In my experience, if I am on a good blood trail and the deer quits bleeding, it is probably down within about 50 yards or so. They only have so much blood and if there isn’t enough to hit the ground when there was, there probably isn’t enough to run the deer very much longer either.
I've found exactly the same.
You didn't even track 200 yards before giving up? I understand hindsight and all that, and I don't hunt where there are lots of fencelines, but I wouldn't have given up after less than 200 yds. You knew the deer was shot, you knew that there was a blood trail. You just gave up for some unknown reason. Kind of sad, if you ask me. That 16 year old kid likely isn't too excited about it either.
I didn’t give up, just waited till morning. Not for an unknown reason either. I assumed I was, and turned out to be correct in assuming, tracking a gut shot deer. I didn’t want to bump him and lose it for good. We were already on neighbors property (with permission) and blood trail was getting hard to follow. I was afraid there wasn’t enough blood to follow in the brush. Last night I was kicking myself for possibly already pushing the buck farther onto neighbor than I should have. Obviously I’m kicking myself for the opposite now. My nephew was more than excited to find his deer. The plan is for my brother or I to shoot a cape donor so he can get a shoulder mount.
Just because a deer is "gut shot" doesn't mean anything specific. Either does a dwindling blood trail. Heart-shot deer "hunch up" for me as well. As someone else said, the idea of backing out overnight only works on hunting shows.
I wasn't there, so I'm not trying to criticize what you did, but rather to offer my opinion based on my own experience. I'd track for at least a quarter-mile if I could. If I thought I was pushing a wounded animal, I'd wait until 2 hours after the shot, then chase blood. I'd then mark the last spot of blood and come back in the morning. I've seen heart-shot antelope run a quarter-mile.
It's a tough call to make. If you think this is a successful outcome, don't learn anything from it. If you don't like the outcome, learn something from it and do things differently if it happens again. Either way, I wish you, your brother, and your nephew well.
