Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting How do YOU trail deer?

I was reading the November 2004 issue of Deer and Deer Hunting Magazine over lunch. There was a big article on the "5 Critical Mistakes of Blood Trailing." It all boiled down to this: Let the deer lie down and die. Don't push. I remember 10 years ago this magazine was saying the exact opposite: trail the deer immediately.

Of all the deer I've shot and arrowed, I can only think of two that needed any special treatment. In all the other cases, I've could have walked to the deer and tag it immediately. However, I followed the old sage advice about letting the deer "stiffen up" up until 10 years ago and never pursued a kill until at least 30 minutes after the shot.

When D&DH came out pro-push, it was a revelation. To me, the idea of pursuing a deer immediately made sense. Dead is dead. Wounded? I probably would do more to hasten a fatally shot deer's departure from this mortal coil by pushing it, rather than letting it lay down and recover its composure.

I'm interested in what you all think about this.

If you make a shot close to dark in South Tex or mexico it may make sense to find blood before dark, and that may require you to get on the trail pretty quick. Reason being, if you can't find blood and or deer that evening. The coyotes will eat good that night and you wont have much the next day, but a set of horns if they havent ran off with them.

In the country I hunt in, I won't push one in the morning, but will not hesitate if its close to dark.

I agree with Gringo,

I had a ranch in Uvalde....There were times that hunters will make a shot at dusk that will not drop the deer in it's tracks. If the deer is left overnight, the coyotes & particularly the hogs would virtually destroy all the animal.

I was called in to track a buck that a hunter said would "win the big buck contest".....It was shot through the guts with a .243 at dusk.....They could not find the deer.

At first they made it sound as if the incident had happened the evening before.....But, as I soon found out, the buck was shot 3 days prior....LOL.

I told the hunter to meet me at the ranch the following morning. There was virtually NO bloodtrail, as the heavy dew had wiped all but a small dark spot of blood out. He told me that there had been 6-7 people try for the past 3 days to find the "Monster Buck"...

I had him point out the spot where the buck was shot, & then the direction it ran after it was shot....

It had jumped a fence & disappeared into thick brush was the last the hunter saw of it...

I crossed the fence, went to the thicket that the hunter pointed out, & found not a blood trail, but a trail of broken branches & pushed down weeds....

A severally wounded deer isn't concerned with trails, they might take a trail, but genereally they just want to leave the area quick, plowing through whatever they can.

After I followed the trail for 10 minutes & perhaps 150 yards, I found the "monster buck"......It was a nice buck, about 19" spread, & 11 points, but a far cry from the B&C buster they said it was.....

The buck was litterally eaten by hogs....It was just a pile of hair, a few hooves & the rack left.

I'd WAY rather follow blood after a hit, I usually give them 10-15 min. after being shot in the evening, but, like Gringo, I will wait longer on a deer shot in the morning....Usually I give them 30 min.

You CAN find a trail that is "colD", but it might not be a bloodtrail....

Rockinbbar

If I'm 100% confident in the shot, I wait about 15 minutes and go look. If I'm reasonably certain it was a good shot, but there's a possibility that it might not have been good, then I'll wait about an hour. If I know it was a bad shot, I'll wait at least 2-3 hours before tracking.

Here in KY where I usually hunt, we have quite a few coyotes and a few wild/stray dogs, but you'll usually be okay if you can find the deer within 5 or 6 hours. If it's out there overnight, there's about a 50/50 chance coyotes will find it before you do.

I never intentionally push a wounded deer. I accidentally pushed one after a bad shot several years ago. I waited about 30 minutes and went looking. As a result, I pushed him and didn't find him until it was way too late. If I'd left him alone, he was bedded about 200yds from where I shot him. That one incident was enough to teach me to wait quite a while if I'm not certain of the shot.

Here's a link to some tracking tips I wrote up for my site... http://www.geocities.com/squirrelsniper/tracking.html

I've forgoten. Since I switched to Ballistic Tips I have not needed to trail one. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

PDS, me neither, but if I did I'd do it vewy, vewy quietly. Easier just to use BTs though.

Shaman,

Of course, bullets had to come in to play.

As far as pushing a deer, that's a judgement call.

Once on the trail, NEVER give up without doing the "hands and knees" thing in slowly widening circles. I have a feeling that you might know this already, so forgive me.

Also, when in doubt, follow with you or 1 other person.

Gator 1

I remeber reading the "push them hard" article and thinking that was a pretty good way of stinkin' up a bunch of nice venison!

I can't remember having to trail one for any length that I shot at with any of my rifles, as they didn't go far.

As far as bows go, I wait for a while, then go in.

I have trailed many that others have shot, however, and usually with snow on the ground, so I do it with a flashlight in the evening, if I am convinced of a good hit.

One that comes to mind is a friend's first bow kill .

He was very upset that he had made a bad hit in the guts on a doe.

I went out with him and a another friend, got him to stand where he shot at he deer, and then walked over to where the deer was hit.

Found the arrow( very important, IMHO for figuring hit), and also discovered much pissing spots with bright blood on the trail.

Told him not to worry, he had yanked the shot bad enough to be good!

the shot went right past the guts and hit the renal artery .

Picked up the deer after losing the blood trail on a heavily travelled path( the left rear hoof was covered in blood).

After she had gone into the heavy bush, she jumped off the path under a big spruce tree, less than 100 yards from where he arrowed her, completly bled out.

Incidently, I have seen deer do this a few times, jump off the trail and hide, and when I have found them, they are always dead .


Have you found the same thing in your neck of the woods, Shaman?

Catnthehat

I've heard some say that if you wait a while the deer will circle around back near the shot, like a rabbit. Anybody have an experience validating that?

Regards, sse

To be honest, my tracking skills are rather stunted. Most of my shots have resulted in the deer going down in sight or within 50 yards. That is by no means a boast. I�ve also had two wounded ones that got away in the past twenty years, and I�m not sure if pushing or waiting would have changed the outcome. They both haunt me; that is a fact for sure.

The first was in 1989. I muffed a bow shot and I have no idea where the broadhead connected. In retrospect it might have just been a slice on the foreleg. All I know is I had a bit of blood on the arrow and an intermittent blood trail. In those days, I held firm to the �wait and let them stiffen� catechism. I waited a full half hour before getting down from my stand. I trailed the buck for an hour and a half. When the buck stopped, the blood stopped. When he moved, the wound opened up and flowed. The trail came to a fence, and my buddy would not let me cross. He claimed I�d get shot for sure by the landowner. I finally finally relented after considerable arguing, but I still wish I hadn�t. I never hunted that property or with that buddy again.

The second happened last year. I hit a doe during muzzleloader season. I found out later the sight had been knocked askew and I probably hit way high. I had a small blood trail to follow for about 50 yards and then nothing. I brought out the dog and the Coleman lantern and was doing my best to locate something when we started taking incoming fire from the next ridge. I found out much later that a party had come out and started a shooting contest in their headlights. The target had been an old stump, but the stump was rotten and the shots were blowing through and traveling over the ravine and into the trees above my head. I beat it out of there. At the time, it appeared they were shooting at me. The next morning I found a big blood smear and some drag marks in the bottoms�signs of a hasty field dressing. Oh well.

In those two cases, I don�t know if pushing or waiting would have affected the outcomes. If I knew I had a gut shot deer on my hands, I would probably back off and wait. However, there are a lot of impinging factors. First, we have coyote and wild dog. Any dead deer left in the field would be scattered shreds by morning. Second, would be the chance of precipitation obliterating the sign. Third would be timing. If it�s Sunday night, and I�m due back at work Monday AM, I�m going to do what I can to reduce the deer to possession that night.

If you look at just my experience, pushing seems to be the way to go. The vast majority of deer I�ve shot have been dead in under 15 seconds. The only thing waiting would accomplish is letting the carcass stiffen a bit. The other thing I can tell you is that just getting on the trail can take what seems an eternity, especially in the dark. If the blood trail doesn�t show up for 50 yards, and it is in heavy brush, a deer that expires in 10 seconds can take an hour to find.

The two flyers in this record have nothing in them to suggest my strategy affected the outcome. Call me a pusher, but I�m still open to suggestions.

All the deer I shot never got further then fifty yards away from where I shot them. However, I too have trailed deer for friends and will tell you what I believe. I am aware of the reasons why one should wait awhile before trailing in order to let the deer's adrenalin wear off, let them bed down and stiffen up with weakness to hopefully expire. I don't think that is bad advise for wilderness hunting. But what if your hunting an area frequently hunted by others? I think in cases like this you can't afford not to pursue your deer immediatly, unless you don't mind someone else putting their tag on your deer. I would hate to be smoking my cigarette ten minutes into my waiting, to hear a shot over the next hill and find someone else gutting what's now their deer. I know there are a lot of acounts by some that deer pumped up with adrenalin will go further if they think they are being trailed. However, like someone else stated, "dead is dead." I believe you should check their trail at least fifty yards to determine where they may be shot and how they have reacted to it by observation of tracks and blood. If you know you put one through the lungs (you can tell by the blood) adrenalin or not, their running is just going to pump it out of them that much faster, which will make them expire that much faster. A heart shot, once their blood loses it's oxygen, is lights out regardless of addrenalin. A gut shot deer would probably be different. You would want to wait to give the deer time to relax, bed down to get sick. Their stiffening up with weakness and concentration on the nuasea, would give you a better chance to sneak up on them. Sounds bad doesn't it? Time of day as previously mentioned is also a very big concern. I personally believe in most cases it's better to trail right away.

The only one I've trailed was a doe -- I pulled the shot and hit her in the paunch with my muzzleloader. I could tell she was hit pretty hard, so decided to follow up as soon as I reloaded.

Unfortunately, she bedded down within 50 yards, and I jumped her but didn't get a shot. I waited half an hour, then had to trail her a couple hundred more yards, with a much thinner blood trail. So if the situation was similar, next time I'd wait.

I shoot them then walk up to them. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I'm with you and PDS on this 'un.

Have trailed-up a few wounded deer for others where I hunt in firearms deer season. Like to get after them ASAP myself.

Most of the nimrods around here are of the opinion that wounded deer "always head downhill or for water". Yup, explains why the last few I've found went straight uphill and into the nastiest crap one could find in the area.

Me personally...never had to trail them...I feel I am eternally lucky in that respect....I hope I never have to...had a brother in law a few years back spend 3 days trailing a bow shot buck across a river twice ( his story not mine)...never to be found...he is an avid and perfectionist hunter...fell real bad for him though... said it was the biggest buck he never found. I make my kids practice shot placment and yardage...I feel this at least will help in the continuous wildness of that great past time we call hunting.

Follow the bullet's path to where it struck the deer's brain pan.

I alway's look for any deer shot after about 1 hour or sooner if I know the hit was a good one. Just like some others have said if you leave it over night you will make the coyotes happy.

Until last year, I used to be a pusher. I seemed to me that the doctor would never tell a gunshot victim to "run it off". But last year, I arrowed a deer shortly before dark and immediately started trailing a great blood trail. Before too long I walked up on the deer, thinking it was dead, but it up and bolted on me. From that point on, there was no blood, but I knew it had bled enough previous to that to be mortally wounded. Well, a couple of hours later, I finally walked up on the dead deer, but there was still no more blood. I guess the deer, bled out but still had enough adrenlin in him to run off. From now on, I'm waiting the obligatory 25 minutes.

I always wait about 30 mins, unless the deer has dropped within sight, then I give only 10 to make sure it has bled out and is dead. Once I shot a deer, I knew I had hit it but it ran off. I gave my standard 30min wait time and then went to where I had shot it. Sure enough there was a good blood trail in the direction I had seen it go. I followed the trail (a blind man could of done it) and it went about 50yds away from where I had shot it, and then mysteriously looped back around heading towards my stand. The deer actually stoped and backtracked about 30yds. If I had been paying more attention to the woods I know I would have seen the deer when I was following the trail out. That blood trail was just so good I couldn't keep my eyes off it. So yes in my experiences shot deer will loop around and come back to where it was shot. I have been told this by other hunters also.

Blammer: Tried your method this afternoon. It was opening day of Muzzleloader season in KY. 60 yards on a doe with a 54 Hawken. It worked. The only problem was her girlfriend stuck around for about 20 minutes, trying to figure out why she wouldn't get up. I waited while she made her piece with her friend and then I got down from the stand. I can truthfully report, that even after 20 minutes this doe stayed down when approached.

The result is in: Dead is Dead.

You gotta love a 348 grain lead bullet through both lungs. It makes all that talk about Partitions vs Corelokts vs ballistic tips just seem to fade away. There's nothing like mass.