Harvesting A Trophy Whitetail Deer

Shooting A Trophy Deer

  For you, like many whitetail deer hunters, Harvesting A Trophy Whitetail Deer will be a lifelong deer hunting dream come true.

The Shot

Maybe you will be on a guided deer hunt or archery hunting alone. It won’t matter because you will never forget your shot placement on that deer. You have dreams about harvesting a trophy buck like this your whole life. And when the moment comes that a trophy deer is in your sites, whether it be a rifle scope or an archery site, and you squeeze that trigger or release that arrow; you know your next action will be planning the recovery your whitetail deer.

After The Shot

You make mental notes of how the deer reacted to the shot, where exactly it was, and where was the last place you seen it. You listen for sounds of stumbling; your game going down. Then you wait; 20 to 30 minutes, more if you feel it is necessary. It seems like eternity, you tell yourself not to rush the tracking and recovery of your deer. Last thing you want to do is push this whitetail deer because you did not see your deer fall and expire. As you prepare to yourself to find your trophy deer, you hope it’s a quick and easy but know it may not be.

Tracking And Gutting

Now you draw upon your deer hunting experience and knowledge. If you are in a hunting stand, make a metal note of where the deer was when you shot it.  Be very specific about the area where it was standing; look for specific trees, brush, fence line, part of the field, side of the hill, and which direction from there did it go.  Now carefully lower your hunting equipment and any hunting supplies you will need for tracking.  I like to have plenty of toilet paper for marking spots of blood when tracking (nice thing about toilet paper is that if you don’t go back and pick it all up when done tracking and recovering your deer – it will disintegrate in a few weeks from weathering, plastic trail marking tape won’t).  If you can, you may call for help in the tracking; 4 or 6 set of eyes looking for blood is better than 2.  If you are hunting alone and will be tracking on your own, go over to the hunting area where the deer was when you shot it. There may be no blood right there.  Keep looking and you may notice bits of deer hair or flesh, disturbed leaves on the ground, or turned up dirt where the deer took off; mark this spot!  Now slowly and quietly give pursuit looking for the slightest hint or drop of blood.  Do not walk in the trail of the deer.  After about 10 or 20 yards you will probably notice the start of a blood trail.

Again, do not walk or step on the blood trail.  Mark the blood trail with the toilet paper (You should only need to use 1 or 2 squares and try to do this at chest level if possible – or at least off the ground) about every 10 to 15 feet if possible over blood signs.  Read the color and consistency of the blood.

If it  looks like the deer was hit hard, lots of bright red blood; it is a good hit.  A lot of blood spraying all over will mean a heart or lung shot; you should find your deer within 200 yards or less depending how hard it ran in the next 10 seconds.  A blood trail of deep dark red blood will indicate a probable liver hit.  This deer needs to left alone a couple hours to bed down, stiffen up, and bleed out.  A light red blood trail with bits of greenish or brownish slim mixed in indicates a stomach hit.  Back off and go back to camp for lunch or the night; this deer needs to left alone to bed down for 6 to 8 hours (and maybe more) to die.  The only time you may need to pressure a wounded deer that doesn’t die withing a minute or two is if it is snowing heavily, raining out or rain is likely within the next hour or so.  If when tracking you find puddles of blood on the ground but the deer hasn’t bedded, you need to give it another half hour before picking up the trail.  The deer stops because it feels like it want’s to bed down but hears you coming and keeps moving.  Keep in mind that as a deer continues hemorrhaging, it will naturally seek out water.  This is a good tip if you should completely lose it’s trail or if the wound clots and you have no more blood trail to fallow.  Be prepared to spend hours tracking your deer if needed; it’s your ethical responsibility to recover your game.  If it is night time make sure you have a good flashlight and extra batteries.

It’s wise to have a GPS with if you should have stop tracking your deer and plan to come back and find it the next morning.  You can mark the spot where you left off and come back to it.  When tracking keep an eye out for your deer bedded or lying dead on the ground; look for that unusual clump of mass or antlers sticking up about 2 feet off the ground.  If snow has fallen you may see patches of a dead deer where the snow has melted from it’s warm body.  On fresh snow covered ground always check your back trail footprints for signs of blood that the snow has covered up.

If you were to totally have lost the trail and are in dispare, don’t give up yet.  Look to your back-trail of blood markings and try to predict the way the deer would of continued without leaving a blood-trail.  Continue in that direction for about 20 – 40 yards and check all game trails on your hands and knees.  If nothing turns up start a circular pattern looking for any sign of blood or fresh foot prints.  Notice turned up leaves, broken twigs, look at sapling and tree trunks for a hint that the deer has brushed up against them 1 to 3 feet off the ground.  Many times you will find blood off the ground a foot or more on high grasses, twigs, brush, branches, or tree trunks.  If the wounded deer crosses water visualize from the past trail where it will cross and where you expect to find the trail again.  Deer can swim and do, but if hit or wounded hard, you can bet they will stay close to that water unless pushed to hard.  Again, slowly and quietly continue your search.  Stay persistent, remember these tracking tips, and you will recover your deer

Field Care

Once you find your game it’s onto the field care of your deer. If it is a big buck, you will mentally size up the deer antlers and must decide if you want a trophy deer mount done. If so, you must take great care with your hunting knife as your start to field-dress your big buck.  Check out my video of “Gutting Out A Deer”.

A slip of the knife here and there and your trophy deer mount may be damaged beyond repair. As you can see, harvesting a whitetail deer is much more then putting it in your sites and squeezing a trigger.

Trophy Deer Care

Part of harvesting a trophy deer is that you must process it. The processing of you deer also includes protecting the hide and meat as you bring it back to your hunting camp after the days hunting trip

If you don’t plan to do your own butchering and packaging of your venison, then you should plan ahead as to who will do this. You might want to take the back straps out and use one of your favorite venison recipes for an unforgettable hunting camp meal.

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