5 things you should ALWAYS do after a shot while bowhunting!
Leigh Hauck – March 14, 2025
There isn’t a more exciting moment in bowhunting than that moment after a shot. It can be the highest of highs, if you saw your arrow hit and are certain that you made a perfect shot. It can also be the lowest of lows, if you saw your arrow bury into the guts or the shoulder… I have been there.
The thing about this moment is that the shot happened so fast. With all that adrenaline pumping through you, its likely that you didn’t get an accurate assessment of how the shot was. No matter how good or bad you think your shot was, there is a key order of events that you should always follow after your shot. Here is what I do after every shot, no matter how good or bad, while bowhunting.
Shop All Broadheads
1) Hold your horses
This is certainly the hardest part. Of course, the first thing you will want to do is go look for your arrow and a blood trail. Don’t do it, don’t rush. Unless you have visually seen your animal go down in sight, do not go after it yet. Don’t even leave the stand or the blind. I don’t care what time it is, if it’s close to last light then you are going to be dealing with the situation in the dark anyways. Just stay put.
You need to give yourself some time to let that adrenaline settle, so that you can make better observations, assessments, and decisions when you start tracking your animal. More importantly, you need to give that animal some time to expire if your shot was marginal. I
have made the mistake of pursuing an animal too early, and losing it. Most bowhunters have, and most bowhunters don’t learn their lesson until they do it themselves. If you have put trust in my content in the past, trust me on this. I have lost more than one animal to this mistake as a young bowhunter, and I have learnt my lesson the hard way.
I always set a timer for 30 minutes and never leave early. If my shot looked marginal, it’s 60 minutes. While bowhunting Coues deer in the Mexican Sonoran Desert with legendary bowhunter Frank Noska, Frank told me,
“Nobody has ever lost an animal by waiting too long.”
Shop All Broadheads
2) Treat it like a crime scene
After you’ve waited out your timer, you need to assess the scene slowly and carefully. Take your bow with you, and have an arrow nocked. You may need to make a quick follow up shot.
Pay attention to any tracks in the snow or dirt, and don’t walk over them. If this proves to be a difficult track job, every post shot piece of evidence that you have is going to be invaluable.
I have seen young hunters walk right up to the scene, stepping all over the blood and tracks which contain so much information. Don’t do this. Treat it like an active crime scene, and preserve every detail.
Shop All Broadheads
3) Sniff your arrow, or any blood if you don’t have your arrow
You should know how to read blood before going bowhunting, it isn’t hard to learn with many online guides about it. The concept is that certain colours and textures of blood on your arrow and on the ground will indicate where you hit the animal. Pinkish bubbly blood indicates a lung shot, thick purple blood indicates a liver shot, etc… Research and study that concept extensively if you haven’t already.
I find that smell gives me a great deal of insight into the shot beyond just the visual cues. I will always smell my arrow if its there, or I will smell a bloody leaf or anything else that I can if my arrow isn’t present. Usually, this can instantly tell a story.
A lack of smell but good blood coverage indicates a heart or a lung shot, and good news! While similar blood coverage and a terrible smell may tell the story of a liver shot. Any sort of foul smell indicates that your arrow went through the abdomen. When you pair your visual cues from reading the blood with the smell, a story will reveal itself. For example, you see good blood coverage but it smells like guts, and the animal was broadside. You probably hit the liver, don’t take another step, come back in the morning.
Very little blood, dark colour, no smell, and you think your shot may have been high or low? You probably hit muscle, come back in the morning.
Quartering away, good blood coverage, but it smells like guts? Quartering away shots often pass through some guts on their way through the vitals, the nasty smell isn’t bad news in this case.
Do you see where I am going with this? The smell of your arrow can really aid in putting the pieces together.
Shop All Broadheads
4) Follow the trail, acting as though you are still hunting
Until you see that your animal is dead, you don’t know that it is. Follow your blood trail slowly, with an arrow nocked, and be quiet. If you stomp down the trail and the animal isn’t dead yet, you are much more likely to spook them away before you ever see them, leaving no room for a follow up shot.
Remember when you sat in the stand for 30 minutes before tracking? This is part of why. There is no way I am going to track as slowly and carefully as I need to be when I am at the peak of my adrenaline spike.
Even when you see your animal, don’t change your pace until you literally put your hands on it. On that Coues deer hunt in Mexico, I shot my buck and since he didn’t go down in sight, I waited one hour in the blind.
When I pursued the shot, I found that he didn’t go far, and was laying ‘dead’ just beyond where my sight line was. I was about 5 yards from the buck, his head down, seemingly dead. As I put my bow down, he lifted his head and ran, almost knocking me out of the way. Crap!
Thankfully, I watched him run out into the open desert, he stopped, I ranged, he was about 60 yards out, broadside. As I scrambled to get my bow together for a shot, he began the death wobble and fell. I got lucky. That last little run had robbed him of his final energy, but I will not count on that ever happening again.
Shop All Broadheads
5) Don’t be afraid to go home for the night
This is the hardest thing to do. I have had more than a few drives home in the dark after a track job that I backed out of, knowing that I have a sleepless night and an early morning ahead of me.
Yes, you may lose your animal to coyotes. You probably would have lost it yourself if you pursued it, and it ran another 4 miles. Sometimes, things just don’t go your way, but if you pursue an animal that you know needs time, you are likely to drop your chances of recovery from slim to zero. I lost the biggest black bear I have ever seen in the wild by pursuing it that night, instead of going home and not rushing. Take it from me, put your ego aside, and follow your gut. If you know that the best thing is to back out, do not take a gamble, go home.
Shop All Broadheads
If you have any questions or would like to discuss the topic further, please feel free to reach out to us at sales@toothofthearrowbroadheads.com
If you liked this article, make sure to subscribe below to receive more helpful bowhunting tips, hunting news, and product releases.
