How long after the Shot do you leave Big Game before Tracking

Got my first deer (doe) last fall from a 100 yard shot with 30.06. Standing shot aimed for heart and hit her right above lungs and thru her spine. No chase required. A week later my friend and I went looking for mule bucks. I shot first, missed, he took second. I re acquired to see a deer trotting away.. "did I get him?" I said no. Went to go look for blood, it was getting late. Walked 200 yards thru cut block to look for blood only to find him lying down trying to get up and kick us. Turns out there was another doe we didn't see which was what I saw running away. Had to finish him off at point blank. Big 4x4 mule.

A fellow CGNr was telling me he patterned an huge Elk for 3 days. Set him self up for a close 50 yard shot. Elk ran and he tracked for 60 yards and lost blood trail. Had a trained dog to track - found him 1000 yards away with a thru and thru shot just under his heart.

Amazing how these animals can run after such shots.
 
I like to wait a few minutes (cup of tea or whatever) and go take a look at the area of the initial hit. If it looks good, lots of bone, fat, heavy blood trail, etc... will start tracking immediately. If there's not a lot of sign, I'll wait it out for a while, call in some backup and give the animal some time to lie down and bleed out. I definitely don't agree with waiting overnight to go after your animal though. Around here your lucky if find more than the hide the next day. Not to mention the longer the animal runs or lies dead the worse your culinary experience will be.
 
westcoaster said:
I've waited a bit and also just gone after them. To a degree this is also situational depending on terrain and time of day.

However, as a general practice I wait about the time it takes me to drink a scalding hot cup of coffee and then go in to usually find the animal dead within 100 feet of where I hit it.
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Bland said:
I was taught to wait so they bed down and stiffen up before tracking. Ten minutes was the magic number. It is interesting to see what the consensus is. Lots of different approaches here.
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kyle700 said:
When I smoked, first thing I'd do after the shot would be to light one up. I don't smoke now but I still generally give them at least ten minutes. Elk and moose at least 20. If it's raining or snowing I will creep after it right away though. Just go nice and easy ready to pop him again if he jumps up in front of me.

Buddy of mine shot a mulie doe last fall with his bow and ran out of light tracking it. We found a ribcage and a clean skull in the morning. It was laying ten yards from where he left the trail the night before.
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I do what these guys do.
 
African professional trackers are nothing short of uncanny, and ply their trade about 8 months out of the year. Inevitably they start on the trail of anything that is unlikely to squish or bite you immediately, though the plan may be modified from there if need be depending on the sign. You should know in a minute or two if the animal will be found dead quickly or needs to be left to bed and stiffen up.
 
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I grew up deer hunting in an area where we used hounds and party hunting was both legal & the accepted norm.

Typically if a deer came through in front of a hound, you did your part, and if wasn't a bang-flop, the dog would be on it until it fell anyways. Occasionally, I've shot a deer, watched it go down and kept an eye on it ... only to have another deer come through. Had I rushed over to the first, or made a commotion, I wouldn't have been able to take the second. Last run of the day & getting close to legal quitting time, I like to get to the deer while there's still some light left.

Not bragging ... and knock on wood, I've only had a couple of deer go more than 50 yards where I couldn't see them fall because of terrain, and none have made it more than 75 or 100. Moose & bear... so far, I've always seen them go down.

Shoot carefully with well constructed bullets in the right place and little if no tracking is required.
 
When I used to smoke, I'd have a smoke after the shot (about 10 min.) and then go looking.

I have not smoked in many years and it is the only time I kind of miss having a smoke is after I shoot a big game animal.

Two years ago the buck I was squeezing on started walking and I figured I had hit him far back. The sound was like a paunch shot too. It was early in the afternoon so I waited a full 1/2 hour and then went on a pretty good blood trail trail. When I caught up with him he was on his feet but pretty sick. I finished him off and was glad I had not pushed him too soon.
 
A min or 2 is it, I hate the shows on tv that they shot then say"let wait till morning" I am in the belif that I shoot something I eat it, and like hell I am going to leave something all night then try and eat it!
 
For myself, if I'm using my bow, I will wait 20 minutes or so before leaving my hide, and looking for the animal. With a rifle, I don't wait that long at all. I'll take the shot, then take a few minutes to pack my kit back up before heading out.
 
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