following a blood trail

MiG25

MiG25

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How important do you think blood trails are? I've followed and recovered game that ran off by using tracks in the snow, tracks in the forest duff, and with dogs, I've even had cow elk lead me to the downed bull. But I cannot say that I have ever purely followed a blood trail. What the blood has told me is that the animal was hit and a serious follow up needs to happen.

I ask this since it comes up frequently when discussing suitable cartridges and since the last buck I took was hit with a 200 grain partition at something like 2400 fps impact velocity and there was no blood trail, none, until 10 feet from where I found him. There was fresh snow and I saw where he went so no problem. While examining him, it took a while to even find where I had hit him.

Has a blood trail been the difference between finding a downed animal or it being lost?
 
Absolutely the blood trail has made the difference for me a few times. You make some great points about paying attention to all the signs but I've been on a few very long tracking forays where blood was all we had. Sadly I've been on a few where we ran out of blood and lost the animal too. I've had the good fortune to watch several African trackers work as well and while they are incredible, they too occasionally lose a track without blood.
 
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I've seen all of that happen before too. We've lost animals that the trail ran dry on and done grid searches with no luck.

We use all the signs we can find. We have had animals leave no blood at all and we found them only by good detective skills and luck.

A buddy's buck left 1 drop of blood we could find 200 yards in the thick stuff from where he was shot. He was found 20 yards away. I remember a doe we lost that only ran a few feet and died in a very large puddle in the woods leaving no blood. We searched for hours and found no sign. The shooter swore that the doe went down and did not get up. Sure enough a few days later I found her. There is no fooling the coyotes. They found the dead doe and pulled her out of the water, all that was left was fur and bones only feet from where she was shot.
 
Yep. Try sorting out your animal's tracks from the dozen or so others that stomped through the same area earlier that morning. I've shot animals in dry years too. No mud or snow to make proper tracks, then its the tricky job of picking out the blood droplets amongst dried grass and leaves.
 
MiG25 said:
Has a blood trail been the difference between finding a downed animal or it being lost?
Click to expand...

Absolutely. I've tracked deer several miles on a blood trail. Several times when I was younger, and several times when they had been shot my others. Depending on where you are hunting them a blood trail can be critical, although a good tracker will recognize other signs such as overturned leaves, broken twigs and in one personal case, damaged mushrooms when the blood disappears.
 
When I shoot a deer, I always, ALWAYS search for blood, not for the animal itself. It has always led me to the animal....... And yes it has made a difference between a lost and found animal. You sometimes think an animal went a certain way but actually didn't. Folowing the blood will help you folow the right path..
 
I'd rather have a blood trail then not.

The deer I shot last week was in soft dirt with literally hundreds of tracks. It dropped like a sack of potatoes at the shot then took off into the bush. No hair, no blood, and a needle in a haystack of tracks to choose from. Blood would have been of utmost help. Did I mention the shot was right at the end of legal shooting time? Less then 10 mins to go?

We recovered the buck eventually, but blood would have made it SOOOOOO much easier.
 
Many, many times, blood has been the difference between losing a track and staying on it, especially when there is no snow. If you hunt long enough, you will eventually come to know the value of a decent blood trail. Even in snow, it is often the odd bit of blood that will allow me to differentiate my deer's tracks from all the others, and there are often LOTS of other tracks. I select my calibers and bullets to always provide complete penetration on whatever I am hunting for that very reason.
 
First elk I ever shot involved following a blood trail through dry grass for a couple of miles, before we caught up with him. Would have been a lost animal otherwise.

Grizz
 
Better to have and not need than need and not have.

I've relied on blood trails in Africa and without them we wouldn't have recovered the animals. Ask back40sniper about his gemsbok. Blood trails are a good thing.
 
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