Longest successful recovery
- Thread starter GonHuntin
- Start date
Doctorbrady
Well-Known Member
Just over a mile personally, though I know of much longer recoveries.
Fish
Well-Known Member
Not sure of distance, but Dad tracked a giant Illinois buck nearly 48 hours before finally finding it. The buck was hit through the intestine just above the "tallywacker" as we used to say. It had died only hours before recovery.
Make a note, deer hit in the intestines will last much longer than a paunch shot deer. The bigger they are, the more hours you can add to that equation.
Make a note, deer hit in the intestines will last much longer than a paunch shot deer. The bigger they are, the more hours you can add to that equation.
Kwood
Well-Known Member
1/2 mile, but it crossed the same creek 3 times. My dad was the only reason we found it. He did a great job. Single lung hit.
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Sent from my iPhone using Deer Hunter Forum
Yup, the big bucks don't go down easy!
Blizzard Ridge
Well-Known Member
I have been lucky and blessed that I have not had to track a deer over a couple hundred yards. My longest track was a gun shot deer that was shot well but ended up going on a 300 yard death sprint, jumping a fence. I decided to back out since he was moving so well when I last saw him. I went back 3 hours later and the coyotes had already eaten him up to his shoulder. He was actually laying dead within 50 yards of eyesight of where I walked over to fence he jumped. Now I have had some clean misses though.
j-bird
Well-Known Member
Longest in both time and distance was a buck I took 2 years ago. Took me 7 days and I walked miles. The deer actually only went maybe 1/2 mile as the crow flies, but conditions and mistakes on my part created a snowball affect that resulted in me having to grid search and grid search and grid search some more. I finally found the buck, when I was dangling by a thread of my sanity. I searched to some extent every day of those 7 days - sometimes just a few hours (days I worked) , sometimes from 8 am until nearly midnight. He wasn't huge, but I knew he was dead and I knew I had made several mistakes in the process. The meat was lost, the recovery sucked, but it reaffirmed my commitment to finding deer I shoot and it reminds me of what not to do. Sometimes we need lessons like that. That lesson surfaced this season as I shot a buck that ran but I never heard crash and I never saw leave an area. Part of me wanted to go in after him, but instead I felt him over night and found him less than 100 yards from where I last saw him the following morning. I have yet to have a yote beat me to a deer (knock on wood).
I tagged that deer that took me forever to find and his antlers hang on my barn and every time I see them I think of that recovery. That deer symbolizes a lot, some good, some not so good. I will tell you - most of it is bad, and it's bad on my part. Sometimes we need a reminder to prevent making the same mistakes again.
I tagged that deer that took me forever to find and his antlers hang on my barn and every time I see them I think of that recovery. That deer symbolizes a lot, some good, some not so good. I will tell you - most of it is bad, and it's bad on my part. Sometimes we need a reminder to prevent making the same mistakes again.
Native Hunter
Well-Known Member
Years ago, we had a double lung shot deer (with a 243 rifle and nice exit hole) to go close to 400 yards before going down. I was blood tracking for someone else, and I swore to myself the whole way that he had made a bad shot - but that was not the case.
PS: I was the dog............so I guess I could say that some people treat me like a dog.....
PS: I was the dog............so I guess I could say that some people treat me like a dog.....
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swat1018
Well-Known Member
Deer are tough, as the trackers will tell you. I shot a deer with a gun in Indiana about 15 years ago during gun season. While gutting it, I cut myself bad on a broadhead. It was tangled up in a big blob, that use to be a lung. He was still chasing does. The nurse that stitched me up asked where I hunted. Told her, and she said send me a pic, my nephew bowhunts a half mile from there and lost one in October. Sure enough, it was the same deer the nephew had shot with a bow on October 5.
Doctorbrady
Well-Known Member
Cool story Swat!
Native Hunter
Well-Known Member
Yes, awesome story Swat - and a unique one as well.....
Doctorbrady
Well-Known Member
Haha! Been there myself as a kid fleshing out a skull.
Kwood
Well-Known Member
Chipdasqrrl
Active Member
You’re right that they’ll go straight down, but I’m not so sure you want to aim for the spine on a wall hanger. A few years ago I shot a buck and I got very unlucky with where I hit it. I seemed to have got him right above the vitals, and right below the spine.
He immediately dropped and I thought he was dead right there. Maybe 4 seconds later he began kicking his feet and eventually regained footing, and took off. Sounds like he was temporarily paralyzed from the impact of the bullet next to his spine. I found one drop of blood where I shot him, then nothing. I’m pretty sure he survived.
I’m not against spine shots, but I personally wouldn’t risk it after that experience
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My wife did the exact same thing this year with a muzzle loader. Was trying to get reloaded while watching the deer walk off after it had been motionless on ground for ten seconds. Got pictures of him three days later working a scrape and then everyday after, til gun season opened the following weekend- then never another pic.
