blindluck

every bow hunter is gonna encounter this problem before too long...jus give er time and she'll die...you might have one heck of a time findin her though so stick with it...how much penetration did you get?

minnesotadeer

What Greg says is very true. I guess it all depends on how well you got a look at where the arrow was and how much was sticking out. In my case, it was right in the middle of the shoulder and between half and three quarters was sticking out. Hence the wise old hunter telling me, give it time because she may or may not make it with a shot like that.

The other thing to consider is though it may be hot out, she may not expire for a very long time yet depending on the hit, so the meat may still be fine, and you may be tracking a live deer that may have a lot of run left in her. It's a tough call, but you're the one in the situation and can determine it best.

I was just trying to offer some perspective, not saying one way or the other is right. Perhaps a compromise is to start looking soon, but keeping the search party to one or two people and moving sloooooowww, like a turtle, watching and looking everywhere as you go. Good luck. Let us know how it works out.

Western MA Hunter

Yeah... give her some time.. then go in after her...
could be dead in there...

brushbustin

Good luck and be sure to update us when you get back from looking for her! Hope you find her.

Red 5 stdby

All good posts above. The only additional advice I have is to look near water. If she was running hard and is bleeding internally she may head to water to rehydrate and bed down.

kwilson16

What kind of sound did the impact make?
Did you find the arrow? And, was there blood on it? How far up the shaft did the blood go?

Howler

Depending on how much penetration you got, she may or may not die. Like Greg said, if it didn't get through the shoulder, then yo won't find her and she won't die from that hit.
But, you stilll gotta look, and hopefully you at least find the arrow and from that, you will have a better idea of what did or didn't happen.

lodiss

I shot a nice buck last year. It was a bit forward and went right into the shoulder blade. The arrow stayed in the dear. I watched him run 80 yards and fall over. However, I wanted to see his blood trail just for the practice. Not one ounce of blood! It was all internal.

Give her time for sure though!

Ben / PA

With a high hit like that, blood is gonna be scarce. Make sure you grid out the area and look real good before just calling her a survivor. If you got through that shoulder, she's dead.

early in

This is the best advice I've head yet, if there is indeed water around. I would start looking at very first light in the morning, not sooner. That deer will likely live into the night. If she dies tonight the meat will be fine in the morning. This is how I would handle this situation.