Yesterday I spent 4+ hours tracking a wounded deer before losing it. This was an entirely new experience for me, since no deer I had ever shot or tracked went more than 100 yards before piling up.

This deer was hit while running. I waited 20 minutes before following its track in order to give it time to lay down and stiffen up. When I went to the spot where it was shot, it was clear that the deer was hit. Within 5 yards, it immediately began to gush blood on the newly fallen snow.

There was a lot of blood. It sprayed about as if it were arterial or lung-shot. I thought for the first 300 yards that I would find the dead deer in the next ten seconds, however this was not to be the case. After having tracked the deer for 800 yards, I felt sure that the deer was only yards in front of me.

At this point, I stopped. As a former soldier, I know that adrenaline can do amazing things for a wounded person or animal. I let another 15 minutes pass before resuming the hunt. This down time can be critical to allowing the weakness to overcome the animal. Then the deer began what became its pattern: it doubled back on its track.

This took me 10 minutes of broadening circles to figure out. The deer ran down a trail and then, when it hit an crossing trail, doubled back the way it came. After it had retraced its path for 25 yards, it took off another direction.

I followed the trail for what I figure to be around five miles. During that stretch, I spent many minutes in an area with a radius of 50 yards, searching for the odd fleck of blood to distinguish a track from the 5 overlying tracks. Eventually I followed every possible track 20-30 yards and only then found the odd drop of blood. At other times, I could see the trail for the next 30 yards.

After hitting the roughly five mile point, I began to be tracking across peoples' back yards. Plus I was fighting the loss of light. When the deer took me into the sixth evergreen forest (where the snow hadn't reached the ground, thus making tracking more difficult) I finally had to give up.

Today, we heard that someone had seen the deer dragging a back leg the evening before. If that is the case, then I am convinced that I should use a heavier rifle. The 25-35 I was using has killed many deer, however it does not knock the deer down. We all want humane kills. However, we also want to avoid spoiling meat. Thus I will switch to a 300 savage for the upcoming season.