wait and claim...oh sure dear...nahh

[killzone]

I remember the first time I took a whitetail with my dad, who was an OK hunter that knew a lot a junk ( meaning unnecessary knowledge ) about hunting. We stalked it for about two hours and finally spotted him at the end of the slope where I took a 120 yards shot at him. saw him go down like a rock.
That was the first time I was told that I was suppose to wait about 30 minutes before I claim the animal so that its for sure dead or let him die calm so he doesn't run away much more.... I kept saying I know he is dead ,,lets go get him but mt dad just would not move. I was getting upset I wanted to get closer and see. anyhow, about 40 minutes later I was facing away from my dad and he said "let go get him "
We made it where he was and there ....down.....That was the only time I waited for 40 minutes for a whitetail, never again dude, it makes sense but if you already know your shot hit hard than go get him! there is no reason to wait...save your patience for stalking aye,,,

 

[Art Eatman]

Just guessing, but I'd bet that's a holdover from muzzle-loader days, and from shotgun hunting. Much less tissue destruction and much more time needed for a deer to bleed out internally.

Art

 

[Rembrandt]

(Heehee) Yep, saw this coming.....our entire society has become "I want it now culture". Fast food drive-ins, drive thru banking, crimes committed, investigated, & solved in 30 minutes on TV. Now hunters expect their hunts to follow the same pattern.

....seriously, if the animal isn't struggling to get up within a couple of minutes, it's probably gone into shock.

 

[ACP230]

If I shoot one in a field, my hold was good, and can see it lying still I go right to it. I've shot a couple of them again after I got up to them.

I did hit one too far back once. I got to where it went into the woods in 10 or 15 minutes, jumped it and couldn't get the gun on it. We found it dead about 70 yards farther in, but if I'd waited a few more minutes it would have been dead at the first place it lay down.

 

[birddog]

On only one occasion, I've had a deer that went down within sight jump up and run. That was a liver-shot bowkill. He lived a while longer, but still only traveled a hundred yards before collapsing. With bow shots, if they run out of sight and I know it was a GOOD shot, I wait about 15 minutes. If the shot was even remotely questionable, I wait 4+ hours. With gun-shot deer, I go right after them if I think the shot was good.

And, despite what you'll hear, there aren't many people who have killed a lot of deer who haven't pulled a poor shot.

 

[Stinger]

I'm sure you guys have seen Buckmasters before...

The host (Jackie Bushman?) always seems to wait HOURS before he goes and checks. It might be a perfect shot, DRT, and it will be dark before he and the cameras move in.

I don't have that kind of patience or time.

Regards,

Stinger

 

[fisherman66]

Last season my wife's uncle gut shot two deer in two days. He immediately pressed them (on both occasions) a hundred or so yards before comming back to camp for help. We waited for several hours each before finding the blood trail. We lost the trail on one almost half a mile down the "road" and the other went to a stream and followed it far enough to loose us.

We heard the coyotes late that evening in the vicinity of where we lost the second one.

I will walk up on a down deer after about 10 minutes if I can see it (and it is motionless.) I will wait much longer on a shot I'm not absolutely positive about or can't see. I will wait many hours on a shot I pulled. (after examining the POI for bright blood and not finding it.)

When I teach my son to hunt we will wait. Funny how much dad learned from when I was 17 till I turned about 22.

 

[Sharps Shooter]

I've never hunted whitetails, but my Dad, who is 75 now, use to tell me essentially the same thing. Only Dad always told me to "Sit down and smoke a cigarette and wait for the deer to bleed out." I never smoked and Dad doesn't either anymore. But yeah, many times when we were hunting together, when either he or I had as he called it - "knocked one down," we would sit and wait, while Dad smoked a cigarette before going to recover the deer.
I too suspect the practice of waiting is left over from black powder days. My Dad probably learned it from his Dad. Now I sit and wait, with another round already chambered, just long enough to make sure the animal isn't going to get back up. That way I'm ready and in position to fire again. In truth, I've never had to shoot an animal again that was hit good the first time.
As a matter of fact, last year I shot a nice mule deer buck about 150 yards out, on an open hillside, with my .300 Win Mag. I hit him right behind the shoulder and he went down like he'd been hit by lightning. Then he jumped back up just as fast! He ran about 10 yards up the hill, then tipped over backwards, kicked a couple of times, and laid still. I watched it happen through my scope. But it all happened so fast I didn't even have time to chamber another round. I probably wouldn't have shot him again anyway because I was sure of my shot and knew he was hit hard. Even if he would have ran farther, for a few minutes I would have just watched the place where he would have eventually gone down. In that case, I might have been following my Dad's instructions.
But I still don't smoke.

 

[Matt G]

When there's thick enough brush that you can't see the deer go down because it ran out of view, it is STRONGLY advised that you wait 20 minutes before going to get him.

There are exceptions, of course. I've shot more than a couple of deer right at the last seconds of legal shooting light. On such occasions, waiting means giving up the chance of finding him without a flashlight. When the hit was definitely good, I'll go get him after only a minute or so wait under such circumstances.

Many times a fatally-shot buck will not understand what's wrong, and will "go to ground," meaning he'll find a little tree or stand of bushes, and lie down to sit out whatever seems to be wrong with him. He'll almost never understand where the danger came from, and usually will lie down within a hundred yards of where he was shot. Give him twenty minutes, and he'll lie down peacefully and die. Even if he doesn't get all the way dead in 20 minutes, he usually will get stove up enough that he can't run away when you do find him, and you can make a coup de grace simply enough.

But crash through the brush to go get him right after you shot him, and he'll do what deer do: he'll jump up and run. He'll correctly associate you with the cause of his injury, and may run and run and run and run. An otherwise dead deer, with the right stimulation to his adrenal glands, can get to the next county before he lies down and dies.

If you watch him drop right in front of you, I don't see a problem with going to get him pretty soon, but keep your rifle shouldered as you approach him; many hunters have had stunned deer jump up and make their escape as they got to their prize.


From personal experience, I've benefitted from waiting. My longest shot yet was a 300+ yard shot on a buck walking into a cross-wind, and I hit him a little too far back for a perfect shot. He ran out of the plowed field and into the brush, and it was half an hour before I started in after him (I shot just after sunrise). My hunting partners and I found him curled up under a mesquite bush not 100 yards away, dead. Given the thick brush, we never would have found him if I had run in after him, right away. Although I felt pretty good about the shot, he looked hale and hearty as he jumped a tight 5-strand barbed wire fence and ran into the brush; he likely would have run for miles if I had given him reason to.

 

[1911 guy]

Opening Morning

Last year I was hinting on public land opening morning. My Uncle and I went to opposite sides of a small swamp, were about half a mile or less from each other. Not long after sun up I heard a shot in his direction. Sat there for a minute, convinced myself my side of the swamp was deer empty and took a walk. On my way to my uncles stand (about 15 minutes after shot) I heard another shot. Got there, he had a nice meaty doe to put in the freezer. With two 12 guage holes right through the boiler room. Uncle Phil said the doe walked within 20 yards of him and never saw him so he put a slug through her as she started to pass beyond the angle of a 90 degree shot. She dropped like a stone, kicked a time or two, then lay still. Being public land and paranoid of over-eager game officials, he unloaded his shotgun and started filling out the tag. after waiting for the woods to quiet down after the shot, he got out of the stand and no sooner did his feet touch the ground than the "dead" doe stood up and took off! Now he's rummaging in his pockets for a slug, dropping the tag and pen, got a cigarette hanging from his face and a 30 offhand shot at a running deer. Thus the second shot I heard. Suffice it to say I gun hunt the same way I bowhunt. If I'm lucky enough to connect, I can afford to spend a half hour or so waiting on the outcome.

 

[Byron Quick]

I wait. If the temperature is low, I'll wait the rest of the morning or evening. Several times, I've killed two deer in one day by doing this. I've shot deer as they stood sniffing at the previous deer I shot.