Shot my first deer but I cannot find it
07-27-2018, 04:53 AM
#21
Fork Horn
Join Date: Oct 2015
Posts: 293
Lots of good advice already. I'll add this and I apologize for the long post. First, props to you for reaching out for help.
Unless you hunt in wide open hardwoods, consider not shooting another deer until you either learn by helping others track their deer or have someone available who knows what they're doing help you. Join deer hunting forums that cover the part of the state you hunt. One I belong to encourages a post to let people know you can't find your deer and where you are. Most of the time, within an hour, people will contact the hunter and be on their way to help. Often, they will have a deer trailing dog. Volunteer yourself for experience. But, bottom line, find someone.
Blood tracking deer who don't die in our sight can sometimes be a difficult task for the experienced, and even more so for the inexperienced. It requires strong commitment, knowledge, perserverance, patience, discomfort/pain, and some degree of informed imagination. Books can explain and give how to's, but there's no substitute for learning from an expert. This is not a place for do it yourself learning. Too many deer may die a painful and wasted death.
In our deer camp of 12-15 hunters, even our experienced hunters are required to stop trailing when the deer enters heavy cover. Where we hunt, thats at best 50-100 yards or so from any possible hit. We ask that they mark the spot of the hit and where it was last seen with toilet paper. Often, the shooter in their excitement even gets this wrong. Then, they let others know by text where they are and that it's time to get help. Once assembled, only the one or two best trackers take the lead. Everyone else stays well back, their there to help get the deer out. Many deer have been lost because inexperienced trackers walked everywhere ruining our chances of finding sign. The trackers generally go extremely slow, looking at small sections at a time, generally on all fours. They follow the most likely routes the deer would have gone, looking for tiny specs of blood, tissue, hair, clear fluids, broken twigs and limbs, tracks or disturbed soil/leaves. They look under overturned leaves, on vegetation/trees in and on the side of the trail, literally everwhere. And, they use their experience to decide when to abandon the trail they're on and start over with a new one. It's painstaking work but more often than not, we eventually find a better blood trail and recover an otherwise lost deer.
Trophy deer on our land are few and far between. We started this practice after several nice deer couldn't be found after the shot, only to turn up later as skeletons found by someone scouting or cutting lanes. Plus, it's the ethical thing to do.
Unless you hunt in wide open hardwoods, consider not shooting another deer until you either learn by helping others track their deer or have someone available who knows what they're doing help you. Join deer hunting forums that cover the part of the state you hunt. One I belong to encourages a post to let people know you can't find your deer and where you are. Most of the time, within an hour, people will contact the hunter and be on their way to help. Often, they will have a deer trailing dog. Volunteer yourself for experience. But, bottom line, find someone.
Blood tracking deer who don't die in our sight can sometimes be a difficult task for the experienced, and even more so for the inexperienced. It requires strong commitment, knowledge, perserverance, patience, discomfort/pain, and some degree of informed imagination. Books can explain and give how to's, but there's no substitute for learning from an expert. This is not a place for do it yourself learning. Too many deer may die a painful and wasted death.
In our deer camp of 12-15 hunters, even our experienced hunters are required to stop trailing when the deer enters heavy cover. Where we hunt, thats at best 50-100 yards or so from any possible hit. We ask that they mark the spot of the hit and where it was last seen with toilet paper. Often, the shooter in their excitement even gets this wrong. Then, they let others know by text where they are and that it's time to get help. Once assembled, only the one or two best trackers take the lead. Everyone else stays well back, their there to help get the deer out. Many deer have been lost because inexperienced trackers walked everywhere ruining our chances of finding sign. The trackers generally go extremely slow, looking at small sections at a time, generally on all fours. They follow the most likely routes the deer would have gone, looking for tiny specs of blood, tissue, hair, clear fluids, broken twigs and limbs, tracks or disturbed soil/leaves. They look under overturned leaves, on vegetation/trees in and on the side of the trail, literally everwhere. And, they use their experience to decide when to abandon the trail they're on and start over with a new one. It's painstaking work but more often than not, we eventually find a better blood trail and recover an otherwise lost deer.
Trophy deer on our land are few and far between. We started this practice after several nice deer couldn't be found after the shot, only to turn up later as skeletons found by someone scouting or cutting lanes. Plus, it's the ethical thing to do.
