How many hunt by tracking game?

[snakebit40]

I've done it and actually worked real well for me. The only time I've done it is when I bump a deer. I let things settle down and then I take up the trail. It's nice to have options.

[swamper]

Only in snow and when scouting. I make loops on the downwind sides of track direction and try to get ahead of the deer and wait them out.

[Ragnarok Forge]

In the mountains with snow it works great.  On the coast in wet weather it doesn't work at all.   I like to hunt cougars this way up by CleElum.   Cut a track and follow them.  The cougars either cut back and drop in behind you or hole up in brush.   Always take two hunters when playing this game!  The rear hunter most often gets the shot.

[Joshua Polland]

COLongbow mentioned the Benoit's from Maine. There is an article about them on page 60 of the Dec-Jan Field and Stream. It has some good tips, especially if you're in Northern Maine where the woods are big. I tracked a nice buck in fresh snow on the Maine/New Hampshire border in high school. I got within 75-100 yds when my cousin shot it. Oh well, it was a fun morning.

[Trumpkin the Dwarf]

I use tracks for elk a lot to be honest, especially in the thick timber(snow is a must here in Montana as the ground is too dry the rest of the year). The trick is figuring out when to follow quickly and when to slow WAAAAAYY down...It also helps if you have some way to neutralize your scent. Fresh falling snow, high wind, mist, and smoke on the clothes all make tracking a much more viable option.
**Good binoculars and patience are a must.**

[Friend]

If it is not in snow, then you can bet I'm hunting turtles.

[michigan bill]

The Benoits were (and are) rifle hunters but their books and the articles about them in magazines are some of the best whitetail hunting exploits I have ever read.  Really good stuff.
The best tracking job I ever did was once when I picked up an old buck's track in October and tracked it back to its birthplace six and a half years earlier.  I picked up the sheds along the way.
Wait, I may have drempt that.
Bill

[JParanee]

I have done it alot in Africa but  using firearms

[The Vanilla Gorilla]

Ive tracked hogs in the early morning in summer when there was a lot of dew on the ground.   Same in winter with a frost on the ground.   Just gotta try to catch up to them before the frost melts or the dew dries up.

[HunterLawyer]

So far I've only tracked down one buck, in the snow with a muzzleloader here in VT. It is a great way to hunt if you have the mobility and stamina.

The Benoits are the real deal, despite some commercialism creeping into what they do. They do have their detractors, but not people who actually know them. They hunt in Ontario, Quebec, Maine and Vermont. They have the time to scout for weeks prior to the seasons. What they do takes physical stamina, excellent eyesight, knowledge of the quarry, and a huge knowledge base of track assessment to track deer in very difficult terrain.

The patriarch, Larry, is in his eighties and still gets into the deer woods on a limited basis. My dad and he were acquainted back in the 70s, and I still remember having dinner with him when I was a teenager, and talking deer hunting. Even then, the number of huge whitetail mounts and antlers from his family members and himself on the walls of his small home in Duxbury was staggering.

Back in 2006, I drove over to his house one blustery winter day, and asked to talk about tracking. Over that afternoon, and two subsequent afternoons, I picked his brain as best I could about tracking. And yes, the number of trophies on the walls was even more mind numbing than 30 years before.

His best advice, "get out in the woods and try it in the winter---practice. Get in shape. Scout before the season. When their tail flickers---freeze." "Can't a man have one day a week to call his own?" (said when I said it would be tough to consistently take a weekend day off from kids, work, chores).

All his advice is in his book, How to Bag the Biggest Buck of Your Life, from back in the 70s. Mr. Benoit did not approve of the latest printing by Peter Miller, and so if you look for one of these books, get an older copy out of respect for the man who shared that hard earned information.

Two years later, I took a nice 8 pointer by tracking in freezing rain that was crusting over 8" of snow. I sent Mr. Benoit a photo and a thank you letter, and he called me to congratulate me.

I think to take a mature whitetail by tracking, with a barebow, would be some of the most difficult hunting in the world. It was all I could do to get within 50 yards, how does one get within 20 yards? I almost can't fathom it. I can say that tracking deer is the most exciting hunting I've ever done. I do not know if I will ever be able to do it with a bow.

Some on this website probably do it, and I'd love to hear from them.

[joevan125]

You could never do this in South Alabama!!!

[beyondmyken]

i was in Idaho following what looked like fresh elk tracks in the snow but gave that up when some wolf tracks intersected and mingled with the elk tracks.  I figured that elk was either long gone( miles away) or a goner( got ate).
Otherwise the small woodlots that I hunt in Indiana do not provide for tracking.

[Steve H.]

Won't work many places put it does with muskox in arctic Alaska!

[Glenn29]

In Florida it is almost impossible to track any game but I do try and track hogs by following fresh sign and tracks.

[nd chickenman]

Used to do here in North Dakota before all the land changed hands and got posted. Get out DURING the storm and find a track. It always led to a deer bed! You just had to spot the deer before if saw you.

[Mike Mecredy]

I will if I find tracks in new, light, snow.  If the snow is only an hour or so old and I find tracks, I'll follow them.  Eventually there will be a deer standing in them.

[calgarychef]

I read a lot of people saying "you can't track here in my neck of the woods."  Tracks don't dissapear they just get harder to follow until they are too difficult for our human perceptions.  No matter where an animal moves it leaves tracks, even fish in the water and birds in the air.

[Uncle Buck]

I learned to hunt whitetails in Michigan in the 70s and 80s when both deer and hunter densities were very high if you tried to track back then on oublic land you stood a high chance of pushing them in front of another hunter. or having some old doe bust you and clear out the whole section. I think for hunting deer low hunter and deer denssity is the key to making this work. nit to mention being in good physical shape and very patient