deer tracking
 

Well it is this time of year again.. When you shoot a deer and it does not bleed, what method do you use to find them. Personally, I have a dog that can find them so fast it always amazes me... but what do you use?

Have you ever used a step stick? Maybe we can all learn something here.

RE: deer tracking
 

Dave
Good Thread a dog would be great i usually try to watch direction of travel and when tracking if I cross any deer trail I usually check them. I usually try to anchor the animal were it stands. But we all know how that theory works.

RE: deer tracking
 

. I have a thermal heat sensing gamefinder but it has been sitting in the closet for 6 years. I haven't had to use it. But if there ever comes a time when that would occur I would use it along with the old search in an ever increasing semi circle method.

RE: deer tracking
 

I have an old labrador retreiver that for some reason will trailwounded deer. The strange thing is, he knows which one is wounded and which one is not.Do not ask me how he knows. Trouble now is, he's so old he can hardly walk anymoreso I think its up to me from now on. He's been able to locate some real monster deer for people over the years,and he found a doe for me that I could not anchor.

This is a trick my Dad taught me when I was a very little kid. He taught me to cut a step or stride stick. Wisconsin is blessed enough that normally the ground is not barren or so dry that its like cement. And what you do is find the track of the wounded deer. Note the direction it heads and follow to the last point of where you saw it. Pay special attention to the tracks it is making.

Where you see a rear leg or front leg, that deer will almost 100% of the time make the same stride, depending on whether it is running, walking, etc.. So after it is out of site, a lot of deer wounded will slow down and start walking. Find a track in the dirt and set your step/stride stick on that track. Now find the same leg, next track and mark the stick to where that stride is. If you set that stick in the track you currently have and swing a short circle, you will normally find his next track. So if there is no blood you can look for tracks.

Tracks might be an impression in mud, stones moved out of their resting place, grass bent, sticks broken, but keep that up when you do not have a direction of travel. It will help you track that deer. If you have time, try it on yourself. Walk through the woods or field and then circle yourself to where you start. Take a stick and mark your stride. You will soon start to pick out details of your direction and travel. It is not a fast way to track a deer but with some practice it can help you find a deer that you might other wise miss.

I tracked a deer for my friend once that had ran off on him and there was not a drop of blood. In fact if it was not for hair where he hit it, I would have said he missed. But I followed that deer and under 100 yards later found it under a dead fall. He had walked past it twice. Working the trail/tracks, the stick actually pointed to the white rear end under that brush pile.

RE: deer tracking
 

Cayugad, great Ideer! I never heard that before. It seems we track someones deer every year, I have about 12 guys in camp and a lot don't spend the time shooting they should. We find where last shot by looking for hair and hair color, tells us where hit. Rhe try spotting a spot or so, the put out a strip of cloth at the last spot we saw a ytrack, blood, whatever. I always try and spot a turned up leaf patch from a dragging leg, or up around belly hieght look for a smear of blood on weeds. I also use scent as if a deer is gut shot, you can sometimes smell that green stuff leaking out of them. We have tried a couple of those lights that use UV and not had much luck. AND WE ALWAYS make the shooter stay out no matter what the conditions are, some will let others do the work.

RE: deer tracking
 

When we were young, we hunted with a fellow that we eventually told he had to change his ways or hecould not hunt with us. He would shoot at deer and if it did not drop in its tracks it was a miss. We'd then be out walking, hit a blood trail and find his deer.

Why is it some people tell you they.. shot a deer through the heart but it ran off. I tell them it can't be far then. And when you find that stinking gut shot devil they are just shocked they hit so far back...

RE: deer tracking
 

Must be shooting a bow or a PB!! When bow hunting, I go out to where i last saw the deer look for hair, and blood, if I find it I follow it. If I don't find the hair or blood at where I shot it, I place my hat on a tree or some toilet paper, then I go out about 25 yards and start sweeping arcs to pick up the blood trail. Usually a well hit deer will drop some blood by 25 yards, if I don't find that I look at about 50 yards out. A lot of high hits that don't go thru don't bleed out because there is only 1 hole and it takes the lungs to fill up before it would come out the side, however if it is lung shot (usually is) they are bleeding out of the mouth by then. Best thing is to shoot excellent bullets and do either high shoulder shots, or lower shots behind the front shoulder, bottom 1/2 of deer.

I don't even know what a stop stick is. So yes, I would like to know. Thanks Chap

RE: deer tracking
 

or an SST ;)

I never had a hard tracking job, theres usually 2 of us together and one stays put and helps lead the other if it was a far shot. My deer dont run far, if at all but the stick trick does seem like it would do excellent and i practiced some weeks ago with it on some deer tracks i had found on our property. The tracks had done into thick carpet of pine needles and leaves and i grabbed a 3 foot long stick put it directly on the visible track and searched a bit and you could spot the slight print and some over turned soil. Its an excellent way to track an animal i believe.

RE: deer tracking
 

I've never had to track a deer with a ML- they all have done gone and yielded to the force of gravity right away upon being shot:D. With a bow- completely different story. I generally watch the deer as long as I can as it is running and remember the last landmark I can see.

I'll then walk to that last landmark (tree, hill, etc.) and start looking for blood. If I can't find blood, I'll start making semi-circles in the direction the deer was last headed. Once I get out a few dozen yards, I'll start making complete circles, looking for blood, hair or tracks. It works most of the time, but not all the time- I've lost a couple while bow hunting, not very fun.

RE: deer tracking
 

This was over on the Savage forum, Barnes vs SW:

http://dougva.proboards34.com/index.cgi?board=Savage&action=display&thre ad=10499

Chap

RE: deer tracking
 

Ouch that hurts. Now you see why i will not change my set up? When something has worked so well for so many years, stick with it.

RE: deer tracking
 

There is a retired colonelin town who is an avid hunter whohas a wired haired Dachshundtracking dog.He does a lot of tracking of deer and elk for folks gratis.Herea tracking dog has to be kept on a leash because of the wild hogs.

iuse a high intensity light with a bluelens to track wounded game at night. If there is a small drop of blood the light will make it shine.It finds small droplets of blood thatare not visible to the naked eye.

RE: deer tracking
 

falcon that is interesting.. I have a old friend that tracks with a white gas Colman Mantle lantern. He claims that the old gas lantern makes blood show up.

RE: deer tracking
 

I guess I'm old fashion. I just get down in the leaves and stare :D I've seen the lights and such but I guess I'm just too stuck in my ways.

My cousin a couple years ago shot a little 8 pointer high behind the shoulder and basically only hit meat. We tracked that deer for over a mile. I spent the good part of that day on all fours in the leaves. We'd find drops of blood about the size of a bb about every 10-15 yards. Then we'd go a 100 yards or so and finda softball size spot where I guess he stood for a min. Finally after about 4 or 5 hours we jumped him and he left with his tail up. We came back the next day but no sign of him. Hopefully he was shot by someone else soon after that. That was by far the hardest tracking job I've ever done.

Chap made a good point though. Sometimes they don't start bleedin' right away. I made a perfect hit on a small buck one year w/a 30-30. He went about 30 yards before he started bleedin' but buddy when he did it was like you poured it out of a bucket. It was a short tracking job from there;) Point is, just because there isn't blood or hair at the place where the deer was standing doesn't mean that you didn't hit it. Start walkin' in the direction it left in, you may get a pleasent surprise.

RE: deer tracking
 

I wouldn't shoot an elk with a normal 250gr SW to begin with, it is a deer bullet and if the shot hit the shoulder it would not be out of reason to under-penetrate.

This is why I just shake my head when people post or say that "that darn bullet, I made a perfect shot but it got away." Now, I have always lived in overpopulated deer areas so I have shot more than my fair share of whitetails -- I've lost count in the past few years but it must be over 125-150 by now. 80% of them with a muzzleloader, haven't hunted a single hunt with anything else in at least 5 years. I have shot the old HTP, XTP, 200 and 250 SW, QT, Keith Nose, and DC bullets. The one common factor is that a deer shot through the lungs with any bullet goes down within 200 yards.. 95% of them within 100 yds. It doesn't take a hand grenade exit wound to do it either, just a hole through the lungs. There are very few bullets out there I think are truly bad bullets.

If the deer is shot, and someone scours every inch within a 200yd circle and can't find it, I am extremely skeptical that they hit it where they say they did. I've helped recover enough "perfect shot" deer with holes from their stomach all the way to their rump to believe people can reliably judge a hit that well.

On whitetails, myself and all of my close hunting buddies shoot either the 200 or 250gr SW. None of us have lost a deer with them. But I would not use either on an elk, I am taking my Omega on an elk hunt this week so I went to the effort to re-sight the gun for an appropriate bullet.

It's the high lung shots that tend not to bleed, those are harder to track. If I cannot find blood for whatever reason, I break out the TP and mark whatever I can find. My first trick is to try to think like the deer, pick what I think their primary escape route would be, and go 100-200 yds down that first without even tracking. About 75% of the time I find the deer with no further effort -- wounded deer like to follow trails if they can and head for cover. No real tricks other than that.

If I am concerned with a blood trail, I would try to pick an over-expanding bullet like the Barnes Expander or a PR Keith Nose. I hunt a lot of open ground so a deer running 50 yds (most of mine don't go further than that) don't pose a recovery problem. In heavy woods I'd opt for a little more expansion. The Barnes Expander I have never shot from a ML though, I have used it in shotguns and seen it 1) ruin whole shoulders, and 2) fail to penetrate the shoulder blade of a small doe, exploded on the surface.

RE: deer tracking
 

Bingo
Killed a lot of deer in my lifetime,over 300of them. Killed about 20 with .50 muzzleloaders. Everything you say is true.

Have tracked downnumerous deer, hogsandan elk that other hunters claimed they hit in the lungs, etc. With the exception of the elk, every one of them was shot in the stomach or guts. Saw dust fly off the elk when it was hit. The guy claimed hehad not hit it and drove off.Tracked that elk about one-quarter mile where it was found dead.

The search for the magic bullet that will turn a gut shot into a bang flop every time continues.