tracking deer

[Dwayne]

Most all deer have a favorite escape route. . . If you know the escape route, you have it made. This is when it is really nice to know the ground you are hunting on very well.

I shot a deer once, and my friend knew the escape routes of the deer on that property. . .

The deer immediately disappeared into the thicket. ..
He comes over, and within 3 minutes (no tracking at all) went a whale of a lot easier way, right to the deer. HE didn't even bother tracking for blood. He knew the trails and walked about 10 feet in the open and walked right to the deer that was about 75 yards down. Made my day really easy, because it was a afternoon shot, and the darkenss in the hollow was setting in fast.

He ignored two other trails that were heavily beaten up, because I told him the deer didn't come down this certain way. (over a ridge, but instead, through a thicket).

non-bleeding deer are a big problem. Look for uneven tracks in the dirt.

Another sign. . .listen for sound. . .a deer will thrash many times. Some will just fall over and break sticks and such. Trust your sound direction and stick to it. There is a reason why you heard that thrashing sound, find out the reason.

I had a friend with me once. . .He shot a deer from the ground, a buck. That buck took off and disappeared. My friend said he heard thrashing. We went were he shot the deer, and after scouring the valley for 1 hour, we only found one drop of blood.

I asked him if he heard it jump the creek (which was only 30 to 35 yards away, and about 20 feet wide). He said no. We looked both sides of the creek and no blood.

I asked him to show me where he shot the deer and where he was standing when he heard the thrashing. From there I finally said. . we are going to go to the other side of this creek, it has GOT to be there. And we did. . .
Three trails. . .first two were duds. the last one. . within 20 yards was his deer. Cleared the entire creek and no blood except where he laid down.

Heavy thicket? Under trees? Places where they can hide?

I personally do not believe anyone has a solid answer to this, because there are so many ways a deer can go, and so many ways that will or will not work, depending upon the deer, the terrain, and how you are hunting.

I think the best bet is to read how others have been successful and use every method you can think of.

One of your bEST ways to be successful, is to *know* HOW the deer was hit. If you know HOW and WHERE it was hit, then your next plan of action is much simpler to use.

Hit in the lungs/heart? You can start tracking it almost immediately. It ain't going far.
Hit in the gut? You had better go to breakfast, lunch, or supper, and come back a 2 to 4 hours later.
Injured? You had better reload and wait about 10 minutes and do a slow track. . maybe you might get a second shot before it wanders miles away and the blood clots, leaving you deerless and leaving a deer injured in the wild.

Again all this depends upon how well YOU know the shot placement, and how well you know the terrain.

 

[stevenm2]

a trick I learned tracking a deer shot with a bow late in the day. so we eventually ended up tracking in the dark.
put a single sheet of toilet paper at every drop or clear sign of travel. Hold it in place with a trig or rock.
after a bit you will get a vivid sense of the direction of travel. and a few times it has made it very clear to me where the wounded animal is headed. If you have one in the truck or head back to camp a coleman lantern also helps to spot blood much better than a flashlight.

 

[Sask-possum]

So far in my hunting expeditions I have never had to track any animal , KNOCK ON WOOD I feel very fortunate for that. Although I did shoot an antler off of a small buck once on the last day of the season, and he hit the dirt hard,(Told my partner headshot sausage deer) so we started walking down to him and he got up and was in high gear in a matter of a few feet. Never did see him again but my partner and I had a good laugh :drinkers: and I still have the antler today with the bullet hole in it as a conversation piece. Good Times

 

[bubbinator]

My first Muzzle Loader deer was a nice Al 8pt. He was shot broad side at 90 yds +/- with a 240 Hornady XTP over 2 T7 pellets from a T/C Impact. The smoke obscured the target and I didn't see where he fled. On the scene I found some blood and pink lung tissue going NW from POI. Ground was very grassy so tracks were little help. Being that open fields and homes were NW and woods were close to the east, I crossed the fence line and looked for blood. It was getting dark and walking the fence line inside the woods about 30 yds. failed to find the deer. The next morning my wife looked for him and found him piled up in a brush top about 50 yds into the wood line. His back was towards my line of search earlier and concealed him well in the brush pile. From POI to DRT was about 60 yds total. Reason for lack of blood trail from a double lung shot was it was a high hit, top of lungs and under the spine.

 

[catfishtony]

Like most here i would expect dad,grandpa or the man you looked up to in life taught you your bag of tricks.

with this said over the last 37 years afield i have seen deer run up hill,
go to the creek
zig zag
circle back to run over their own tracks
crawl up in the roots in a washed out dry creek bed
jump into a mass of green briers so thick you could not walk into.
take the hardest path
take the easiest path
run in direction headed
turn back around to were they came from
just stand there looking around after the smoke cleared plus time for a second shot
then walk up and find 2 does dead in a pile.

if a deer runs off after shot that 10 seconds before/after you pull the trigger is HUGE
mark your spot a tree bush, then listen get your brain back inline with facts
reload go slow the first 10 feet around the area of impact with sign will show your direction of path.
ie color of blood,ribs leg bone,hair,exit direction.a wounded deer will leave sign in the first 20-40
yards GO slow IS BLOOD TRAIL IS sparse walk to the side of deer path not in the sign.

things to look for attitude after shot bow back up like a cat stretching
is almost for sure a liver/gut shot be it bow or gun.
walk off real slow is a marginal at best shot placement. deer will laydown for sure in the first 100 yards
this deer you never want to push out of a bed if you do back off 2-4 hours or next morning.
walk away in a curving arch to left or right in the same direction heading is a lung shot to high
most of the time blood may be low as in little to none at first, but look up high i have seen pink blowed sign 3 feet off the ground on trees before like this, almost a foamy look to it.
some times a dead run top speed is a heart shot deer it will run over trees in its path
i have seen 2 bucks impact trees so hard the rack was broke off only to find the heart exploded
or a perfect X in it from arrow.
the old rule of thumb dad said was wait 30-45 minutes has paid off more then a few times for me. not to mention time to gather your calm again after the RUSH.
gun shot deer can some times run dead, with what looks to be a animal totally out of blood it would seem and ccover over 50 plus yards fast not to mention change direction of path being
hit very hard. yet a bow shot deer hit well in the lungs seldom makes it 50 yards at best.
i have never understood this.
if any thing at all deer adapt to the area, be it dogs in AL or lack of water in TX to a farm land drainage ditch to escape in OH to the shortest easiest path over the ridge in KY. I have been blessed to hunt all of these states plus more, steeped in generations of fine hunters passing down the bag of tricks. the fact of the matter is aim small miss small and you will find your game. the mental game before the shot is infact the shortest time span spent.
YET the best tool you have.more to the point then your bruin in the field.

edit: if i may add over the years afield i have harvested deer with 3 legs, healed over wounds with a pocket of green
stuff so nasty you could smell it, 22 cal bullet under the skin in the brisket, 125 gr thunder head broad head with 3" of shaft straight down from the top in the spine healed over, large chunk of wood healed over and very infected.
and a non typical point blinding the deer on one side pushing the mouth open so the deer was unable to eat well.
needless to say they are a tough breed.

 

[big thunder]

really good thread!

hunt deer long enough you'll find yourself with a tuff tracking job. be it your or someone else's game. lots of good sound methods have been discussed here.
great tips for beginers and a good refresher for us seasoned huntsmen.

one tip i'll add that should be applied to all these methods. only take one step at a time and to train your eyes to visually search the ground in a grid pattern. starting from the tip of your foot out to about the distance you can spit.
that wounded animal left sign when it exited. your job is to decifer what your eyes tell your brain. all the methods discussed here will help locate that tasty harvest. SLOW is the key in any tracking job. only take that next step when you are positive you observe that next clue.

I have found many animals that have just "disappeared" using these methods listed in this fine thread. very very few have excaped this one step rule.
wounded deer tend to run as flat to the ground as possible taking strides 6 to 10 feet long (spiting distance). only bounding to clear obstacules. often when they hit the ground the blood droplets will fall or even stumbing tracks from weakness. confirming your following the right deer tracks. amazing how far a well hit deer can travel sometimes. a poorly hit deer can travel into the next county. one things for shure it will lay down somewhere to pack that wound into the ground. I find after tracking a certain deer a distance that it will show a distinctive patten in the sign it left, which can help when tracks are mixed with other deer tracks.

deer have all kinds of crazy tactics to shake the following predator. the state/national forest I hunt is seeing a boom in the coyote population over the last decade. one tactic I have noticed is what I call the 20yard 90. my theory is they learned this from being chased by the dogs. the wounded deer will be running full out and then jam the brakes on and bound at 90 degrees to one side about 20yrds. and die right there or run a few strides and do the samething again. that bounding will usually land them onto some other tracks/trail. very difficult to pickup the chase again.

patients, persistence and one step at a time :wink: