Not to pile on, but hopefully to help avoid a repeat scenario in the future. A gut shot deer will often bed within 100 yards of the hit...and be laying there dead about 20-24 hours later...IF they are not bumped. I had a gut shot once and the deer stood 76 yards away from me for the longest time, probably 30 minutes, before laying down. I remember the range because I was seriously thinking about sending another arrow at him at that distance. I knew by his reaction that he had been gut shot. I returned about 5 hours later and jumped him right where I last saw him. As I now know...even 5 hours was too short of a time. I then let him go overnight and found him the next morning about 200-300 yards away.
Gut shot deer die a death of septic shock, not blood loss per se. That's about a 20-24 hour process unfortunately. Another time I was hunting with one of my boys and he hit the guts...that little buck bedded about 40 yards away, we waited for dark and snuck out and returned the next morning and promptly jumped right where we last saw him. Let's just say that he ended up as a "shed season find". Overnight, 12'ish hours, was not enough time.
Another time, I helped another hunter who hit a nice buck in the late afternoon. It turns out that it bedded down within 60 yards of the stand. He knew he had a marginal hit so we waited overnight and yep, you guessed it, we jumped that buck from that bed the next morning. We were able to follow his trail to another bed about 150-200 yards away...but not knowing better, we jumped him there and then never found him. The neighboring landowner found him while shotgun hunting a month later.
I could share a few more very similar tales. Bottom line...if you are in the guts...DO NOT trail it, slip out and come back 24 hours later. Your deer will be dead within 100-150 yards of where you shot it. If you bump him...your odds of recovery NOSEDIVE severely.
