Sooner State Hunter

Thanks Rob, awesome thread! I'm certain that if I'd had this info years ago I wouldn't have went thru the agony of lost deer.

Couple of things to add to the discussion:

1. Most know to do this but I'll say it anyway: ifpossible climb back into your stand and guide a buddy to where you last saw the deer. Even if you made a mental note of where he went, the woods look much different from the ground vs. 20' up in a tree. I've got a good friend who is adamant about doing this and it has paid off in the cases whereyou can't immediately pick up a good blood trail.

2. Rob mentioned that with certain hits one should start tracking sooner than normal. One instance I've read where this is true is with hip shots. I'd say the reasoning behind that is to keep the deer moving and bleed out. I helped on one such tracking job but we waited 4 hours before we began looking. The trail was good until the point where the arrowcame out, hardly a speckle of blood after that. Of course if you happen to hit the main artery around the hip area, you'll have a short job.

I'd suggest printing Rob's tips off and keep them handy. I keep a copy in my truck just in case.Good luck fellas.

Pops423

Yeah, this is a great thread. Always look forward to reading it each year. It's so easy to get caught up in the moment and want to rush over and chase that buck. Patience is huge.

Last year, I shot my buck a little back and thought I made a good hit. Once side of the trail on the shot had blood, the other guts. I hit a rib and it turn back some thru the guts. I watch the buck walk up over the hill and when I saw him walking away, I knew I couldn't push him. I left at 9:30 and went and had lunch and met my Dad at 12:30 Best move I did because I walked into the woods and could smell the deer (if you've ever hit a deer in the guts or punctured it while gutting, you know what I am talking about.) Walked my Dad back thru the shot and showed him what I found. We then went to the next spot I saw him and there he was piled up not 10 yards away.

GMMAT

Guys I don't have many years experience....but I hunt from a climber, almost exclusively. One thing I ALWAYS do is (Now) leave my climber attached to the tree if I back out.

1. (as was mentioned before) Sometimes it's beneficial to climb back up to guide someone else from your perch. Things look different from the ground.

2. It's just a plain ol good idea to mark where the shot was TAKEN from. In the dark.....a quick flash of the light to the tree is sometimes needed....and if your stand is still on that tree....it makes it more readily identifiable. LOTS of trees look the same in the dark.

NCRemington700

One thing I would add is the use of marking tape on a trail that you have to leave and come back to or a trail that is very faint. Similar to Jeff's post above...the bushes and leaves look very similar after you leave and come back a couple of hours later. Marking the last spot of blood, especially, will make it much easier to pick the trail back up and help determine a possible direction the deer was headed after the shot.

Pops423

One other item I'll add to this is when you lose blood and are doing a search, know your terrain. think about where the deer would most likely head for cover or water, etc.

On my buck last year, the thing I failed to mention above as that instead of approaching the spot I had last seen my buck from the direction he traveled, I circle completely around. Not 60 yds from there is a well traveled road. On the other side is a house and a swamp. I don't have permission to get into that property (nor do I think I could, even for a wounded animal.) So my Dad approached from the road and I stood watching where I had last seen him from my stand. This served 2 purposes.

1. It allowed us to see if there was any blood out to the road as he first took a slow walk along the edge
2. If the deer had not expired, it allowed us to push it back into an area that we had access to and were familiar with and hopefully I'd be able to see him and mark the next location.

Once I saw my Dad I slowly approached and followed the trail until I was in the spot I had visually marked as the last place to see him. As I was scanning the ground I found the leaves turned up and that's when I saw him.

Matt / PA

One thing I will add....maybe it's in there already somewhere?

Unless you have resorted to a last ditch effort "Body Search" where you can use all the manpower you can get, resist the urge to bring everyone and their grandmother in with you to track your animal!

Tracking is best done IMO with 2 people who know what the heck they are doing. 3 or more people does nothing on a bloodtrail but get people in a rush, off the trail and sign possibly mixed up, disturbed or lost entirely.

Call that one other guy you can count on to go slow and work with you as a teammate on the trail andTHEN call everyone else after you've either found him, or exhausted every effort to find the animal yourself and you need to grid search.

Austin/WI

Next to Rob's original post, I think this is probably the next best piece of advice. I remember tracking a deer several years ago during gun season. I was following behind a larger group of people who were "tracking", they obviously weren't looking hard enough/moving too fast because the blood veered away at 60 degree angle from their path and they would have never found that deer had I not been there and pointed everyone in the direction the deer actually went. And by the number of carcasses I've come across while hunting reinforces that fact to me because a lot of hunting in my area happens as a good sized group/family.

paule22665

great post
about 20 years or so i shot one of my first dear with a bear recurve and i clearly gut shot it
it was right at daylight
i went back to my truck a couple of hundred yards away and got some marking paper i had forgot to bring
my intention was to start tracking right away
well as luck would have it i got stuck in the mud(always muddy down hear in souther Louisiana)
4.5 hours later i managed to get unstuck
went right to where the dear went in the woods
deer wasnt 150 yards down the trail
that stayed in my mind for all those years and i always wait!!!!
thank God for some unanswered prayers

Finch

Don't know if its in here but pack some extra toilet paper. You should anyway.Comes in handy while tracking. Make yourself a TP sprinkled path if you have to.

Also, I tried to find it but failed (lousy search feature). Maybe someone could post Matt/PA's thread about his buck he tracked last year. Pure determination I tell ya. I read that thread many times last year when I was in the same situation. Unfortunately, my tracking success came months later when he was just skin and bones.

I tell you guys one more thing...I thought I gave my buck plenty of time to succomb last year but apparently did not. I gave him about six hours and then went after him. I wanted my buck and didn't want the meat to spoil. Sometimes you can't have it both ways.

BowHunter46

Great post and good information!

Acouple weeks ago, I remember reading a lengthy tread debating "the void" theory. Inone of theposts someone recomended a book by John Trout Jr. called "Finding Wounded Deer". Well I went out and picked it up and was very impressed.

One tip it mentiond is looking for the hair that was sliced off when the arrow entered the deer.The color and length of the hair could help determin the shot placement.

I loaned the book to my buddy, but when I get it back, I'll post his guide for identifying what area the hair came from.