After The Shot

[Whip]

Every year about this time it seems the threads start popping up with tales of woe about the ones that got away.  I thought it would be a good refresher to share with each other tips and suggestions about what to do after the string slips from your fingers.  I don't claim to know it all by any means, and am looking to learn from others.  I'll start it out but please add your own ideas and experiences so that we all can hope to do a better job when it comes time to follow up on our shots.

One thing that has really helped me in recent years has been switching to high visibility wraps and feathers on my arrows.  Day glow orange or chartreuse seem to give me the ability to know exactly where my arrow hits.  Knowing where it hits is a big first step in determining what to do next.  

Chip in with your own suggestions on anything you can think of between the shot and the recovery.

[Diamond Paul]

Mentally mark the spot where you last saw the deer.  When you have waited long enough, mark the spot where the deer was hit with orange flagging tape (you did bring a roll of flagging tape, didn't you?), try to find the arrow, and evaluate the blood sign.  Mark the last spot you saw the deer and every subsequent blood sign with tape, in case you lose the track and must return to the last spot you saw blood/sign.  Flagging tape has saved my bacon a few times.

[bowless]

I agree with both ideas, although I prefer white fletching.  The tape not only helps find the deer, but helps find your way back!  One important note: remove the tape on your way back.

[Kip]

Stay in the stand or ground blind at least 1/2 hour or longer unless you see the game go down in sight.I did not and it cost me a deer.Kip

[wingnut]

One thing I see is the comment that the shot was back but I was pressed for time and followed anyway.  Jumped the deer and never saw it again.

I might be old fashion but if I hit a deer there is nothing on my schedule that will keep me from doing it right.  Wait 4-5 hours on a suspected gut shot and you will usually find the deer in it's first bed and not miles away.

If you don't have time. . . don't hunt that day.

Mike

[onewhohasfun]

I never track without a small spray bottle filled with hydrogen peroxide. It will make even a match head size blood drop puff up and foam. You don't need the commercial products they sell.

[Kevin Dill]

This may sound a bit obtuse:

At the shot, I try like crazy to see everything, evaluate everything and remember everything. I do my best to put aside the emotion, and I try to gather data. I'll mark the hit zone with another arrow if needed. Be sure to see the arrow hit. Watch the animal's reaction carefully. Mark 2 or 3 things the animal runs past...and study them into my memory. Mark the time. Think...pay attention...and work to remember.

The most common thing I see or hear relates to a lack of memory of details, or a lack of certainty where the hit was made. It all comes down to close observation and memorizing details. Don't move until you have the package complete. If someone asks you questions about anything related to the shot...the behavior...the observed run path, then you should be able to answer those with decent certainty.

In summary: As soon as the string drops, you've got a job to do...a worklist. Stop the emotion and save it for later. You've got at least 10 Gig of RAM (Running Animal Memory) in your head, so use it...or lose it.

[A.S.]

Great stuff everyone. Knowing where the arrow hit is key for me. Bright feathers and nock helps a lot. Then I lean on years of experience, and try to recall how past recoveries worked out with similar hits. GO SLOW

[awbowman]

I have three:

1)  The drier the "stuff" from the guts appear (either on the arrow or on the blood trail), the further back you hit the deer.  This relates more to a deer shot with a gun, but can prove valuable on an archery shot deer also.  Proceed accordingly.

2)  Hurt deer will seek water.  If all else fails, GO TO THE WATER.

3)  Never underestimate the ability of a good blood/deer trailing dog where legal

[trubltrubl]

Here are a few more

1.don't walk on the blood trail
2. I use surveyor tape to mark the blood trail and pick it up after I find the deer
3. after the shot sit and have some water and a granola bar to get into the right frame of mind to decide how long to wait based on shot placement.
4. buy a quality flashlight that is very bright and portable.
5.check for blood at all levels...the ground the grass and the trees and their branches..

[shag08]

Lots of good tips guys. Instead of orange tape to mark the blood I use toilet paper for two reasons...I never go to the woods without it and it's biodegradable.

The only time TP wouldn't work would be in a heavy rain. But if it's raining that hard all the blood would be washed away anyways.

[Mike Vines]

After the shot, if you do not see the animal go down, or hear it "crash", gather every single piece of Intel you can muster up and make serious mental notes.  Close your eyes, play the entire shot over again in your mind   AS IT HAPPENED, NOT AS YOU WANTED IT TO HAPPEN..  Take a deep breath, and analyze your info and decide your next course of action from there.

Toilet paper is a better tracking aide than survey tape in my opinion, and highly visual fletchings are a given.  I used to hunt with earth toned arrows, and natural turkey feathers, but even an eagle would have a hard time finding them, or their flight during the hunt.

If you do your part before the hunt in properly preparing, the post string release will be a pleasant journey.

[Birdbow]

I have been aided by taking a compass bearing on the last place I was able to hear the animal after it departed. For whatever reason, if there's no blood on the ground, walking the bearing and carefully searching has worked.

[ChuckC]

If you don't see it go down or hear it go down, sit still for 30 minutes, then sneak out of there and give it some time.  If you saw that the hit was not optimal, give it several hours.  A gut shot, give it over night.

Take a compass reading showing the direction the deer ran from the stand.  I have found deer using this alone when blood trails were terrible.
ChuckC

[Turkhunter]

Stay quiet after the shot. Ive seen too many celebrity hunters go crazy yelling and high fiveing after the shot as the game is running away. To me that is just going to scare the game and pump them full of adrenalin to make them go farther. I have shot several deer with archery tackle that have run 30 to 50 yds then stop and stand. They dont know what happend and they are trying to figure it out. All the while they are pumping themselves dry standing instead of running. I have had them stand for more than 5min before falling over. If i had "celebrated" at the shot and scared them they could have traveled a long way in 5min instead of dying within sight.

[Stickbow]

Good stuff here.

I am a big fan of flagging blood sign. If you are running low on blood sign you can look back and see direction of travel.

One other bigge......GO SLOW! Dont step on the evidence

[CoachBGriff]

All great advice!  

One observation I've made over the years: In every case I've been involved in, my gut instinct as to where I "thought" I hit the animal proved to be true.  

If you "thought" you made a good shot, you probably made a good shot.  If you "thought" you may have hit a little back, you probably did.

I recently "thought" I made a good hit on a button buck, but then I bumped a deer while trailing.  This confused me because I was sure I had made a better shot.  

I backed out accordingly, but when I finally recovered my deer, I confirmed that I had bumped a separate deer, and I had made good shot.  My deer was dead the whole time.

[Friend]

>>>Some of my own personal recovery basic guidelines<<<


It is typical that many hunters are more shaken up and irrational after the shot than during the shot.  Working out a post recovery routine that one can instinctively follow may prove to be the enabler in recovering more game.


Ascertain shot placement – frequently, an actual mark may be quite different from where the hunter believed the mark to be...including myself


Mental note taken to the deer's reaction to the shot


Mental notes taken to evaluate the deer's gate


Mental note taken on the deer's escape route


Compass mark and range the last deer sighting


Remain motionless, quiet and listen


Calmly replay and evaluate the actual events, one by one, over and over again until I own the unadulterated version.


Enhanced lethal hits may have the deer down w/I sight...will typically stay in the stand ~an hour...have had deer they had laid dormant for ½ hr suddenly get up and move off.


Nice lethal mark... the deer may only travel ~100,then stand and listen and possibly expire while standing in one place – Due note that remaining quiet after shot may prove most fruitful and if not, may prove to provide a long arduous recovery or not at all...if confident, wait a couple of hours


Lethal mark....the animal may travel up to 200 yards...typically wait ~2- 3hrs


Gut shot deer – typically try to hold out for a full day... if the deer is still alive, then it may be evaluated to feasibly determine if an approach can be made to loose another arrow or determine to back out again
2000
if necessary and provide the animal more time

***Key to recovery.... is to provide the animal ample time...a significant percentage of lethally hit deer go unrecovered due to proceeding to early. ..the focused objective is recovery...note: a dead deer doesn't get any deader...When in doubt, back out.

There are many more details such as evaluating the arrow, bloodtrail marking, lighting, tracks etc...

Extended or even seemingly extended recoveries may prove to be high stress raisers for some hunters. The recovery process is one of the personally more fulfilling elements of the hunt.  The pursuit is gladly undertaken methodically, with patience, evaluating the elemental evidence, contemplations to facilitate accurately dissecting the puzzle. The recovery is undertaken slowly, yet purposeful, with the sole focus on securing a recovery.

[Whip]

Originally posted by Friend:
¬e: a dead deer doesn't get any deader...When in doubt, back out.

Excellent point.  If a deer is dead they go nowhere.  Tracking too soon won't make the trail any shorter.  I know all to well the feeling that we just want to go find them and can't stand to wait any longer.  Put those feelings on ice and give it the time that is needed.

On my recent elk hunt I made a very questionable hit.  We waited a full six hours before even beginning to look for the first spot of blood.  As it turned out, the bull died on his feet within the first couple hundred yards.  I could have tracked immediately and found him dead.  But there was also a very good chance that he lived for quite some time, so we gave him plenty of time.  And guess what - he was still dead when we finally did find him.  

Yes, the threat of rain can play into it.  But the reality is that a gut shot deer often will lay down within a fairly short distance of the hit.  Even without a blood trail (which is often minimal on a gut shot anyway)  a thorough grid search of the area will very often turn up the animal if it isn't bumped from its initial bed.  

Other factors that might come into play are coyotes or meat spoilage.  The coyotes are certainly a problem in some areas.  But if you bump it from the first bed you almost guarantee to make it a coyote meal.  As for meat spoilage, remember that won't even start to become a factor until the animal dies, and that can be quite some time after the shot in the case of a bad hit.  Personally, I always take my chances on those factors and do everything I can to make sure I don't bump a deer from its first bed.

[joe ashton]

I have a few hair clips with 10"of flagging tape tied on them. I use them to mark the blood trail.just clip one to the last blood then look for the next drop. When I have placed 3 I go back and collect the first two then continue. This keeps me on the trail but also slows me down.(that is good)
Be patient..