Blood trailing preparation starts before you shoot. So,
1 - Shoot Bright fletch to monitor your arrow flight and location of the hit. Light Bulb nocks count and are workable in this situation.
2 - Do NOT take your eyes off the deer!!! Look for blood coming out of the deer and look for the arrow if it is in the deer or sticking out the other side. Keep looking at the deer even after the deer gets beyond cover. It could side step, backtrack or run into a more distant spot that comes back into your view. Keep looking! The deer might flush other game or birds after it is out of sight.
3 - LISTEN for a crash after it is out of sight.
4 - Before you get down NOTE a land mark at the point of last sight. A large boulder? A tree?? An unusual tree??? If you keep field notes write it down.
5 - Take a compass bearing from where you are in your stand to the spot where you saw the deer run. Write it down.
6 - While still in the tree use binoculars to study the forest floor for your arrow? blood sign?? Any hair in the area the deer was hit.
7 - After 15 minutes safely climb down from your stand as quietly as you can.
8 - QUIETLY walk to the hit site. Look for blood, your arrow, any hair and any other spoor.
9 - The Arrow: Look at it, Smell it, place it safely away into a quiver.
10 - With all the information factoring in #1 through #9 make a decision whether to follow or wait.
I'll add here that the blood trailing cards given out at NBEF classes are excellent for beginners and intermediate level hunters to help them make a decision on the hit quality. Handy for matching hair length and hair color to hit location.
From the spot where you hit the deer to the spot where you last saw the deer slowly "blood trail" and follow sign. Abundant sign along the trail will either confirm to you that you should be trailing OR tell you to back out if you are not seeing enough sign.
Know what a lethal hit is - and what kinds of hits are not fatal. Arrowheads that go through the ribs on a broadside or slightly quartering away deer are best. Some bows are OK in the shoulder area. Lower neck is often fatal. Top of the neck above the back bone is not. Arrows through the guts kill a deer and WHEN you follow is way more important than HOW you follow. Outside the body cavity leg, shoulder hits are often not lethal.
Bright Pinkish Red Blood with bubbles is best. This is a lung hit. You can sometimes get bubbles in a throat hit but you might never hit a throat.
RED blood no bubbles can be a hit that is not internal. Leg hits - high neck - many of these bleed well for a time but are not fatal.
RED Blood and little darker is Liver - Good job - give it a rest - you will get this deer.
Back Leg and hip - Femoral Artery - LOTS of Blood - The Deer probably won't make it out of your sight. Don't do this deliberately.
Back leg Non Hip will often run out of sight and never be seen again.
Purple Blood - Paunch, Kidney - and junk - DON"T push it and you will get it. Chill out a few hours. Not fun but doable.
Throat - if using Sharks - won't make it 40 yards. When using most regular heads this hit may not kill the deer in time for you to get it. Don't do this deliberately.
Good steady blood is hard not to follow.
Remember when you follow the blood trail you are looking for blood sign but also leaf scuffle, you are also tracking, look for blood spray knee high, sometimes waist high, any bushes or trees the deer may have crashed into, if it crosses a creek look for dirty water, muddy water, blood in the water. Blood on clean creek side rocks and pebbles, mud trails through a beaver pond, duck weed that appears a deer, hog or bear just swam through. Dew knocked off the tops of clover or soybeans after a hog ran through.
Don't be intimidated by thick cover. This is actually easier to work with since close thick cover is constantly wiping blood off the deer. I'll take thick cover over an open field any day.
If you have reason to believe you have made a double lung or heart/lung hit you can follow the blood trail right away and you should recover your deer in 10 or 15 minutes, maybe sooner.
If you have reason to believe you made a good solid Liver hit slip out for an hour or two - then trail slowly - you should have good steady blood sign and walk to your deer. I have read wait 4 hours? That would certainly work but I usually get on it two hours in.
If you have reason to believe you made a gut hit back out quietly. If it is cold and it is evening return at first light. If it is morning return at 3:00 PM. If it is evening and warm return at 11:00 or midnight. In all cases follow carefully and you should be OK especially if you use big broadheads.
If you have reason to believe you hit ONE lung back out. More on this later.
On ALL trails mark that landmark you picked and punch it into your GPS when you get there.
On ALL trails at about that point where you marked a landmark you should be marking the trail every ten yards or so. I use Clothespins with florescent flagging - OR - Toilet Paper. If you use clothespins you need to go get them when you are done. Toilet Paper can lay with no harm.
On all trails Do NOT get ahead of blood sign. Do Not walk forward until you see next blood. Whether alone or with ONE helper Mark Last Blood at least every 10 yards in thick cover and 20 yards in open woods.
Remember - your job is to follow sign - Not to go wandering off onto where you think a deer might have gone. You hear all the time "deer follow the path of least resistance" - "deer go to water" - "gut hit deer go to water" - Whatever! Hey how about this; Deer are always walking through water most places! whether they are hit or not. Never mind that background noise of arm chair wannabe's. Your deer is somewhere in front of the blood that spilled out of it so stay focused on sign.
On all trails you are looking for blood and white belly, but be aware that if a deer is not dead that white belly will be hidden and you could step on a deer before seeing it.
What to do when sign runs out???
Crows and Vultures here in the east. Magpies out west. Ravens up North. Study any you see. Chances are they are there for a reason. Especially on hunting clubs and public land birds learn to look for dead deer. Gut hits particularly will have vultures working the thermals. Crows will often call to other crows when they see a dead deer on the ground.
Grid searches: Have their place. OK to invite one or two trusted competent friends to help. Start 20 or 30 yards BEHIND last blood - and begin Sweeping Arcs at a 40 yard circle - then a 50 yard circle - 60 yard circle. - Looking now to pick up a fresh trail with sign. We prefer arcs over square grids. Understand the purpose of starting behind last blood is deer often change direction.
Use your nose: Get on the down wind side of any thickets and smell the air. You could pick sweet essence of a deer smell. You could pick up rank gut smell. Either way Check the wind first. Then walk into the wind. Use a talc bottle it will help you sort out wind direction.
Dogs: Good blood trailing dogs are more common every year. Any dog has a better nose than you. I have had Labs that were duck dogs help find deer and it was very easy and very quick recovering deer with non trained dogs.
Remember MOST trailing is not that difficult. The exception; a One Lung hit is the most difficult hit to follow and recover. Bright pink red blood with bubbles but it never ends. Also we should point out that if you jump a deer - STOP! Single lung hit deer are the deer you hear guys say go hundreds (as in multiple hundreds) of yards. Deer hit in one lung die. They ALL die. Many are not recovered but this is due to making mistakes and misjudging. Many die the next day. The hunter could be back at work by then or driving an interstate. If you have reason to believe you have hit a deer in one lung back out. Follow 4 to 8 hours later like a gut hit. Most of the time a single lung hit deer will bleed out internally and stiffen up in it's bed within one hundred yards of the hit. If you kick it up the deer might flee a couple hundred yards putting it out of reach and out of sign to follow. Two main causes of one lung hits are shooting a deer at too sharp a quartering angle and shooting a deer that is too close out of a treestand.
When things get hopeless. Remember you can't find a deer that isn't dead. Some deer are not fatally hit and most of these heal up. It is amazing really. We have seen some amazing things the last 40 years. We'll cover some of that elsewhere. Large blood blobs and clots is sign that the animal may be healing up. Especially when you have plenty of bright red blood for 100 yards and then you get a few coagulated blobs and then it stops. NOTE: Old school trailing recommends to push these animals to make them bleed but today's bowhunter rarely has legal access to be "making a deer run".
Most deer we recover within 30 minutes. Far and away most fall into this category. Most gut hits we recover. Far and away most. Unknown hit locations we recover most of these and most of these are recovered quickly many surprisingly fast.
When I know a deer is fatally hit I stay after it second day looking for vultures. Better to recover for closure and a photo than to not know. Coyotes will find a deer in my area. Sometimes the first night and always by the second night and they clean a carcass out. Nothing left but bones and some sour smell.
Day OR Night???: When we started blood trailing in the 70s we used Coleman Lanterns. In just one season we figured out that by backing the back side (side closest to your legs) with folded aluminum foil the lantern method was much more enjoyable and effective. Lanterns are good but not practical everywhere. In my search I ended up using portable lighting for high tech modern city bicycle riders. I had a unit that cost $150 in 1999 with a battery pack bigger than a 20oz Gatorade. It worked but cost and the difficulty keeping it charged kept me searching. Today we use Powertac E5R qe 0427 - it is a 900 Lumens small flashlight - rechargeable lithium battery. Easy- super high functioning. $125
This is a step up from a Fenix which we still like and use and are only $65 but they use CR-123 lithiums and Fenix's eat batteries! I carry both always.
I use these even during daylight in thick woods, late afternoon slanted light, cloudy days, dusk; and of course at night. Blood trailing at night with artificial light is often easier and more productive than daylight. Nighttime trailing keeps me focused and prevents my eyes from wandering off the blood trail.
With a decent work ethic and good honest effort you will recover most game you hit. Most of the game you do not recover will heal up.
Good Luck and Good Hunting <><
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Topic: Lets go to blood trailing school shall we? (Read 3412 times)
