atlasman

We talk about EVERYTHING here ad nauseum.............but it's kind of weird how very few discussions of tracking come up. I love tracking a deer.........it's such a challenge (sometimes) and it requires a whole other mindset of reading what sign you have and adding that to your current surroundings to try and figure out the most likely scenerio of what took place. It's a whole other level of hunting (to me anyways) and I love the mental and physical challenge of piecing together and solving that puzzle.

Of course sometimes they just fall over where you can see them.........or there is enough blood for a blind man to follow and if that happened every time for the rest of my life I wouldn't be upset at all........BUT........I do enjoy a successful well thought out tracking job as well.

I feel like I am a good tracker..........my brothers shoot deer and then come get me to find them (in their defense they are both color blind)...........they are not good trackers though and seem content with shooting them and letting me find them........my older brother jokes "I shoot 'em.....you (me) find 'em.......he (oldest bro) drags 'em"

Tracking is weird because if you KNOW what you are doing it goes like clockwork........1+1=2 (most of the time ) and it seems relatively easy. If you DON'T know what you are doing it turns into a nightmare in a hurry.

I would say that the vast majority of wounded/lost animals are a result of poor tracking skills.

I wonder why no one talks about it more.............they always wait until they chased one into the next county 2 minutes before dark and then run home and post a "tracking" question here [:@]

mcouey

I have always been a good tracker also. I'm not bragging but no one really taught me, I kinda learned through trial and error, but mostly I think it came to me due to my unwillingness to give up.

One trick I discovered along the way that really helps on sparse blood trails is what I call the "stick" method. I don't really know if anyone else has ever heard of it or used it, it just came to me one day on a particularly challenging blood trail.

When the blood trail gets hard to find, I poke sticks in the ground next to the last two or three I found and initially search along that line. 9 times out of 10 it will point directly to the next blood spot. I've shown people who call me for help how to do this and they always tell me later in the season they used this method and it helped them immensely.

I too love tracking deer, sometimes it seems as though my hunt isn't as fulfilling when the deer falls within sight. I appreciate my well placed shot, but I have to admit that just a little bit of me wants to track em down everytime.

GMMAT

Again atlas.....good post.

You gave me hell here, last year when I wounded a deer.....partly warranted, partly not (). What I did take away from that incident.....was I learned several things about tracking deer from a guy who's damned good at it.....my friend Mark. He was with me until 4AM.....and until we'd exhausted ourselves and all thoughts of that deer being dead.

I never dreamed that I would enjoy the tracking aspect of what we do....nearly as much as I do. Like you....I love to see them go down in sight......but the feeling while tracking a deer is indescribeable. It's anticipation....concern...focus....elation....conc ern....and a viscious cycle of all of the above and more....until the animal is recovered. Tracking begins at the recovered arrow......that I learned last year, too.

Again atlas....good post. I never dreamed I'd love tracking like I do...and I agree we ought to discuss it more.

YooperMike

I leanred how to track from my dad, who is very good at it. My brother's first deer was shot in the guts, very little blood, no snow, so not the easiest of tracking jobs. We followed him for over a mile with tiny specks of blood and eventually found him. I learned a lot on the track, and have since become much better myself. The stick method is one that I employ as well. Hard to get at tracking though without someone showing you how to do it well, no matter how much you read about it.

BobCo19-65

On the boards, Dignity and Humiliation.

FWIW, I believe "Finding Wounded Deer" by John Trout is a must read for bowhunters. He even has a summary at the end which he recommends keeping on hand while hunting.

Copper31

Good post atlas.

I don't consider myself a good tracker. I have been very lucky that all the deer I have shot have went down within sight or at least ear shot. That was until last year. Between me rushing a shot and the rain that developed shortly after I was fit to be tied. I also like gmmat was aided by a freind that had more knowlege then I could fathom. With his help I was able to recover the deer after almost 12 hours. He found blood with peroxzide and turning over the right leaves and it was truly amazing. I now feel better prepared for the situation. I also made a $14 purchase that I wish I would have made long ago. The book by John Troute JR Finding Wounded Whitetail.

psebwhntr16

I thought I was a pretty good tracker before I went to Africa. Those trackers made me feel blind. We think following small drops of blood on leaves is hard, they think following 7 day old tracks in red dirt with sickle bush covering the ground is a cake walk. There are no "great" trackers in the states.

game4lunch

Out west here I sometimes wish they wouldoffer a tracking class instead of a hunter safety class. Far too many dead animals found. It's unfortunate, and with milllions of acres to search, somewhat overwhelming. But I think a lot of guys just don't track well, or much at all. "Aaaaa, it didn't go down right away so . . .F it"

Tracking is tricky. There may not be blood at the impact point. Especially with a bow. But look at the ground. Newly disturbed pine needles. Bent over grasses. I have to remind myself to look up oncein a whileto the sides of trees and bushes because the blood may not be hitting the ground yet, but rubbing out the side(s). There are flashlights with special lenses to help detect blood in limited light. You need to go back the next morning and, having marked the last known spot, continue your search. Last year I did just this and in doing so passed up a 10 yard shot at a bull with harem because I "had already shot one". 6 hours later on the second dayand with the help of a friend with a dog, BAM! Meat in the freezer.

Tracking is hunting after the kill. Get out and look after taking that shot.

Excellent points you guys.

LittleChief

By far, this is my biggest area of concern, and will be a huge limiting factor in my hunting. I really need to get my hands on some of the literature listed above. Since I won't be able to see a blood trail even in the best of conditions (colorblind), I'm hoping that there will be some other method that will at least assist in tracking. If I can't figure it out, I'll have to either hunt with someone else or be able to call someone in if I have to track. It doesn't give me a warm "fuzzy" feeling.

Germ

I know in my early years that is 100% correct for me[:@]

Because tracking is like the offensive line on football team. It not pretty work, but has to be done. It is not the partwe can brag about and it sounds cool.

How many times do you here about the long run of a back and how great he is? Never hear about the guys in the pits slugging it out so he can run.

How many times do we hear about a great long shot someone made? Do we hear about the 13 hours it took to find him?[&:]
Tracking is not "sexy" partof hunting, because describing a 4 hour track is not as fun as shooting the deer itself.

Speaking of color blind it's good you know. I help tracked a deer for 3 hours once with two color blind guys(I did not know). I spent 2 hours looking for blood from the last spot they both said was blood. So I walked ahead and looked. After two hours of looking and not finding a drop.I ask to see the blood they found last. I said "That is bird chit", I took about three steps back found the trail heading north and the deer 50 yds later[&:] I learned a valuble lesson that day