How To Track Wounded Deer
By Woody Williams
TRACKING WOUNDED DEER
Less than a minute has elapsed since you've shot one of the biggest bucks you
have ever seen. It happened so fast it's hard to believe. What you do now may
determine whether or not you'll recover your buck.
Your first impulse is to bail out of your treestand and take off after him.
Depending upon your arrow placement, this could be a big mistake. If a deer is
not hit well you could spook him and make recovery next to impossible.
Knowing where the animal is hit makes a difference in how you track him. For
this reason, a bowhunter should use brightly colored fletching, such as white,
orange, yellow or red.
The chest of the deer contains the lungs and the heart which, when hit, produce
the quickest kill. The lungs are easily reached by an arrow, protected only by
vulnerable rib bones. The heart is low in the body and somewhat protected by the
deer's leg bone.
The following describes types of hits and how you should track for each.
* A lung-shot deer will most times run hard 50 to 65 yards. After that he will
usually walk until he falls. The blood will sometimes have tiny bubbles in it.
This blood trail usually gets better as you track the deer. However, if the deer
is hit high in the lungs, the blood trail may sometimes become light and even
disappear completely. The deer could be "filling up" inside with blood, showing
very little external bleeding. The hair from the lung area is coarse and brown
with black tips. The deer will usually go down in less than 125 yards. Give the
deer 30 minutes before tracking.
* A heart-shot deer will sometimes jump wildly when hit. The blood trail may be
sparse for the first 20 yards or so. A heart shot deer may track as much as a
quarter of a mile, depending on what part of the heart is damaged. The usual is
less than 125 yards. The hair from this shot will be long brown or grayish guard
hairs. Again, a 30 minute wait is advised. But, if while trailing you find where
he has bedded back off and wait an hour before taking up the trail again.
* A liver-shot deer. The liver lies against the diaphragm in the approximate
center of the deer. It is a definite killing shot. The blood trail will be
decent to follow and the deer should bed down and die within 200 yards, if not
pushed. A one-hour wait is best. The hair from the liver area is brownish gray
and much shorter than the hair from the lung area. If you push the deer out of
his bed, back off and wait another hour.
* A gut-shot deer is probably the most difficult to recover because of the poor
blood trail and the hunter's impatience to wait him out. A lot of bowhunters
want to hurry up and find the deer. Since the liver and stomach are close
together, it is possible that the deer will go down and die quickly if the shot
also penetrates the liver. If the deer is dead in an hour, he will still be dead
in 4 hours. Have patience, he will not go anywhere. Wait him out for at least 4
hours. Wait overnight if the deer is
shot in the evening.
When a deer is shot in the stomach area, he will usually take several short
jumps and commence walking or running. His back will usually hunch up and his
legs will be spread wide. The hair from this wound is brownish gray and short.
The lower the shot is on the animal, the lighter colored the hair will be. The
blood trail is usually poor with small pieces of ingested material (stomach
contents). If the intestines are punctured there will be green slimy material or
feces Take your bow with you because a second shot might be required.
* A spine-shot deer will usually drop in his tracks or hobble off. Either way, a
second shot will probably be required to finish off the deer. If a spine-shot
deer hobbles off, wait a half-hour and track slowly and quietly. Look for the
deer bedded down.
* A neck-shot deer will either die in 100 yards or he will recover from the
wound. The lower portion of the neck contains the windpipe, neck bone (spine),
and carotid (jugular) arteries. If the arteries are hit, the deer will run hard
and drop in less than 100 yards. The blood trail will be easy to follow. A shot
above the neck bone will give you a good blood trail for about 150 to 200 yards
before quitting. The deer will more than likely recover to be hunted again.
* A hip-shot deer. A large artery (femoral) runs down the inside of each deer
leg. This artery is protected from the side by the leg bones. The femoral artery
is most often severed from the rear or at an angle. If this artery is cut, the
bleeding will be profuse and the deer will usually be found in less than 100
yards. The ham of a deer is also rich in veins with a lot of blood. A hip-shot
deer should be tracked immediately. Track him slowly and quietly to keep him
moving (walking). If you jump him and he runs, back off for a few minutes then
continue trailing. You want him to walk, not run. A walking deer is easier to
trail.
* An artery-shot deer will almost always go down in less than 100 yards. The
aortic artery runs just under the backbone from heart to hips, where it branches
to become the femoral arteries. The heart also pumps blood to the brain through
the carotid (jugular) arteries.
Sever any of these arteries and you've got yourself a deer. There is one catch,
these arteries are tough. It takes a sharp broadhead to cut through them. A dull
broadhead will just push them aside. Keep your broadheads sharp! Give the deer
half an hour before tracking.
GENERAL TRACKING TIPS
* After shooting the deer, stay in your stand and be quiet for the recommended
time. A noise might push your deer away. He could be bedded down less than 100
yards away.
* I have found it very helpful to tie a piece of pink surveyor ribbon around my
stand tree at eye level from where I shot. After noting several terrain features
near where the deer was standing and where it ran too, I tie on the ribbon
before coming down. From the ground looking back up to the ribbon, I can get a
better visual for locating exactly where the deer was and went.
* Before beginning the tracking, mark where you shot the deer with a piece of
white toilet paper hung on a branch.
* Mark the trail periodically with more toilet paper as you track. This will
give you a line on the deer's travel.
* When you find the arrow, check for hair, tallow, blood, etc. This will give
you a good clue on how to track. Example: Tallow and slime means you should wait
4 hours.
* Check for blood carefully, walking off to the side of the run.
* Look for blood on trees, saplings, and leaves that are about the same height
as the wound. Blood will sometimes rub off the body.
* If tracking as a group, spread out a little. Keep noise to a minimum. In
tracking, sometimes "too many cooks can spoil the stew." It would be better if
only 2 or 3 people tracked the deer. If the blood trail runs out, you can always
get more help to search for the deer
* While tracking a deer that you have shot and you jump a deer and it flags its
tail, it's probably not your deer. A wounded deer will very seldom "flag." BUT -
check it out anyway.
* Gut-shot deer have a habit of going to water. If you lose a gut-shot deer's
trail, check out the water holes in the area. He could be down by one.Quite
possibly even in one.
* Tracking at night presents special problems with visibility. The blood and the
deer will both be hard to see. A Coleman gas lantern will help a lot in both
cases. If the deer is not hit well, and no rain is forecast, wait until morning.
If he is dead in 10 minutes or 4 hours, he will still be dead in the morning.
* Take a compass bearing to where you last saw the deer, and another one to
where you last heard any noise from it's flight. It might prove very helpful.
* It helps to have someone who did not shoot the deer to help with the blood
trial. Many an experienced hunter in his excitement misses things.
* Stay off of the blood trail, and use a small piece of tolled paper to mark
each spot
* Get down on your hands and knees when a blood trail is hard to see it helps.
From this angle while night tracking you can shine the light in the direction of
travel and often see blood that does not show when standing over it.
* Look at the bottom of leaves on branches at deer body height. Sometimes as the
branch slides along the body of a deer it is the under side of the leaf that
picks up the blood.
* You will often find a gut shot deer or liver shot deer dead in the water not
just beside it. so look for an ear or the side of the deer in deeper water too.
* Some shots that look good may be one lung or a poor liver hit because of the
angle. These deer can take several hours to die. Be careful about pushing them
to soon, since they will rarely leave much blood sign if they are jumped when
bedded.
* Look ahead as you blood trail for deer parts and movement. Your deer may still
be alive and you might be able to get a second shot or back off with out
spooking it.
* Look for disturbed leaves and broken twigs as well as for the blood sign on
hard to follow blood trails.
* It is often hard to follow a blood trail in grass. It seems that the blood can
fall all the way to the ground without hitting a single blade of grass.
* Look for clusters of ants, flies and daddy longlegs. You can find small drops
of blood because these bugs are feeding on it.
* Often times when the blood trail seems to end you will find the animal off to
one side and not in the same direction of travel.
* Listen for birds like magpies, jays, and crows. Sometimes they make a ruckus
where the animal lies dead.
* Be persistent!
* A dog can often prove very useful if legal. Even your house pet. They can see
with their nose what we can not see with our eyes.
* Use your nose. sometimes you can smell a deer you can't see. A gut shot is
even more likely to have a smell.
* When trailing at night use a couple of the Chem Lights that you can get at
WalMart for less than a buck. You don't use these as lights to see blood, but
they are hung on limbs at the last blood found. That way nobody has to stand on
the last blood and everyone can easily see where the last blood found is at
Did I say be persistent!
Back To Tips