If in doubt, do you back out?

[bucklover]

When watching most of the hunting TV shows, especially when they are hunting whitetail, it seems like about 80% of the time they always say,"we better back out and come back tomorrow." I recognize that probably the main reason is they are hunting on private ground and are afraid they are going to scare the animal onto someone else's property. I know it takes very little time, even in cold weather, for a critter to start to blow up with internal gases. I hate the thought of having to clean and then try to eat an animal that has laid out like a stuffed toad all night long. It makes my gut turn over thinking about it. I know there has to be some meat loss and at least meat with lesser quality. On public land I prefer to do everything in my power to find and take care of a critter as quickly as possible. How many of you have cleaned, eaten or attempted to eat a deer or elk that laid out uncleaned over night or longer?

 

[Aaron84]

LAST EDITED ON Jan-02-11 AT 09:34PM (MST)[p]I had elk steaks that came off a bull that sat over night. Tasted like elk to me, I really couldn't tell any difference.

To answer your first question, yes if in doubt back out. Pushing a animal before it expires is just asking to lose it. Let it bed down cramp up and die instead of pushing it.

 

[rackman]

Im with you when it comes to taking care of the animal as quickly as possible. Unfortunately sometimes that is just not possible. If it gets dark on you and you have a minimal blood trail, it is best to let the animal bed and wait until morning. That way you can find the blood easier. I have eaten an animal that sat overnight and couldn't tell a difference.

 

[justr_86]

I will leave an animal over night. It can mean losing it if you keep pushing it. Chances are it will be in the same area if not pressured too much giving you an advantage to daylight and better chances for recovery.

It worked this year on a LE elk hunt. Bad hit, we stopped tracking when we jumped him after dark. Marked it really good and went back and followed up on a great bull! Had we kept pushing him we could have totally lost him. Worked great, he tastes pretty good for being a big ol stinky mature bull.

 

[marley]

I agree with above statements. A little bit of lost meat is much better than losing the entire animal from pushing it. If wounded and pressured I think most animals would bed down within a few hundred yards

 

[marley]

Unpressured is what I meant

 

[swbuckmaster]

better to leave over night and recover it then to push it, loose it, and shoot another like some people would.

The harder you work the luckier you get!!

 

[YukonDall]

I LEFT AN ALASKAN BULL MOOSE OUT OVERNIGHT IN SEPTEMBER, THAT MEAT WAS FANTASTIC TO EAT......I WAS A TAD NERVOUS THOUGH.....YD.

 

[O_S_O_K]

I have been very fortunate in my hunting career to have only ever lost 1 animal (at least to this point - knocking on wood right now).

Tell me your thoughts.

I was on a bear hunt in Canada. I made a very good shot at 20 yards, have the shot on video.

The guide comes to pick me up. I show him the footage and he says it looks like we have a dead bear.

It is dark and as we start heading into the brush following a massive blood trail the guide thinks he hears something. we stop and he decides we need to back out till the morning.

Now, I am usually on board with this and have learned from experience that it is best to wait and not push the animal, especially when it is an animal that can eat you.

But as we head back to camp it starts to rain and it rains hard all night long. Needless to say I never got any sleep that night.

We get up the next morning, still raining hard (rains all day) and we head out to look for my bear.

I don't know how many of you have hunted Canada before but it gives new definition to the term "Thick".

We searched for that bear for most of the day, even got lost for about 30 minutes (that was another entire story - scared tha crap out of me), but we never found my bear. We would have had to step right on top of him to find him and we apparently never did. All of the blood was gone, washed away.

My point is I think sometimes it has to depend on the circumstances.

I know the guide knew what the weather was going to do and I think about this alot being I didn't come home with my bear. Saved a long time for that hunt and don't know if I will ever get back or not.

I still don't know if we did the right thing but I did have an awesome experience and a good friend of mine killed a 500 lb black bear on this trip. He ended up having to use a small Grizz form for the mount.

Should we have continued forward or did we still do the right thing by backing out?

 

[B_BOP_A_LU_LU]

Well O_S_O_K!

If we could see in to the near future We'd do stuff different now & Then!

Dang StickFlippers!


God is Great!
Life is Good!
And People are Crazy!

I love not acting my age,
Damn I love my NASCAR race,
And Hell yes I love my Truck!
And a good BBQ!
I am Medicine And I am Poison!

 

[muleymaddness]

If I think the animal is dead, I don't back out unless I have physical evidence that it wasn't as good of a shot as I thought or I jump him. Or I flat out can't find him. The blood is always tougher to see the next morning as it has turned alot darker in color.

I think the main reason they back out on the tv shows it to get better footage the next morning in light.

Something I don't understand is that when they do find them the next morning, how to they maneuver the deer so well for pictures and camera angles. If I find one the next day, he's bloated and stiff as a board.

 

[Moosey69]

Left a couple overnight and never a problem with the meat. Also once tried too hard to find a buck I had a great blood trail on and never found him. Like said above if your not sure the best thing to do most times is back out.

 

[justr_86]

hindsite is always 20/20, all you can do is try to make the best decision on what you know. The bull I talked about, we had good blood that was easy to follow with a flashlight. We gave him about 45 minutes because we thought we had a good shot but when we jumped him he was hurt, but not a lethal hit so we backed out instead of chasing him around in the dark unable to make a follow up shot. we went back in the morning (no storm) got back on the blood and was able to catch back up to him and give him a great shot to put him down in his tracks!

You always need to follow the trail for a ways to see exactly what you have. Dont just shoot and say I will come back in the morning. He might be laying dead close by.

 

[GotBowAz]

I agree with the above posts. Wait and back out, don't push it and let it bed down. I have had elk in September left over night and got to it way bloated in warm weather by mid next day. The meat was still good/awesome. As far as the nasty smelling gasses with bloat?DON?T GUT IT!! You can get all the meat off doing the gutless method. Be careful not to stick the paunch when retrieving the tenderloins. Walla, no mess or nasty smell.

GBA

 

[beavis14]

i hate that too. i have shot a whitetail buck a nice 4 point dressed him out proped his chest cavity open and it was cold 25 deg i would guess. it was shot at last light. i came back and took him out when i skinned him out he stunk ! i had to make stinky jerky out of about 10 pounds of meat. another example a buddy shot a doe at last light we couldn't find her that night we came back at 05:00 and i SMELLED the doe over 50 yards away. it was shot in the sh # t bag but so are alot of those tv deer. i think they probably don't eat much of the deer they kill. most of them never make mention of the meat. for me i gut them and skin them quick as i can. my dads elk this year had the hide on it for almost 16 hours as he shot it down in a hell hole. but the meat to my surprise was fine. so i guess it's a case to case thing !

 

[BigFin]

The biggest reason most TV guys back out is because the footage in the dark sucks. They want to wait until morning to have better light.

I think most guys will look at it on a case by case situation. How much blood, what did the hit look like, where did the animal head to when hit, how much daylight is left, etc.

I will back out if it is dark and I have lost the blood trail. If it is light and I have a slight amount of blood to follow, I am going to follow until dark or until I find the animal, and maybe even after dark, if the blood trail can be followed.

Leaving it until morning can have too many variables. Rain and snow to wash away the trail, predators getting to your meat, spoilage, etc.

Fortunately, I have only had this happen one time where I had to back out. I found the elk the next morning and he had only died shortly before I found him, as he hardly even had "rig." The meat was good.

Many of the TV shows that "back out" are doing so for filming reasons, and in my mind risk losing a lot of meat, for the sake of getting better footage. Just my opinion.

"Hunt when you can - You're gonna' run out of health before you run out of money!"

 

[O_S_O_K]

"Well O_S_O_K!

If we could see in to
the near future We'd do
stuff different now & Then!

Dang StickFlippers! "


Fair enough B-Bop!

My thoughts were along the lines of a weather forecast (which most outfitters I know of keep a pretty close eye on). Gives a guy a sneak peak into the "near future". I won't count on anyone else for this in the future. Lesson learned!

Just curious, how did you know I was a stickFlipper? I didn't mention it in my post. I could have used a smokepole or a rifle. Did you just assume so because it ended in a lost animal? ;-)

 

[wackemstackem]

I have left game over night and it ate fine. I believe as sportsmen we have a responsibility to show our game the respect of a clean harvest, no matter how bad the shot. Its better to back out.