- Deer, when shot by a hunter, react in many different ways depending on where they were shot and with what caliber of bullet. When a deer is shot in the gut, it immediately reacts by obeying its fight-or-flight instinct. For relatively harmless prey creatures such as deer, the only real option is flight. After being gut shot, however, the deer's mobility will be severely impeded. Because of this, a gut shot deer will attempt to flee and enter any nearby brush as quickly as possible, but it will move much more slowly than it normally would. A deer that has been gut shot often takes on a sort of "hunched" posture, attempting to avoid using the muscles that were damaged when it was hit.
- Oftentimes a gut shot deer doesn't bleed too much compared with a deer that's been hit in a better area. Instead, many times a gut shot deer will leave behind a trail not of blood, but of partly digested food. This trail will generally consist of vegetation that the deer has recently consumed, mixed with blood. Depending on the exact location in which the deer was shot the trail may also be quite noticeable due to its distinctly unpleasant smell. Remember to look for this sort of trail, not for a bright red blood trail, when tracking a gut shot deer.
- The main reason that it's a good idea for hunters to avoid the gut shot while hunting deer is the fact that it isn't a very effective place to shoot the deer. A gut shot deer can live for a long time after being shot, and may very well remain mobile enough to evade the hunter, especially if there is heavy cover available to it. From the standpoint of sportsmanship as well, shooting a deer in the gut is a poor idea. Not only does it greatly prolong the suffering of the deer, but it demonstrates poor marksmanship to any fellow hunters in the area. If at all possible it is best to go for a shot to the liver, lungs or heart of the deer and to avoid the gut shot altogether.
