collapse

Advertisement


Author Topic: if you shoot a deer in the last minutes of daylight  (Read 11051 times)

Offline Colville

  • Non-Hunting Topics
  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Longhunter
  • *****
  • Join Date: Mar 2007
  • Posts: 689
  • Location: Snohomish
Re: if you shoot a deer in the last minutes of daylight
« Reply #60 on: September 16, 2018, 10:25:33 AM »
For Rifle this is simple.  If it's down, where do you have to be? You are hunting, what could possibly be making you wait for tomorrow?  I suppose it's possible to have such an inclement weather situation that you'd bail, AFTER gutting the animal.  Otherwise, who cares that it's dark?  Get on your headlamp and do your job, embrace the suck and get it done. At the barest minimum, gutted.  I can't see why a deer would ever be so difficult that you'd need to wait to bone or  quarter.

If it's rifle and you think you've made a marginal shot...  Unless the "margin" is that you hit a leg extremity, the vast majority of rifle shots, even to the guts, are fatal in the very near term.  Give them 1/2 hour and pursue. If you actually bump them, fine back out and consider tomorrow.  How many stories about bad shots do you hear where the animal was dead inside 100 yards?  Might some of them have been down but not out, maybe... but if they chose to lay down that close to where they were hit, they were in a very bad way and likely died quickly.  Risk bumping them to find out, after a bit of a wait.

Archery is another animal.  Especially in early seasons, I'd risk bumping them after a wait over waiting till tomorrow get recover my rotten animal. In late seasons with cold temps and a 100% gut shot, I might think on that a while longer.

Ultimately, I think there's far more risk to losing recovery of your animal to waiting than there is to giving a little time and taking on the pursuit.  Once found, I can't find any excuse for not gutting, and as said earlier by grade, why take an easy job and make it a brutal one with rigor, frozen hide etc.


Offline Justdecent

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Tracker
  • **
  • Join Date: Mar 2018
  • Posts: 25
  • Location: SW Washington
Re: if you shoot a deer in the last minutes of daylight
« Reply #61 on: September 25, 2018, 03:40:23 PM »
Heard a story last year about a “huntress” waiting to gut a buck until the next day so she could get a good picture and the meat was ruined the next day. I don’t know the whole story but if that’s true, disgraceful.

Offline buggy

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Hunter
  • ***
  • Join Date: Jun 2015
  • Posts: 175
  • Location: Washington
Re: if you shoot a deer in the last minutes of daylight
« Reply #62 on: September 25, 2018, 07:32:14 PM »
I agree. If the animal is down there is no reason to wait til morning unless there are life threatening circumstances involved.

Offline dboots

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Pilgrim
  • *
  • Join Date: Apr 2018
  • Posts: 3
  • Location: Western
Re: if you shoot a deer in the last minutes of daylight
« Reply #63 on: September 26, 2018, 12:01:43 AM »
I'll always get it done that night. Minimize that chance of anything happening that would waste any meat

Offline fishnfur

  • Non-Hunting Topics
  • Trade Count: (+1)
  • Frontiersman
  • *****
  • Join Date: Nov 2014
  • Posts: 3805
  • Location: longview
Re: if you shoot a deer in the last minutes of daylight
« Reply #64 on: September 26, 2018, 12:33:05 AM »
 :beatdeadhorse:   
“When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.”  - Will Rogers

Offline sticky

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Scout
  • ****
  • Join Date: Aug 2010
  • Posts: 289
  • Location: Mossyrock
Re: if you shoot a deer in the last minutes of daylight
« Reply #65 on: September 30, 2018, 08:44:27 PM »
In the hanging room before in bed.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands, every where. Destroy this spirit, and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors.

-Abraham Lincoln

 


* Advertisement

* Recent Topics

AKC lab puppies! Born 06/10/2025 follow as they grow!!! by scottfrick
[Today at 10:49:08 PM]


SE raffle tags holder by Dan-o
[Today at 10:32:44 PM]


KODIAK06 2025 trail cam and personal pics thread by Dan-o
[Today at 10:30:40 PM]


218 Chewuch Youth by NKAS
[Today at 09:23:30 PM]


Looking for people to hunt with. by JDArms1240
[Today at 08:17:06 PM]


Rimrock Bull: Modern by MikeC
[Today at 06:53:45 PM]


2025-2026 Regs by CP
[Today at 06:08:19 PM]


The Official: Hunting-Washington.Com Recipe Book by Brushcrawler
[Today at 04:40:46 PM]


Anybody breeding meat rabbit? by HighlandLofts
[Today at 04:05:00 PM]


506 Willapa Hills Late Season Antlerless Tag by Tinmaniac
[Today at 02:54:55 PM]


My Brothers First Blacktail by 3nails
[Today at 02:22:32 PM]


Idaho 2025 Controlled Hunts by JDArms1240
[Today at 12:30:04 PM]


DR Brush Mower won't crank by jackelope
[Today at 11:12:40 AM]


Tooth age on Quinault bull by jeffitz
[Today at 10:16:48 AM]


HUNTNNW 2025 trail cam thread and photos by Feathernfurr
[Today at 09:50:13 AM]


Wyoming Antelope Unit 80 by tntklundt
[Today at 07:51:23 AM]


Stillaguamish 448 QD rifle tag by Turner89
[Today at 07:32:13 AM]

SimplePortal 2.3.7 © 2008-2025, SimplePortal