AFTER THE SHOT

[Roadrunnr72]

Sorry new to this as well... but why the wait is it for the animal to feel safe and stop fleeing and drop or is it because a wounded animal is so dangerous? Or something else cool, I don't know about?

You want to make sure that the animal is dead. If your shot was off a little, the animal will go lay down and usually bleed out. If you go to soon, you will "bump" it and it may take off and now you have a long tracking in front of you. As for being dangerous, well, depending on what your hunting. Here, for big game, it's deer and turkeys. A wounded deer can attack, but will run, most of the time. If your hunting bear, then they will attack.

[Ont_Excal]

Sorry new to this as well... but why the wait is it for the animal to feel safe and stop fleeing and drop or is it because a wounded animal is so dangerous? Or something else cool, I don't know about?

When shot with archery equipment an animal dies from hemorrhage. Depending on where the arrow passed through the body will determine how long this will take. Through the liver takes longer than through the lungs which takes longer than through the heart.

A gut shot animal will take a long time but will die nevertheless. This animal will lie down and die in that bed if not pushed.

I reload and wait a few minutes, the time it takes to slowly drink a cup of water or coffee. There's a lot going through my mind after the shot. Then I climb down as quietly as possible and find the arrow. I smell the arrow. It should smell fresh with blood and fat only. If it stinks like a septic tank then it was shot too far back. Followed one after only 4 hours and it took tracking for over a mile and a half before I could put a finishing arrow into it. At that point it still ran another 60 yards and died in full flight, even though it was now shot through the heart. Only reason I tracked was because of fresh snowfall from the night before. Without the snow I would have left it till early evening.

A well placed shot may only take 2 or 3 minutes to kill a deer but it's amazing how much distance a wounded animal can cover in such a short time when pushed.

[Big58cal]

When shot with archery equipment an animal dies from hemorrhage. Depending on where the arrow passed through the body will determine how long this will take. Through the liver takes longer than through the lungs which takes longer than through the heart.

Actually, the last part of that is incorrect. Of the 3 (heart, liver, lung), an arrow passing through the lungs if fatal faster than than the other 2. I've got the information in my Bowhunter Education Instructor manual and can't remember what university did the study, but an arrow passing through both lungs of a deer, the deer will go down, on average, in 8.7 seconds. A deer shot through the heart with an arrow will go down, on average, in 20.5 seconds. The main reason for this is that with holes through the lungs like that, they collapse. If the deer can't breathe, it can't live. But even with a hole through the heart, the heart keeps beating and keeps circulating blood. The circulatory system fails when there's no blood to pump.

[robertyb]

I agree with that. My heart shot animals always run farther than my double lung shot animals do.

[Ont_Excal]

You can call it incorrect, but I will stand by my observations of over 25 dead deer.
After a broadhead through the top of the heart, I doubt it will pump much blood anywhere except into the body cavity.
Put one through a jugular or a femoral and the blood loss is crippling.
Even with collapsed lungs the deer must die from lack of oxygen to the brain.
I've watched a deer run with air and blood mist blowing out both sides.
The only shot that dropped them in their tracks was a spine shot and required another to finish the job.

[xsh0tya]

Thank you all for the information! Great to learn from folks who have been through it already.

[Big58cal]

If you are lucky enough to hit the top of the heart and sever all of the arteries and vessels, then no, there won't be any blood circulating. The heart will still beat though. But you're talking about hitting something the size of approximately a half dollar, whereas with the lungs you've got a target that's 8-10". I'd rather aim at the center of the lungs and give myself a little wiggle room. If I'm low, I hit heart and lungs. High, I hit lung. Left, lungs. Right, lungs. If you aim at the heart and you're low, you miss.

As far as disputing the study, each to their own.

[Ont_Excal]

I have no axe to grind with anyone.
I do not dispute the study.
I only post my own observations.
I did not say I aim for the heart specifically.
I hunt hilly ground and stand height in many cases does not allow for a double lung pass through.
My primary target is one lung and the heart but game animals don't always cooperate.

[bigredopie]

I aways wait 20-30 min before getting out of my stand to give it time to peacefully bleed out. I also use the time reload and to pack my things up so I don't have to climb back up later on after pulling the deer out. If you give the deer a little time even if the shot it less than ideal you still have a good chance that the deer will be close to where it went down at after the deer was shot. If you try to track it too early, the deer will continue to move away from you and you run a good risk of losing it or spending many hours tracking it.

[roly]

I usually wait 20-30 min... because I'm shaking
so bad it's not safe to get out of my stand.
Have 8 or 9 smokes then I'm able to safely get
down , by that time i can start to look for my deer

On a bad hit I call some friends have anther 6 or 7 smokes and then start to track.

[Ont_Excal]

FWIW:
I have a deer heart in the freezer.
It's from an adult buck but not what I call a mature deer.
It's just over 4" wide at the top, 2 3/4" deep and just under 6" long.
I have seen bigger in mature bucks and does, and also smaller in some.

[ninepointer]

I've seen the CRAP on TV where the guy comes back in the morning to search for the deer he shot at dusk the previous day. Folks,that aint going to work in S. Georgia. With all the coyotes we got, I would be lucky to find the antlers.

The come back next day strategy should only be used when you have strong reason to believe the deer was very poorly hit (e.g. gut, leg) or if you've totally exhausted all reasonable efforts to find your deer after hit. Unfortunately, too many decisions to come back the next day are based on maximizing the odds of recoverying antlers and not on maximizing the odds of recovering unspoiled meat. The blood trail gets a bit thin, so these idiots chicken out and then thump their chests about how they "wisely decided to back out and resume the search the next morning" .

My rules of thumb for waiting are:

-5-30 minutes if deer drops in sight. Depends on deer's behaviour & position. There are times when you know with 100% certainly that the deer has expired before your eyes. The 5 minutes is only needed to settle down your excitement to allow you to safely climb out of your stand.;

-30 minutes if deer runs out of sight on a 100% certain double-lung shot;

-1 hour if I connected but have doubts about placement. My findings (hair type, blood colour, blood pattern) and my flexibility to post-pone my search (e.g. will my job allow me to take time off tomorrow) will determine whether & how I press on or whether I back out and come back next day.

I suppose If I knew I hit a deer in the gut (has never happened to me and hopefully never will), I would wait 30-60 minutes before quietly climbing out of my stand then sneaking home. If it was a morning hunt I would come back in the later afternoon. If it was an evening hunt I would back back in the morning.

[nchunterkw]

All good advice on here. I wait about 10 min (mostly just to calm down) after what I think is a good double lung hit. Since I sit on the ground I have a higher probability of hitting both on a broadside shot - which I wait for. After 10 I start packing up my stuff, then I look for the arrow - since I'm on the ground this takes time and still I lose quite a few. Then I look for the beginning of the blood trail. If everything indicates a good hit, I go forward marking each spot of blood as I go with surveyors tape. It's a pain because you need to backtrack to collect it all - which you should do - but if you have to leave it overnight it won't disintegrate in rain or dew. Had to do that last year on a doe my son hit. My experience is about a 40 yard blood trail on a good double lung hit on a calm deer. But I've also experienced shots - with a fixed blade - where I got a pass through and the deer only ran a few yards then turned around to see what the noise was - stood there a few more seconds and then just fell over. My best advice would be to read up on blood trailing deer so you understand what you are trying to do - then after the shot - calm down and methodically go about the process.