gznokes
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My dad used to joke and say the best hunters smoked cigarettes because after the shot, they'd smoke a couple cigarettes before trying to recover the animal. I hear this all the time--"It's best to wait at least 30 min after the shot for the animal to lay down, stiffen up, and die".
I was reading John Jeanneney's book, Dead On, and he claims waiting after the shot is NOT a good idea. The following ideas on this topic really made sense, so I thought I'd see if anyone wanted to chime in with their own observations/opinions.
1. An animal hit by a bullet will go into shock. The advise for humans who have sustained a traumatic injury is to lay down to deal with shock because shock is typically associated with a feeling of drowsiness and weakness. Lying down allows the injured person to start to recover. Why do you want to allow the animal to lay down and try to recover? Better to cautiously but promplty approach for a finishing shot.
2. If a deer doesn't go right down after the shot, you don't want the deer to lay down and slow down its circulation. Better is that it keeps moving, increases its heart rate and circulation, flushes blood clots, and thus increases blood loss.
He cites a study of 1100 hunters whose report indicate deer usually don't lie down in the first 200 yards and that if they die are more likely to die in stride than in their bed.
3. Leg and shoulder hit deer will seldom bleed to death unless pushed.
An exception he says is if the deer is gut shot because the wounds often don't bleed a lot--even if the deer is pushed. In this case he recommends a tracking dog or being prepared for a long difficult track.
I was reading John Jeanneney's book, Dead On, and he claims waiting after the shot is NOT a good idea. The following ideas on this topic really made sense, so I thought I'd see if anyone wanted to chime in with their own observations/opinions.
1. An animal hit by a bullet will go into shock. The advise for humans who have sustained a traumatic injury is to lay down to deal with shock because shock is typically associated with a feeling of drowsiness and weakness. Lying down allows the injured person to start to recover. Why do you want to allow the animal to lay down and try to recover? Better to cautiously but promplty approach for a finishing shot.
2. If a deer doesn't go right down after the shot, you don't want the deer to lay down and slow down its circulation. Better is that it keeps moving, increases its heart rate and circulation, flushes blood clots, and thus increases blood loss.
He cites a study of 1100 hunters whose report indicate deer usually don't lie down in the first 200 yards and that if they die are more likely to die in stride than in their bed.
3. Leg and shoulder hit deer will seldom bleed to death unless pushed.
An exception he says is if the deer is gut shot because the wounds often don't bleed a lot--even if the deer is pushed. In this case he recommends a tracking dog or being prepared for a long difficult track.
