Gut shot deer how long till death?
Equipment
Here's my situation. I was hunting in Iowa over the long weekend, I hit a very big buck in the middle of the deer but far enough back to have dark red blood and gut smell on my arrow. I let the deer sit for roughly 16 hours, I had a alright blood trail until the rain came in and washed it away. Here's the catch in my story I saw this buck which I thought was mine following the doe after I shot him, I marked the spot of the last sighting and the next morning found a large 8 pointer floating in a very steep and deep ditch about 50 yards from the last sighting of the deer I shot. We all asummed this was the buck I shot,but when I got home there wasn't a entrance or exit hole in this deer.
My buddy's from Iowa were pheasant hunting 75 yards from the last blood spot that I had found and a monster buck got up and looked at these guy's and there dogs, then slowly walked down along the river bank into some real thick underbrush. The bird hunter's didn't think nothing of it because they thought that I found my deer. I know for certain that the monster they saw was the deer I hit. My Question to you is, If I hit mostly the front of the gut area will the deer die and how long would it take if the deer isn't pushed? He was jumped about 16 hours after the shot, and it's been a total of 53 hours since the initial hit.
Hard to say for sure...I'd go there with my bow at the ready and see what turns up, prolly dead, but you never know. A vet could give you some idea of how long it takes for sepsis to set in...
Good luck, it's worth another look...
Might live a couple hours...a couple minutes...a couple years. All depends on what was cut.
It's a difficult question. I have seen them run 25 yards and go down and I've seen them live a few hours. It depends on what type of broadhead you were using and what you sliced. Often an expandable broadhead will put them down really quiclky where a smaller cut head doesn't do nearly the damage and they can live a good while. One thing is certain, a gut shot deer will not survive.
Scenario #1 with heavy hemmoraging from a major artery hit (hepatic, pyloric, renal or other) 30 seconds to 5 minutes
Scenario #2 with serious blood loss and shock with smaller artery and venous damage, 5 minutes to 24+ hours
Scenario #3 with no major blood vessel damage eventuality of death is in question, but if gut and stomach material contaminates the gut cavity, is very likely, could take several days
factors like presence or absence of shock, adrenaline levels, outside stimuli affecting activity level, environmental conditions, general physical condition of the animal, all can greatly affect the time of expiration within Scenarios two and three.
Seems like a very long time for a gut shot deer not to have died. My experiences have been many, some my own. My experience is always wait at least overnight 12hrs, minimum. Something I learned along time ago is many times a gut shot deer will circle back and return to where he came from or was bedded. I have recovered several by circling back to where the deer had been coming from and having success with recovery. No chance of deer survival if it is truly a gut shot. If you hit more intestine than stomach it would take longer to die, remotely a few days. Can't believe it could go much longer if it was in gut or intestine. The contamination is deadly. If this monster truly was your deer and that long of time had expired I question wether you really got guts at all. Good luck.
Seems 12 hours is the most normally, BUT.....
Most die within 6-8 hours.
Still can't understand how you could pull a dead deer out of the woods without looking for arrow entrance/exit wounds? It's the first thing I look at on every deer I kill.
Possibly weeks. I know from experience on a gut shot doe. I found her 3 weeks later on a trail that I walked in on the day before and she wasn't there.
What about the large 8 pointer? Suicide?
Towards the front of the gut 6-8 hours. The further back the hit....24 hours plus.
Thank you for your input. I will be on my way back to Iowa from Minnesota in the morning to try and find this fine animal.
I went back to Iowa and found my buck,it was about a hundred yards from where the pheasant hunters last saw him. He is my best buck to date a big Eleven pointer. The only problem is I didn't get to consume the animal I harvested. I attached a photo, I hope it comes up.
Many,Many, Thanks.
Gary
congrats to you and to your determination in retrieving the animal. Great job!
Maybe i'm missing something here.You took an 8Pt home with you that i assume you tagged.Then you go back out to Iowa and find this buck.How did you tag this deer?.Did you notify the Iowa DOW about the situation?
gts,
Appears you made the best of it. Good work!
i agree with shuteye, gutshot deer always die, eventually. usually within 18 hours for infection to set in, after that death is certain. everything that deer eats or digests becomes toxic. nice job on the recovery, never give up................
Ya how did you get this one home with no tag??
Very good question...where is he now?? Glad he got the deer, but is it legal??.....Jeff
great deer and good determination.
I think he'll survive.
Oops. Saw the pic. I think you'll find him about 100 yards from where the bird hunters saw him. Nice buck.
Nice going on finding your buck. On the topic of how long a gut-shot deer can survive, you have to realize that all of the guidelines are based on probabilities, ie chest wounds USUALLY cause rapid death from blood loss and lung collapse, while abdominal wounds USUALLY cause slower death from peritonitis. As Fuzzy points out, abdominal wounds which lacerate a large blood vessel can cause death rapidly, too. And improbable things do occasionally happen. I recently read that an airline stewardess survived a fall from over 20,000 feet (although she broke numerous bones) because her fall was broken by some very fortuitously configured tree branches. Back to the gut-shot deer, some can last a lot longer than others, due to so many variables both within the deer (exactly what internal organs were injured, how healthy was the deer before being shot) and extrinsic to it (weather, early pursuit after the shot). As a doctor, I see people die from (usually) minor problems and survive (usually) lethal injuries. Heck, we occasionally save someone with a penetrating wound to the heart.
After looking at your hit and I assume internal organs and guts what did your arrow damage?
I see this is debate free and I'm the last 1 to throw stones but something does not add up here. You"assumed" the 8 point was your even though there was no entry or exit hole but you "know for certain that the monster they saw was the deer I hit."
Congrats on your determination in finding your deer.
I'm suprised at the replys to this thread.And i hope it's because the original post was'nt read fully.I see congratulations for his determinatin in finding the deer.But no one seems concerned or addresses the fact that he has two Iowa buck in his posession.
And the question still remains how did he report and tag the second buck if he did so with the 8 pointer he assumed was his buck as is required with Iowa's game laws?
Sley it has been brought up a few times and he has yet to tell us about it....
Wow! Alot of hits on this debate. Sorry I didn't get back sooner, I was out of town working. To answer your questions about the tagging. Yes, both deer have tags! My hunting buddy and I went back to Iowa to look for the deer I shot, in which my buddy found so he placed his tag on that deer as I did when I found the 8 Pointer. This would not be considered party hunting due to the fact the 8pt was never shot it drown! Sley and Buglemln I hope this puts your minds at rest? I hope this debate will be helpful to future gut shot hunters, because the shot happens more times than not, this was my 1st and hopefully last gut shot deer!! Thanks to all for the inputs.
