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Blood trails
- Thread starter ravenousfishing
- Start date
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Ron,You right about the shame of that buck. I passed on him several times during the bow season, with hopes to get a crack at him next year. If I knew he would go to waste, I would have tagged him. I was within mere feet of him several times. Yet, I have no regrets. If we take every buck that presents themselves, we would never see the bucks of our dreams. Since I found him on the 2nd day of season, I went to the farmer whose ground I think he came from. The farmer's brother in-law and his friend hunt there. I had hoped they would tag him, as I assumed they were the ones that shot him. But, they didn't come for him. I know the deer was NOT dead on Sunday. I was hoping that it may have been cool enough, that he was still good. As I don't know how many hours dead he was. I last was there last Sat. He was getting very ripe. I have tagged deer that I didn't recover until they were ripe. The deer was dead because of my actions, so it is my duty to get smarter and not lose them, either by shooting better or tracking better.
I'm sure you are aware that your friendy Game Protector can give you a tag for that rack. It (he) deserves to be kept as a reminder and maybe make something positive out of the negative. I have a couple like that. 
R
R
paulvallandigham
Passed On
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2006
- Messages
- 17,537
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- 89
Where does the word " Slob" appear?? I didn't say any such thing. I did quote Walt teasing the guys about Littering his woods. After he got the reaction, we all had a good laugh, and he told them not to worry about the TP.
Take a Deep Breathe, Dave. Let your belt out. Get a grip on yourself. Laugh.
I will admit that my crud level is a bit lower than many. I was raised to leave no sign of my passing but my footprints, and they should be very light. My Muzzle loading club always polices our campsights before we leave, removing ALL trash, replacing the sod where our fire pits were, removing any charred wood that is too large to bury. A week later, the grasses are grown up and you can't see where our tents were. A month later, with a few light rains, you can't find the edges of our fire pits.
I collect trash as I hunt. Partly, it gets the stuff our of the environment; partly, it forces me to slow down more. I pick up all my own trash unless I can't find it. I don't leave behind dirty cleaning patches, for instance. I dig a hole for the gut pile, and/or cover it with leaves. The Coyotes find it just fine, but I try to conceal it from other people using the forests, and grounds.
If I had found that deer lost on my ground, I would have back tracked the deer to locate exactly where it was shot, to learn WHO shot it. Then I would have tried to find them, and make them dispose of the deer- not let it sit and rot.
Not everyone is wired to think that way, and I do NOT expect such behavior from you, or others. I have hunted with other hunters/friends, and taken walks in the woods with friends, who are always both amused and amazed that I am constantly picking up trash of every kind. One day I was walking RR tracks with a friend and his kids. The kids decided they could pick up more trash than I could, so they made a contest about picking up spent shotgun hulls, pop cans, and any plastic they could find. The father didn't think much of it all, as people threw trash out along the tracks all the time. But, when we turned around and began walking home, working the other side of the tracks, he commented on how much more Natural the (cleaned) other side of the tracks were. The kids enjoyed dumping their coat pockets out into the family burn barrel, and comparing it to what I contributed.
I also taught those kids how to identify deer tracks, tell the age, and sex of the animal, and determine the Gait pattern, while we were doing all this. At the river's edge, we found fresh raccoon tracks in the shallow water, which the kids loved. I taught the kids how to count the toes to identify those tracks from those of Beaver.
If I have offended you, I apologize, David. Now, chill! :surrender: :idunno: :thumbsup:
Take a Deep Breathe, Dave. Let your belt out. Get a grip on yourself. Laugh.
I will admit that my crud level is a bit lower than many. I was raised to leave no sign of my passing but my footprints, and they should be very light. My Muzzle loading club always polices our campsights before we leave, removing ALL trash, replacing the sod where our fire pits were, removing any charred wood that is too large to bury. A week later, the grasses are grown up and you can't see where our tents were. A month later, with a few light rains, you can't find the edges of our fire pits.
I collect trash as I hunt. Partly, it gets the stuff our of the environment; partly, it forces me to slow down more. I pick up all my own trash unless I can't find it. I don't leave behind dirty cleaning patches, for instance. I dig a hole for the gut pile, and/or cover it with leaves. The Coyotes find it just fine, but I try to conceal it from other people using the forests, and grounds.
If I had found that deer lost on my ground, I would have back tracked the deer to locate exactly where it was shot, to learn WHO shot it. Then I would have tried to find them, and make them dispose of the deer- not let it sit and rot.
Not everyone is wired to think that way, and I do NOT expect such behavior from you, or others. I have hunted with other hunters/friends, and taken walks in the woods with friends, who are always both amused and amazed that I am constantly picking up trash of every kind. One day I was walking RR tracks with a friend and his kids. The kids decided they could pick up more trash than I could, so they made a contest about picking up spent shotgun hulls, pop cans, and any plastic they could find. The father didn't think much of it all, as people threw trash out along the tracks all the time. But, when we turned around and began walking home, working the other side of the tracks, he commented on how much more Natural the (cleaned) other side of the tracks were. The kids enjoyed dumping their coat pockets out into the family burn barrel, and comparing it to what I contributed.
I also taught those kids how to identify deer tracks, tell the age, and sex of the animal, and determine the Gait pattern, while we were doing all this. At the river's edge, we found fresh raccoon tracks in the shallow water, which the kids loved. I taught the kids how to count the toes to identify those tracks from those of Beaver.
If I have offended you, I apologize, David. Now, chill! :surrender: :idunno: :thumbsup:
You guys fuss but I enjoyed it. All information helps. I'm color blind as heck to red and have a devil of a time blood tracking so I invested in a blood tracking Standard Wirehaired Dachshund. I am totally impressed with the woods skills that some have. I watched a rancher track a buck that I shot with my bow and he found 2 drops of blood in almost 500 yards over rock and cactus. I know the skills are there and I sure am jeolous of those that have them. I was aware of the tendency to a side but it was interesting to hear the logic. I have also learned that most of the time they seem to return to the direction they came from.
My tracking skills have turned to headshots and or many hours of practice.
Thanks to you all for the insite!!!
My tracking skills have turned to headshots and or many hours of practice.
Thanks to you all for the insite!!!
John Wasmuth
50 Cal.
- Joined
- Nov 8, 2005
- Messages
- 1,328
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- 6
Man, I got lucky, mine dropped DRT, only hada track it 36 inches straight down........... :rotf:KHickam said:
But normally they run off an make a foul outa me........
Ohhh. Deer have EXCELLENT straight-on depth perception IMHO. I've been busted MANY times by deer that stop and then look directly at me. Then WHOOSH! I learned long ago to freeze and to avoid eye contact and sometimes they give the head turn while keeping one hairy eye on you. They have good vision for 160º or so out of either eye and a 20º +/- overlap to front. They see motion to the rear but should do much better ahead.
As for the "drop dead shot" I don't know of anything that will guarantee that on a deer every time. Zing them in the spine in the front half of the body or neck for sure will do it. Count on a deer living 7 to 10 seconds with a good lung or heart shot. At 35 mph that can mean a lot of trail to cover. Sometimes they don't bleed much. Other times they hose a path. Muzzleloaders have no special attributes or failings here. It is shot placement more than anything. I've had 3/4" slug holes "seal up" behind the shoulder blade or fatty tissue plug a fatal wound. If I shoot at a deer I spend as long as it takes to find out just what happened. If that means spending an hour to find the tree where the ball ended up and no sign of hair or blood in a spiral search pattern . . . so be it.
Sometimes a round ball (or 12 ga. slug, or .30 rifle bullet) will drop them in their tracks. That's nice. Nothing knocks them down outside of Hollywood special effects.
As for the "drop dead shot" I don't know of anything that will guarantee that on a deer every time. Zing them in the spine in the front half of the body or neck for sure will do it. Count on a deer living 7 to 10 seconds with a good lung or heart shot. At 35 mph that can mean a lot of trail to cover. Sometimes they don't bleed much. Other times they hose a path. Muzzleloaders have no special attributes or failings here. It is shot placement more than anything. I've had 3/4" slug holes "seal up" behind the shoulder blade or fatty tissue plug a fatal wound. If I shoot at a deer I spend as long as it takes to find out just what happened. If that means spending an hour to find the tree where the ball ended up and no sign of hair or blood in a spiral search pattern . . . so be it.
Sometimes a round ball (or 12 ga. slug, or .30 rifle bullet) will drop them in their tracks. That's nice. Nothing knocks them down outside of Hollywood special effects.
buttonbuck
50 Cal.
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2005
- Messages
- 1,491
- Reaction score
- 7
even when I see them go down and can see a dead deer I still take the time to read the sign and piece the stuff together it helps to build skills when you can. My neighbor shot a trophy size buck 180 field dressed last week in the neck (I did not agree with him taking the shot) the buck ran over and mostly open fields well over a mile leaving a good blood trail in the snow. 2 hours later the deer was recovered.
