New hunter..just shot a buck.

[horshur]

a new hunter to the sport saw the deer in the scope and pulled the trigger!!! the deer has run away.

target panic of a new hunter..a good shot does not come from seeing the deer in the scope.

like it or not that is the reality! marginal hits..paunch shots or worse limb hits.

How do we recover the animal? Suggestions? techniques?

This is the reality of bring new folks into the sport.

Have at it....all of us have been there or will some day.

I thought this might be a good topic for discussion. We al could benifit from good retrieval skills.

[killman]

????????????????????

[horshur]

????????????????????

how about some folks participate by providing some advise regarding the retrieval of animals hit with a marginal shot.

My advise...

1.mark the spot you shot from.

2. Mark the spot you think the animal was located.

3. mark each and every blood spot as you find them.

To you comprehend??????

[The Hermit]

WTF you talking about Willis?

[Kechika]

Marginal shot...Mark the last spot of blood and make note of direction of travel.Dont push the deer,let him bed and stiffen up.

[BlacktailStalker]

Come back in the morning, or allow whatever time you have to spare (maybe you have to leave?) before tracking, hope he bleeds to death (limb shot) or dies of septic shock in his bed.
Enjoy the aroma while you gut him :)

[todbartell]

just use a 300 MAGNUM and there will be no chasing!

[Elkhound]

carry flagging tape so you can mark the blood trail as you go. That way you always know where the last drop of blood was

[BigBanger]

Be a man and go find the bugger , you shotem . Look for blood . Gotta find some blood . Mark the spot where you shot him is a good start . Good thing its first light you got all day to look for him . If its last light guess your commin back in the mornin . Gotta findem . Look for blood .

[horshur]

do you all know how to get good at tracking wounded game??? practice.

I suppose a bear guide would have the most experience.

how about do you go in finding the spot the game was before you shot??

as I said in an early post..drop somthing or kick up the dirt after shooting all the while keep your eye burned on the spot you shot the deer.

If there is a draw that would take your eye off of the spot then you must use a natural marker such as a unique bush or tree or perhaps a rock.

this will be your first important step in retrieval. Even for a well hit deer.

I will let the record state...I have lost for a time..an animal I already had field dressed..and lost my pack for a longer time when I had dropped it to stalk the same deer...it is very easy to miss particulars.

After getting to the location of the alleged rendezvous between your bullet and game there are some important things to notice. Any hair, the color of the hair, kicked up dirt from fleeing, the direction the animal fled, brush that may have been in the way of the bullets path, a broken twig or branch from the bullet striking it prior to the intended target. Even the kicked up dirt from the bullet striking can sometimes be found and provide some real good clues of what to expect... such as a miss(ask Dana about that one)..and of course there may be blood..it's color can provide a clue. Dark blood maybe not so good, frothy blood is better usually. Vegitation matter from the gut or intestine can also be found sometimes and is sure to provide a clear insight of what you may be up against. Whether you should try to wait several hours or not.

[hunter1947]

I have wounded a few animals in my life time.

This it what I have learned over the years.

If the shot was taken in the morning you have all day to find this animal.

If you shot at it late in the day you have little time time to find it.

After shooting it and it is up and gone and you think it is not a clean shot ,then wait for about an hour then go looking ,this time waiting might let the deer lay down and stiffen up in a bed.

Mark the spot where you had shot from ,then go over where you had shot at the animal ,look for blood if found ,put a branch sticking up so you know where the first is found or toilet paper piece ,sirvayors tape.

Start following the way the animal went go slow and look for the animal to be bedded or standing.
If you find More blood mark again and continue.
If you loose the trail go back to the last place where there was some sine ,then reevaluate and continue on looking for anything sine from the animal.
Wounded animals leave deep marked up tracks so look for this.

If late in the evening and only a few hours of day lite left wait as long as you can ,then do what I stated above till it is to dark to look anymore.

When it is to late to look anymore ,then give it up and come back the next morning as soon as it is light out.

Continue looking.
It is better if you have a few more helping to look for the animal they might pick up some something that you missed that you wouldn't see.

If you have looked for 5 or 6 hours and the blood trail is not there anymore I would say the chances of finding it is almost nil.

You can continue to look for the rest of the day or abandon the look.

The animal is not wounded that bad it might survive or it might die in a few days or latter ,this does no mean you are a bad hunter ,one day most of all of us will face this mishap.
I look at it this way a animal doed not have to go through my digestive system ,nature will take care of it ,it will not go to waist lets face it they need to eat as well.

Final word of wisdom for you young hunters don't get put off on hunting if this mishap happens to any of you ,it is part of hunting and sometimes thats the way it goes ,suck it up ,put it behind you and go ahead with your hunting in the years to come. http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/images/icons/icon12.gif.

[happygilmore]

Slow down and breath! take the time and make a better shot! I can't count the amount of times I've watched a buck trot into the bush because I was to shakey (buck fever/ adrenalin). You will calm down with more seasons under your belt, but I know guys who have hunted for decades and have admitedly gotten buck fever when the monsters come out to play.
Practice! when your at the range run 100yrds pickup your rifle drop to one knee and fire two shots within 10sec. did you even hit the paper! keep trying this will teach you to control your breathing when you are excited or breathing heavy similar to buck fever. Try taking an extra 10 sec to calm yourself and you'll see improvement.
If all else fails follow the instructions on previous posts + some guys have had luck using dogs.

[bighornbob]

I always mark the spot where I shot from and where the animal was standing when shot. I also mark the last spot where I last saw the animal. Once I have marked the last spot I saw the animal I go back to where the animal was shot even though I know where it went. Then I trail from where it was shot to where I last saw it. This may seem like a waste of time as I could just start trailing from where I last saw it but you learn a bunch of stuff when doing the eraly tracking.

You see what type of blood is leaking (frothy from lung shots etc etc). Is there chunks of bone at the hit site, direction of travel, height of blood on branches and grass, is blooding spraying out or just dripping, is the blood trail petering out or getting more profound, approximately how much blood has been lost.

The above are just blood signs,then there are things like, dragging of hooves, kicking of logs, is the animal staying on trails or easy routes or is it just running with recklass abandond, etc etc. If you establish a sort of pattern of what the animal is doing it may help if the blood trail starts running out

All of these will give you a good indication of how the animal is hit direction of travel, should the animal need a couple of hours before tracking past the last sighted spot. Plus its good practise when tracking is real tough.

BHB

[bigelow]

Before the shot. Do you know the area, travel corridors, where the buck was headed? Before taking the shot there should be some thought as to
, will there be time for a follow up shot will the buck make it into a river , private property, or dense bush?

[Wild one]

if you look at the blood it can tell alot about your hit

1)bright red and frofy is a lung shot (good)

2)dark red is a liver shot (will work just give it a little time)

3)little bits of veg gut shot (looking at a long tracking job)

For finding game the trick that helps me is most the time the animal will take the path of least reistantce.

[rishu_pepper]

Love these advice! Very helpful for a novice hunter like me. I have yet to had to track down a questionable shot, but I'm still young and I figure it will happen in the future, whether I like it or not. Hopefully, when that happens, I'll remember all these :smile:


just use a 300 MAGNUM and there will be no chasing!

I LOL'ed at this :lol:

[Mr. Friendly]

this definitely will help me. quick question about blood lights. do they work? do you use them?

[kloosterboer]

Great Thread! One question I have is what about when it is snowing heavily and if you wait you know the blood trail will be covered and you will be unable to follow it do you go after it and start tracking right away or do you wait and hope to stumble across it? The reason i ask is because this happend to me this fall and we started off tracking then left it for a couple hours after spooking it up but the snow coverd the tracks by the time we got back luckly we ended up finding it by just searching the bush near wear we last saw him.

[killman]

Thanks for clearify your first post. I didn't mean to be rude. I read it a couple times and could figure out what you where asking. Good info here.
We lost a buck once it was a awful feeling. Shot just before dark on the edge of a dry swamp. Deer dropped then got up and took off. Went to the hit site was blood everywhere and a good trail leaving fallowed expecting to be just in the bush, it kept going. Still good blood trail but dark. get flashlights start to fallow trail, kept on trail until flashlights went dead still nothing. Went back to truck waited until morning, went back to where we left off didn't go to far found a bed with blood in it and tracks leaving with a little blood as we continue to track blood is getting less and less and there is more and more deer tracks. soon the trail is gone and so is the deer.??? We baffled how it could bleed so much and still keep going then disappear.

[horshur]

Great Thread! One question I have is what about when it is snowing heavily and if you wait you know the blood trail will be covered and you will be unable to follow it do you go after it and start tracking right away or do you wait and hope to stumble across it? The reason i ask is because this happend to me this fall and we started off tracking then left it for a couple hours after spooking it up but the snow coverd the tracks by the time we got back luckly we ended up finding it by just searching the bush near wear we last saw him.

I would not wait if weather is going to erase the sign.
I also would not wait if all indications suggest a good hit.
Personaly I have never waited very long ever. However it is clear that a paunch hit animal will bed very soon if not pressured...within meters..and this could really help you in retrievel.

[horshur]

Thanks for clearify your first post. I didn't mean to be rude. I read it a couple times and could figure out what you where asking.

I read it to the boss(wife) she didn't have a clue what I was saying either.LOL

[hunter1947]

I would not wait if weather is going to erase the sign.
I also would not wait if all indications suggest a good hit.
Personaly I have never waited very long ever. However it is clear that a paunch hit animal will bed very soon if not pressured...within meters..and this could really help you in retrievel.

I agree with horshur on getting after the animal right away after you shoot it in a heavy snow falling.
The tracks will fill in real quick.

The good thing about going after a wonded animal when it is snowing hard is that you can follow the tracks for ever ,then aventuly find the animal.

[horshur]

come on guys!! lots more to be said.

What is the longest you have tracked a wounded animal....spent 9 hours on a elk in the kootenays. A litte snow but he moved up onto a south slope...as it turned out the original shooter ended up having a panic attack in some steep stuff(that is another story) We got the bull at last light..couple hours down in the dark to the truck..the bull had been hit high on the pastern with know broken bones. It would have been alright I suppose.
Never assume a mild wound while you still have sign..you just may catch up with it regardless.

[frenchbar]

Great thread Horshur.lots of good info.A person can get mixed up pretty fast when the excitment of the stalk and harvesting of an animal takes place .a person can lose his surroundings in a hurry.

[hunter1947]

Great thread Horshur.lots of good info.A person can get mixed up pretty fast when the excitment of the stalk and harvesting of an animal takes place .a person can lose his surroundings in a hurry.
Thats when a GPS comes in handy :smile:.

[frenchbar]

Thats when a GPS comes in handy :smile:.I hear ya hunter, a good tool to have ,but not for me.my gps is all by memory only ,never used a gps and probably never will.

[frenchbar]

We had a wounded bull moose do the back track thing on us one time .He started heading up the Alpine draw at tree line,then somehow veered off and snuck back down the draw,once he got back down in the creek bottom he kept criss crossing the creek at least a dozen times .it was a bit aof a bitch keeping his trail .but my hunting partners finaly caught up with him a couple km down the draw.

[Ron.C]

Agree with most above, but from a bowhunters point of view, there is a difference between knowing you made a bad hit and suspecting you did. If bowhunting and if I know I made a bad hit, regardless of weather I would wait. If I suspected I may have may a marginal hit, my response might be less of a wait. In my experience most animals will lay down fairly quick and if not pushed will stay there and die. This happened with the first deer I ever shot with a bow. I made a poor choice as a nolvice bowhunter and took a shot from around 36 yards when I had no buisness shooting that far. I made a very low gut shot. We backed out for almost 4 hours. When we came back, we located the blood trail, and jumped the deer which had bedded less than 60 yards from where it was shot. Luckily for me this last burst of energy was all it had, but it still took a second shot to put it out of it's misery, which I am not proud for one second to say that is what I did was make this deer suffer for hours.
Points I learned from this, know your limitations, and if you are following up on a known gut shot, It takes the animal hours to expire.

Having said that, given decent weather the best thing to do is wait, give the animal lots of time time to lie down bleed and die.
As far as how quick to start trailing in bad weather, it would depend on my hunting method. With a gun, you have alot more options than with a bow. You have the benfit of a much greater reach plus the ability to take what some would say more questionable shot " neck/head etc" to put the animal down if presented with another opportunity. With a bow, you have to be pretty close to get a second shot if you jump your animal and if it is doing anything more than a walk you are hooped. For that reason with a bow, even in bad weather I would still tend to take my chances and wait if I knew I made a bad shot. Pushing a bad bow hit deer in my opinion means a lost deer. Your odds are better at a grid search to find it if all blood is washed away. Finally you can use a dog. My untrained mixbreed fool of a dog found a little deer that I'd shot a couple years ago during a rainy snotty day that washed all sign away. Just shows anything is worth a try

[horshur]

Ron..I watched a doe with an arrow in her hip walk away...could have shot her a hundred times with a gun..even walk shots into her at very long range to try but because it was bow season we just watched her walk away never to be found again..that was the last time my friend ever tried hunting with a bow he felt sick.
Your point is well taken!

[dana]

Newby lesson #1-Whatever you do, don't come on HBC and tell the story or post pics after you retreive the animal. You will be eaten alive but the high moral ethictians that sit behind their computers and judge all. Most of all, you will see the guys from the Recruitment Camp being the first to throw stones. Seen many a newbie chewed up and spit out by these guys who claim to be all for new hunter recruitment. ;)

[Ron.C]

Horshur,

I think this has happens more than people let on. Sure, no one wants to broadcast the fact that they may not have made good choices, made bad shots and lost animals as a result. But it does happen and is part of hunting. But it is not worth putting the bow away and giving up. Personally, I could think of no better motivation for a hunter to improve himself than to loose an animal, or watch a pertner loose an animal and experience that sick feeling. People make mistakes. There is no shame in it. Those that claim they don`t are full of $%&? and in my opinion not worth listening to. As long as we learn from these mistakes and do our best not ro repeat them. I have no problem sharing my mistakes or lessons I have learned the hard way in the hope that maybe I`ll help someone avoid the same mistakes I made.

[houndogger]

A good tracking dog would do wonders in these situations.