The National Deer Association (NDA) is a respected member-based organization with a mission of “ensuring the future of wild deer, wildlife habitat and hunting.” Its website is home to more than 500 articles (no cost) about deer behavior, habitat improvement, food plots, hunting techniques, field dressing and butchering, and even recipes. (Note: The NDA also has hundreds of informative videos on its YouTube channel.)
One NDA article that recently caught my eye is “5 Steps to Recovering a Gut Shot Deer.” It was written by Cole Gander, who works as NDA’s deer outreach specialist for northern Missouri. I highly recommend you check it out.
In the article, Gander explains in detail these five suggestions:
- Familiarize yourself with whitetail anatomy
- Get your bearings, literally
- When in doubt, back out
- Take the track slow
- Call in the cavalry (meaning a well-trained tracking dog)
In my opinion, the worst action you can take after hitting a deer in the paunch is taking up the blood trail too soon. On the properties I bowhunt in Minnesota, South Dakota and Wisconsin, gut shot whitetails will usually run 150 to 250 yards and then bed. If you don’t pursue them — and they aren’t bumped by a coyote or other predator — then the deer will die in that bed. But it could take 8, 10, 12 or more hours. That’s the tricky part; there’s no blueprint for exactly how long it will take for a gut shot deer to expire.
If the air temperature is cold enough that the meat won’t spoil, I suggest waiting 12 hours before slowly taking up the blood trail or beginning a grid search for a gut shot deer. Yes, you risk having a coyote eat some of the meat, but if you pursue the deer too soon and jump it from its initial bed, then it could run a great distance and you might never find it.
I’ll conclude with this advice: You can greatly reduce the chances for a gut shot deer by limiting your shooting distance. The tendency to hit “too far back” increases as the distance increases. Fact: All of us are better shots at 15-20 yards than we are at 35-40 yards, on targets and animals.
