Let's talk tracking

DR_DEATH · Sep 1, 2010

Every year it seems about this time of the year we hear about the buck that someone couldn't find after they shot it. I suggest we discuss on this thread how to find the invisible track or the animal after the blood trail had dried up.

I for on will have marked the trail or at least the path the animal is taking and keep following that direction for 3-500 yards after the blood has seemed to dried up or completely stopped and in most cases and able to recover the animal.

What are some things you guys do? Please remember this is not a archery versus gun battle if you want to talk that please start your own thread.

Silentstalker · Sep 1, 2010

After loss of blood and tracks another option that has worked in the past is a grid pattern with everyone in sight working across the hillside, turning and working back through then moving a short distance and repeating. Another variation of the technique is to start small circles and gradually get bigger but I find the circles hard to duplicate.

Honestly the biggest key is deciding your going to find that deer or elk or your done. Tough to decide on, but with that attitude you usually put in the amount of time it takes to recover the animal. We owe it to them as hunters to recover them if at all possible.

bayside · Sep 1, 2010

Another thing that really helps is that instead of turning to your buddy to give a fist pump, or celebrate, stay in the moment and locate the last place you saw the animal. I know that might seem dumb, but it really can save some time when the tracking starts. As far as tracking goes, I like the grid pattern, and don't give up too early.

KaibabHntr · Sep 1, 2010

Marking with orange tape or tp works well but I also marked each one on my gps on a tough track a few years ago. Helps show the direction of travel that you can keep coming back to if needed. No fun tracking on hands and knees...It gets frustrating when the suns heatin up and you still haven't found em.

And of course, give em plenty of time. Once they get pushed it gets a lot harder. .

Ryan
www.KeyToTheKaibab.com

GotBowAz · Sep 2, 2010

Unfortunately for me tracking is my toughest job. I am just not very good at it (actually I stink at it!)so my hope is for huge amounts of blood. I have a hunting partner that is the best tracker I have ever known. He can find a speck of blood even in leaves that have a red color to them. I think he is part blood hound sometimes. I haven't lost an animal yet but for one Javelina I shot if it hadn't been for my partner and our persistence we never would have recovered it. We do grids and use ribbon on every blood trail. You can then go back to the last place you found blood and start again, you can also look behind you down the ribbons and see how the animal is traveling. One more thing that I keep in mind is that animals usually favor the side they were shot so they tend to turn to that side. If their shot on the right then they will make their turns to the right etc. etc..

GBA

SneakAttack · Sep 2, 2010

Great thread. Happened to me last night. I shot a small buck last night at around dusk. Found my arrow...not much sign on the arrow. However I found a really good blood trail. Followed until I lost bloood. Went home got help, looked until about 11:45 pm, lost blood again. Went back this am, found more blood, hands and knees...lost blood, followed tracks...lost tracks. I'm going back after work. He lost a ton of blood, but it may have been from a muscle injury. The arrow tells me that it most likely wasn't an chest cavity hit. I may have hit him high/low. If I cannot find him dead or up and feeding in the area..I'm tagged out. I'll try to take some pics of the blood trail.

DR_DEATH · Sep 2, 2010

I've heard that if you put hydrogen Peroxide in a spray bottle and spray on the leaves that it will bubble up and help you to see the blood. You can also try some of the grid solutions or circling and you might be able to locate the buck tucked under a log. rock or whatever. From the stories I have heard the animal is usually dead and just a few hundred yards further that the last place we looked.

Good Luck

hunterjmj · Sep 2, 2010

I have always had a tough time staying put for any length of time after I've touched an arrow off. Last year, I thought I made a good lung shot on a whitey and gave it 15 minutes and started tracking. I had tons of blood the first hundred yards and also kicked that sucker up. I called my dad and he met up with me and started tracking again about 2 hrs after I had kicked him up. Well we tracked till 1 in the morning and eventually the blood trail dried up and lost tracks among the upteen other tracks. That deer never layed down again after I kicked it up the first time. I've done the "what if's" in my head and I decided if I don't see em tip over I'm waiting 2 hrs until I track. I hate the feeling of loosing a deer.

SneakAttack · Sep 2, 2010

Good news/bad news. I found my buck....dead...and bloated. I did hit him low. But he was quartered harder than I thought. I hit gut on the impact side, it exited right where you want it to enter on the opposite side. What I've learned; stay with it, look harder than you think you need to, be prepared to notch the tag as soon as you loose the first arrow. I'm heart broken over the meat. But I'm glad I know what happened.

Btw- he was almost 4 tenths of a mile from the last blood....in the opposite direction I was looking. He went to water. Don't forget that wounded animals get thirsty.

JACO · Sep 3, 2010

>Btw- he was almost 4 tenths
>of a mile from the
>last blood....in the opposite direction
>I was looking. He went
>to water. Don't forget that
>wounded animals get thirsty.

Similar thing happened with my bull last year (link). After tracking for almost 2 miles, with very little blood to be found, on the forth day, we finally could not find another single drop of blood. From there, we kind of followed the direction he was headed, and about 300 yards further, there he was dead right by a spring and small pond. The meat and cape were spoiled, but at least I was able to find him and know that he's not just out there wounded and suffering.

Nocked N Loaded