03mossy said:
Chillypepper- one thing that has worked for me in the thick woods of northen MN that is loaded with wolves where any deer left over night is wolf food plus tracking in those woods in the dark is pointless. From morning till about 3 in the afternoon I take the traditional boiler room behind the shoulder shot. Anything getting towards dark I take a high shoulder shot to break them down on the spot. Yes it does waste a bit of meat but if they run off at dark and you cant find them they'll be eaten by morning before you can resume the search. This has been my game plan for years and works.
Great advice! My own plan has always been something similar. Early morning to mid afternoon I like a double lung, behind the shoulders shot. I've been lucky in that any animal I've ever shot this way hasn't gone much more than 30-40 yards, but I know if for some reason I don't get both lungs, or just happen to shoot a deer that doesn't know when to lay down and expire, I have enough daylight to track and find the deer. Dressing and recovery I can do in the dark, but finding is hard enough in daylight.
My one "lost" game experience is also why I cut my bowhunting day short around 3ish. One of my first times out bowhunting a guy I know a little asked me to out to his property for a hunt. He didn't like being out in the woods up a stand alone, and his usual partner wasn't available. He set me up in a good area that had a lot of recent traffic, and sure enough in the last of the evening light here comes a nice buck. I wait until he's within 20 yards, and let my arrow fly. He ups and runs away at high speed, covering the 200 yards between my stand and the other fellow, and then continues running past him out of sight. I had assumed a complete miss, but when I was on the ground I found my arrow was very bloody, with good red blood and no indication of gut. We searched and searched until well past nightfall and we were never able to find any sort of a blood trail.
My host searched again the next morning, and he was never able to find any sign of blood, so it may not have been a fatal hit. Possibly it was a high hit in a meaty area and I missed the lungs, but I still did not like the feeling of darkness coming down and having no idea where my deer had gone.
So nowadays, pretty much only morning to early afternoon archery hunts for me. I'm lucky in this regard that my area of Virginia has an early, antlerless bow season that starts the beginning of September. With sunset still coming at near summer lateness, I can fit in a lot of hunting in a long September day.
Just like 03mossy says, I'll hunt until last light with a rifle or ML, but if I have a shot in the late hours I'm going for the shoulder.