Last night had one of the two bucks we decided were shooters. He souls also be my first bow buck. He came out just after 7. I had him just quartering to me, but He was looking back behind him so it appeared he was broadside. I got drawn back and th he looked straight on. The put him definitely quartering to me. I know this is not the shot you want to take. But the excitement took over my arrowhit right where I was aiming, maybe just a hair low if anything. I got a passthrough. I'm shooting a rage 2 blade. I recovered my arrow and it didn't have a drop of blood, instead covered in fowl stomach juice. We gave him about an hour, not ideal but i could not wait until today because I have to work. About 20 yes away we found a small pool of blood and a trail that was pouring onto the ground. It looked like someone was pouring it out of a cup. This went for about 20 yds. Then it slowed to splotches. After about 50 yds of blood total, it stopped. We looked till after midnight but came up empty. So after a sleepless night I am headed to work. My buddy is headed back out this morning t see if he can find him.

My question

My question is how long before the meat is bad and how can you tell? I am sure since I got into the paunch that can't help. Our temps got down to 44 last night.

And you don't have to tell me I should gave waited a few more seconds for a better shot. I have been beating myself over the head all night.

Meat is already bad I fear..Sorry to hear about your situation..It sucks for sure.Atleast you learned a thing or two from this experience.

This is one of the problems with evening hunts with either a bow or a rifle, but more so with the bow due to the waiting period. Check the closest available water, gut shot deer tend to go to water.

Depends when the animal died. The nights have been in the lower 50's high 40's lately, and that will probably help you out. If you don't find it by 10am, then the meat is probably going to go bad.

X2 tell your buddy if and when he finds the animal to check the side of the buck that was on the ground to see how cold it was to touch. If it is still warm and after 10 am like was posted here I would not try to save it. If it is cold then the meat is cold thru and thru and I would not have problem eating it. This the part of hunting that no ones want to experience.

Probably should have gave the deer more time knowing it was a gut shot. They tend to live for a while and if u did push him then u will probably never find him. If your friend dosen't find this morn. then look for the buzzards in a few days.

Yeah, bad thing is that I already knew these things. This is first hand though, and something I will never forget. Quartering to shots are not good, especially with the rage. But I got excited and shot anyways. I know that you give your deer at least an hour, but we started at 30 mins. We found signs of gut shot, so you should give him overnight. But I had to work and looking this morning wasnt an option. Hard to feel that all of this could have been avoided if I gave him ten more seconds to turn more broadside.

We would have, but circumstances dictated that we at least take a look last night. After the big pool of blood, I was sure we would find him. Buddy has to head to work. We are going to give it another shot Saturday morning after his hunt.

Meat is bad I think. I just hope you can recover the horns and do him some justice by doing a skull mount or something !

From rereading your post it seems like when you found a lot of blood and then it went to splotches the buck went from walking to running and it is not that he quit bleeding just farther and farther in between blood drops with the exit and entrance holes opening and closing with the buck running. This might have been from you pushing him or I would guess it could have been from another deer there and they ran the same direction causing him to run farther than he would have if he was alone. Also it has been my experience the wounded animals do not always run where you expect them to.

Yeah, you might be right. Where we found teh spotted blood was headed down hill, so he may have been moving a little faster. Hopefully saturday morning will be productive.

I lost my buck this year earlier. Worst feeling ever.

agree towards water

Don't worry about it , thats the crappy part of bow hunting

Dont eat it

Sorry to hear this... I know you sick to your stomach...

I feel for you, it sucks, but what does

have to do with it?

There are no flies on the rage, it wasnt mechanical failure.

Might call someone with a good dog. I used to have a good dog. Amazing how quick they can find something. Mine would trail to within 200 yds. then run right to it.

X2 on the dog if you have access. There is a thread on this forum with a list. I think its a sticky somewhere.

Hopefully you will recover him. Either way I would use my tag and learn from the mistake.

Not starting a war. The rage did its job. Was just saying that reports are that if you have a problem with that head it comes on quartering to shots, so those should be avoided. In this case it opened and I got a clean full pass through. So, no this wasnt the issue last night.

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Hopefully you will recover him. Either way I would use my tag and learn from the mistake. [/quote]


Not an issue here. I am spike and doe hunting here on out. It isn't so much a tag thing, but a freezer space thing. Our family only eats about 2-3 deer in a years time. My wife is GOING to shoot her first buck this year. So I am out of teh trophy business for '10.

Hopefully you will recover him. Either way I would use my tag and learn from the mistake. [/quote]


Not an issue here. I am spike and doe hunting here on out. It isn't so much a tag thing, but a freezer space thing. Our family only eats about 2-3 deer in a years time. My wife is GOING to shoot her first buck this year. So I am out of teh trophy business for '10. [/quote]

There are places that you can donate the meat to feed the hungry...

I shot a doe last year and within 1 1/2 hours the buzzards wher perched in a tree over her. I walked straight to that tree and found her but something had ate 1 hind qtr and 1 whole backstap off in that short time. Never saw a buzzard fly up from the ground so it must have been yotes or the bobcats. IDK

Where are you located I had a guy help me out last year with a wounded deer and his dog is amazing. He tracked the animal for over 1 mile I plotted it out on google earth. He is located about 30 mins west of fort worth. Pm me if you want the number.

Thanks for the offer, but I am in Bell county, just outside of Copperas Cove. And if he a mile we are in trouble. We are hunting on about 35 acres.

Not an issue here. I am spike and doe hunting here on out. It isn't so much a tag thing, but a freezer space thing. Our family only eats about 2-3 deer in a years time. My wife is GOING to shoot her first buck this year. So I am out of teh trophy business for '10. [/quote]

There are places that you can donate the meat to feed the hungry... [/quote]

We are hunting a pretty small piece of land and want to be careful how many deer we take each year. Not really a full blown management, just trying to be wise about how we use our resources.