How long do you give your animal 2 expire?

ORsouthpaw · Aug 29, 2006

Since I'm still working on taking my first archery animal I'm just curious, what is a typical time frame to allow the animal to expire?. I'm leaving to hunt E. Oregon for a week in just 4 long agonizing days and will be looking for deer and elk both. I'm thinking 30 minutes is minimum if I make a good shot. If it's questionable maybe an hour. How do you keep yourselves from running after it?

Also what scenerio do you usually play out after the shot. (ie mark location, set up refrence points etc.) How about following up the blood trail?

Sorry so many ?'s just want to make sure that the 1st one doesn't get lost!

Thanks,
ORsouthpaw!

DeerTrackerCO · Aug 29, 2006

I've generally heard a minimum of 2 hours before tracking on a good hit. (double-lung and/or heart) If you gut-shoot, I've heard anywhere from 4 to 10 hours all the way to overnight...

I've been quite fortunate - I shot a deer in IA last year that died within site of my stand, and then I got my first CO muley this year (2 days ago) I waited an hour for both and had no problems (I thought an hour was a little early for this year's buck, but he was down)

Look at the blood on the arrow after the shot - bright red is good, and smell it too. If it smells sour, wait longer, because that could be a gut shot. My IA deer was a heart shot - lots of bright red blood all over the place. This year's muley was also bright red, but it was a little too far back - I got the liver - very little blood, but quick.

As for tracking - my muley had very little blood, but I had burned into my brain the path he took, and the bushes/sage by which he passed. So I was able to keep a general idea of where I thought he should be as I slowly followed the blood.

You should probably search the web to get some more info - and I'm fairly certain you'll get a lot of replies here. bowsite.com is good, too.

Good luck!

Paul

ORsouthpaw · Aug 29, 2006

Thanks! I'll check it out. Congratulations on your success thus far this season!

BigPig · Aug 30, 2006

Wait 30 minutes, then go check the arrow and place of impact. If you are confident of the shot, if the arrow smells clean, and if you have good heavy blood, especially with pink bubbles, then proceed to track your buck.

If there is any doubt at all, you need to wit at least another 30 minutes. If there is gut matter on your arrow, and/or if you are not confident of the hit, wait a few hours before tracking. This may mean overnight.

How do you wait? Force your self to go glass another canyon for a while, go back to the truck or camp, stop and eat lunch. Walk 2 miles in the opposite direction. Just get out of the area and occupy your self with something else other than thinking about the buck.