RE: Recovery, What to do after the shot.
 

when in doubt wait,If the shot is even 1 percent questionable dont shoot. Shoot only equal to your abilities. In the past 11 deer I shot I seen all of them drop within view and I still wait an hour. I also dont shoot to late in the day with limited light left. Best to be safe, ethical then sorry and feel bad the rest of the year

RE: Recovery, What to do after the shot.
 

Don' t always trust your eyes, they can play tricks on you.
Don' t try and out think things, follow the sign that is in front of you. Deer will do some quite irrational things at times like that and there are NO hard, fast rules that work 100% of the time.
Trail as quietly as you can, sometimes you can sneak on a deer in its bed and get another arrow in it, or at the least, be able to back out without pushing it. (this is not a substitute for waiting!)
Don' t force your shots and you won' t need to follow a wild goose chase blood trail
When in doubt WAIT!!!!!!!!!(cannot be mentioned too many times)

RE: Recovery, What to do after the shot.
 

When in Doubt , BACK OUT! If any of you have seen Primetime Bucks 6 you will see that saying used when stan potts hits that giant. Well i usually shoot , wait 5-10 minuts get my stuff situated to climb down. Then i go look at the place where the shot hit the deer. If there is a ton of blood , and the arrow is covered , i will knock another arrow , and slowly get on the trail. But if i ahve any doubt ill mark the hit spot , and leave for an hour or two , go eat , get flashlighs and help , and return to claim my animal.

This year me and my dad were lucky enough to get our buck on the same night. I shot my 6 point , watched blood jsut pour outta both sides, heard the crash, got down got my dad and found my deer 15 minutes later. After that my dad was still hunting around and had a basket 9 walk up on him. But when he shot the buck wheeled and he hit it far back , in the butt cheek. We found where it crossed the tractor trail , marked it and went took my deer home . About 2 hours later we went back wiht lights and many man power. We foudn good blood , and the arrow. After tracking for a while we saw eyes in the field we came too , he was bedded down. so we slipped out , adn foudn him the next morning jsut over the hill form his final bedding spot. So Time is of the essence. If the shot is good wait a shorter amount of time , but as cardeer said if its questionable , back out.

RE: Recovery, What to do after the shot.
 

Also, for times when the blood trail is spotty, toilet paper is an excellent marker of blood.. It will also decompose after the first rain. Definitly good for the environment. And for tracking in the dark, a Coleman Lantern will make blood glow.

RE: Recovery, What to do after the shot.
 

All great stuff guys...keep them coming....let' s have one hell of a successful year.

RE: Recovery, What to do after the shot.
 

I think FARMER HUNTER hit the main reason people loose deer... that and not sticking with it. Blood can flow, stop, flow, spot, stop all within a hundred yards. The single biggest problem I' ve found when helping others find a deer is they have NO CLUE where he stood when the shot or where he went. You ask where he was standing and they say " Over there" and they wave their hand in a 60 degree arc. When you ask where he last was seen the arc becomes a 90 degree wave. You got to pick out way points as he runs and pin point exactly within a foot or two the last spot you saw him. Mark it well, mark it again a couple times and try to keep your eye on it as you climb down. It all changes at ground level. Some people can' t track worth a flip. They' d be better off getting help and stick to the guys heels and learn. Often the smallest spot of blood is the one that leads to the deer. I don' t wait nearly as long as a lot of people, AND over the years it' s cost me a couple deer... but I never lost one to a coyote or other hunter. I go slow and silent. I kneel and peek, sneek and peek, glass with the binos so I don' t get surprised to often. I' ve trailed a deer and then watched him die with the binos. Just don' t quit. I carry all kinds of lights. I never left one over night but I' ve also got out of the woods awfully late with a deer. Trailing at night can be tough. You really got to go slow. If you don' t see the next spot of blood.... STOP where you are until you find some or figure it out. All you need is ONE guy tracking at a time. Others can help from behind but don' t let them get impatient while you' re held up and start griding or circles or something like that. When you get to that point.... you' re close to loosing the deer. You need MORE patiences, not more ground under foot.

RE: Recovery, What to do after the shot.
 

Where we hunt in Eastern Washington the days get pretty warm and waiting and tracking must always include this factor. If I have a bad hit, I will wait as appropriate but if I have that shot that we all pray for 30 minutes has always been more than enough time.

Personally I believe that a thorough knowledge of the animal' s anatomy is a vital knowledge to have. As for an animal' s reaction to a shot most hits in the heart, lungs, liver, paunch, artery, etc will have a normal if not specific reaction to the shot; sometimes they do not but usually do; additionally a hard hit animal will always brake away from any other animals nearby. The next clue is blood type, color, and profuseness, and distance to first blood; blood drops will tell whether the animal is standing/bedded, walking or running and in which direction. On the Whitetail, hair at the site of the shot or on the arrow will also give you a pretty good idea where the hit was. However, for the mulie hunters like me hair type is not defined and cannot be used in the overall analysis.

I have laminated two cards to help my grandson learn and they are so important that I carry in my backpack now. They are taken from 40 years of experience and the books that I study [bowhunting is my only remaining vice and passion] that contain information. These cards contain blood type and hit analysis and when to track. Also How to age droppings and also some helpful tidbits of information. The information on them has NEVER failed me.

The cards are in Adobe PDF Format and I would be willing to share them with anyone interested in looking at them. However, because I run two websites and an working on conditioning for elk camp that is only two weeks away I prefer that requests be e-mailed to me at [email protected].

I have been sending a lot of these cards out and that is great. Some however have not been able to get the formatted files due to security and other problems. So I have put the file on my homepage at

http://members.w-link.net/~dick_cress/bowhunters_page.htm

Just right click on Tracking Cards then choose to save target file as (the default name is " Scat Card" but you may name it anything you wish then browse to the folder you wish to save the file to. Or you may still e-mail me.

I hope someday to include the blood patterns on these cards too.

RE: Recovery, What to do after the shot.
 

Before getting out of the tree I always look for the arrow with the Bino' s. Gives you something to do while waiting.

RE: Recovery, What to do after the shot.
 

good post Rob, I agree 100%. Patience is the key to success. Bobby ;)

RE: Recovery, What to do after the shot.
 

The season must be close when Rob pulls out the old recovery post.:D.

Good luck this year guys and by all means be safe and wear a safty belt.

Brian