How long do you need to wait?

This has always been a thing I thaught about and that is how when your watching a hunting channel on the tv and they shoot a deer you always see them waiting oh 3-4 hours. I havn’t waited nearly that long but only about 30 minutes to an hour but…How long do you wait??? Hunter saftey says “tag it right after you shoot it.”

It depends. If I see where my arrow hit the deer, this will tell me a lot of how much time I will give it before tracking. With a bow if I do not see the animal drop, I will give it time. How much time depends on if I seen where I hit the deer. If I’m not sure of my shot placement and do not see the animal drop, I will try to give it 4 hours MINIMUM. If I think I hit it good in the vitals and do not see the animal drop I will give it 2-3 hours before trailing. If I see it drop, I will look to see with my binocs if it is out cold or just bedded down. If it is out cold, I may get down immediatley. If it is bedded down, close enough, and I already hit it once, I will try to figure out a way to get another arrow into the animal any way I can. But the best advice to follow is: When in doubt, back out..

Hope this helps!

Thank you lip ripper, i just was wondering what other people thaught about this topic…

Lip is right on. Other factors to consider are the weather (rain/snow/temp), the sign of the blood trail and predators (coyotes/wolves).

Its hard to beat a boiler room shot, after that id give it atleast and hour if you’ve hit close to it. Let him bed down and expire, its better then chasing them all night.

Im no expert but Ive been deer hunting since I was 12 and it took me many years of pushing deer to relaize that if you dont see the deer drop..the longer you wait the better…to a point of course…Even now if im hunting in the evening and think I have a good shot but didnt see the deer drop…9 times out of 10 I’ll wait to the morning to track it…Now I bow hunt in central Mn and dont have to worry too much about wolves etc…so the 4 hours your talkin about is great if you have that time..If I would have only learned this and listened to my dad when I was younger I wouldnt have all the mile plus trails to follow..But there is nothing worse then tryin to sleep whrn you know you stuck a deer…Good luck…Jay

Jay your so right I’m 14 now and everytime ive shot a deer im so ancshiious to get out of the stand and go see my deer or w/e it is thanks for the help

I am the wrong guy to give insight. My only deer I shot last year was a doe because I was always waiting for the big buck. I probably had around 16 deer walk with in 10 yards of my stand but Its always in your mind the dream buck is sitting there waiting to come out. Anyways I shot a giant doe last year, watched the arrow go in. In my eyes it was a picture perfect shot right above and over about 2″ behind the shoulder. I sat for 2 hour because I knew it was dead 50 yards over the fence.It ran sideways more than it went straight and I had seen alot of deer that morning including a chocalate that I guess was 160. So after I got down to my amazement no deer. I did find a blood trail. There was a spot here and there than a softball size spot about every 50 yard bright red. After 3 hours of tracking never found the deer never jumped him and no beds. I must have passed by 5 stands and about 5 fences not knowing exactly were i was and it was getting dark I had to give up. I was heart broken it was the first deer I shot with a bow and I saw a perfect hit. Well I talked to my but mitch and he said they shot in one of there videos that did the same thing. I guess theres a small pocket in between the heart and the lung and said thats were ya hit. probably just grazed the heart and it ran till it was out off blood than probally another 50 to 75 yards and dropped dead. So that next day I solved that problem and went out and bought some 2″ rages. But did not get a chance to do any surgery. Next year its doe management early than hold off for a nice buck because i’m hungry.

What always amazes me when you watch some of those TV shows is how they shoot the animal in full daylight and then when they find it it’s always dark. Guess it makes for better camera angles…

On an evening bowhunt if I have less than an hour of light left I always wait overnight unless I see the deer go down. Morning hunts if I see it was a quality hit I will still wait an hour – if I dont like the hit 4 to 5 hours. That being said, when gun hunting I will take up a trail immediately if the deer doesnt fall in it’s tracks.

I usually like to let them age for 3 or 4 days then take up the trail, meat tastes better. J/K. Every circumstance is different and so many variables make for different decisions. I have had great luck waiting the 30-60 minutes and taking up the trail. just my 2 cents.