When to track is important. We've all heard the caution against pushing a wounded deer. And many of us have experienced it, and possibly lost one because of it, ourselves.

However, when all signs point to a good shot.... it's time to track!

I'm on several facebook hunting pages that get allot of traffic this time of the year. Seems like every other thread right now is "Hit one, decided to back out until morning.".....

That's a great idea, when it's 40DEG out. But when the low for the night is 63 DEG backing out until mornings is just as bad as loosing the deer. Even so, if you think the shot is bad, I understand backing out. But allot of these guys are saying "Shot looked good, arrows covered in blood, but I didn't see it drop so I backed out until morning" There's even two posts on there this morning of people who heard the deer drop, but it was out of sight... So to avoid pushing it they backed out.

Just a rant to say this: Take account of everything that happened. If the shot looked good, if it felt good, if you have a blood covered arrow,if you have a blood trail, if everything is pointing towards a dead deer, then wait 30 minutes and GET ON THE TRAIL and find your deer before they coyotes do or before the meat spoils.

It almost seems like "Backing out until morning" is a right of passeage, or something they need to do. Maybe because that's what you see on every Deer hunting TV show? Who knows.... But listen to your sign and react accordingly. Backing out and wasting a deer is pretty much the same as losing one.

-Jake

FWIW, I've never "backed out until morning". Seems like it should be the rare exception, not the rule. And this early in the year (warm temps), I don't see the point at all, unless you just want to collect the rack. Some people watch to many hunting shows, perhaps. I didn't even know of the practice before I saw it on TV. We always tracked and found our animals in the dark, if need be, then made a plan from there, usually just gutting and dragging, where I grew up.

Twice I've had to do it when the shot was made at last light and I couldn't find a blood trail with a flashlight. Found both bucks the next morning. Both times was in January so the weather was cool. Meat was fine. I hate to do it and if there's a visible blood trail that can be followed by using a light I won't, but sometimes it's better to wait.

If sign is good, I'm tracking right then. If sign is bad, I'm giving the animal some time and coming back later. I've been there too many times when the deer jumps up 10 minutes into the tracking process on bad sign. But if there's no sign at all and you try a good while with good flashlights, sometimes all you can do is come back the next morning.

A CSI trick that really works: get a small black light. The blood sticks out like it's glowing.

They get this [bleep] from watching Bubbavision on TV. Those dudes are great for " when in doubt back out...." If your shot is good, with rifle or arrow, they have about 12 seconds before the hydraulics run out. Start on the track in a couple minutes, and they'll be dead at the end of it. Love these ass wipes on TV that find the deer the next day, eaten by coyotes, but they don't care as long as they get that " 140 class mainframe ten pointer"...

Right on Poobah. It's obvious the only criteria for having a TV hunting show is paying for the air time. Never seen more inept bunch in my life, with few exceptions of course (R Newberg for one). I love it when they've parked their butts in a tree for 5 days then cry about how hard they've been hunting.

If I "back out a wait 'til morning", I will give you 100% odds I will find pile of bones and a skull the next morning (coyotes).

If you don't have the basic hunting skills to track a hit animal at night, then you shouldn't hunt the evening.

My Dad's version of that was "I shoot, smoke a cigarette, and then start looking." I don't smoke cigs, but I know what he meant.

True. Waiting 10-15min to go look at sign is not a bad idea in general, unless the light is really fading fast.

BINGO!!!!

"not 100% sure of the hit so we'll back out until morning" = "the impending retrieval will have better camera light in the morning".
Phugging @zzhats.

Interesting. I'll check that out.



I'm a fair hand a tracking things. Much prefer a shoulder shot that drops them there as it's getting dark but sometimes that shoulder shot on a moving buck chasing a doe slips just a bit and turns into a high lung... I'm not perfect but I've not lost one shot at last light yet. I'll keep hunting the evening and if it comes to it, I'll find it the next morning.

Oh, I've needed to wait until morning a time or two as well.
But rational/reasoning individuals know when it's needed - not because it'll make for better TV.

I'm not prone to shoot at last light anymore, and it's been some years since I've attended that particular rodeo. The last time was about six years ago, on a cow stuck with an arrow. Shot just after noon next too a wallow on a very warm day. We found her in the dark, finally. Lost the half laying on the ground. It was sad.

When did common sense disappear from America? I really don't know how some blow their nose or wipe their azz

Poorly, I'd say, George, poorly.

That explains the smell....

Drives me nuts. It seems to be the "norm" on tv .

Especially Love the early season archery elk, probably 70-80 degrees, they find the critter the next afternoon and proceed to preach about how great their decision making was in the recovery. Bunch of rubes.

It won't be fit to eat where I hunt.

If the weather is warm or there are a healthy population of coyotes in the area I do not back out until morning.

I can't disagree with what most have said. But, before I start tracking I'm going to do a couple of things. I'll mark the spot I shot from and the spot the animal was standing when I shot. I'll make sure I've got a round chambered and if I've got a variable scope I'll crank it down to it's lowest power. If I don't find him with in a short distance I'll begin marking blood spots to establish a line of travel. I'll be moving slowly, watching ahead and glassing if there is daylight enough.

I can't remember waiting more than an hour. There is a legend that says the light from a white gas Colman lantern is the BEST light for a night trailing job. So to test this theory, I located and rebuilt one of these legendary lanterns, a two mantle pump up. And as a control, I matched a propane lantern of the same size. Added reflectors to both with the same square inches of surface to compare the two lantern types best.
The test would be done complete with photos for a thread on www.deeranddeerhunting.com , (which has unfortunately closed it's forum and resorted to Facebook after being over run by spam.)
I still have both lanterns waiting for a night blood trailing job. Everything I've hit has fallen in sight, since. Another trailing tip from CSI is Hydrogen peroxide in a spray bottle. Any suspected blood drops will foam on contact, when sprayed.

If you can spray it with a spray bottle.......never mind.

I thought that a D cell Mini Mag with the LED bulb would be the be all end all for lighting up a blood trail. I didn't have a blood trail, but reflective phosphorescent tape or those Bright Eye trail markers were what I did have. It was disappointed to see that the LED light was not even as good as the regular incandescent bulb flashlight. I always carry two lights with me now ever since I tried to change the AA Mini Mag bulb by moon light.

I have lost two whitetails with archery shots. The one was hit a little tiny high and a little tiny bit back so that it had damage to there rear of lungs. Deer ran 100 yds .and laid down. Must have heard me or seen my light a half hour later and got up and move into thick rosewoods. I lost the trail and never could find the deer. I kept looking because it was 75 degrees. Two days later by chance ,my cousin found the deer laying by a creek half a mile away , half eaten by coyotes. The second deer I lost one foggy morning. It was a doe and not five minutes after I let the arrow go it went from fog to a steady heavy down pour of rain for about three hours. After the rain I circled the area for the rest of the afternoon. Confident in a good hit. Two weeks later my uncles beagle found it in a rosewood patch less then 50 yds. from where I shot it.
I guess my advice is to adjust your tracking to the circumstances./ If you are sure of a good hit give them a half hour and really look for them., If the hit is questionable, Look for what you can slowly and mark the blood trail. Move slow and pull out if the trail gets longer and longer. Or get some one to circle way ahead to likely spots and try to cut of the deer and get them to circle back to your area.......

Did you miss the word "suspected"? Not every red trace you see is blood. Sometimes, such as a high chest hit with a low poundage bow, you get one high hole, and almost no blood at all. I happen to be very good at tracking by multiple methods. I'm called in when others have lost one. I teach hunters how to track. Personally, I haven't lost one since I was a child, with the exception of one that died on land with no access to recover it. (Permission denied).
I know what I'm doing. Given enough time, and an open mind, perhaps you will as well, one day.

I know what I'm doing too. I haven't lost one since I was a baby. Except that once at band camp.

I never wait if the light is failing.
last buck I shot at twilight, went back and got some friends
found it within a few minutes, few yards out of sight of the stand.
I have never seen anyone back out and wait till morning, unless they lose the trail.
one I shot before that, took me a few minutes to follow the trail the hundred yards or so
in the dark.
we have a healthy wolf population where I hunt.gut piles are usually gone the next morning.

I always felt "backing out till morning" was synonymous with " I only care about the rack".

Last time I saw a guy wait till morning the coyotes had a feast.

I don't mind 'hunting hard' like that at my age, but I prefer the real tough stuff, like a box blind! However...I don't call it 'hunting hard'....

As for late evening follow ups, Ive done a few and never waited till morning. Found more than one deer with the aid of my little flashlight....

Yeah that and "Let's go back to camp and drink beer cause I'm afraid of the dark"

When I smoked I would smoke then go after them. If they are well shot they will be dead within 5 minutes. I like to get them gutted and skinned out and on ice as quick as I can. I don't figure a deer that has laid out all night with the guts and blood in them is very good to eat. I shoot them to eat them.

I've had to wait twice. But both times I tracked deer and jumped them in the dark while tracking, so I came back in the morning. Found the deer both times. And neither much further from where I stopped. The buck was my first decent WI buck. The second one was a doe in my back yard, also in WI. She was 1/2 eaten by coyotes.

Anyone use a dog?

Let's leave my wife outta this.....(grin)

A trained dog is a great asset in finding game.

Has anyone actually used a UV light that worked on blood. A friend bought a one and it didn't show a darn thing.

No, and the thermal blood trackers are worthless as well, even when you can SEE the dead deer from where you stand.

You got that right. I guess they need daylight for the cameras. I taught my son to keep multiple lights in his pack and plenty of surveyors ribbon. We have never waited for daylight to start tracking. I don't kill [bleep] for antlers. Meat preservation comes first. Antlers and hide are just a bonus.

Been training my Drahthaar to track blood. They seem quite adept at it. And like has been mentioned, if you can't track after dark, don't shoot critters at last light.

I completely agree with you!

When the temperatures do not allow you to wait until morning, you MUST track and find the deer! The size of the rack does not matter because I don't believe in merely "trophy" hunting. We owe it to the deer we kill to actually find and eat the deer. Do not waste a buck simply for his rack!

I have heard from more then one guide , that when a TV hunt waits til morning is code for lets find one that ain't gut shot or has a "TV worthy rack"

Ive used a dog quite a bit.....would post some pics but image site is down right now. A dog is THE way to go, as they can process a track quickly, and training one to do it is like training a fish to swim.


Only have one available that I can post right now.Dog found both elk with no trouble...

Last season during early archery, I split the difference on a marginal hit. I went back around 10 pm and found him. The blood had run out, but his eyes shined down in the creek.

rlott, I would like to modify my above post without inferring that a guy slack off on learning to find a wounded deer...which is basic teachable craft. I realize that sometimes a guy just can't find a deer, but hey, a little effort...particularly from those in the public eye with beginning hunters watching.

At the risk of dropping a name, a friend once introduced me to Art LaHa as the "world's greatest tracker." Well, Art could track day or night, there was no doubt about it. After I got to know him, he told me about a neighbors lady's beagle that they used for his bowhunters to find wounded deer...and he had a lot of bowhunters run through his camp back in the day, like a busload. The dog was near infallible and IIRC, also was instrumental in getting WI bow season approved--perhaps not in print...

That inspired me to try a plott hound I had. That dog found every live deer in the county and probably always wondered what was wrong with me.

Current GSD did not need any training as ingwe said--I just put him on the first blood and presto. He discriminates and makes it into quick job on wet days. If I lend him out, I go along and he is leashed. My wife would have my head if he got scratched.

One may want to check hunting regs as to the legality in yer particular state...:)

I would also like to know the answer to this question. if they do work, which one.


Thanks,
Doug

I've had two dogs that instinctively knew what to do. One pretty much taught the other. All I've had to do for the past 20 years is let my dogs out of the vehicle and say "Dead Deer," and off they go. I have done this with every kill I could, lost or not.

The last tracking job we had to do was about 4 years ago. #3 son, Angus, hit a doe a little too far back and it ran off on him. I brought Lily, the Beagle, out in the truck and let her loose. She correctly found where the deer had been standing and immediately took off for the woods in the correct direction. We all followed behind. I spotted the carcass about the same time she reached it. The doe had run a good 300 yards in the woods. She had left a decent blood trail, but following the dog was a lot easier.

Lily is 16 and probably won't make another trip to camp. She's got a bladder tumor and her battle is just about over. Jay, the Collie, is 12. He's always followed along, but I'm not sure he's got the nose to do it on his own. I get the idea he follows Lily the same way I do. The real expert in deer tracking was Barney, my shepard/collie mix. He's been dead for over a decade. Barney taught Lily. Both of them had spent their early lives living semi-feral and adopted us as much or more than we adopted them. You could tell Barney had done this for a living. Most dogs sniff a carcass and do a little licking when they first find it. Barney would launch on it like a starved hound and start pulling the hair off the haunches.

Just a few years ago Idaho approved the use of blood tracking dogs. They have to be kept on a leash and the animal has to have been shot within the last 72 hrs.

In regards to Coleman lanterns and UV lights and such:

I still keep my Coleman lanterns on standby, and I've used them on a couple of night tracking jobs over the years. Yes, it does make blood glow a funny color, but it is not all THAT distinct. You won't get a miraculous glowing trail, but it helps discern if it is really blood or just a funny discoloration of a leaf. Bring a flashlight so could can see both and tell the difference.

UV? I had a pocket UV illuminator that kind-of/sort-of worked, but you could tell this was an idea that was there to rope in hunters. Blood absorbs UV, so when you hit blood with a UV illuminator it appears black. That's great if you're at a crime scene. However, how is a dark patch in the woods going to be different than a shadow?

Luminol? Yeah, right? Get tank sprayers and start hosing down the woods. Get back to me on that one.

Peroxide? It works, but again it's like the Coleman lantern. You have to find the blood spot first and then hit it with Peroxide to see if it foams.

Back out until morning? Mostly rubbish. This is one reason why I never bow hunted until mid-October. You need to get on on that meat now unless it's going to be cold overnight. In 35 years of hunting, I've only had two deer that I bumped after shooting. The rest were stone dead. I just take my time buttoning up my gear before heading out. At most, that's a 15 minute wait.

It's one of my biggest peeves about watching those idiots on TV and I feel they are the main reason rookies do it. Down here you either find it shortly after the shot(pick up the trail within the hour) or it's ruined if you back out for very long as we rarely get cold temps for the majority of the season.

While I do agree with you, mostly, I much rather see toilet paper used. I have used a lot of surveyors ribbon in my day, while working, and would rather see something that goes away quickly used in my hunting woods. miles

One of the earliest things I remember from hunting when I was a kid was my Dad showing me how to use toilet paper when tracking. Deer running down a mountain side can make decent distance between blood drops. A little corner of toilet paper on a twig by each spot allows you to look back and see the track they've been running and use it to find the next spot of blood....or go back to the last drop and start again.

Have never backed out. If it's so late that I'm concerned about recovery or I'm short on workup time, I simply don't shoot.

With the media types it's all about the video. Never viewed a subsequent shot of the overnighters slicing up and downing a steak.

Ohio law permits leashed dogs for tracking wounded deer or turkeys, but you can not hunt with them. However, leashed is a liquid term here. If a dog is trained to voice or hand commands to a demonstrable level, he is leashed. If he is on a training collar, and is in control, he's leashed. And we have a 1' leash, not much more than a handle loop and dogclip, and no one has to be holding the leash. So a well trained dog can roam to the limits of his master's will. A poorly trained one is limited to the length of the rope.

http://www.newsmax.com/t/newsmax/article/647927

Shaman-hate to hear about your dog that might not make it through this season. You said something that anyone who wants to train a dog needed to hear. These days, here where I live, there are a number of people that have dogs trained to trail a bloodied deer. But before it was popular, a friend of mine always had a dog to track with. He told me that when training a dog to track, he would go get his dog even if he dropped a deer in it's tracks. And he would get the guys in his hunting club to call him even if their deer dropped where they could see it. Most of his dogs were Labs or a Lab mix.

That is the way I did it with Great Pyrenees. I like to have them find their first deer before they are 6 months old. I have had some good ones. The first one out of necessity, and the rest planned. First was an arrowed deer in stubble, and I could not find any blood. Arrow still in the deer. Pup, found blood and trailed the deer. Next morning was muzzle load season, and the pup trailed a deer that my hunting partner shot. That afternoon one for me. Turned out to be an amazing tracker. We have to keep them on a leash here, and
She drug me through a lot of thickets, but we found deer for lots of people that would have been lost. Longest track was a gut shot buck that went around 3 miles, as the crow flies. I finally caught up and cut his throat, but was played out. Crossed a bayou twice and the shallow end of a fish pond. Wet heavy clothes and boots, and my helpers with the rifle got left behind. miles

I hear that. We always go back and pick the ribbon up or if we backtrack we get it on the way out.

I use whatever I have on hand to mark trail. Sometimes it's TP other times its ribbon. I do have a small "tracking pack" that is about the size of a cigarette pack. I have a spare knife, a roll of ribbon, a book of matches, and a compass. It fits nicely on my belt and doesn't get in the way. That's usually what i grab when I have to track.

Looking back on my notes and memory, most of the deer I've shot didn't leave much of a blood trail. Most dropped on the spot or made a few hops and died within sight of where I shot them. Two notable ones were a big MN doe that left a trail Stevie Wonder could follow. She was shot at 11:05 A.M. in front of the shoulder. The bullet traveled through the lungs, heart and exited behind the off shoulder. There was so much blood in the snow that I could see blood through the brush, on the snow. She ran 50 yards and died in a deep ravine, real deep, with a creek in the bottom.

The other was one of the deer mentioned earlier that I left overnight. It was a WI 7pt buck. Shot 1/4'ing to me at 3:32 P.M. He dropped at the shot and fell over a small hill where I couldn't see him. I thought he was down since I didn't see him running away. So I took off a few clothes, grabbed my rope out of my pack and went to gut/drag him. I got to the site I shot him and there was tons of blood all over the place. He clearly thrashed around a bit. I didn't think it was a big deal. Lots of blood on at the site, lots of blood leading away from the site. I was sure he was dead just out of sight. I started to follow blood. Soon it was about 10 minuets into this trail. Then, I found a big chunk of gut mixed in. Still plenty of blood, Then, 10 yds up a chunk of fat. The blood turned to drops for a 20 yds or so. Then, nothing but tracks. It was getting dark and I had a head lamp. I was on my knees looking for blood but couldn't find any. It was getting hard to even find tracks in the leaves but I could make them out. I worked my way up to the overgrown logging road that goes through the area, barely big enough for a quad to run down now. It was dark now, the older guys were convincing me to come back in the morning. So, I followed the road back out to where my wheeler was parked about 1/4 mile from there.

Then next morning, I found him within minutes of looking by following scuff marks in the leaves where I left off the night before. He was probably another 75-100 yards further from where I left off the night before. He was shot onside in the liver and it exited through the gut. If I would have left him lay for 1/2 hr I probably would have found him within yards of where he dropped first.

They're all different. That's part of what makes it fun.

This combination happens at my camp "accidentally deliberately" if that makes sense. The "shoot them behind the shoulder" idea is so ingrained that in the heat of the moment it overrides better thought out shot placement for the given presentation.

Reminds me of one that I took with a crossbow two years ago. Fading light and I shot what I thought was a short coupled fawn of the year. The shot went behind the near shoulder all right, but instead of it being a lone small deer, it was a longer coupled adult doe. Blood and gut on the arrow spelled an oh, oh tracking job. Zero blood for a long ways and minimal blood when I did find some. That broadhead got liver and gut and came out ahead of the left hip. Not my longest tracking job, but a tough one.

I have been the dog my whole life. As a very young kid I got put on blood and told not to com back without the deer. I have lost a few that were very poorly hit. I have never lost one I shot in 60 odd years. I have had to leave a couple that were obviously fully functional and able to stay ahead of me in the dark, but if they're moving well at night they won't spoil by morning. The only time it makes sense to wait til morning is when it's very clear that it is going to take another shot the stop the deer. They get as much head start on me as it takes to get from the stand onto the blood. I look at it like if I give the deer time to lay up and clot up it's a hell of a lot more difficult to find than if I keep it moving and bleeding.

With today's LED flashlights you can light up a 6 foot diameter circle at your feet at least as bright as daylight, and that with a light that fits in your pocket! They can be had for ~$20, sometimes less. It's inexcusable not to have one with you. There is no reason not to keep one in the glove box year round, I have used my glove box light to track hit by car deer in the night.

About toilet paper...Buy a can of generic shave cream for $1 and use it! You can stick it anywhere and it shines better than TP when you hit it with a light. Prepare yourself properly to go find on in the dark and it is no harder to do than it is in the daylight, other than finding your way back to a vehicle. For under $50 you can find a small hand held GPS that will solve getting home too. I hunt birds in areas of 30 square miles without roads and a compass and GPS is always with me. In smaller broken up chunks of woods you ought to be able to get by just looking at the land and knowing where you are, day or night.

Well I can say it wasn’t shot that far back on purpose. he was on the move down the ridge when I shot. It was a placement mistake on my part. One that I didn’t know until I found the deer. I was lectured by the older, more experienced guys in camp to let them stop first from now on. I do shoot them on the move still, but pay better attention now days.

Thanks. Lily's been a fine dog, and she's just coming to the end of a long and mostly happy road. You couldn't have wished it any better for her, but it's still rough to see her go. On the one hand, her back legs won't support her squatting anymore, so she has to lay down to pee. On the other hand, she still throws herself down on the carpeting and rolls about like a puppy when she gets to being happy. She still loves her food, still gives and takes affection, and watches TV assiduously.

The easiest thing in the world is to get a dog interested in deer hunting. What's not to like? Guts, blood, all the stuff a dog craves. You just have to let the wolf out of 'em and let nature do the rest. The one drawback is that in the late winter, the dog keeps coming home with bits of carcass (yuck!) and if you don't watch them, they'll run off and roll in gut piles. (Double yuck!) You haven't lived life until you are awakened from a sound sleep by a joyous beagle at 0300, jumping on the bed to share the deer detritus that's hanging from her fur.