Bloodtracking Myths

[Culvercreek hunt club]

These are the kind of blood trails I like. 30-06, 120 yard shot. ran about 100-150 yards with the heart in half. The tracks ar on the right of the blood trail and I think the sprays out further to the left we the one chamber of the heart still pumping.   CRAP. it's on it's side

Edited December 8, 2016 by Culvercreek hunt club

[Rebel Darling]

In addition to the article, which I hope to call to mind when needed, I enjoyed the dog tracking video from Maine embedded at the bottom.  I've not seen a dog in action myself, and I enjoyed watching one work.  I'm amazed by and truly respectful of the human/dog team.  Great stuff right there...

[phade]

This season, me and our hunting buddy who doesn't post here, we're driving to his ground midday. I saw a guy walking a blood trail in an open cut cornfield - his wife in tow in street clothes. We decided to stop and help.

They were about 100 yards off road and literally knees bent head down looking for blood. While walking to them slowly I saw blood. Looked like it wasn't the best shot.

We were covering ground and trying to get to them without yelling or spoiling them. About 30 yards behind them, it was so windy they didn't know we were there. I told my buddy this isn't going to end well. The blood looked poor and fresh and they were both head down and he had the only bow.

Soon as I told him I see a rack of a buck that had to be within the top 5 I have ever seen in the wild, turn. It was 10 feet from the guy bedded. Hunter didn't see him because both were head down. I'm trying to figure out what to do as they close the gap within 5 feet...That buck rose and left his life forever. Poor guy. He made another mistake by not even attempting to shoot. The buck decided to run parallel and was two rows ahead of him running away. All he had to do was step forward and he would have had a reasonable shot Texas heart style as long as he guess even remotely close. He never did that and ran after the deer. I'm sure he didn't find it. Shoulder hit.

He should have had head up and wife tracking blood. Buck would have been his easily with a simple kill shot in his bed since they got so close.

We left and we felt bad for the guy but poor decisions belie poor results most times.




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[wolc123]

6 hours ago, Culvercreek hunt club said:

These are the kind of blood trails I like. 30-06, 120 yard shot. ran about 100-150 yards with the heart in half. The tracks ar on the right of the blood trail and I think the sprays out further to the left we the one chamber of the heart still pumping.   CRAP. it's on it's side

That is a nice blood trail.  Every deer I have shot with my 30/06 has dropped dead in it's tracks (1 mule deer and 2 whitetails).  

[stoneam2006]

Blodgett trail from 50 cal front stuffer thru the pumper. She turned sideways before falling and the blood was just pumping out. 20 feet past death bed with no tracks that way.

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[hunterdan44]

I am an experienced hunter having hunted deer over forty years(wow that means I'm old) I have had several deer shot by myself and family members go to water to die. Enough times to feel it's an instinct for them. As far as up hill down hill I never noticed a difference. I "fished "two bucks out of a 7 acre pond we have on our property over the years like the pic that was posted. And several others that died on the bank . Just my personal observation. When all else fails check near water if it's around where you shot. Can't hurt.


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[Five Seasons]

some of these myths sadden me that they're still in use. The agree with them all though and have experienced a lot of them, in particular the no blood. I arrowed a small 8 several years back that was cornering towards me. the exit was out the guts and he plugged up almost instantly. It was 3 hours of grid searching for me to find him a few hundred yards from the shot.

If I had to nit-pick one it'd be the single lung hit. I know it's not an instant kill or one that drops a deer close to where it was shot, but I haven't heard of many surviving it. Maybe hard to track and not recovered but I would venture any that ever did recover from it were pretty minor. This guys seems to know what he's talking about so I wouldn't put up a big fight though. just my .02.

[Five Seasons]

shot a mature buck 2 years ago that headed for a steep narrow creek (trickling water) about 20 yards from where I shot him. he went down the 6' steep embankment and back up the other side flopped over and died. All within about 20 seconds. What does that mean? lol

[Culvercreek hunt club]

6 minutes ago, Belo said:

shot a mature buck 2 years ago that headed for a steep narrow creek (trickling water) about 20 yards from where I shot him. he went down the 6' steep embankment and back up the other side flopped over and died. All within about 20 seconds. What does that mean? lol

That we are pussies compared to a whitetail. lol

[Five Seasons]

On ‎12‎/‎7‎/‎2016 at 9:37 AM, Core said:

I posted my response to this thread before seeing yours. Wish you had seen my query last year wondering what to do after I hit it (I would have known to push right off the bat)  I went home and that's when I found somebody online saying the same: bad hit into muscle/shoulder, you need to push it. Don't wait! I saw firsthand exactly what a lack of pushing after the shot could do.

 

the weapon is important too. A broahead cuts, and there are arteries in the leg. But good luck getting an arrow at a running/wounded deer after you jump it. A slug doesn't cut, it rips. So there's a better chance it'll live, but your follow-up shot if jumped is much easier.

[Five Seasons]

an old non-PC pep-talk my dad always gave me before parting ways for a hunt was "shoot em the guts so you know they're dead". It's a good joke if you have a sense of humor.

[Core]

1 hour ago, Belo said:

 

the weapon is important too. A broahead cuts, and there are arteries in the leg. But good luck getting an arrow at a running/wounded deer after you jump it. A slug doesn't cut, it rips. So there's a better chance it'll live, but your follow-up shot if jumped is much easier.

Yeah it was with bow and The odds of me hitting a running deer with an arrow are hovering around 0%. My only hope would be to have been to chase it to exhaustion (its or mine), but I know even a small bit of blood can look like a lot on leaves.

[JFB]

Having tracked with Deer Search for several years now, I can say that most people track their deer WAY too soon. When the deer is not hit in two lungs or heart, it's usually gonna take hours (as in 8 or often much more) to expire. Sure some only take 2 or 4 hours but unless you have ESP you are just guessing and hoping to go sooner rather than later. Of course, lots of scenarios and no hard and fast rule, but for every hunter who tries to push the deer to keep it bleeding, I'd say their are likely 10 that they lose because they jump it out of the bed that the deer might have died in if left alone. We get lots of shoulder and muscle hits, and track them for miles and they don't die very often (at least not that day). The other factor is most guys don't know if they hit a shoulder or not, and that means someone reading this post might conclude "oh maybe I hit the shoulder or muscle so I better push it to keep it bleeding". That is a big mistake in my opinion 9 out of 10 times. The exception might be a gun hit where the bullet did some severe damage limiting the deers mobility. Bottom line, if your deer is not piled up in 150 yards or less, back out and wait, then wait more. If blood stops, and it's less than 8 hours after the hit again I say back out and let it lay in it's bed. I don't see the good in blind searching under 8 hours and those are the deer that get pushed when otherwise they might expire if you wait. Again, lots of scenarios and exceptions but all I'm saying is I see guys go to soon, and then blind search too soon. 

[wolc123]

There is definitely a place for keeping the pressure on them and that is a muscle hit, with the broadhead in the deer.  My first archery kill (a button buck) was one of those, many years ago.   I hit him low, and too far forward, high on a front leg.  The arrow broke a bone on the entry side.  The shaft sheared off and the broadhead stuck in the muscle on the opposite side.   The shot was taken early in the morning and a friend and I got on the trail right away.  Each time we lost blood, the other would circle until we picked it up again.  We were a lot younger and faster back then.   By lunch time, we had crossed two roads, and were in the next town.  There we caught up with the fat little guy up in a grassy meadow on a hilltop.    We had lost the trail on the edge of that meadow, were getting hungry, and were ready to give up.   I cut across the meadow, towards where my buddy was and stumbled across the deer right in the center.  It had just enough strength left to stand, after being pushed about 5 miles. I delivered a "double lunger" to put it down for good.   We gutted it quick and made it back in time for a late lunch.

The bottom line is that every situation is different, and the wrong decision is always what leads to a loss.   In general, a long wait (8 hr) is best for a gut hit, but when the broadhead is still in there, an immediate, relentless push is often better for a muscle hit.  The best decision of all is to not take a shot at a deer unless you are 90% or more sure of a clean kill.  That has been working out very well for me over the last 10 years.  100% of them, that I have shot at with a bow, crossbow, shotgun, ML or rifle, in that time, have been cleanly killed and died within 1 minute of taking the hit.  With a family to provide for, I no longer have the time to get to that 90% number with my vertical bow  (the last one I killed with it, 10 years ago, took the arrow thru the jugular when he ducked the shot), so I stick with the crossbow now.         

[Five Seasons]

Wolc, your response surprises me. It takes the humans actions and decision into account and includes nothing about praying and letting Jesus guide your shot.

[outdoorstom]

On 12/10/2016 at 10:28 AM, wolc123 said:

There is definitely a place for keeping the pressure on them and that is a muscle hit, with the broadhead in the deer.  My first archery kill (a button buck) was one of those, many years ago.   I hit him low, and too far forward, high on a front leg.  The arrow broke a bone on the entry side.  The shaft sheared off and the broadhead stuck in the muscle on the opposite side.   The shot was taken early in the morning and a friend and I got on the trail right away.  Each time we lost blood, the other would circle until we picked it up again.  We were a lot younger and faster back then.   By lunch time, we had crossed two roads, and were in the next town.  There we caught up with the fat little guy up in a grassy meadow on a hilltop.    We had lost the trail on the edge of that meadow, were getting hungry, and were ready to give up.   I cut across the meadow, towards where my buddy was and stumbled across the deer right in the center.  It had just enough strength left to stand, after being pushed about 5 miles. I delivered a "double lunger" to put it down for good.   We gutted it quick and made it back in time for a late lunch.

The bottom line is that every situation is different, and the wrong decision is always what leads to a loss.   In general, a long wait (8 hr) is best for a gut hit, but when the broadhead is still in there, an immediate, relentless push is often better for a muscle hit.  The best decision of all is to not take a shot at a deer unless you are 90% or more sure of a clean kill.  That has been working out very well for me over the last 10 years.  100% of them, that I have shot at with a bow, crossbow, shotgun, ML or rifle, in that time, have been cleanly killed and died within 1 minute of taking the hit.  With a family to provide for, I no longer have the time to get to that 90% number with my vertical bow  (the last one I killed with it, 10 years ago, took the arrow thru the jugular when he ducked the shot), so I stick with the crossbow now.         

Good post....another factor is if it's a fixed or mechanical broad head still in the deer. A fixed will continue to cut a lot more than a relaxed mechanical.

[wolc123]

That is a great point on the mechanicals.  There are pros and cons to just about everything and that is surely a con for them.  What type of broadhead you used, should certainly play a role in your decision to start a "hot pursuit", or back out and wait.  I don't think the mechanical was invented yet when I struck low and forward on that BB (I used a 3-blade, 125 gr fixed Wasp).    

I killed an 8-point buck with my shotgun, about 9 years ago, that had a mechanical broadhead and about 4" of shaft stuck under the skin on the outboard side.  The arrow had nearly passed thru, just above the spine and just behind the shoulder.  I lost about 6 chops on that buck, trimming out the questionable looking stuff around the wound.  Being a meat hunter, that pissed me off a bit and made me wish that I had shot the smaller buck that came in with it, and had offered me a closer shot. I was thankful that it was a mechanical though, because I probably would have got some nasty cuts on my hands while skinning if it had been a fixed.    

     

[wolc123]

6 hours ago, Belo said:

Wolc, your response surprises me. It takes the humans actions and decision into account and includes nothing about praying and letting Jesus guide your shot.

Thanks for bringing Him up Belo.   None of the other stuff really matters that much in comparison.  The Bible says that "He knows where every sparrow falls" and that "Man should eat animals with split, cloven hoofs that chew their cud" (sounds like deer to me).   That tells me that He can put them deer wherever He wants to.   Keeping things right with Him has been working out very well for me to insure that He puts them in my families food supply.  Receiving blessings from Him beats the heck out of fighting the crowds at the grocery store or raising beef cattle (I have done those and they are not always fun).