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Blood trail mistakes

RUGER

RUGER

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Stemming from a story ya'll may or may not hear later:

Back in the day I was a better than average tracker.
Not bragging, just know that I left my house at 9:00 at night to help find a deer many many times.
I got to where, I could tell within the first 100 yards of a blood trail whether or not I was gonna find the deer.
Not one time did it go different than I "called" it in that first 100 yards.

Is there any mistake more common or more costly than getting on the blood trail too soon?
I absolutely can't think of anything that is worse.
Yes I have done it but learned quickly that is the absolute WORST thing you can do.

Others I have seen are:
1) Not sure exactly where the deer was standing.
2) Not sure of where I lost sight of the deer.
3) Too many "helpers" walking too fast and stomping out what might be the only pindrop of blood, or turned over leaf that would be your only clue as to which direction the deer went at a turn.
4) Trying to move too fast on the blood trail.
5) Not doing your job if you are assigned to stay behind the tracker and scan the area 50-100 yards all around you for a movement or bedded deer.
6) I "figure" he went this way...... 🤦‍♂️

What else?
 
Great advise!

Have preached to my grandsons for years that I'm going to want to know 3 things if called to help look.
1. Exactly where deer was standing
2. Exactly the last spot you saw deer
3. How did react to shot
Anytime they call me now, I know that there will be a piece of tissue at where deer standing & spot last seen. Don't even have to ask anymore. Now, if I just get the adults in lease to do same...
 
One thing that I think hurts a lot of hunters, especially on a hit that's not immediately lethal, is celebrating out loud while the animal is still alive. Nothing frightens a deer more than the sound of a human voice, especially a loud one, up in a tree, coming from a human who's jumping and fist pumping. If that deer is able, it will not stop and you'll be in for a very long track. If you sit dead still and quiet for awhile you might just get lucky and the deer will lay down nearby and die in peace, giving you an easy retrieval. If nothing else, you'll be showing some respect to the critter who just gave its life to you, and respect to the creator who gifted you that bounty.
 
Hit deer that run after the shot but are about to croak often, OFTEN make a hard zig or zag before they fall. I don't know how many times I've been tracking a good blood trail that is is basically running straight seemingly just quit. Almost without exception looking for that hard turn picks up the trail again and/or the deer is laying right there.
 
Took me awhile to figure it out, but on how shots I'd pull my arrow as quick as I found it. After way too long of a track, and a lost deer cause I couldn't figure out where it was I learned to leave my arrow there.

I'm sure it'll bite me, but I don't wait getting on the blood trail, but I might wait once blood is found and marked. I hunt a lot of evenings and kill a huge majority of my deer in the evenings and I want blood found before dark. This is all dependent on a known hit.

I hunt grown up fields. The one thing I absolutely want is a blood trail. Walking thru grass and briars over your head without a blood trail is wandering blindly. You walk right past the animal if you don't trip on it.
 
The absolute biggest mistake is bad shot placement/angle. If you make a good shot the deer will die within 100 yards and anybody should be able to locate it.

Once the bad or marginal shot has been taken I have found that most tracking jobs have been botched On our leases over the last 30 years by
1 Starting to track to soon
2 Too many trackers(2-3 good trackers is all you need)

There have been other ones but those two have caused the majority of botched searches.
 
Your list is excellent, covers nearly everything.

Hunting in the evening without a really good flashlight, and extra batteries.

I've gotten to where I don't hunt evenings much at all anymore. I need to work on that, just always disliked the late nights dragging them out, etc.
 
My biggest mistake back in my early days was shooting the deer and not paying 100% attention where it was heading or listening when it got out of sight. I give it a minimum of 30 minutes before I even get down unless I see it drop. Gives me time to get my stuff together and mark trees or directions in which it went from my stand so when I'm on the ground I have an good idea which direction.
 
Jcalder said:
I hunt grown up fields. The one thing I absolutely want is a blood trail. Walking thru grass and briars over your head without a blood trail is wandering blindly. You walk right past the animal if you don't trip on it.
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A couple seasons ago I shot a buck in early October as it was coming out into a bean field that hadn't been picked yet. I knew I made a good hit and watched him fall seconds after. Knowing he was dead I climbed right down and walked out to where I thought I saw him flop over. I was wrong. He wasn't there. I was not where I thought I was, and I could not see a thing. The beans were brown but still thick, and the blood soaked in and disappeared. I figured no big deal, that I'd just come out in the morning and grab him. That morning track turned to noon before I realized I needed a dog.

That dog didn't even track. He went straight to the buck without ever putting his nose to the ground, and the buck was exactly where I thought he was. If he was a snake he'd have bitten me a dozen times. I don't know how I didn't trip over him. But sure enough, those brown beans completely hid him from me. I've been hesitant to hunt a bean field since.
 
Rushing things seems to be the biggest downfall. It's been mine a couple times. Sometimes I get things mixed up on where a deer stands by a few feet. My biggest thing is trying to locate the deer as it leaves and making mental notes of the last place I saw them. That way I always have another point of reference to fall back on.
 
megalomaniac said:
Not having a list of local dog trackers for your area on speed dial.

Seriously.... for bad shots, NOTHING beats a dogs ability to find the deer.
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MS has a huge tracking dog population, several groups on book-of-face. i follow those groups and often see a deer i think would have otherwise survived, ending up bayed by a good tracking dog.

i hear a lot of grumbling now about that one neg aspect of it.
 
Gravey said:
Not having the Q beam held steady so I have good visibility when shooting around midnight. 🤣 j/k

I think most people get on the trail too soon if they know it's a marginal hit and then go too fast and miss blood. Back out and then slow down when you return.
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If only you had a Zeiss….. well beyond shooting light capabilities. Lol
 

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