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how fast will a deer go bad

Jay_Disarray

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
Oct 7, 2019
Messages
1,950
Location
MN
i shot a buck tonight, it was a 4pointer with a decent sized body. He came within 20yds of my stand, and looked like a good eater, so i took a shot at him. I got a pass through on the arrow, and will post the pic of it below. its not bubbly pink blood, and there isn't any on the ground around where i hit him either, but there was a lot of blood, i followed the blood trail for as long as i could, but it went onto private land where i eventually lost the trail as it was getting dark, and i did not want to be on a blood trail in the dark woods where i had a bear come up to my tree just yesterday. I planned to go back in the morning, but with the temperatures going to be upper 50s through the night, and up to 70 by noon, will my deer be spoiled by morning?
 
Jay - assuming it was a quick kill, if you get up early and recover him before it gets too warm, the meat will be okay if it’s 50 degrees overnight. Get him gutted and into a cooler as soon as possible.

I’d be more worried about a bear or coyote getting to him first than I would about the meat spoiling.


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i'm gonna try to find that buck either way, but i'm bothered by killing or injuring something that i wasn't able to locate.

with that bear out last night i just didn't feel safe trying to track by headlamp. the bear was not bothered by people, as it approached my brother and his gf 20 minutes before it came right up to my tree. i tracked him for nearly 2 hours before it got too dark to see much.
 
Was he broadside? How far did you track him initially? How long did you wait before you started after him? Did you lose the trail because the blood petered out and you didn't want to go on the private or because it got dark. Did you smell the arrow. Where do you think you hit him? It's a lot of questions I know but they are all pieces of a puzzle we need to figure out how to find him. It looks like a liver hit. Maybe clipped the nearside lung high and caught the liver going out? Lots of blood, it should have like a metallic smell, Liver hits bleed like crazy. Did he bolt off or go easy with his tail flicking, maybe you hit him high and back a little more than you were aiming for? Need his angle when he was hit. I hope by now you already found him. I would be interested to know what the autopsy report says. Good luck. You got this. If it was a low hit it could be a single lung. If it was low you might have some all white belly hair cut off from the exit.
 
Meat should be fine in those temps. Blood on the arrow looks good but more details about how it all went down would help, like @Kurt said.
I guess bear season isn't open yet?
 
i'm bothered by killing or injuring something that i wasn't able to locate.
@Jay_Disarray - You wouldn't be an ethical hunter if you weren't bothered by it. If you lose the blood trail and are really struggling to find clues, be aware that most of the time the deer will be found on what was the downwind side of the trail at the time of the shot. It's not uncommon for them to circle downwind of where the shot happened to try to locate the danger with their nose, and to avoid further encounters with it.
 
You should be fine, I've shot plenty of deer in Sept in FL and recovered them the next morning and the meat is fine. One thing that can help you in the future is the Drury Outdoors Deercast app, it has a cool feature called deercast track that lets you pic your shot placement then they post videos of the different shot angles along with detailed instructions from expert trackers on what to do and what to expect with each shot. A little sidetracked from your original question but IMO one of the best resources on the market right now.
 
He was about 15 yards broadside, after initially being hit he turned tail and ran back the way he came, followed the trail a good 300yds at least. I gave up chase both because I lost the trail as it got dark private land and the Bear in the area. liver shot makes a lot of sense. Will report back later
 
You should be fine, I've shot plenty of deer in Sept in FL and recovered them the next morning and the meat is fine. One thing that can help you in the future is the Drury Outdoors Deercast app, it has a cool feature called deercast track that lets you pic your shot placement then they post videos of the different shot angles along with detailed instructions from expert trackers on what to do and what to expect with each shot. A little sidetracked from your original question but IMO one of the best resources on the market right now.
Do you have it, and if so could Jay_Disarray Get you the POI info to get an idea of what he may be looking at?
 
He was about 15 yards broadside, after initially being hit he turned tail and ran back the way he came, followed the trail a good 300yds at least. I gave up chase both because I lost the trail as it got dark private land and the Bear in the area. liver shot makes a lot of sense. Will report back later
With the info provided so far, I agree it's most likely liver. The deer, if not already, will be dead. Regardles, meat should be fine in those temps if you find him soon. Good luck! It sucks not to have them go down quickly but it is unfortunately a part of hunting. Hope to see you report back with a pic of your find.
 
ok sorry. where i was tracking was spotty service at best. he walked up to my weak side with a slightly quartering to broadside shot. i mustve hit further back than i thought originally, with the amount and color of blood a liver shot makes a lot of sense, and kinda where i was thinking i hit him too. when he was hit he took off like a bat out of hell, and did a loop back the way he came from. i waited a half hr after hitting him to check my arrow, which was covered in just pure red blood, i didnt smell it and doubt it would do me much good anyways because my nose is garbage. after another 15min i tracked the blood trail for a good 300yds and onto the neighbors property, when i lost the trail as it was getting dark.

i came back this morning to where i lost the trail and attempted to pick it up again, i started close and did half circles around where i found the last drop, extending out to around 50-60yds but after another 3hrs of trying i didnt find another single drop of blood after the last one i found last night, the trail just went cold. the private land owner mustve heard i was on his property cuz he came over to see what i was doing and helped look for a bit but then gave up and told me that i need to leave his property because he doesnt want me spooking his deer by leaving scent all over the place. so, this is where i have no choice but to give up the search
 
Hate to hear that. Since its private property, there isn't much you can do. Looks like the coyote and bears will be eating well.


What broadhead did you hit him with?
 
ok sorry. where i was tracking was spotty service at best. he walked up to my weak side with a slightly quartering to broadside shot. i mustve hit further back than i thought originally, with the amount and color of blood a liver shot makes a lot of sense, and kinda where i was thinking i hit him too. when he was hit he took off like a bat out of hell, and did a loop back the way he came from. i waited a half hr after hitting him to check my arrow, which was covered in just pure red blood, i didnt smell it and doubt it would do me much good anyways because my nose is garbage. after another 15min i tracked the blood trail for a good 300yds and onto the neighbors property, when i lost the trail as it was getting dark.

i came back this morning to where i lost the trail and attempted to pick it up again, i started close and did half circles around where i found the last drop, extending out to around 50-60yds but after another 3hrs of trying i didnt find another single drop of blood after the last one i found last night, the trail just went cold. the private land owner mustve heard i was on his property cuz he came over to see what i was doing and helped look for a bit but then gave up and told me that i need to leave his property because he doesnt want me spooking his deer by leaving scent all over the place. so, this is where i have no choice but to give up the search
Man that really stinks!!! I’ve been there, I shot a real nice 8pt that crossed onto an adjoining property. The landowner refused permission ( could see blood & drag marks on his side). In my situation as frustrating as it was I knew the deer didn’t go to waste. I can’t stand leaving the trail, I do know that as unfortunate as it is, that deer will be a few good meals for that bear.......
 
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