![]() While hunting with some folks from RutWear in Kansas last year, I shot at a buck with a. In my experience, deer often show little reaction to the sound of a muzzleloader, unless they’re hit. With a rifle or shotgun, the sound alone is usually enough to send a deer fleeing, whether hit or not. With a bow, reactions vary widely from complete indifference to all-out panic. Sometimes the type of weapon makes a difference. An ambiguous reaction is not necessarily a bad thing. Lung-shot deer can react in a variety of ways, from bolting on impact to showing complete indifference. A paunch-hit deer will usually hunch up and walk or trot away in a humped-up posture. A heart-shot deer will often buck, jumping straight up in the air or kick its hind legs up high before bolting. Keep in mind these are generalities, but they hold true more often than not. Any sort of erratic movement such as a stumble or leg kick might also indicate a hit.īehavior also can hint at location of impact. A deer might bolt at the sound of a shot whether hit or missed but will generally react more quickly and violently to a hit. Observing how an animal reacts to a hit can be helpful and can reinforce or refute other evidence. Often a deer that looks broadside is actually quartering slightly, which can make a big difference in the wound path. Was it forward or back? Which way was the deer facing, broadside, quartering-to or -away? Be aware that shallow angles can be misleading. ![]() Try to replay the shot in your mind’s eye, concentrating on where/how the deer was hit. Make the wrong call and you could lose your deer unnecessarily. But where you hit the deer can make a big difference in how and when you should begin tracking. Sure, it’s embarrassing to admit you made a bad shot. You need to be honest with yourself as well as anyone else along to help. ![]() ![]() This will also help you calm down and focus on the task ahead. Pick out a landmark right away, like a particular tree, rock or whatever, and memorize it. Things look radically different from the ground than from a stand. Unless you make a concerted effort to identify the location, it can be hard to find afterward and will only get more difficult.Īs time passes, you lose focus. This is where you’ll start all blood trailing jobs. Exactly where was the animal when you shot? When I put a hunter up a tree, I want him to be able to answer several questions if he takes a shot:ġ. And you should know how to react if and when you get a shot. You should be familiar and well practiced with your equipment. The process of recovery begins before you take the shot. What follows is some advice and guidelines directed primarily toward archers but applicable to gun hunters as well. However, you can significantly increase the odds of recovering your deer if you take the right steps after the shot. Nothing goes to waste in the wild, but it’s a tragedy nonetheless. And some mortally wounded deer will never be found. Many will recover from their wounds, but the hunter doesn’t know that. It’s inevitable that some deer shot by hunters will be lost. Even then, odds of recovery would not be in my favor unless I did everything by the book. I knew from experience that I should leave as quickly and quietly as possible and not return until daylight. Not only was the arrow not clean, it was covered with a malodorous brown ooze: paunch. It took several minutes to locate my arrow. Just the same, I sat tight for another 10 minutes.īy the time I got down, it was pitch black. The only sound I heard was the dull thud of my arrow hitting the soft ground, followed by the buck’s hasty retreat. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to throw off my shooting form. No time to count points, but there was little doubt it was a shooter.Ī low-hanging branch between me and the target forced me to crouch for the shot. Then I caught sight of a thick antler beam. A large gray body ghosted through the underbrush. The nearby snap of a branch seemed too loud to have been made by a deer, but I prepared for a shot anyway. ![]() From any other stand, I might already have started packing up my gear, but the one I was perched in had a history of last-minute activity, so I held out to the very end. It was in the waning minutes of daylight, and the dense softwood canopy hastened the dusk. Only fools rush in to track a wounded deer. ![]()
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