buck_hunter_87

this is great info. this is my first year hunting and it is awesome. i wish i had read this first. my second day out hunting i encountered 6 deer in the morning in a open/corn field. the deer had a path beat to high heaven and i seen them using it heavily. at dawn i seen 4 smaller deer move threw and was unable to get a shot due too brush i was devastated being 25 yards and at full draw with a great shot except for the brush. as those deer ran off i looked to off in to the ajacent field and seen a monster buck coming the same way that they had come. so i moved 10 yards for the trail they where using and i waited for him to cross. 10 min. later he did he came to the top side of the ditch they where crossing and he knew something was there that was not to be there. as he came to this stop i was already at full draw. when i seen him stop[ i let the arrow fly. at first i was certain it was a good shot behind the shoulder but the arrow was sticking oput of the side i had shot him. he to wnet 250 yards and had awesome blood trials. so i waited the half hour that so many peopl had told me to do. this was a mistake. although the shot was a t the back of the shoulder i thought maybe he would die due to his excessive bleeding. but he laid some 30 yards off the side of the road in some pine trees and he got spooked by cars. i wish i would have waited. i know he is still alive because the following evening i nearly hit him with my truck due to corn coming off. i have a tag reserved and a better shot for him.

ksfowler

I am going to have to concure with you on that one i made a horribly good shot on a whitetail this weekend it was not great but he was down with in a minute and only went 70 yards. I hit him in the femoral(sp) artary i had good blood the whole time. so there are other places to hit a deer and put them down fast, the lungs and heart are just the best place to aim.

OKbowhunter20

You do know concure means agree?

sunnydhntr

I have a dilemma. I shot a nice buck yesterday at 3:30 p.m. He was at 22 yards, quartering away, head to right tail left, and I was on the ground too. The arrow is aluminum with fixed blades, from a 52-lb bow. My sight was on his midsection and I heard a thwack, then he ran away from me and about fifteen feet up the trail he lost the arrow on the left side of the trail. The arrow was completely covered in blood with bits of meat and tan hairs on it. It did not smell bad. We took up the trail at 5:30 p.m. The first blood was about 50 yards out on the trail where his hoofprints were still running. He was headed NW, but then my husband jumped ahead on the trail going NE and found blood about 100yards awaygoing into a bedroom area there. We picked up better blood there, both on the trail (darker blood), and on the grass (lighter blood). We resumed the trail at 8:00 p.m. We gave up last night after tracking him 2 hrsanother 50 yards due to the cold and lack of blood trail.
This morning we resumed and only found a few specks further up the trail, then lost it about 200yards from the original site. Is it possible that this trail is not from my deer? I felt really good about the shot and the arrow gave me hope, but this trail started out NW, and then we skipped ahead about 50 yards NE on a hunch. We have 152 acres of land in a rural agricultural area, with plenty of neighbors around that hunt also.
Pamela

magicman54494

Great post Rob! I would like to add a few tips.
1. when you are going to wait a specific time it's best to check a watch. Time moves very slow while you are waiting and it's easy to tell yourself "it must be 2 hours already" when in fact it's only been 45 min.
2. weather conditions may force you to take the track early. impending rain or snow can erase all sign. this is a judgement call and makes knowing your shot placement important. If I think I got lungs and weather is coming I will take the track early.If I believe it was gut then I would wait anyway. Pushing a gut shot deer will only result in not getting it.In the case of gut shot and weather it's best to wait and do a body search the next day.
3. wounded deer will sometimes backtrack then jump off to the side and continue in a different direction. If you come to what seems like the end of the blood trail, go back and check off to the sides. This happened to me once.
4. others mentioned this but I will repeat it. Don't bring an army of people to help track. This is the worst thing you could poss. do. If you want help, get 1 person who has experience to help you. STAY OFF THE TRACK. mark your last blood and slowly move forward AFTER you spot more blood. Fight the urge to move forward without blood. Look for other sign such as leaves turned up or branches broken to help stay on track.
5. track during the day if at all poss. you will see much more sign than at night.
6. often times there is very little blood from the shot sight to the point where the deer slows down.
7.never determine how good the hit was based on the amount of blood you find. A friend double lunged a doe. It was a total pass thru shot. We both saw the hit. When we got on the track (on snow) there was hardly any blood. we couldn't believe the lack of blood. she ran about 100 yds and died on the run. I could have recreated the blood trail with a shot glass full of blood! When the arrow passed thru it pulled a hunk of fat in the exit wound and plugged it.
8. read the body language of the deer by the way it moves. A buddy of mine called me to track one once. The blood trail was poor. The way the blood trail went thru thick brush and was weaving I told him the deer was dead and we would find her if we could just keep on the trail. He said we weren't going to find it. We found it dead less then 50 yds from that spot.
9.don't quit looking until eithor you are sure the deer survived or you believe the meat is no longer good. I gut shot a deer and it rained that night. I got 4 guys and we did a body search. we did a grid search thru the swamps for the better part of the day. They gave up and went home. I continued to search and found him laying about 20 yds from the road we drove in on. Which brings me to #10
10. NOT ALL DEER GO TO WATER WHEN WOUNDED. Yes a lot of them do but look elsewhere if you don't find them there.
11. If you kick him up, back out quietly and wait at least a few more hours before taking the track again.

JeramyK

Bumping this up for the 2009/2010 season. Lot's of good information here! Already starting to see threads about wounded deer on other forums.

Rob, can we get a sticky?

killzonearchery

that was a nice artice and well thought out

mfd1027

Good deal getting this bumped up again. I started a new post about a wk. ago that kind of got ignored and then boom we started having tracking threads come in.

Great Job! Rob/Pa. Your initial post is one of the best and most comprehensive posts I've ever read on the internet. I checked the UBT link and found my info. was up to date. Vars and I are ready to go. I'm skipping guiding this year and will be hunting/tracking in Ga.

Dan

Rob/PA Bowyer

Great deal Dan.

There ya's go, you southern in need, check Dan out.

mcraddock

Thank you for making this a "sticky" again for this year.

I saw no mention of the type of light that works best for blood trailing...

I'll contribute this much. Don't bother with the L.E.D flashlights. Even the ones that claim to be SPECIFICALLY for tracking blood, in fact, suck! You are better off with a regular 'ole incandescent MAGLITE.

But the best light to use for blood tracking in the dark is a Coleman dual mantle propane lantern. I keep one in my truck all season just for this purpose. Makes fresh blood glow!