Help- Gut shot deer?

[bigwisconsinbucks]

Tonite I went out and had a nice young buck come out in front of me. I waited until he was broadside at about 15 yards and I touched the release. The shot was right behind the shoulder, but low. He turned and ran about 50 yards and slowly walked into the woods. I climbed down and found my arrow and there was blood on it and possibly digested food like hay. My arrow also had a strong odor. I went to where he went in the woods and left an arrow there as a marker. I came back 2 hours later with spotlights and he was laying about 50 yards into the woods. He jumped up and ran into some really thick brush. I found his bed which only had a small amount of blood. And to top it all off it's raining. Do you think I gut shot this deer or what? Do you think he'll make it? Please help!

[Woods Walker]

Was he quartering to or away from you at all?  If you do indeed think that you hit him "right behind the front shoulder" , but yet you are saying what you are, you may have very well hit the liver or even the paunch besides the heart/lung area.
 
If you hit the liver, he's dead already.

[fasteddie]

From your discription of the arrow appearance and smell , I would guess you hit it farther back than you thought or the deer was quartering toward you when you hit it . Even if it rains , you owe it to the deer to go out and look in the morning . It could be a short ways from where you last saw blood .

[hunter480]

The oder you describe, plus, what appeared to be digested food tells you it was a gut shot. In the heat of the moment, it`s easy to remember the deer qas having been broad side, when in fact, it may have been quartering to. I`ve done exactly the same thing.
 
A gut shot deer can possibly travel a great distance before finally laying down and dying. You have a chore ahead of you, in going over every square foot of the area trying to find that animal.

[Squirrelhawker]

Agree with all this except the possible liver shot. Anything involving the liver would normally put that deer down well within 2 hours.
This deer is gutshot. If nothing else bumps it and you didn't pressure it anymore when you jumped it, it should lay down again well within 100 yards. If it died in it's second bed, this recovery will be tough but possible.

[vipermann7]

definately go look for the deer. stinks that you jumped him, but if you stopped following him as soon as he jumped, he wouldnt have gone far. he probably wont go far off of a trail, so try to find the trail he was on and search that trail first. i have shot several deer in the gut over my time hunting, and i recovered all but one. i found all of them within 100 yards of where i shot them. i hadnt pushed them at all, so that obviously helped. it will make a difference if you hit a lung or not as well, which might be hard to know right now. i shot a doe last year that i thought was a perfect shot, got down and smelled the arrow, smelled like gut shot, so i left it over night. turned out i hit one lung, but the quartering-to angle made it exit the lower belly through the intestines. but i still found her less than 50 yards from my stand. all of the deer i have shot and found were laying right on the trail they were traveling on, or just off of it a few feet. they headed for cover, like the nearest woods, or circled back to wear they had come from when i shot them. dont be surprised if there is no blood trail, the intestines usually push out the exit hole and plug it. but definately score the main trails in the area, you have a good chance at finding him if he didnt get pushed too much, considering terrain of course. a more open woods area will be much easier searching than a marsh. good luck.

[Woods Walker]

ORIGINAL: Squirrelhawker

Agree with all this except the possible liver shot. Anything involving the liver would normally put that deer down well within 2 hours.
This deer is gutshot. If nothing else bumps it and you didn't pressure it anymore when you jumped it, it should lay down again well within 100 yards. If it died in it's second bed, this recovery will be tough but possible.

 
I agree, but I also said IF he hit the liver, and to what degree. At this point, we still don't know if he was quartering to the animal (which from what as stated I think is obvious), and to what degree.
 
If it is a gut shot, and he bumped the deer, this may be a REAL tough search.
 
He can always watch for crows in a day or so. The meat won't be any good, but at least he'll know.

[JPH]

I don't have any good news for you.
 
I think he is gut shot and seeing as you bumped him once and it is raining, you will most likely never see him again. That being said, you owe it to the deer and to yourself to give it a full day of tracking/looking.
 
Take a freind or two and a dog if it is legal. Make a grid and look closely for blood at stream or fence crossings. Any feature that would cause a deer to exert itself can re-open the wound and cause bleeding. Also look closely for white patches in thick cover,
 
It happens, but you'll feel a lot better moving forward if you burn up some boot leather looking for him.

[bigwisconsinbucks]

I'm almost absolutley sure that he was broadside. Thanks for all the help and input. I'm going to look for him again today, but he is in really thick cover. I really wish I could have gotten the meat, but I would feel better if I found him. Thanks again. I'll let you know.

[passin through]

Sounds gut shot to me....It happens though.  That partially digested hay probably means you popped a rumen.  Like was said earlier, burn boot leather looking for him.  even so there is no telling as to whether you still may or may not have hit one lung or the liver as well.   I know nothing about the terrain but if you were here, I'd tell you to check creeks and any thick spots you find on his route of travel, especially blown down tree tops.  He'll want good security if he's able to think at all and if he is able to make it through the night he may try to go for water.