I get down and look at the arrow right away to confirm how the hit really was to what I thought. From there I will decide how long to wait. Usually an hour or so
Depends on the hit, but if I see them go down I'd give them at least a half an hour. I hit my buck this year in the liver. Waited a half an hour to get down and recover the arrow, then took up the trail after waiting two hours. I heard him lay down, so I figured that's where I would find him. We got about twenty-five yards away and he jumped up and took off. We backed out and took up the trail again about six hours after the initial shot, luckily we found him about forty yards from where we jumped him. If you think it is a good shot, but don't see the deer go down I would wait at least a couple of hours to go looking.
I guess thanks to this forum, I'm too scared to jump a deer. Even if I know I placed a great shot on it, and it drops out of sight, I still wait at least two hours. I've only shot one deer that fell within sight, it ran 15 yards and dropped dead, even then I waited about an hour and a half to recover it.
For whatever reason I've hit 3 deer in the liver. I got all 3 but 2 out of the 3 lived over 12 hours. I had to arrow 2 of them the next morning to put the finishing touches on. Liver hits are weird. One lives 5 minutes and the next can be all night.
And just think....I know someone on this site that claims liver shot deer have to die within a few hours....hmmm....
well lets be real, if you've ever actually cut a liver up (they are tasty) they have massive veins running thru them, but not ALL through them. So its easy to clip the liver and not one of the main veins, which will still bleed and result in death.
Whats really crazy is both the deer that lived 12 hours were dead center liver hits. Here's another thing that blew my mind. Both of these doe's rotted on me. Both were shot in near zero temps and were froze when I hung them. It took one day to un thaw them. The next day I butchered them. The meat from head to tail was green all the way through. The 1st time it happened I thought it was a fluke but when it happened the 2nd time 3 years later I figured it has to have something to do with the poisons in the liver going through the deers body for 12 hours straight due to a liver hit that some how wrecked every bit of meat on these 2 deer. I've hit one deer in the liver since and I butchered that one up immediately. No problems on that one. From now on any liver shot deer of mine their getting butchered right away.
1 hour for me too but in the case of a bad shot I wait 4 hours because if we leave them over night here in Florida it usually gets warm enough that it will ruin the meat
I have made two liver hits. The first one, I tracked after about 1 hour and was very lucky to get him... I had almost no blood and he laid down about 75 yards away. I would have recovered him easily had I waited as I should have. I luckily noticed his eyes were closed and was able to shoot him again. He jumped up and ran another 100 yards. I was still a newbie. The second time... I noticed the hunched back and went home without even looking for my arrow. BTW... arrows aren't going anywhere either. I learned a lot from the first time it happened. I came back the next morning with my Lab, Rebel and he was laying 20 yards from where I hit him. I would have jumped him had I pursued too quickly. Now I almost always wait at least 2 hours unless I see a blood bath at the hit site AND hear or see the deer crash. If I have any doubt... any... I wait an extra couple hours or, better, over night depending on the temps and coyote activity. If a deer hunches, or if you know you hit back too far... (most shots I see on video are too far back IMO)... there's no reason to check your arrow. Wait it out... leave... go get your tracking gear together... call a friend... post your story here... whatever. Don't rush it and you'll seldom lose a deer. Jump them and you'll lose them often.
So many factors go into the decision, with one of the biggest being did I hear it go down. Someplaces I hunt are thick so they can visually disappear, but you can hear them crash. Then it's about a 15 minute wait. If I see blood spewing from the deer as it run out of sight and I know its toast, 15 min. Other solid hits that I know are good, 30 minutes. Good hits that I just get a funny feeling about 1-2 hour. Hits I know aren't good 4+. I've hit several deer in the liver. Most we hit in another organ as well. 1 lung & liver is in my opinion the trickiest shot to follow up. Guts/liver you just treat as a straight gut shot. Center punched livers have all been down pretty quick, although one went pretty far and I dont know how quickly he died. I found in about 5 hrs after the hit stiff as a board. But the blood trail had lots of stops & puddles (not pushed as I never got down until 4+ hours later)
