Originally Posted By: j 7
He stood there with his back hunched and head down like it was about to fall over.


Sure sign of a gut-shot. The typical school of thought on these situations is to leave it alone and hope it beds down and dies nearby overnight. With lack of blood, all too often these deer move to far from the scene and die unrecovered. If possible, I have had better success getting another arrow into gut-shot deer, SOON, while they still feel sick. Of course this isn't always possible in big open contry.

Same thing happened to me on my biggest buck, a P&Y record book blacktail. I was sick about the shot, too far back, buck hunched up. After weighing my options I opted to go after him, running over ridges and through draws, emptying my quiver at him in the process. He was already mortally wounded after all. About a half mile from where I first hit him I finally got a lung shot on him with one of the arrows I had already shot and him and had picked up in the chase.