Tips for Tracking fatally wounded/dead Deer

Mount Sweetness

Mount Sweetness

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All my deer have dropped within eye sight so tracking wasn't an issue.

Thought it would be a useful thread to have guys post tips used when tracking and the blood trail is weak.

What have you learned from experience?
 
Well i learned its very use ful to not only follow the trail very very slowly but to also use flagging tape every 20-50 yards depending on how thick the bush is, it will really help if it rains or you need to pick the trail up the next day.
 
A hurt deer will often run and stop just inside the nearest cover. When we've shot them in fields and they've run for cover they almost invariably stopped a few meters into the bush and laid down. If you lose the trail start looking in the thick stuff near where you lost it. We've found one curled around the base of a spruce tree once.
 
Don't go after them too soon if you don't see them drop, especially if you're not 100% sure of the hit. Pushing a wounded deer makes recovering it alot harder.
 
Related, how long do people wait before going to look? I keep thinking to wait twenty minutes, but so far it just means the deer has been dead for 19 minutes and 55 seconds, 25 yards away.
 
let thewm have time after the hit . then start looking down hill for blood if you do not see any right away.head for a stream or other water if you are not finding any blood or other tracks .deer will most times head down hill to water if hit in the gut .DUTCH
 
the flaging is a great tip (use bio degradable flagging if you can, it'll clean itself up). Marking any sign you see, blood, hair, print, etc.

and nearest cover is also good. If the animal has little more go in it, they also tend to head towards water, and downhill.

Good tracking skills, before or after a kill, should be part of every good hunter's tool box. Brushing up on tracking skills (lots of great books out there) allows you to see the bush in a whoel different perspective, at least I find.

Finding sign is difficult, but finding sign when you know it should be there is a whole lot easier and tracking skills take right over.
 
I have a few thoughts on the matter....
1. Carry a small bottle of peroxide, sometimes you're not sure if that red splash is blood or moss or just colour on a leaf etc.
2. Blue lights do work better at night for tracking blood
3. When hit a deer will usually run with it's tail down.

I agree with what has been posted about trail tape and nearest cover. As well I agree with what Dutch said about heading to water, they'll try to "put out the fire in their belly" by wading in water or laying in it.
 
Grouse Man said:
Related, how long do people wait before going to look? I keep thinking to wait twenty minutes, but so far it just means the deer has been dead for 19 minutes and 55 seconds, 25 yards away.
Click to expand...

If I don't see them drop, I wait at least 1/2 hour. Went looking for a doe to quickly once and had her jump up and run off when I found her. I went back at dawn the next day and found her 700 yards further into the bush. The shoot was a 35 rem in the lungs.
 
Sometimes finding the first blood is the hardest part, and realistically even a animal that went straight down in cover can be hard to find especially when the range gets long. Sometimes there just arent any landmarks at all, standing crops or high grass being a couple examples.Sometimes an animal is is plain sight from the shooting position, but you have to walk through cover to get to it.
Pin down the location the game was last seen in some way you can't mess up. Everything will look different when you get closer.
Mark your shooting position before you leave it, and have at least one landmark in line with the game's position you swore you wouldn't lose sight of. Mark it too. If you want to get fancy, you can use your LRF and compass to have a nice set of polar co-ordinates to work with.
 
Always mark the spot where the deer was hit.
don't walk in the tracks, follow the track from the side.
The odds of messing up the track and losing it are increased exponentially with three or more people on the track, one or two people only should be allowed to track. Two people can do a better job than one if they work well together, marking the last known sign and taking turns to advance.
I use toilet paper to mark the track. hate finding other hunters flagging tape in the bush. I try to pick up the toilet paper, but if I miss some it degrades very quickly.
If you lose the track, look back along your line of TP markers. Amazing how many times I've found a "trend line" and could pick up the track at the next likely spot by sighting along this line. Post one person ahead in an opening if you think you will push out the wounded animlal from cover.
Try to think like a wounded animal. They want escape cover, but will run on trails to avoid obstacles and increase speed.
Don't just look at the ground, grass and twigs at wound height are important spots to look for blood.
Tracks may be as subtle as a turned leaf, a scuffed stone. Don't think you are going to follow a line of distinct footprints.
Pay attention to squirrels scolding and ravens sounding off, I have been led to game many times by other animals.
Track wounded game with your rifle loaded and your finger on the safety with the scope turned to the lowest power. Shoot as quickly as you can positively identify the wounded game and safely shoot. If you are in the thick stuff, it doesn't matter where you hit it, just hit it again!
 
use your binoculars to look at every square millimeter of ground and don't bother looking far till you've looked close.
start looking way before you get to where the deer was standing, move a couple feet at a time and look at everybit of ground you can see through the binos. Like mentioned above once you push the deer that was laying down where you should have seen it your job gets way harder!


I am sure that most deer don't think, oh god I 've been shot I gotta cover ground! One minute they are fine then they feel real sick and in pain they may or may not relate the stress to the presence of a predator. Nothing about sickness or pain says cover lots of ground but when a predator shows up the need for distance, cover and cunning take priority over laying down or standing still to mitigate the pain.
 
Bring a good bright flashlight to pick up blood trails. There are some with different colours that supposedly show blood better, havent noticed a difference. I prefer to bow hunt when there is snow on the ground, much easier to track. If you cant see it on the ground from where you took the shot, dont rush out after it. With a bow shot I'll wait at least 30 minutes, maybe one hour. With a firerarm less time. Pay attention to the direction it went out of sight from and like the others said mark your starting point and be able to get back to it. Be careful when tracking not to step in/on blood and tracks.
 
In my experience the person who shot the animal is the worst one to be tracking a "lost animal". By this I mean a less than ideal shot - in the guts, low in the leg, etc.

There are exceptions to this rule but often not.

Check in puddles in the woods, in creeks, etc. if you are tracking near them. We lost a doe last year and it was 10 feet from where she was hit and expired in a 10x10 flooded puddle. We must have walked right by her 20 times, grid searched the surrounding area but couldn't find any sign except in the spot she was standing in when she was hit. I found her a week later after the coyotes found her.

Above all else, if you know or believe it was a marginal shot do NOT go after the game until after a period of time has pasted. Depending on the sign you see at the location the deer was hit will determine how long to wait. I have seen hunters push wounded deer after not listening to advise to wait only to jump the deer 30 yards away and the deer running away. I stopped hunting with my BIL after he refused to listen on my deer. I looked for that deer for 2 days by myself and never did find her - he wouldn't help.
 
Yeah! Flagging is the tool of choice.

I carry a few strips of heavy flagging ribbon tipped with reflective tape that I can hang in a tree or on a tripod of sticks, that help me home back in on a spot in the dark. By the time I follow it to wherever it stopped, I want to be able to home in on it as well as I can for the pick-up. Anyone that knows what a Remove Before Flight ribbon looks like, knows what I am talking about. Dead easy to home in on, and makes a great marker for those 'return in the morning" visits.

I like the TP for marking blood spots idea.

I had one recovery where the buck ran arrow straight, spraying good blood, then vanished completely. I did a circular search pattern for about an hour, traced and retraced the spots of blood and hoofprints. Very frustrating.
Found him 4 hours later, after I went for a walkabout. Followed the Ravens in to him. From where he ended up, I concluded that he had to have made a hard 90 degree turn right after he went down over the rise, then crossed a creek and died wedged between two fallen trees.
Never did find any other blood signs. A coyote had opened up the side of the body cavity, and there was a mess from the birds, but he was still recovered and I didn't lose enough to call it a loss. Was pretty PO'd about not being able to find him though, and cut my trip short over it.
I guess the tip is, watch the birds. Ravens, Crows, and Magpies' all know free eats when they see it on the ground.

A summer shooting gophers will tune up the marksmanship, too!

Cheers
Trev
 
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