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Thread: tracking Q & A

  1. #21
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    MC is offline Daydreamer Extraordinaire
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    Trailing is a skill plain and simple. I don't think there are any "hard and fast" rules, although there are definately some good guidelines to follow. There are plenty of folks out there with a lot more deer under their belt and years more experience than me, but I've also gotten a schooling in the classroom of hard knocks in 11 short years of bowhunting.

    I agree it is important to know where the deer was hit, but I'm also REALLY bad about second guessing myself, and I almost never trust somebody else to know where they hit a deer. Angles play funny tricks on your eyes and low light conditions, target panic (buck fever), among other things make you think you saw things you didn't.

    I always like to see the arrow if possible. Everybody knows what a gut shot smells like, and if you've smelled a liver shot you'll remember that one too. I also want to know how the deer ran off and what it did when it ran off.

    I am a really slow tracker. I like to go from one drop of blood to the next and I try not to take a forward step until I can see the next drop of blood. Of course this isn't always possible but it greatly slows me down and I find that I pick up tiny specks of blood.

    It also comes down to some old Dick Tracey, Ben Mattlock stuff. I found blood on the bottom side of a flipped leaf one time by noticing how the ants were focused on one particular leaf. The blood was almost completly soaked into the dirt and I would have never found it without the ants. That one drop put me back on the trail and 20 mintues later I found the deer.

    I trailed a buck last year that never dropped a single speck of blood that I could find. I followed his track through the swamp by breaking off a twig the same length as his track and crawing on my hands and knees until I got to the thicket where he bedded.

    It's little things that seem to make the difference for me, and CONFIDENCE. You have to have confidence that you can find 1 more drop of blood. I found another lost trail one time by finding a couple hairs stuck in a barbed wire fence. Five feet past the hair was a drop of blood, another 80 yards was the deer.

    Bottom line, I think its a skill honed by experience. You have to be observant, and you can't think you know what is going to happen, leave all the options open.

    One last story and then I'm done. A few years ago I climbed down after a good morning on the edge of a swamp. As I was gathering my things at the bottom of the tree I look up and here comes a buck down the trail headed for me. He wasn't a monster but I wanted to see if I could get the drop on him while standing on the ground. I managed to stay hidden behind a tupelo well enough to double lung him at 15 yards. He ran off and I thought I heard him fall. Gave him an hour and started following good blood that turned into the swamp. Then it went dead. Nothing. I'm scratching my head when I notice a buzzard is circling just over the tree tops. I watch him and in a few minutes I had a pretty focused spot he was circling over. I walked over there without seening any blood and the deer was laying on the opposite side of a log. I don't know that I would have ever found him if it weren't for just being observant to what was going on around at the time.
    Last edited by MC; 09-08-2009 at 09:32 PM.

  2. #22
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    Any updates there Buckpro??
    I am a nobody, that met somebody, that can save anybody.

  3. #23
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    Good post MC.


    Two good lights and a roll of toilet paper comes in handy when tracking. When you loose the blood trail you can alway look back and see the line he was running.

  4. #24
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    X2 on the TP.

  5. #25
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    i use g-bellys flagging tape.
    Ugh. Stupid people piss me off.

  6. #26
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    The deer I shot on Thanksgiving day last year reinforced some things I've come to believe over the last several. I shot a doe, slightly quartering away, with a longbow and a 650 grain arrow tipped with a traditional two blade head. The deer spooked from the arrow hitting the bush on her opposite side and only took a few hops before stopping to look around with a "who just threw something in that bush" look, then fell over dead. No trailing necessary.

    My theory....
    Most deer spook when an arrow is released because most bows are too loud. The deer is dropping/wheeling when the arrow hits and the arrow is going 400 fps at dusk so the hunter doesn't REALLY know the point of impact. If you get double lung, which is the only shot we should be attempting, the spooked deer is hauling ass from the shot and may cover 100 yards in a few seconds. Blood trail/good tracking skills may be needed. If the deer is relaxed and doesn't spook at the shot, climb down and go get the truck.

    If you don't get double lung, I think the best approach is to back out quietly and down wind of the shot. Come back after three hours of waiting and put everything you have into tracking.

    Not spooking deer IMO may be the single most important element in deer recovery....both during and after the shot. I've made a lot of mistakes with bows over the years. This is what I've convinced myself of as of today. Thoughts?
    "hunting should be a challenge and a passion not a way of making a living or a road to fame"

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  7. #27
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    Quote Originally Posted by Stripa Swipa View Post
    Thoughts?
    x10.......very good post Stripa..............

    I wish I could breathe life back in him, if I could I'd hunt him again tomorrow. - Ben Rodgers Lee

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  8. #28
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    so...your primitive bow is quieter than the fancy single cams with all the suppressors and silencers and shit hanging off 'em?
    Ugh. Stupid people piss me off.

  9. #29
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    If I don't see 'em fall I give them an hour minimum.

    Two years ago I hit one high in the shoulder at 16 yards. No excuses, just Gommered it.

    Deer took off down the hill ran the creek bottom and then circled back up the hill and bedded down about 70 yards from the tree. I sat there and watched that deer with my binos and from impact until I was sure he was dead was 42 minutes.

    Tough to watch but it was very educational. I followed the blood trail and had I gone with the "good blood" at the POI theory I would have bumped that deer and most likely lost him.

    I don't see 'em fall. 1 hour minimum.

    8 for a known gut shot.

  10. #30
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    Quote Originally Posted by ccleroy View Post
    x10.......very good post Stripa..............
    Stop fluffin' his pillow. He's cocky enough as it is.

    Quote Originally Posted by 2thDoc View Post
    so...your primitive bow is quieter than the fancy single cams with all the suppressors and silencers and shit hanging off 'em?

    All that energy that doesn't go into the arrow has to go somewhere and in the case of modern speed bows with very light arrows it goes into "BANG!" when the bow is shot.

    Of course you know this and your question was rhetorical but I still felt obligated to answer for those that don't know.

  11. #31
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    the one i lost i shot thru the gut. she ran off about 75 yards and i could watch her arch her back and "meeeeeww" a little. I was just waiting for her to topple over as I had watched the arrow go right thru her and could see it sticking in the bank of the ditch right in front of me. after about 10 minutes, she calmly walked off. i waited a few hours before looking and found very little blood. came back the next morning with my dog (gene) and we looked and found absolutely nothing. and that deer is deader than shit. i wish i knew what else i could've done...
    Ugh. Stupid people piss me off.

  12. #32
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    Sometimes there isn't anything else you can do.

    Luck and persistence have a lot to do with recoveries like that.

  13. #33
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    Also, ALWAYS go to the site where the deer was at when you shot even if you watch the deer run off. Start trailing from the beginning. I know this pertains more to gun hunters since bowhunters want the arrow, but I almost lost an easy deer to find by not doing this.
    Story: Tater Tot had a game at noon in Greenville a few years back ('04) and I wanted to sneak in a quick hunt in Ga. To avoid the delay of tracking, I took my rifle instead of my bow. I'm sitting there when I hear deer (plural) coming my way. Well I was to find out soon that there was a doe being chased by a damn herd of bucks. The doe ran on by and I see a damn nice buck on her tail (this place is THICK). He stopped in the last possible spot that could of shot him in and I squeeze off a shot and he lunges forward and I lose sight of him. Immediately afterwards, he busts out of the brush in front of me and I flat out miss him as he's hauling ass...I'm pissed (all this is within 40 yds of the tree). While I'm sitting there fuming a cowhorn beds down 15 ft to my left and a small spike walks by under the stand. I hear another deer behind me, but can't tell what it is.
    I wait for about an hour till the deer bedded next to me clears out then I climb down and go straight to the spot where I missed the with the second shot. I'm looking for blood because I know damn well I hit him with the first. Now I got a good look at the rack and it was a heavy racked, short tined 8+ and I want him found. When I get there, there's no blood to be found so I continue along the path he took for about 50 more yards and theres not drop one of blood...I'm pissed knowing damn good and well I hit with the first shot.
    I finally got my senses back and decided I had to go check out the spot where I made the first shot. When I get there I immediately find a massive bloodtrail and begin following it. After about 20 yds I'm still following the blood (a blind man could have) and I know I've passed the spot where the deer had to have turned in order to come out where he did. Although there's a blood trail that looks like it was layed down with a firehose I still stopped and started scratching my head trying to figure it out. after a minute or so I look up and there lays the deer I shot...two bucks...missed the second one and thought they were the same.
    Moral: Your brain will play some stupid ass tricks on you if you let in the heat of battle so wait till you get your wits about you before you go making rash decisions. It's the same thing that makes you think that poor shot was a double lunger so unless ALL the evidence tells you otherwise, trea all bow shots as marginal from the get go.

    P.S. here's the deer I almost wasted by being stupid...


  14. #34
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    Stripa I think you are dead on.

    Think of how you and I feel when alerted to danger.......adrenaline.

    I think deer are the same way.
    I am a nobody, that met somebody, that can save anybody.

  15. #35
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    [QUOTE=Glenn;453919]Stop fluffin' his pillow. He's cocky enough as it is.

    QUOTE]

    It only seems that way since Candork ain't around for contrast.....
    "hunting should be a challenge and a passion not a way of making a living or a road to fame"

    Rubberhead

  16. #36
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    Zing......

  17. #37
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    Good points made by all. Like MC, I too look for the smallest of clues and move at a snails pace. Pushing a deer too early is almost a guaranteed lost animal. Also remember how wounded animals use terrain to their advantage.
    RIP Kelsey "Bigdawg" Cromer
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    If love could have saved you, you would have lived forever.

    Missing you my great friend.


  18. #38
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    i've seen wounded bucks take there scrape a rub lines, water is a good spot to look also.

    Always try to have two people, you look, and when you find blood get the other person to mark it and stay there till you find the next spot.

    Had a kid last year, shoot a buck under the feeder broadside. start tracking, i find bone, get the rifle, no blood but a speck every 50 yards or so, most of the time i was tracking a drag or fresh drops of water, and hour of tracking and half mile later he crosses the rd, hear something in the cutdown ahead, i took off running after it. I ran up on him 200 yards out, he was bucking like hell and moving fast, fired three shots in him before he stopped kicking.

    Here's the kicker, the buck was broadside and the entry wound was in the back leg like he shot him facing him. Go back and look at the feeder, he hit the damn feeder leg with the bullet and it ricochete(sp?) into the deers leg. It was a kids 1st deer and a 12pt at that.

    Had i not found bone and hurried the track, that deer would have left the country, so always try and find evidence of were the deer is hit, if a leg shot, a suggest you get to moving
    Quote Originally Posted by Glenn View Post
    I'll shoot over a kids head in a blind or long gun one on a turkey in a heart beat. You want to kill stuff around me you gonna earn it.

  19. #39
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    youre not quite the authority on deer tracking right now Mr. B&C.

  20. #40
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    jeeze the stories among us
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