The art of tracking

Coupla years back my son and I were sitting together in a elevated stand when a nice 8 walked out @ 175 yards. He skirted the edge of the swamp and then acted like he was going to go the other way so I told my son to take him. At the shot the buck reared up on his hind legs and dove into the thick brush at the edge of the swamp. Never saw him again, but from the reaction to the hit, I slapped my then 16 year old on the back and said "good shoot, looks like you got him thru both shoulders".

There was snow on the ground and with the buck's obvious reaction to the hit, I knew it would be an easy find. Much easier than the three hour search we made a month earlier during the youth hunt when my son made a perfect hit on a buck he jumped in another swamp in another county. Buck went only 40 yards, but with the early fall swamp grass and the early fall fat on the buck's body that clogged the blood from the heart shot chest, we walked by the buck several times before my son spotted a small patch of while while crawling on the ground under overhanging brush.

Getting to the spot where the buck was shot there was a myriad of deer tracks from the night before. No problem, there should be blood soon. Started the circle, getting wider and wider. Lots of different tracks, no blood. Couldn't even see where a wounded deer may have slipped on the ice. Circle got bigger and bigger, still no blood. I followed every deer track thru the thickest crap I could find and still no blood. Went back to the last spot we saw him and started again. Hour later....still nuttin'. Told the boy..."as hard as it is for me to believe, I think it was a clean miss". He shook his head and said, "dad, I don't think I did". I told him to stay there, where we thought we had last seen the buck and I was gonna go back to the blind and make sure he was standing where we had indeed saw the buck last. I walked back to the blind, climbed into the tower and saw, he was indeed in the exact same spot where the buck was standing when my boy took the shot. Now, I thought for sure he had missed, but not wanting to give up yet, instead of calling him back to the blind, I walked back to him to make one last circle.....still thinking of his earlier buck. As I walked up I saw a 16 year old boy with a smile from ear to ear. As I walked up to him, he pulled down swamp grass that was head high beside him. Stickin' outta a brush pile beneath the swamp grass was just the very tip of one tine. The whole clump was not 4 feet across. There were hundreds of our footprints in the snow going around the clump. There was not a spot of blood on any of the swamp grass, even directly around the deer, but a whole pool of it beneath the buck when we dragged him outta there. He had taken the one jump we had seen, buried himself and then died. Indeed both shoulders were broken and the deer could not have gone anywhere. Why I had ever doubted my original instincts/observations I'll never know. A foot away from a dead deer for two hours and never saw it. When I asked my son what made him pull the grass away and look under the brush pile, he told me, "Standing there alone for that 10 minutes, I thought I could smell him.......".

Misty day. I gave up on sitting on boards in a tree stand. Figured, "No self-respecting buck's gonna be out in this." So there I am, sorta dangling about halfway down and I look over my right shoulder: As pretty a little fat eight-point buck as you ever saw!

I just hung there until he'd wandered on. Got down. Got to thinking, well, the grass and leaves are wet, so sneaking will be easy. I walked over and cut his trail. Mostly just curious; I'd already killed a nice buck that morning, and this buck, albeit pretty, was a bit young and smallish.

So I ease along watching ahead, following his tracks. After maybe a hundred yards or so, I see a deer's butt sticking out of a clump of brush. He's looking out over a flat, at the edge of a low bluff.

I get closer. And closer yet. Finally at about ten feet, I picked up a marble-sized rock and hit him in the butt.

Rodeo time! He came by me in fifth gear overdrive, flat-out, wide-open throttle. Ears laid back, eyes rolling, nose stuck out.

My roaring laughter probably did little to create any sort of calm, relaxed state.

And that's the only deer I ever tracked.

Most of us don't have a clue about tracking. I thought I did until I hunted in Namibia with a Bushman tracker.
The land owner tried to cull a kudu bull by shooting it in the head. He thought he missed and the bull ran off and joined a whole group of kudu. To make sure he sent the Bushman to follow him to verify the miss.
About 150 yards ahead the tracker found a spot of blood on a twig about 6 feet high. He followed that one track through a jumble of about 7 others until it separated from the herd. After tracking for 4 hours and about a mile and a half, they found the bull in an open spot. With binocs they could see the bull had just been shot through the ear.
It was off his property by then so he let it go.

The tracker had been with an anti-terrorist group that tracked bombers on foot by running in front of a truck full of So. African soldiers. When the Bushman checked the feet/boots of the suspect and declared him as the one, that was all that was needed to execute him right there .. and they did.

Sitting in a tree stand. Central Florida. December 23rd. At sunset a bobcat walks out across a small creek and is slowly trotting along a fence line. I pull out my GP100 with a 6" barrel and take a shot from 30 yards. He jumps, runs down to the creek, then back up the bank. I took a second shot and saw the dirt explode behind him as he ran up into some Palmetto grass.

With a bit of twilight, I cross the creek and look for blood with my headlamp. Nothing. I knew the fencepost where I'd hit him. The shot had surprised me. I felt confident with that gun and still do. But I couldn't find a single drop of blood. I made my way to the last tree where I'd seem him disappear. Still nothing. I crept into the Palmetto grass a bit then figured that was stupid since he might be injured and a bit pissed at me since I'd shot him. I left.

The next day, I returned to the same spot. It's now December 24th. I actually climbed back up the same tree with my stand and sat there for a bit trying to figure out where I'd gone wrong. That's when I heard a commotion in the Palmetto grass and saw three of four vultures overhead. Bingo. I made my way over, scattered the vultures, and there was my cat, not more than ten yards from where I'd given up the night before.

I hunt in northern Alberta for deer and moose in Late September when the leaves are still on the trees, slough grass is often waist high and over mature poplar forest interspersed with willows piles of dead falls and lots of Alder. I usually post on edges of fields waiting for animals to come out. I like to see them about 50 yards away from the forest edge before I take a shot, specially in the evening with fading light. In mornings am a bit more adventurous due to the good light.
What do I do under difficult hunting and tracking conditions?
Solution1, do the neck shot or break both shoulders. I am a meat hunter and will not ruin venison from both shoulders, so I wait for something more suitable.
Due to the small target I regard the neck or headshot as a no no unless 100 yards or less.
Solution 2, use bullets that open up and penetrate. I use the Nosler partition in my 270 for all my deer hunting under these difficult conditions. I always get an exit wound on broadside shots., meaning lots of leakage.
Solution 4, Very important I hit low in the chest going for the heart and big arteries. When hitting low in the chest, blood leaks out in quantity almost immediately, giving a trail to follow. When practicing the central chest lung shot as so many do, it will take quite sometime for the chest to fill up to the bullet hole and start spilling blood. By that time the deer may be already 50 yards in the bush. In my setting virtually impossible to find.
What do I do in such circumstances? I go for coffee and come back an hour later if a thorough search will not reveal blood or enough sign to find my deer.
Post about 100 yards away. Here in Alberta whiskey jacks are abundant and quick to find carcasses will start to twitter in excitement, attracting the abundant magpies and they in turn attract with their chatter the abundant ravens.
Often within 3 hours the exact location of my deer is revealed. Takes a bit of patience but still my meat is saved. Often just the magpies will reveal the location before the ravens get a chance.

Some good point shrike. I have a few stories but not the time to post now.

Shrike, now you have me curious; What is solution 3?

Since this is a forum and everything needs to be DRT should I admit that I keep a roll of survey tape in my hunting coat ?

why don't you guys use a dog?

Part of this state allows hunting with dogs. The part I live and hunt in does not.
Even here you are allowed to use a single dog on a leash to find a wounded deer. But, I don't know anybody who has one trained specifically for that purpose. Hunters spend a lot of time trying to teach their rabbit dogs not to run deer.

I've heard anecdotally here in eastern NC that there are folks with dogs specifically trained to track a wounded deer.

I just haven't put in any effort to track those guys down. If I ever had a dog like that, it would change my hunting considerably.

As it stands now, if they don't drop immediately or at least in the first twenty yards it become a in result difficult in thick brush. For that reason I take heart shots and usually ruin the shoulders because of it.

Having a dog would give me the chance to take double lung shots.

I use my Labrador, she also is my duck dog. People make a big deal out of training their dog. I have trained a couple... They just do it! I am not sure if using them to recover a wounded animal is the same as hunting with them.

i wait for a broadside double lung shot, very short tracking job. in africa i had a tracker who could track a three day old fart thru walmart on a sunday afternoon to the right arse. eastbank.

That's a long story so I didn't read it all but... When I was hunting deer in Alabama my personal rule of thumb was, on a runaway, wait half an hour before tracking. Most times, if not pursued, the deer will run a hundred yards or so and lay down. This makes it much easier to find than an immediate pursuit which causes the deer to run as far as possible.

Locotonyf I also will sit down and have a coffee from my flask. Give it 20-30 min.before I go in.

There are all manner of tracking clues besides a blood trail. As one example, a friend of mine, out in the boonies, began to feel as though he was not alone. He stopped, turned around and walked back twenty feet or so and saw the grass slowly springing back up in a cougar's track. He was able to follow the tracks mostly from the same phenomena of the grass for thirty or forty yards along the back trail. Apparently, though, when the cougar left the scene, it was more via lengthy leaps than by just strolling.

Depending on soil hardness or ground cover, you have hoof prints. Maybe overturned pebbles. Dew knocked off some of the grass. And it helps to have some idea about how wounded deer behave. Or only-scared, missed-shot deer, as well.

Sometimes you track something you would just as soon not. I was working up the Sun River between Headquarters and Spruce Creek bow hunting. And, when I came back a Grizzly had followed me for probably 300 yards. Makes your butt pucker up.

If the blood trail is weak I like to mark it with toilet paper. It's easy to spot at night, gives a good indicator of general direction and melts alway in the next rain

I'm with HB I carry a roll of toilet paper with me in my day pack It serves 2 purposes on a hunt. After finding the first blood, I leave some on a bush at each blood sign. That way I can look back and establish a line of travel. It also helps to circle back to last fresh spot and re-work a trail.

One event that stands out about tracking is late in the season, I came across a track that was leaving some blood and dragging a leg. I didn't know if hunting wound or a car accident. It was late in the season and I didn't want it to go into the winter wounded. I sent one person the long way around to set up on a bottle neck I figured it would travel. I set my brother about 20-25 yds off to the side with instructions to go at my pace and keep watch ahead. I started working the track. Soon saw where I had "bumped" it from a bed. I hear my brother "psst" and stopped in my tracks. I heard his muzzle loader roar and saw a deer drop. It was keeping the 2 skinniest trees you ever saw directly in line with me and it and sneaking out. His being off to one side allowed him to see it and end the hunt.

So I ease along watching ahead, following his tracks. After maybe a hundred yards or so, I see a deer's butt sticking out of a clump of brush

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Perfect, a Texas heart shot!