So my brother is not a deer hunter, but decided to take his 16 yo son out for our youth season. He called last night right at dark and said my nephew had shot one and they were starting to track it. He said it had been about 15 minutes since the shot, and after discussing the situation I advised him to leave and wait because it sounded like a possible gut shot. He said that he deer hunched up slightly, and walked but didn’t run away. I met him there an hour later. We followed a good blood trail over a fence and across a railroad track. The deer then went about 30 yards before jumping another fence. There was no pool of blood to indicate he hesitated before crossing the fence. At that point the deer entered a small tilled field. We were probably a little more than 100 yards from the start. As the deer entered the field the blood trail got pretty sparse. We followed tacks and blood drops 70 yards across the field and marked where he entered the next patch of brush before I told them we should stop. We found the deer this morning about 40 yards from where we stopped. Here is the pic of what we found. What do you all think, did I go in too fast and too far, and got lucky to find him at all? Or did I mess up by stopping last night and lost the meat as a result? [Linked Image]

Last edited by crc1514; 09/12/20.