I shot the biggest buck of my life tonight at 5:48 p.m. I am hunting a suburban area where there are lots of deer. I had a 150 inch 10 pt come to about 4 yrds and I hit him in the liver/gut area. I don't know what happened I think buck fever and pulling the shot played a role. After the shot the buck ran 25 yrds and bedded and then got up after 10 mins. The buck then got up out of that bed and slowly walked for about 20 yrds then bedded again, the deer then got up and and walked 5 yrds and bedded again and by that time the light had faded away. I sat in my stand for about an hour and a half in the dark until I slowly crept out. We went in after him 3 hours later to find less blood then I expected. Being excited was the killer here because we walked around being loud through high brush for about 30 minutes. The deer was not where he bedded last and there was one small pool of blood. The deer looked extremely wounded and I feel just awful. I was wondering if I could get some opinions for our morning search.........
He's going to be dead, hopefully he was dead before you went in last night and you didn't bump him. He's hurting bad if he bedded that quickly, find the arrow?
Did not find the arrow yet......looking in the light will hopefully help. Where he bedded last there was pieces of, what it looked like, blood clots or something.
I'd go in slow with just two, nothing worse than a pile of guys tromping around when you have a poor blood trail. I think he'll be there but if not check into tracking dogs if legal. Good luck, I think you'll be posting pics shortly, look forward to it!
Good luck with your track this morning. Any water near by? If he bedded that many times that soon after the shot I doubt he'll be very far.
You went in way to early IMO.......gut/liver shot I would have waited at LEAST 8 hours. Good luck this morning, some good advice posted by others! let us know how you made out. he is dead by now, stay out there till you find him!!!
When in doubt, back out. If you know you gut shot the deer or if it was a bad shot, then back out at least 6 or 8 hours. Leave them alone and they will bed down and die. Bump them and you could be tracking them to the next county.
Sounds like a liver hit for sure. Should have waited until the next morning and you would likely find him in a bed not far. I would guess he has been bumped but will still not go terribly far before bedding again. Likely multiple times.
Any luck Joe? Guessing you had a long day of showing off your buck and celebrating! Sleep off that hang over and post some pics!
Looked for 9 hours. Found a few beds yesterday with minimal blood in them. We should of waited till the morning to go look for that deer. Big mistake. Looked by all water sources on the property and there was no sign. We lost blood after the bed besides one drop we found in a field with high grass. Very disappointing... But that's hunting
Keep looking!! Don't give up man, I looked for a buck in Ohio I hit far back two years ago for 3 days in a row Sun up to down. I ended up finding him in a logging road ditch, the meat was shot but at least the buck was found and case closed. I felt that I owed it to the animal and myself.
There have been many threads like this. You are not alone. I wasn't there but I am convinced the biggest mistake one makes when shooting at actual game is trying to watch the arrow. It is my opinion that it is best to forget the arrow and try to keep aiming at that one hair until you hear the arrow hit. IMO, trying to watch the arrow is the main culprit in punching the trigger/dumping the bow, etc.... At some point... you have to move on and keep at it. Hopefully, he'll make it.
