Hunting the stand that I missed the 8 point out of a few weeks back for the first time yesterday evening had me wondering. Since I'm 99.9% sure it was a superficial wound, how many of you have done the same thing, and then saw the same deer in the area later in the season? How long after your shot (days, weeks, months) was it? Did they seem much more skittish or were they back to a somewhat "normal" behavioral pattern?
In '06 I hit a buck in early November. A 3 day search turned up empty. I saw the buck during gun season about 1/4 mile from where I had first seen him. He showed up in a field about an hour after daylight.
About six years ago I shot a really nice 8-pointer and hit him square in the shoulder. At the time I was still pretty young and didn't have enough KE to penetrate the shoulder. Needless to say I was pretty upset, but two weekends later I saw him again, with a little hitch in his step. I was never able to get close enough to get another shot at him, but I did see him again out of the same stand. He was probably a 2.5 y/o if I had to throw out a guess.
I shot a buck on 9/12/2006.............bad hit. Superficial wound. I saw him again, the day after Thanksgiving. I saw him again, closing day - 2006. I saw him on 11/2; 11/3/2007....and killed him 11/6/2007. What I don't get is.....all the talk in this forum of how most every deer wounded will live to see another day. I ain't buying it. Sorry.
I'm sure Matt you remember my run Ins with the buck I wounded last year on October 19th. I believe It was 2 weeks later that I saw a picture of him on my trail cam over looking my mock scrape. This mock scrape was In the same exact stand I wounded him from. A few days later I had him at 7 yards right at dark from this same stand. Had him In front of me for 15 minutes and couldn't do a thing but watch him. 3 more times after this I saw this same buck but In different parts of the woods. If he's living In your woods like mine was your chances are great of seeing him again.
The first deer I ever shot at was a 140 class buck. He was quartered away from me and I hit him square in the butt. This was around Oct 25th last year. The rut was just begining. I saw him then again about a week later. He came back within 50 yards of the stand, but never offered another shot. He had girls on his mind for sure. There are two things that I think brought him back around the same area. 1. The rut was getting into full swing. 2. When I shot him he never disclosed my stand or me. I was able to draw back and fire without him ever knowing what happened. I think this plays a big part in how nervous a deer will be back around the same area. A gun hunter did end up harvesting this deer later in November though. Hope this helps a little.
I think it depends on the severity of the wound. A flesh wound, I have seen deer act "normal" the same day. A wound that recovers some recovering time will probably take longer. It sometimes could take days for them to get their strength back, and then who knows from there. Every deer is different. Some are more tentative or paranoid than others.
Oddly enough, I'm not sure if this buck is a regular as I only saw him once, and no pictures of him all summer on the trail camera in the area. With that being said, I would highly doubt it would be a one time visit to this particular plot. So far, I have evidence (trail cam and stand sits) of 8 different bucks in this vicinity. 5 of which are shooters by my standards...one just happens to take the prize from them all.
About six years ago I made a bad (above the spine) hit on a 130" 8 pt. 5 days later I killed him with a heart shot when he came in to investigate a doe. I have another buck that still runs around today that I made what looked like a lethal shot on 2 years ago.
I suppose this gives me a little confidence since this area is very populated with does, and it's a major feeding area especially as the year progresses, and the acorns dwindle. Only time will tell, I suppose.
