Deer in the water

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RJA

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Woodstock Ontario
I just spent all day finding a deer that I shot with my crossbow late yesterday. I made a pretty good shot right in the boiler room. The deer disappeared behind some brush so I left it for about 20 minutes. It was just about dark so I got out of my stand to check for an arrow and blood at the last place I saw it. The deer was there but it got up and ran so I left it until this morning.
With snow on the ground I figured it would be a piece of cake to find but I was very wrong. The tracks went along the river for about 50 yards then disappeared. Had to have swam to the other side? The river was very high so back to the crossing about a half mile away then to the spot across from the last prints. We could not find any place that the deer had came out.
Back to the crossing again and to the last print to see what we had missed. After checking and re-checking I went for a mile hike down stream and there he was , caught on a log part way across the river.
We hiked back to the crossing again went home and got some ropes and my canoe and 2 hours later had a nice eight pointer hanging in my garage.
I have taken at least one buck a year for about 40 years and have only lost one deer that I found 2 weeks later. It had crossed a high river.
You never stop learning but boy sometimes I think I might be getting too old for this ####.
Rja
 
Would the meat be any good after having the guts in it over night being dead and all? Had a mulie buck sour in -15 F found the next day years ago.........Harold
 
You'll know if the meat is spoiled or not once its gutted and skinned, you'll smell it easily. I'd guess that its most likely still ok, it may have only been in the water and died shortly before you found it, something you will never know for sure.
 
A few years back. One friend shot a moose and did'nt find it till the next day . It had bloated up and also smelled sour. The temp was cold ,but no snow. What a waste that was.
 
A moose doesn't take long to go bad with the hide on.I remember two young guys that had a black Datson truck that had shot likely their first moose ,a bull in Sept.It was mild out and they paraded it around town for a full month with the hide still on it. After a week you could smell them coming before you could see them.What a waste........Harold
 
The meat will be fine... we recovered a deer one time from a swamp in November... it had been in the water for three days... might as well have been hanging in a walk-in cooler... the meat was excellent.
 
I had one pretty much the same must be 25 years ago. Dam thing went down stream must have been 2 miles before it got caught up.
For us we knew it was in the water dead when it started to float away but we could not keep up with it
The meat was fine. If anything I think the cold water would probally be the best case for keeping everything cool and not spoiled
Congrats
 
Congratulations on your deer and on the effort you made to recover it. Had a similar experience years ago involving a deer shot by a member of our party. Between locating the deer and then getting a canoe to recover it, we lost a full day of hunting. I'd do it all again in a heartbeat.
 
The deer was not even bloated because of the near freezing water. There was a little smell when I gutted it but as soon as the intestines were gone the rest smelled great.It may have been a different story had the deer not been in the water.
RJA
 
I'm sure it's fine. Good on you for putting in an effort to retrieve your deer. Just out of curiosity, where did you actually hit it and what broadhead were you using? A deer hit in the vitals shouldn't have got up after 20 minutes.
 
savagelh said:
Just out of curiosity, where did you actually hit it and what broadhead were you using? A deer hit in the vitals shouldn't have got up after 20 minutes.
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Sounds like a diaphragm hit... grazing the back edge of the lungs and front lobe of the liver... Looks good initially, feels good, but proves to be a longer tracking job than expected... I've seen that hit alot on client's bears.
 
It would cool faster in the water so it should be alright. Glad to hear you didn't give up on finding it!
 
mbogo3 said:
Would the meat be any good after having the guts in it over night being dead and all? Had a mulie buck sour in -15 F found the next day years ago.........Harold
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My guess is that it'll be fine. I lost a mulie overnight out near Alexis Creek that I shot right at dusk. Found it the next morning. It was just fine. I would have guessed that it was about -15 or -20C. Second last day of November.

Every situation is different. The only way to tell is to jerk the shirt, dump the puddins and find out.
 
BigUglyMan said:
I lost a mulie overnight out near Alexis Creek that I shot right at dusk. Found it the next morning. It was just fine.
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That was a few years ago though. Today you have a deer down over night in that area the wolves would have it stripped down to a red spot in the snow.
 
My guess is that it will be fine as well, the flowing cold water should do the job for you. But one never really knows until you open him up.

A slob hunter would have given up as soon as he hit the water. Excellent work on your part to find him. Experience and skill told you where to look.
 
'Boo said:
That was a few years ago though. Today you have a deer down over night in that area the wolves would have it stripped down to a red spot in the snow.
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Gut pile from the 200lb buck I shot this year was gone in one night, and the area so clean, you'd never know except for flattened grass that anything had happened there. I figure bear, because even the stomach contents were gone.
 
John Y Cannuck said:
Gut pile from the 200lb buck I shot this year was gone in one night, and the area so clean, you'd never know except for flattened grass that anything had happened there. I figure bear, because even the stomach contents were gone.
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Same experience this year.... a day later, between yotes and crows, there was nothing left but the stomach and intestinal contents, which subsequently disappeared the next day.... (a prospect I don't want to spend too much time thinking about).....
 
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