell, or particles on arrow or in blood. Guts, liver, and intestine hits are different than other hits because usually they don't bleed to death, rather they die from the toxins that are released into there body / bloodstream. This takes time. I believe its a painful death by observations of deer hit in these locations. They hunch up, often hold there tail down instead of in flag position, and run only a short distance before walking slowly to someplace close and lying down.
Flesh wounds will clot and start to heal if the deer lies down. I push flesh hits. One lung hits are one of the best hits to really push. These deer will clot up and live for a couple days, sometimes longer, and in some cases survive the hit all together. But if pushed the increased respiration's, heart rate, adrenalin, and blood flow will make it very hard for him to breath with one lung and blood clumps will come up thru his throat and nose choking him. Most of the one lungers I go after right away are found still alive but drained of energy. I have finished a few of them off with a knife to end the suffering.
My thing is there is hundreds of thousands of deer tracked with the rules we have be going by for years, every year why change. But if there is a few more deer found than not by the old rules its worth trying to look at better ways.
Not really sure of the exact origin of the concept of waiting 30 minutes, or an hour, but according to my Dad and a few other old timers, it was not so much for the deer to expire, but out of respect for the animal they let it die in peace. Really, from a medical standpoint, I can't see any reason to wait 30 minutes, or an hour unless your hoping not to recover the deer. If its a fatal hit to both lungs or the heart it should only take a couple minutes tops to expire, in the rare cases as some have pointed out where the lungs don't collapse and the deer is able to some how breath, letting it sit would let it survive even longer, or live as in the case of the elk someone mentioned that was found to have an arrow thru both lungs when field dressed. Though that might be a 1 in 100,000 case, still, I would have to say pushing those animals and making them breath hard, making the heart pump blood hard, and adding the natural blood thinner "adrenalin" into the blood stream would make them expire faster.
I have recovered two deer from lower front leg hits by pushing them till they ran out of blood. Both those deer, I believe would of survived if a guy waited before tracking. I got a 3rd leg hit deer that I tracked two days but let go over night and got him by tiring him out till he just decided he wasn't running no more... I could go on...
if hes not dead and you bump him, them Ill give it some time.
Not me... If its anything outside of guts, liver, or intestines, I would stay with the track and stress the animal.