If you've bow hunted long enough, you will have shots like that. That deer is a dead deer for sure but where the shot was, you would have had to wait at least 24-30 hours to go look. If you had waited at least 24 hours, your chances of finding that deer within 300 yards of that feeder doing a grid search would have been around 80% or better, that is "if" it wasn't too terribly thick and no one else disturbed the deer. Back in 2010, I hit a doe in pretty near the same place. Knowing where the hit was exactly (as I film my hunts too), I waited 24 hours and had the tiniest of drops to follow about every 10-30 feet. Took me about 3 hours to track that deer about 250 yards and I kicked that deer out of it's bed. This time she started bleeding a little better but I let her lay another 12 hours until the next morning. It was about 32° that night so I wasn't worried about meat. The blood trail was much better and as sick as she looked I knew she wouldn't run far. Day and a half later, I recovered that doe 80 yards further down the trail, minus about 4-5 pounds of meat on one hind end eaten by a fox or raccoon. Low gut shot is a dead deer because they will not survive severed intestine but it is a long long wait because if you jump that deer early, it will be a 1/2 mile or further before it stops to lay down. Have a great season!
If you've bow hunted long enough, you will have shots like that. That deer is a dead deer for sure but where the shot was, you would have had to wait at least 24-30 hours to go look. If you had waited at least 24 hours, your chances of finding that deer within 300 yards of that feeder doing a grid search would have been around 80% or better, that is "if" it wasn't too terribly thick and no one else disturbed the deer. Back in 2010, I hit a doe in pretty near the same place. Knowing where the hit was exactly (as I film my hunts too), I waited 24 hours and had the tiniest of drops to follow about every 10-30 feet. Took me about 3 hours to track that deer about 250 yards and I kicked that deer out of it's bed. This time she started bleeding a little better but I let her lay another 12 hours until the next morning. It was about 32° that night so I wasn't worried about meat. The blood trail was much better and as sick as she looked I knew she wouldn't run far. Day and a half later, I recovered that doe 80 yards further down the trail, minus about 4-5 pounds of meat on one hind end eaten by a fox or raccoon. Low gut shot is a dead deer because they will not survive severed intestine but it is a long long wait because if you jump that deer early, it will be a 1/2 mile or further before it stops to lay down. Have a great season!