Archery deer hunting season is underway in many states and soon in others. While every archer in the forest hopes for a brief trail of blood, not everyone will. Perfect shots are always the goal, but they are not always the result.
While there are ways to hedge your assumptions about successful tracking, such as giving the deer enough time to expire on marginal hits, it is also true that some blood trails are simply challenging to detect. The feeling of going from good blood to sporadic blood and then pin pricks or no marks at all is something every deer hunter will experience at some point.
But this is not the time to give up. It’s time to become more methodical and time to work on unraveling the whole thing. It’s not uncomplicated, but there are a few tricks that can assist you when tracking becomes challenging.
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Set your path
Immediately after the shot, the deer will react in unpredictable ways. They can immediately sprint or turn 180 degrees and return to familiar territory. They can do many things, but they usually choose a route with some intention.
This is rarely evident when you are in the murky and trying to determine your direction of travel with a headlight.
It’s a good idea to exploit tissue paper or biodegradable tape to mark your progress (and last blood). It’s better to do this and turn on any tracking features you may have in your hunting apps. This can be a game changer when it comes to zooming out and seeing exactly how your deer is moving across the landscape and where it might be going.
This will also tell you where you searched and where you didn’t, which can be essential if you end up searching the grid.
Forget about the crowds
Some hunters find tracing blood trails all the more fun of the endeavor, so they invite a few buddies to assist with the task. This is almost always a mistake.
Too many people fighting to find the next spot of blood can make the entire operation impatient. And if there’s one quality that’s essential when tracking down a wounded deer, it’s patience.
In the initial phase of work on the track, try to keep the number of employees to a minimum. Two is a good number because it seems to allow for a leader/follower vigorous, although you will switch roles as you find a modern lead.
Large groups shine when the blood trail really dries up and it’s time to search the grid. Once you get to this point, any extra pair of eyes you can get will be an asset. This isn’t the only way to find a deer when the going gets really tough.
The best nose in the industry
The possibility of using dogs to treat wounded game appeared in many states a long time ago. It makes sense, and a good tracking dog always pays off.
The key is not to run him to the bloodline when you feel like you’re running out of steam, which means keeping the original crew in good shape.
The less you do to disrupt the trail, the better. Well-trained dogs can get through an incredible amount of olfactory noise, but there’s no reason to make it harder for them. If you have access to a tracking dog just outside the gate and your hit is even slightly questionable, call.
If you are not sure, pay attention to the trace and judge best. If you don’t find your deer within a few hundred yards (another good reason to exploit the tracking feature on your hunting app), retreating and enlisting the assist of your dog is almost never a bad idea.
Not only will they figure out where your deer has gone in much less time than it would take you, but they are also amazing at communicating if the deer is even dead at the time of tracking.
The bottom line is that if you’re starting to worry about your recovery, bringing in some four-legged assist isn’t a bad idea.
