OK, talking about bow shots and how far deer might run after the shot, have you seen most of your bow shot deer run off in the direction they are facing when shot or turn and run back toward the way they came from, or does not matter as they will just typically jump and run wherever their mind wants them to go?

I have a large wheat field deer come into and the north side borders another property, if I shot a deer coming onto my field, would it likely run into the field if it was facing that way or would it likely run back from where it came from the other property?

OK all you deer mind readers, what say you?

I think that most the deer have an escape route planned before they enter. I have a stand that 99% of the deer leave one of 3 routes when pushed or shot. One of my other stands it is one of two routes. Every once in awhile, a wounded one will take an alternate route.

As far as your large field goes, depends on what is on your side and where they believe the danger is coming from I suppose. How from the fence are you hunting?

Well I have one set about 200 yards from the fence line, another one on the fence line. I told my son the one on the fence line would be for crossbow only, and the other for bow or crossbow. They are mainly set up for rifle, once the deer are into the field quite a bit, but also put a treestand up in the one close to fence thinking if the deer were walking in, they might continue walking in...

If you are on the fence line and your side is a field, chances are the deer are coming from the neighbors and will go back to the neighbors when shot or shot at. The one that is 200 yards away should be fine, but the possibility is still there.

Do you know the neighbor?

IME they are going to try to get back to the direction they came from. If I can I want them to have to make a loop to get there. So if I can get a shot with him standing facing away from the direction he came in from, then he will have to run farther to get back to that direction. Making him run more of my property before getting to the fence, making it more likely for him to die on my side of the fence. A lot will depend on how jumpy/edgy the deer is as to what he does after the shot. I think how fatal the shot is and how quickly he starts to die will effect what he does after a shot also. IME if the deer is constantly facing your blind or setup then he will be more jumpy/edgy. If he is eating with his butt towards you and changing directions while eating then he will probably be much calmer. The last thing I have seen effect what a deer does after a shot is if he is alone or with other deer at the feeder. I have seen all deer including the shot deer run off and stop in clear view of my stand. When they start to stumble or sway and the other deer around him will spook from this abnormal activity. They will usually snort/blow and run and the shot deer will run with them as far/long as he can. I learned a long time ago to sit quietly and listen if the shot deer runs off with a group. IME they run 75-100 yards then stop if the other deer were not aware of what happened. When a deer starts to snort/blow in that direction they ran it means that shot deer is going or is down.

That's good info STX. I will say, this is the first year we are hunting here, so it is all up in the air to say the least, but the deer typically come into the field and walk through the field (approx. 800-900 yards across) and end up either across the street or going to another corner of the property where they cross the road, although not even sure about that. I have scouted this place several evenings this summer and this is what I have seen. Many pictures also show the fact they seem to be crossing the field. This may change once deer season starts, but I know from hog hunting there are a bunch of deer that hit this field.

Any shot we would take would be either on the hoof going away from the fence line or at a feeder. There tend to be lots of deer in these groups, which could make any shot impossible anyway. Just reading the other thread got me wondering.

A pic from the fence line
I have another camera on field scan mode mounted on the quad pod 200 yards on a point in the field I hope to catch all the evening and morning travel habits of the deer as well. Will grab pics from that in another week or two

Most of the deer I have shot have ran back from where they came.