Dark blood that is mixed with food particles is proof positive of a gut shot. Once you've confirmed that type of hit, it's best to wait a minimum of five hours before starting to trail the deer. If the shot was taken late in the day, waiting until the next morning to start recovery efforts is the best approach.

Time allows the wound to weaken and kill the whitetail. Many bucks that are gut shot during the evening will be dead by morning. Those that aren't dead are usually too weak to go far, if anywhere, making it easy to administer a finishing shot with either gun or bow.

If gut-shot deer are left alone and not pushed from their first bed, that's where you will often find them hours later, but don't worry if you follow the tracks of a gut-shot buck in the snow to its first bed and he's not there. As whitetails weaken, they feel uncomfortable, causing them to shift positions, sometimes a number of times. When recovering gut-shot deer, it's not unusual to find four or five beds a short distance apart. The deer eventually gets too weak to stand and that's where you will find him.

Recovering gut-shot bucks that are pushed, either right away or before they weaken from the wound, can be challenging. When the deer's system gets charged with adrenaline, he can go long distances, usually staying on his feet until he is not able to take another step. Entry and exit wounds from paunch-shot deer tend to become plugged from fat and intestines, too, resulting in poor to nonexistent blood trails, especially beyond the first bed.

That's why it's important to identify a paunch hit before starting to trail a buck, if possible. If you don't, you can still recover the whitetail. It's just going to be more work. Consider another example involving my brother hunting during the late season with an iron-sighted muzzleloader.

As usual for the north country, there was plenty of snow on the ground when Bruce shot this buck. In fact, the snow enabled the buck to get within 20 feet of him before he realized the deer was there. The buck approached from behind him and that's the main reason he didn't see him sooner.

When Bruce turned to look at the deer, he saw him move and trotted 50 yards before stopping to look back, unsure about what made the movement. Bruce aimed for the buck's right shoulder and shot. Assuming he hit where he was aiming, he started following the buck after he reloaded.

Bruce had jumped the buck from his first bed and trailed it another half mile before I caught up to him. By then it was obvious his shot had not gone through the chest. The buck's tracks were easy to follow because he was dragging his feet and his hooves were spread even when he was walking. Whitetails normally only leave splayed tracks when running. The prints were also big.