Scenario: During an evening hunt you have a deer jump as you are releasing and it ends-up gut shot. You know the best bet would be to leave it until morning to track hoping that it beds down soon and stays put, however you are worried that coyotes will get it if you don't make an attempt to find it before dawn. Do you back off and come back in a couple hours to track or take your chances on coyotes chewing on it before morning. It's cold enough out the deer should keep fine even if it does expire before dawn.

Wait. If your lucky she’ll bed down and die. If your not she run for miles when the yotes bump her. If you track her down and she’s not dead you can guarantee you’ll never find her again.

I would wait till morning

Since it is late in the evening you are kinda stuck between a Rock and a Hard Place. The BEST choice is wait till morning. You don't know for sure the coyotes will find her, they have a lot of territory to cover for food. If they do get her up she is going to run. If you start trailing her to soon she is going to run (that is bad enough in the day time) and then you will have to come back in the morning to TRY and find her, Leave her alone and hope the coyotes are else where. This senario is a tough one no matter how you look at it. DANNY

If you can't wait until morning, give her at least 6 hours!

The best thing to do in that situation, is to wait.

Yeah, wait... At least 12 to 18 hours... Hit one once just after 5PM and was still alive (although approachable) the next morning at 10AM... You push too early, it may end up in next county before dying...

Wait till morning!

I would stay close by an listen but then I kind of like to sit in the woods at night and listen to the sounds.If yotes bump her you should hear the chase. If you hear the yotes but no chase perhaps you can run them off. At night you can hear brush crashing for quite a ways and coyotes tend to be vocal. Good luck. >>>----> Ken

I would wait till morning too.

Wait. If you want to recover the deer it's your only option, and far from a guaranteed one.

The only option here is to wait, and hope against the coyotes finding the deer.

I made a bad shot on one awhile back and and re recovered it within 75 yards. I just let it bed down and waited 4 hours. Shouldn't have went far if it doesn't get bumped to early.

It was my dilemma this past weekend which spurred this conversation, it happened basically as Mike initially described it.

I had a buck and a doe come in just before dark and took a shot at the buck which should have been an easy one, but resulted in what looked like a gut shot. The arrow passed clean through and confirmed what I saw. I tracked for a few yards to make sure we'd have a blood trail and then backed off.

Coyotes are a big concern in our area, my Dad has lost a deer or two to coyotes that he had to leave overnight for one reason or another. I had two different coyotes come through within 20 yards while I was hunting this season also.

So, about 5 hours after the shot we decided to take up tracking in hopes that we had given enough time. A couple hundred yards through the cedar swamp and he hadn't appeared to attempt bedding yet, but there was steady blood. We decided to back off for the night and take our chances with coyotes.

I took the trail back up in the morning and found the deer within 50 yards of where we'd stopped the night before, but the coyotes had worked him over. Thankfully I was still able to salvage a lot of meat. I still think we made the right decision to wait, but it's of those damned if you do and damned if you don't decisions.

In the end it was a great season for me, I got to spend some quality time hunting with my Dad, and filled the freezer with two deer harvested with traditional gear!

I waited overnight on a buck and when found, the meat was inedible. So, your choice.

morning ^^^^^ what he said

If you are confident it is a gut shot, I would always give it the night. You could loose it to coyotes but then again, you may not. Coyotes don't always do their work at night. Hunted with a guy who made a marginal shot in the morning. He decided to back out and come back that afternoon. He went back that even well before dark and immediately heard coyotes. They had cleaned out almost everything on his buck during daylight hours.

Starting at 1am sounds better that waiting till daylight. What Shawn said !

I've been involved in a number of recoveries of abdomen-hit deer. I've seen a few expire quickly but that's definitely NOT normal. I've known them to be alive after 8 hours. Every one of them has been dead within 12-14 hours. Going after an abdomen-shot deer too soon is mistake. If it can run, you can bet it will and far enough to preclude finding it soon.

Coyotes? Well...they don't change a thing about the shot or the deer or how long it lives. Go in too soon...the deer runs...the coyotes get it for sure. Leave it 10-12 hours and maybe it's a toss-up. I'll take the chance and wait until I KNOW I'm trailing a dead deer.

When I look at all the odds and possible outcomes, I think the best odds for a favorable ending come from (for me) ignoring the coyotes and letting the poor hit eventually result in death.

Aaron if you had a blood trail for 200 yards then you must have got the liver, you wouldn't have had a blood trail with a paunch hit.

I don't have a ton of experience with this but as I remember the one that I did have a clean pass through in the abdomen, left absolutely no blood trial. Without a dog you are unlikely to find it anyway.

I've found numerous gut shot deer without a blood trail by going to the nearest water, stream or marsh. There is no definite things with gut shot deer, no always or never except they're going to die. Wait overnight, good luck.

What RD said. If all else disappears, go walk the streams or any body of water. The inference is the loss of digestive fluids make them thirsty. I don't know if that is why, but I've found two gut shot deer by streams. One died with their nose in the water. That was in fact, two years in a row with bucks shot by an acquaintance of mine. By the way, he is a very good shot, but at the time wasn't keyed on walking deer.

Get this book for future reference. I bought a copy when it first came out. It's an excellent book and very detailed. Well worth the money and a excellent addition to any bowhunters library.

A gutshot deer will leave only a short trail before bedding down for the yotes to find. You bump her and now you may have a mile or more of smelly trail the yotes can't miss. If yotes are your only worry let her expire in her first bed. Don't make her leave a wounded deer scent all over the woods.

wait... by my math coyotes have small chance of finding your deer... if you bump her you have almost no chance of finding her.

I agree with Kevin Dill and a few others that say wait over night. I would never go in at 1AM. I have been involved with several tracking jobs on paunch hit deer. If I learned anything from those experiences it was to wait. One example, I shot one late season years ago. I saw it was paunch hit, and took up the trail the next morning. I was alone on this track job and started at day light. I had very sparse blood trail. A few drops every now and then, and then nothing. Finally I could find no drops of blood at all. I found the deer by just circling. I almost gave up a few times but I would circle one more time. I found the deer after three hours of searching, it was very cold that night, and the deer was still limp and warm when I found him. He had just recently died. Coyotes are a concern in most all areas. But on a gut shot, the only reasonable choice, is to wait.

It's been said above minimum 8 hours up to 12 hours. I think the minimum should move up to 10 hours if possible. I would adjust the time if there was blood involved with the sign. I'll bet that 8 hour minimum derived from experience showing that they run off even in 8 hours as well as being stiff as well.

Wait 12 hours or in my case I shot my buck this year at 7 am and didn’t go looking until the next morning at 8. I found him at 930. The meat was fine.

Thanks everyone for the input. As Aaron stated, he and I had some discussion on this topic last weekend, so I wanted to see what the LW would say. Nemophilist I really appreciate the advice on the book and will look into buying one. Mike

Wait, if you push her the yotes will get her anyway

That’s a very good point which was raised in regard to pushing a deer such that it will be broadcasting the scent of an easy meal all over the area… Coyotes have a good enough sense of smell as it is, so no sense broadcasting.

Out here, virtually everything happens on private land anyway, so if you push too soon the odds are that you’ll bump the animal into someplace where you can’t follow anyway, in which case having the coyotes clean up after your mistake/misfortune might be the best thing for all concerned…

Wait. If you jump her you will never find her and the coyotes will It is risky to do in coyote country but it is part of the hunt.

If you know its gut shot it's not like it will travel off it usually will lay down first and that's where they stay if you don't push them. Now what you don't want to do is push it off with other animals because the deer will move with the other animals as much as it can try to keep up with them.

Now not all gut shot animals are a nightmare. There is a vein that can and does get nicked at times in that area.

The first thing I would do is where is my arrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now with that said examine what's on it and look for any trace of blood.

That animal will lay down it knows its sick and it will go to water to drink if it can so look along where there is water if you can.

Sometimes you can push the animal out and other times its best to leave to lay and stiffen.

No matter how you look at this you can be wrong. In varmint bush the yottes win out. Goes back to the earth regardless though so no waste.

I'd at least look a little ways for blood, i gut shot a doe three weeks ago, she ran 150 yards, I could see her for the first hundred, then lost sight of her, and she went down and she was already getting stiff and was cold to the touch an hour and a half'ish after shooting her, I caught an artery in the abdomen area and had a very very good blood trail within 30 yards of the shot location. So my thought is look a little ways if wind is good for sign.

I live in the heart of Coyote country. I have field dressed deer numerous times and not had coyotes find them for days. Just because a place has coyotes does not mean they will find a dead deer. Wait until morning. In early season down here the greater risk is meat spoiling overnight.

I live in yotte country also and you can't leave a deer overnight They will be on it in my bush.

50 degrees down overnight meat won't be spoiled but on gut shot animals I get the whole animal ground.

I’d agree w Ron. Gut shot deer aren’t bleeding two hundred yards. I disagree it was liver. They generally bed down pretty quick liver shot. Only if pushed would they go that far. The mistake should be pretty obvious. A straight liver shot oughta penetrate. No bubbles and not straight paunch material. A gut shot def would pass through but would be obviously full of paunch material. I’d personally feel there’s no option for the op but give it time. Here’s another thing to ponder. Bad shots happen to us all but if coyotes for instance are a concern the shots should be strongly considered before taken. Shorter shots leave less time for a deer to jump a string. Do not take anything I said as anything negative please

In my experience if I chased them I never got them. If I waited until morning I recovered them and only once did the coyotes get to them first.

A lot of opinions on what a deer will or won't do if gut shot. Actually there's no set rule on what they'll do, expect the unexpected.

One piece of advice that everyone agrees on is don't push a gut shot deer, you'll just have to take your chances on the coyotes not getting to it before you do.

Have to agree with everyone's opinion of waiting, and hoping it's not found by coyotes. Lost two in one season,to coyotes, good hits but not knowing property boundries and waiting till morning for the owner to come with me.

I learned they will usually go to water if they can make it. They lay down because the stomach juices make them really sick. I even seen them walk in a circle sick like they were going to pass out and fall down like drunk.

Seems they know they are sick and want to drink thinking that will cure them I guess. Now they can't think or reason but somehow know how to try to patch themselves up when they get holes in them.

Only so much they can patch when they are shot like that.

I agree on waiting

Years back my hunting partner hit one in the paunch. We were hunting on his property and gave it a few hours before taking up the trail. Very little sign to go by so we took his yellow lab with us to track. We finally gave up at around 2:00am, we both had to be at work at 6:30am, and agreed to continue the search as soon as we got out of work the next day. He had a pond next to his house and as we were walking by it in the dark, his lab kept running over to the pond. He called him back several times, the last thing he wanted to deal with at 2:00am was a wet 90 pound dog in the house.

The next day we met back up to finish the tracking job and we found it right on the edge of the pond. We should have listened to the dog, he knew it was there. We thought he was trying to go for a swim the night before but he kept going back to the pond because he’d found it.

Rymancat from what I’ve been told and I’m no biologist , paunch shot deer die from septicemia. They basically poison themselves. This causes a high fever and the water is an attempt at cooling. I’ve never questioned that cause biologists have been present when this was presented at Hunter ed classes and they’ve never objected. It’s not my idea but seems to make sense

We wait 8 hrs on a gut shot

Well....what`s the status Gladys? Find it....

I would wait for sure. Gut shot deer can be a toss up. One will expire quickly another one takes 8 hrs or possibly more.

One thing I have noticed is nobody mentions the size of the deer. Believe it or not it does make a difference, Big mature deer especially buck simply die harder on average than do yearlings or young deer. A big heavy buck can live a while on a less than perfect shot.

Science will tell you anatomy is the same for all ages, but experience tells me bigger dies harder.....On Average

Wait...

I would put my dog on it.

Franklin,....read Aaron Brill's post above, he found it the day after he shot it. bvd

Ditto on Nemo's suggestion for "Finding Wounded Deer", by John Trout Jr.. An earlier version of the book was "Trailing Whitetails". Seems I review the book as a pre-season tradition and encouragement. Second hand copies are often on ebay.

To follow or wait is a judgement call that gets easier with experience, however, making a better shot is the preferred experience. The book puts you in a scenario you may not have in several seasons, and thus helps you through the experience of others.

wait till the morning then call a tracking dog

Yep, my old Beagle would find your deer in about 30 seconds, God rest her soul!

Find a buddy with a dog and you'll probably find your deer.

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