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And it begins

One tip I can give is slow it down. The biggest deer I ever got was with a bow and I admit my nerves got the best of me and I made a shot that wasn't perfect. I knew the shot wasn't perfect and so I sat and waited. 6 hrs later I saw the deer appear for the second time about 300 yds away and he fell over. If I wouldn't have slowed down I never would've recovered the deer. Tracking one is no different. The slower the better. Hands and knees are required sometimes. Sometimes light hoof prints in the leaves is all you have to go on. All part of bow hunting. Good luck trackers.
 
Yeah at 6:30 if they did try and track they jumped it. Unless I see one go down I always give an hour or more before tracking. Once you get one running it is going to be even harder to find.

I was talking to a friend that has recently gotten into hunting and he told me he lost 4 deer last year. I know he doesn't have experience tracking and told him please call me if you shoot one and can't find it. I also asked him to watch videos on shot placement.
 
I've had help 2 times with a dog. We found the deer both times. I didn't ask for dog help, because the guy that was helping me just brought his dog with him. I've not used a dog in at least 28 years. But, I do agree the art of tracking a shot deer has been lost, or isn't taught anymore.
 
JN said:
Yeah at 6:30 if they did try and track they jumped it. Unless I see one go down I always give an hour or more before tracking. Once you get one running it is going to be even harder to find.

I was talking to a friend that has recently gotten into hunting and he told me he lost 4 deer last year. I know he doesn't have experience tracking and told him please call me if you shoot one and can't find it. I also asked him to watch videos on shot placement.
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Oh yeah. If you think you've nay have gut shot one, back out and give it at least 5 hours.
 
Tweeter said:
Sad really, I helped a friend track a nice buck years ago and before we found it I was on my hands and knees looking for blood, I heard of a way to aid in hood tracking is to use them mini landscaping flags and it gives you a general direction of where the deer is going
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Tissue paper works well and most carry some in their pack .
 
Let one of the biggest bucks I've ever had on the hoof 10 yards from me go because he caught moving to get my bow . Had a shot at about 15 going away but couldn't ethically shoot at him . Told some about it and they said should of shot him in the back of the head ???? What ?? I wouldn't do that to any deer let alone a buck of that caliber hoping one of us may get a shot at him later and most of all making a bad shot with him dieing a gruesome death plus not finding him . Ended up getting hit by a truck some said ..
 
The biggest buck I had killed to date needed tracking. Shot a couple inches back from the shoulder with my ML, not a bad shot, but could have been a little farther forward for my liking, but he took off straight up the absolute steepest ridge on my property, and I mean almost straight up to the top. He stopped and turned broadside, looking around as if wondering what the heck made that noise, then started doing the nervous stiff leg walk on over the top of the ridge. I was sick already thinking how could I have missed that giant?! Just as he disappeared out of sight, I saw his tail flickering back and forth pretty fast, and I thought he acted like he might be hit. I wanted so badly to just get down and head over the ridge in a path to intersect where I THOUGHT he MAY have gone, but common tracking sense took over and I went to where I shot him and looked for any sign there to start with. Nothing but a small finger sized tuft of white hair. I pretty much got sicker, thinking I had just shot low and knocked some chest hair off him. But I looked up the hill and could see the leaves that he had kicked up going up the ridge, so I decided to follow as far as I could add see if any more sign would show up, and it did, first as the thinnest little squirt of blood, then, with every bound he took, it got to be more and more, and finally a good blood trail. I found him about 60 yards on the other side of the ridge, lying down like a sleeping dog, antlers straight up like he was just lying down for a nap. It wasn't a really really long tracking job, but it was one that, if I hadn't paid close attention to him all the way till he was out of sight, I might have concluded that I had just missed. So always watch where they're at when you shoot, and thoroughly check the area after the shot, even if you think you've missed. ;)

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Any ethical method you can use to recover an animal is fine by me. Sometimes it's best to not be a hero. By the time you have given up, the deer is spoiled.
Poor shot placement has its own cure, if you spent hours and even days trying to recover a lost deer, you know what I mean. We all learn from our mistakes. It's called the 'hard way'.
 
backyardtndeer said:
Yep. Flags, marking tape, toilet paper anything to get where you can step back and see the direction.
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Also use a stick of some kind . You can mark off the stride length on the stick and then if you loose tracks you can use that mark on the stick to search for tracks in an arc sweep . Jm $.02
 

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