I regularly see hunting recap stories, and even TV hunting episodes, where the hunter takes his shot, and then sits still to wait, for something.

The old reasoning for this is apparently to give the animal time to bleed and expire. Since this has never been a procedure in my hunting life, a long one, I am interested in what hunters here have as opinions on it.

Our philosophy is that a hit animal's demise will be accelerated by vigorous, immediate pursuit, in effect forcing, by its exertion, more bleeding and quicker expiration. Allowing the hit animal to stop, rest, and sometimes recuperate enough to make good a complete escape seems to me not a good practice.

What say you?

If it drops, I watch for a good 2-3 minutes through the scope, ready to fire again, as I've seen them try to get up after presumed to be dead. If it runs out of sight, I like to wait about a half hour or so, just in case it was a marginal shot. I do love to hear them crash, even if I can't see the fall. I don't immediately pursue an animal that looks to be hit with a bad shot, as I've seen many that stopped to rest and wound up bleeding out.

Depends entirely on the situation. Rain/snow coming or falling will mean a faster follow up than otherwise. Reaction to shot, weapon used (bow/rifle), cover, property boundaries, etc. will all contribute to my decision as to whether I go right away or I give it some time. I would guess that most of the waiting that you see on the Outdoor Channel has more to do with filming light than it does letting the animal expire.

I think it depends on the bloodtrail after the first hundred feet, and how many other hunters are in the area. I don't think you have anything to loose by waiting unless you are on public land with a lot of guys in the woods. Even then I would hope they would do the honorable thing if they came across your deer.

Fact remains, that a not mortally wounded animal when left alone, will quiet down and find some cover. There it will bed and "stiffen up". The longer it sits, the less it wants to get up.

This greatly facilitates finding the animal and finishing it off.

OTOH - when pushed/persued after the shot, it will put all left into distancing itself from persuer. Depending on blood trail (or lack of it) these are often then not recovered and errorneous thought to have been missed.

Best practice - always - is to find the place the animal has been hit and study the sign - tracks, hair, blood, rumen tissue, bones...

then track. Hones the skills and helps to make the right decision on how long to wait...

I dread being called to follow up an animal with my dogs and learn that it has been persued and pushed...

There is no "one size fits all" situations but I tend to agree with CMG.
As far as expecting another hunter to do the honorable thing, I wouldn't count on it.

A shot doesn't always 'spook" the animal into a huge adrenalin surge that takes it fruther away and gives the meat a bad taste, but following one thats alive sure can when they realize you are there.

I think the dumbest thing in the world, unless its raining or about to, is not give at least 30 minutes to the animal.

I mean on top of it, what is it that you have to do, that you have to get to that animal that fast anyway?

But as noted, some situations can call for it. Like coyotes, etc... others stealing your deer and so on. Of course if thats an issue, I'll crack the deer dead right there with a precise CNS strike and nothing else.

Last thing I want is someone elses deer personally.

Even if its raining or about to, I"m so confident in my ability to find the dead animal later, that I don't and won't get wet looking for one or worrying about one. It'll still be there when it quits.

Great post here. Many animals I could have found if they would not have pushed them first. That makes it much harder if not impossible.
Only thing I'd add, typically gut shots go less than 100 yards and bed up. LEave em in that bed and they die right there given enough hours. If you push them out of that bed its a circus for sure. And you don't need a blood trail to find a deer dead within 100 yards.

What I would add, that sometimes going out to look at the sign, if you don't know where you hit it, is the worst you can do because it'll jump the deer out of the first bed. If I don't know or know for sure it was a gut shot we go the other way away from it and come back 6 hours later.

I realize some say they have so many yotes that 6 hours would be nothing left. Can't say what Id' do then.

Rost, right you are. Discretion be used-not to push them, looking for sign.

With as many people that hunt Washington's elk seasons,if you shoot an animal, you'd better be like Rosco P. Coltrane and be in "hot pursuit"

Otherwise you may just get to your animal to find another dude gutting it.

I'm not that hard up for elk steaks to take another guy's elk,but there are lots of fools that are.

I don't doubt that at all, given that situation I think I"d strive to make a head or high neck shot everytime, just wouldn't be worth it to not, and as such if I can't, just pass the shot.

I look and listen till I see it drop or can't see or hear anything, then smoke a cigarette. After that I carefully pick my way toward were I last saw it to not spook it if it is still alive.

I go to the spot where the animal was shot, if sign indicates I go ahead. For example, shot a doe and upon arriving where she was standing there was lung tissue in the briars, so I went on in and got her. Sign of bad hits get wait time.
GreggH

I always get right on the trail and finish it asap!

Wait 5-10 minutes unless it was a DRT to examine the site. If blood is bright and copious I might wait another 5-10 or slowly head in after it right then. If blood is dark and clotty I might head in for breakfast and take volunteers back out after an hour or more. My wife's dad hit a low shoulder small piece of lung last year. He came into camp for a couple hours before we all went out. We jumped the poor doe after a hundred yard scout and finished her after a couple botched shots. I think she'd never been found had he pushed her initially when her adrenalin was flowing.

Going in right away around here is a foolish proposition. You bump that deer and he takes off into a northwoods swamp and you kiss your chances of recovering him goodbye.

It all depends on the situation. In this open country, normally I can see it fall if it's within 100 yds or so.

I usually try to wait for at least 15 min. before taking up any kind of trail.

Unless I see them go down or hear the crash I give them time. Got on and stayed on a gut shot elk right away ONCE, never again.

We hunt from blinds, so it takes about 15 minutes to pack up our gear before tracking. A heart/lung shot deer seldom goes more than 75 yards anyway.

It is easier if they just drop. We hunt from a blind over an open field about 125yds from a heavy timber. Last year, my buddy shot a nice 8 point about 60yds. He hit him just right. The buck jumped and ran to us, about 30yds, and stood. I said to punch him again. He hit him good again and the buck headed for the timber, but only made it about 50yds.

My three biggest bucks were bang flops, due to high hits. Two were hold overs of 313yds and 440yds. The other was a 50yd shot. I may try for a neck shot this year, if in the 60yd range. I have never used that shot, but I don't want someone to have to track my deer in the neighbor's timber.

It is easier if they just drop. We hunt from a blind over an open field about 125yds from a heavy timber. Last year, my buddy shot a nice 8 point about 60yds. He hit him just right. The buck jumped and ran to us, about 30yds, and stood. I said to punch him again. He hit him good again and the buck headed for the timber, but only made it about 50yds.

My three biggest bucks were bang flops, due to high hits. Two were hold overs of 313yds and 440yds. The other was a 50yd shot. I may try for a neck shot this year, if in the 60yd range. I have never used that shot, but I don't want someone to have to track my deer in the neighbor's timber.

A big +1 to that.

with my annual Michigan hunts(heading up tomorrow btw) Even with DRT drops Ill head back to the truck strip off the heavy stuff and pack and pick up my dressing gear. depending on location Ill be able to drive in or Ill figure the best drag options.

The opinions here are diverse, and for good reasons. There seems to be experience on both sides of the issue.

Nonetheless, the only elk I ever lost was a cow to whom I granted the 15 minute pause. She lay down about 150 yds from the shot, not in sight, but the time allowed her, despite losing copious amounts of blood, to regather her strength and take off again.

Darkness and snow destroyed the tracking and we could never locate her or her trail the next day either.

I think, had I pushed her hard, that wound would not have had the opportunity to congeal and I would have exhausted her.

I used to shoot low to medium behind the shoulder and trail them. That's where Dad taught me to shoot 'em, and we never lost one for years.

I hunted the Hill Country and killed does and little bucks this way for years.

Then, when I was about 13, I got a chance to hunt in some big deer country in Northwest Texas on a hunt with my Dad where I never expected to get to actually shoot anything but a doe or cull.

We rattled in the biggest 9 point I had ever seen walking - an honest 145-150 class deer - and I shot for the heart as always at around 200 yards. We were on the ground, and I shot kneeling resting my elbow on my knee as I had on dozens of deer - but the cold and a little buck fever (along with an 8lb trigger on my M700 270) caused me to pull the shot a hair left and a little low.

I hit him low shoulder/upper leg and broke the near leg and knocked a bunch of meat out of his brisket as he quartered slightly away. We thought he was hit good, but the further we watched him run the more apparent it was that being just a bit off had been disastrous. Despite being on 3 legs, he got stronger as he ran instead of crumpling as I expected.

We gave him some time, tracked him, found good blood at first, then leg bone...then nothing. We looked most of the day. We never found him. The ranch owner said he would watch for buzzards, but never saw a sign of him. I don't know if he survived it or not, but he was at least crippled the rest of his days.

I learned a lot from that awful experience. One of the best hunters I know was on that trip. He asked to see my rifle after I told him the story. He dry fired it, winced, tried it again and said, "I couldn't have hit the deer at all with this rifle." He let me dry fire his custom 280 with a 2.5lb trigger, and told me not to hunt with mine again until I got a trigger job. Lesson learned.

He also asked me where I was aiming. I told him, and he said, "That's the wrong place to shoot a big buck. Center punch the shoulders and break him down. Every time. If you are a little back you'll double lung him, a little low you'll get his heart. High you'll spine him, and forward you'll break his neck where it joins his shoulder. If you'd aimed there on the deer you wounded, we'd be caping the buck of your life instead of talking about why you wounded him and couldn't find him."

I took his advice. All of it. From trigger adjustment to point of aim, and I've not lost a rifle shot deer since that day.

A slightly high shoulder shot - even if the deer is quartering and you can only take out one - pretty much makes the tracking discussion moot...And it's about the most ethical shot in terms of margin of error and quickly killing the animal.

However...I bow hunt - so - per the original question...

If the sign at the hit says anything other than - "The deer is definitely dead, Go get him"...I give them time if I can before tracking.

Sometimes heat or predators or other factors preclude waiting - and in that case - track quietly and watch and be ready to kill him as soon as he starts to stand up if you can.

That was the situation when my son shot his first buck on the evening we had to drive four hours home for obligations the next morning.

The buck was gut-shot on a bullet deflection because my son didn't see light brush screening his shoulder when he shot. I was watching through binoculars when he shot him, and he was waiting for me to tell him to shoot. I started to say, "Kill him as soon as he clears that brush." But all I got out was, "Kill him...Ka-BOOM!" My son has never messed around once he gets on a deer and gets the green light, and he thought he had it. My fault.

There was no exit and no blood. I was walking grids in the direction he had run and watching for movement as far ahead of me as I could see, when after a long search, I caught movement at the edge of a thicket. The buck had turned his head upon seeing me from where he was bedded.

Fortunately, I caught the motion and snapped on him as he was getting up to run. I shot him as he got to his feet and hit him again when he tried to get up after the first shot. If he had been able to get a head of steam leaving, I don't believe I would have caught up with him again the way he was hit.

I kept looking for this deer after my Dad and son had given up. It looked pretty hopeless, but I just wasn't going to quit and let his first buck end up an unhappy memory if I could help it.

Thankfully, the good Lord gave 3 generations of hunters a happy ending on a little boy's first buck. My Dad was incredulous when I got back to the truck hours after they had called it quits and told them, "I found him."

Hard to tell who's happier - but it's obvious we were all pretty tickled...





Sorry to be so long winded. Seems the topic opened a floodgate of memories. Hope some of them help someone.

DJ

I am usually several minutes away from anything I shoot. I will do as mentioned above. Work my way over to where I shot, access the sign and if its marginal I will sit and wait for a bit.

I am a little confused, if you hit a little forward or foward and low, you hit in front of the shoulder and he runs away wounded right?

In my experience, tucking that bullet right behind the front leg is the most ethical shot you can make and gives you quite a distance in 360 degrees for margin for error. My experience has been on deer in the far north (Minnesota) that are pretty big bodied (many dress out well over 200 pounds).

On a center shoulder shot (and by that I mean at least half way up), being a little forward will usually break the neck at the base. I like high shoulder shots even better - a hair above half way - if I need to drop a deer in his tracks.

A little low and forward on a high shoulder shot may still be lethal, but I didn't say anything about that in my original post. Being off in two directions obviously makes a lethal shot less likely.

A midway to slightly high shot behind the shoulder is dandy, too - and if it is half way up or a touch more, it often shocks or even clips the spine and drops them right there. To be clear, the shot I was trying when I blew it on the buck I described was a more of a low shot behind the shoulder - more of a classic heart shot. If I had shot center or slightly high behind the shoulder on him, I would have killed him. I just didn't understand much at the time, and was heart shooting everything (or trying to) since that was how I was taught.

I agree that being off on the mid/high shot behind the shoulder is pretty forgiving. However, hitting further back than intended might hit liver, but usually hits guts - especially if the deer is quartering toward the shooter at all. I hate gut shot deer, and they can be awfully hard to recover.

If you're back on the center shoulder shot, you're still solidly in lungs (or liver if you're a little further back).

Plus, you're a lot more likely to get a 5-10 second death sprint on a double lung behind the shoulder shot where you don't hit bone. Conversely, hitting bone on the shoulder shot almost always drops them right there with CNS shock.

Of course, as long as you get an exit, the double lung shot deer should be very easy to track - but if you shoot in rain or get a cloudburst while you're tracking (or just have terrible tracking skills - it's amazing how people don't see stuff these days), recovery may still be a challenge for some.

I still think punching shoulders gives the best margin for error and highest likelihood of recovery. Not many shots are forgiving enough to allow for much error in missing in two directions - like low and forward - but even missing low and back on the center shoulder shot keeps you in the heart/lower lung area. There are always trade-off's, but for the best opportunity for easy recover with as much margin for error as any shot available, I like punching shoulders.

It does mess up a little more meat (and I think saving meat is why my Dad and Granddad shot for the heart/low lungs behind the shoulder), but all things considered I think the meat loss is a very acceptable trade-off - especially on a good buck. While Dad and I still break the necks on most does we shoot for meat, he is a shoulder shooter convert on bucks.

DJ

From what I've seen at my camp I believe some of the guys had "shoot them behind the shoulder" drilled into them so hard they go on autopilot and do it even when the deer is strongly quartering on. Then the rodeo commences.

I agree.

I was guiding a really good guy one year - avid reloader and a good shot, attentive and just a good guy to hunt with - and we finally got the shot at the buck we wanted and he was quartering to us.

I specifically told him, "He's quartering to us, put it through his shoulder a tick forward of the front leg."

He replied, "All right!"...and proceeded to shoot him behind the shoulder and through one lung and guts.

I thought the shot looked too far back, and asked him about it, and he said it felt good.

I asked him where he held, and he said, "Right behind the shoulder."

I asked him why he didn't put it through the shoulder like I told him to, and he looked embarrassed and said, "I meant to, and then I just automatically shot him behind the shoulder like I always do."

We found the 6.5 year old buck, but gutting him wasn't too pleasant, and I doubt he ate that good even though we washed him out real well.

DJ

Excellent post. As has been pointed here and in others, there are situations, which create experience, where both courses of action are correct. The interesting thing is that, as in football coaching decisions, there is an unwritten "book" that is supposed to be followed. The truth is that if you lose an animal because you waited, the teeming millions will commiserate with you over the misfortune (although they will, in all probability, criticize your lack of shooting skills). However, if you follow up right away and do not retrieve the animal, they will condemn you for having violated the sacred "book", no matter what the circumstances.

A matter of opinion and experience.

Maybe, maybe not. I've been in on two elk that were hit fatally, but didn't expire right away. Both laid down, and both got up out of their beds and kept going when pushed. One was right before dusk. He only went about 75 yards and laid down; I was watching him and it was getting dark. He saw me and knew I was there but he didn't want to get up. After about 10 minutes I saw his antlers and head tilt over and lay down so I thought he was done. I walked in and he got up and ran another 100 yards and stopped, turned around, and looked at me for about five minutes (If I'd been rifle hunting I could have put him down but I was bowhunting) before walking into some thick oak brush where I couldn't see anything in the dark so I backed out. Found him first thing the next morning, and he had only gone another 150 yards. I'm convinced that if I'd left him alone for a half hour, I'd have recovered him in his first bed.

The best way I can put it is, if an animal lives two minutes, do you want it to lay down in 30 yards and die, or follow it however far it can go in two minutes? That's why you leave a wounded one for a half hour, at least my opinion.

I make my decision based upon all of the variables that are in play from the moment of the shot until recovery of the animal. I also learned to shoot a tad higher than I was taught years ago. No matter how the animal presents, I aim through it. The point of entry is not all that I consider. I try to imagine the shot all the way through the deer, keeping in mind that the high shoulder area has no hard, heavy bone to deflect the bullet. Down a bit lower, the upper leg bone can affect the bullet's path. I also consider the weather conditions at the time of the shot and following. A good, sudden, gully-washer can mess things up by washing away blood sign and flattening the heavy leaf cover this time of year where I hunt. I am only talking deer though, as I have never been fortunate enough to go elk hunting yet. I've been able to consume a good deal of elk, but it came from my close friend's adventures out west. JMHO. YMMV.

In a heavy rain, during muzzleloader season, I had a good quartering away shot, at a nice buck. The buck dropped rolled over kicking, and couldn't use front legs... I'm talking pouring!I watched and almost was done reloading, when he got up and walked away... I made the decision, because of conditions, to get after him... Good blood, and layed down once in 500 meters. The blood finally washed out, and I spent 2 days looking... It was the first gun deer in 50 years I lost.. Felt bad for a few hrs. but knew I made the right decision, and did my best..

I had a similar thing happen to me a few years ago and blows my mind. It was just about dusk second to last day of muzzleloading season. It was brutally cold with about a 10 below windchill. I was getting ready to call it quits when a big fat doe walked out to the edge of the field, centered the cross hairs the best I could behind the shoulders because I was shivering so bad. When I touched it off she went bang flop so I figured I had a dead deer. I grabbed my gear went back to the house and had some dinner and warmed up. After 4 hours I went back to looking for the deer and could not find any blood. After a hour or so of looking with a flashlight I found the blood trail. This deer was pouring blood I ended up jumping her where she was bedded was a pool of blood the size of a hubcap. I decided to let her rest again, I went back the next day found two more beds with blood in it, jumped her once. And after awhile she must have bled out because I couldn't find a drop of blood. I lost her tracks in a runway with about a dozen other sets of tracks. To this day it blows my mind. These animals are tough.

I hit them till they are out of sight or down.

If they die within sight, I go get them. If they don't, I wait at least 30 minutes. More often, will take a dip of Skoal and sit and enjoy the wild for about an hour. Then go look...

if i's not a berry eater, i'd rather they stiffen a bit. best not to get in a hurry.

should have waited longer saturday night. had a nice doe come in at about 50 yards then stop behind a bit of brush and do the foot stomp act.
I was sitting on my but up against a stump and i guess she caught my scent. not crazy but a whiff. She high tailed it, i though, back the way she cam. I say there another few min and she came back. doing the sneak and peek. I popped her thru the chest and she dropped to the spot.
I gave her about 15 min and then went to start dragging her out. I had about a mile drag by myself at night so i wanted to get started. when i got to her i rolled her over and got snorted at by another deer in the thick stuff.
one of those deep snorts that makes your back tingle.
should have stayed put another 10 min. i might have got to do the double drag.

Did the same last year. Shot a nice doe 15 yards in front of me. Just sat there enjoying the morning. It was so early on opening day. Within 15 minutes, an nice buck walked right up to us... After complete filet, into my large pack, the biggest problem was getting the pack up on a rock, to slip into, and walk my mangy 65 year old can back up the Mt. to the car!! I sure went slow... Took about 10 min!

The last time I drug one and left one came back and got a coyote as he was munching her azz.

Ditto, unless Mother Nature is doing things that might make a trailing job hard. Thankfully the last dozen or so animals (mostly archery) I've taken have dropped within sight.


Years ago I took a running shot at what I'm still thinking was a very nice deer. I hit him just a little far back and while the blood trail looked good and I wasn't to worried I went back to my truck to warm up and give him 15-20 minutes to expire.

Shortly after I picked up the trail, he'd crossed into the neighbors woods which was open to hunt to a few people and he never cared if I was there or not. Trail didn't go far, but it led to a gut pile.

Whomever tagged him, did a very very quick job and got the heck outta there with my deer.

ps: Never understand why someone would want to tag anothers animal, trophy or not? Years later they can look up at the antlers and think about the fond memories of tagging someone elses animal?