Time after shot

[bcmuledeer]

Sorry guys if this has been done before, but after watching a hunting show which the hunter didn't get a double lung shot, they talked about 8 hr waiting time to track the animal!
Fine and good, but unless you shoot it in the morning here, that animal is either bear, wolf or yote food if left out over night! I'm guessing 4 hrs max here! I have shot moose in the evening, got him out by 11:00 pm, went back at 7:30 am and there is not a sign a moose was ever killed there, no gut pile, legs, nothing!
How long do you guys/ gals wait( it will be my 1st kill with xbow and I will try get a real good shot! How long should I wait before looking!
Bill

[Dereck]

If you don't see or hear it crash I would give it 30 minutes before heading in to track it.
That is usually enough time to have it lay down and expire or get weak enough for you to get another shot in it.

[Raymond]

Hey Bill,
What I have been told by experienced bow hunters is to wait a minimum of four hours if your shot placement is bad. And depending on what kind of sign you see when you start tracking the animal, you may need to back out and wait longer, possibly up to eight hours and possibly overnight. But in your kind of situation you have to play it by what signs you are seeing and you will have to try and recover that animal sooner.That is what I have been told by well seasoned bow hunters with twenty-five to thirty-five years of experience. And some of these people are experienced guides.
Raymond

[See4miles]

I have waited 4 hours on a liver hit deer and jumped him from his death bed twice. This is what I always read I should do way back when. Liver hits are always fatal, but depending on where in the liver the hit was made can determine if they die in 1 hour, 4 hours, or longer. Since I've done this twice over the years, I wait at least 8 hours and take my chances with an overnight wait with the Coyotes and such. This is what experience has taught me.

In both cases I did this, the deer had bedded down within 150 yards of the shot and that once the deer has been jumped from a long lay down period, there is almost no blood trail after that and finding them will be extremely hard...

Taking a shot at dark, you may not be sure of the hit uless you recover your arrow and can determine from the blood on it where the hit was. Or, generally the immediate blood trail will help you decide the first 40 yards most of the time ( but not always of course). I act as though I'm sneaking up on him right from the stand. No noise and keep my flashlight pointed at the ground as much as possible. I never, ever holler for a hunting partner, use a cell phone, and never vocalize in any way with the assumption a wounded deer is already bedded within earshot. We all know what lung blood looks like on an arrow or on the ground. As soon as I see anything that tells me it is possible I hit anything but lung, I mark my spot with some TP and back out as quickly and quietly as possible and go plan for the tracking phase of the hunt.

I found one of the two deer this happened with and the one I lost was a dandy 8-point.

[agingcrossbower]

On a vital hit I would wait about an hour. On a non-vital shot which I mean guts you should let it alone for a good 8 hours. If you don't wait that 8 hours or more you run the chance of jumping it and the game gets much harder to find after that. In your situation only thing I can say is don't pull the trigger until your very sure of a lung or heart shot. Its only fair to the game your hunting. Thats tough to do but yours is a tough situation.

[Raymond]

Well said Mike.
Raymond

[bob1961]

good answer by all....i had a 10 yard shot on a doe that was pushed to me and on full alert, but i had seen her coming from 75 yards away and was ready when she got to me....all i was waiting for her to do was turn broadside or step on me as i was standing in the trail they were going to use and looking through my exocets scope ready to let the arrow fly....just as she seen me standing there she turned so fast as i pulled the trigger i got her in through the liver behind the rigs going in....then caught the rear of the off side lung and off to the race she went....all i heard was a full throttle run busting trees down that were in her way for bout 5/6 seconds till it got quiet but not the crash quiet....waiting for my buddy to get to me and found a few drops of blood in the snow in the tracts she left, not much but some....backed out onto the trail we walked in on and she crossed and found my arrow 20 yards past where she was standing under 6" of icey snow and 3 feet from the hole in the snow....walked around to where she went past him at full speed, he thought it was yot how low and fast she was going till he saw the boold spot on her side....picked up a few drops of blood in the only set of tracks in the snow "january in PA" and followed the tracks to her....but the tracks showed she was traveling full throttle and were bout 12 feet apart from the last set all the way of 450 yards to a small beaver pond we found her in, telling me that she was hit in the liver....the rate of travel she was going she covered that 450 yards at full throttle in bout 15/20 seconds till the big splash....as long as we found those wide spread tracks of her high speed travel we followed ready for a second shot, but knew she was pumping herself dry of blood which was all inside of her....this was in the am and was ready for an allday tracking job....kinda nice she was wet from the pond and 6" of icey crusty snow that she slide real nice on back up hill to my truck .........bob

....

[vixenmaster]

I usually get down out of my tree if'en i see or hear my deer go down. If'en i don't see or hear i stay up in tree & hunt another hr then ck my arrow & what type of blood & blood trail. I seldom hunt in late afternoons anymore. I usually can kill all the deer i can use in the mornings by Dec. So if it shows me a poor hit/blood trail i may go slow enuff a snail can pass me watching & looking ahead on me. I don't like pushing one up out of its bed after hit. I had rather wait several hrs than do that.

[bcmuledeer]

Thanks for all the info guys, love it that you experienced hunters share your knowledge, do you guys think it's worth the money to buy lighted nocs or will bright colored vanes do the job. Will this help to see where your shot went?
Man some interesting things that happen after the shot, can't hardly believe a liver or heart shot will not put them down in less than 10 sec. Lots to learn yet!

[ninepointer]

Unless I see the deer go down, my rule of thumb is to wait 1/2 an hour before budging from my stand or making any noise or motion. After a 1/2 hour I do a "short range" investigation. The findings of this investigation, combined with my level of certainty with my shot placement, determine what I do next. I either continue tracking or back-off for another hour.

I am generally not in favour of waiting 8 hours or overnight to track a deer, although I wouldn't entirely rule it it out if, for example, I knew that I gut-shot a deer. I will come out and say that, based on my observations, most such next-day deer recovery strategies are intended to maximize the odds of recovering antlers rather than maximize the odds of recovering edible venison.

[See4miles]

Quite often, you will see a lung or heart hit deer go down, in thick cover you will hear them do what I like to call "crash and thrash" When this occurs, I go get them right away as I know they are dead. If the arrow has passed thru, bubbles in the blood are a sure sigh of a lung hit and a dead deer.

No arrow and bright red blood is typically a lung hit but I will still wait an hour.

Anything else, 8 hours. A fatally hit deer will die in the the bed it first lies down in if it is not pushed. He may only be 150 yards away, but once he gets jumped from that bed, the chase is on and good luck from there........Just my experience, consistently.......

[Onetimeonly x-->]

The amount of blood left from the point of impact is what
I go by. We've all heard or seen game that's been hit in the
heart and were amazed at how far they went before falling.
I'm thinking it's the lack of blood to the brain is what stops
them. Their dead they just don't know it. More blood the
more I move, less blood the less I move.

[georgiaboy]

My general rule is if i see the animal go down 30/45 minutes. If not and it's a good hit at least 1 hour and then i let the blood trail tell me what to do...good blood, lung shot keep tracking. Very little blood or signs of a liver or paunch hit deer i back out. I don't like to leave them overnight, but will if i have to...to many yotes around here!!!
I do the same thing with hogs...worse thing you can do is bump a big hog back up!!! They usually go country on you, and that's one critter you will never find again!!! Know that from experience!!

[one shot scott]

Imho, lighted nocks are worth the money. With them and a bow mounted camera that's able to replay while your still in the stand is priceless to me. Not 100% necessary, but a darn nice thing to have. I replay the footage and then decide how long to wait them out.

[badredbird]

half hour is a good rule of thumb but there are many variables, is it starting to rain, is it getting real dark, here if you dont get it , its bear or coyote food, how warm is it, so a bunch of things come in play i like to wrap my arrows , all white wrap all white fletching , really helps me pin down where ive hit, i am curious about liver shots , evey deer ive shot in the liver havent had one go more than 50 yds , they tend to bleed out, i could imagine some scenarios where it would be advantageous to push to force heavier bleeding, they are tough animals tho , im amazed at what types of punishment they can take and still travel