It really doesn't do much good littering the forest floor with TP unless you both learn something about your deer, AND clean up afterwards.
Hunters are always " losing " the deer they shot because they can't seem to distinguish their deer from other deer that may have passed that way.
One of the ways to distinguish your wounded deer from others is by noting how the deer makes choices when it reaches forks in the trails.
The Eyes of Deer are mounted on the side of their skulls, NOT in front, like your own. You have " Binocular vision" which allows you to see and estimate distance and speed in front of you as you move along. Deer are better able to see movement from a wider field of angle, but they are " one-eyed" when it comes to DEPTH perception- almost none at all. That causes them to have to turn their head slightly to one side or the other to see where they are going. In turning the head, the weight of the head is shifted in the direction in which the head is turned, and that changes the BALANCE of the head and neck as the deer walks, trots or runs. Since all Mammals have Bi-lateral Symmetry, all deer have a dominant side, and a non-dominant side. This corresponds to their feet, and to their eyes, in how they are used when moving. Deer are Indirect Registering Walkers, in that their rear feet step almost completely on the tracks left by their front feet when WALKING. BUT, because of eye dominance, their dominant front foot takes a slightly Longer Stride than the non-dominant foot does, leaving some of the front of the toes on the dominant front foot print or impression showing in front of the impression left by the Rear Foot. Deer that are injuried, or scared, rely on the DOMINANT SIDE Eye to see where they are going as they escape.
ERGO, a Right Eye Dominant Deer is more likely to turn, or take a pathway, to his Right , than to his left, assuming the two trails are on similarly even ground. When I have a deer that consistently turns to the right, I know its a right eye dominant deer. If I come across a Left EYE DOMINANT deer's tracks, that look similar, I can distinguish which track to follow, simply from reading the eye dominance of the deer I am tracking.
If you look back at that trail of TP you decorate the forest with, you should be easily able to see if the deer is moving to its Right, or left, and thereby determine eye dominance.
I once showed a retired Deputy Sheriff how I track deer when I worked to recover a deer wounded by another Retired Deputy on my friend's farm. He also had a couple of Airmen from the local air base, who were Archers, and who hunting his ground in both archery and gun seasons. The two archers were " BLOOD TRAIL Trackers". And they used TP. We found blood fairly quickly, and they were off and running, like the "Hare" laying down those squares of TP.
I stopped to trim twigs off a dead branch lying on the floor, so I could have a tracking stick to use to show Walt about real Visual Tracking of footprints. I took the time to measure the Stride lengths, and notched the stick accordingly, as well as the straddle of the tracks, and the step interval. We looked at all 4 sets of footprints, and I noted the shape and length and width of each of the 8 toes. Then we began. I felt like the Tortoise in the fable, but I knew what I was doing.
It didn't take too long to catch up to the Archers, who were having more and more trouble finding the pinhead size blood specks as they went. But, they were walking all over the deer's Tracks. So, I politely growled at them to keep their big feet off my tracks! I don't think up until then that they had given a thought to where their own feet were landing, and what they might be stepping on. They simply had never been trained to be "Track Conscious", as its called.
It was not too long when we reached a fork in the trail, with a larger, wider trail going off to the left. The Archers were off down that track about 30 feet, and were still looking for blood.
I told Walt to look behind us at the TP trail they had left, clearly showing that the deer was right eye dominant, and was circling slowly to the right. He smiled. I followed the tracks, which took the RIGHT fork in the trail, and within a few seconds noted a spot of blood. I called out to the archers, asking them if they had found any blood over there. They said, " No", so I told them I had a spot of blood where I was. The Archers came running.
As soon as they saw the blood they slapped that Toilet Paper down on it and began looking for the next pinhead size drop of blood. No " thank you";- no " how did you find that blood, when we didn't?";- No stopping to ask me to show them what I was doing and how I was staying on the deer's tracks when they obviously lost them.
They were again walking on my deer tracks, so this time, I growled a little less politely at them to stay off my deer tracks! Within 50 feet, we met another fork in the trail, Again with a wide lane going off to the Left. The Archers went that way, with no more success than they had with the first fork.
Again, the TP trail indicated clearly that the deer was going RIGHT, and, sure enough, I found the next blood, along with the footprints of the deer, on the RIGHT pathway. I called to the Archers again, and they darn near trampled both Walt and me getting to that blood spot with the TP! Even Walt was losing his patience with them.
They finally just abandoned the search and went off to the LEFT again, towards the river, where they had hunted a crossing earlier in the day. They were going to look for his tracks at the crossing, they said.
Walt and I followed the deer's tracks where he worked around a thicket of horse weeds, and then lay down in them. He was there when the Archers were beating the forest floor for him, but far enough away that he sneaked out, and went back the way he came. I lost his tracks when he jumped a cutbank, but he was heading off the property onto a neighbor's property who did not allow deer hunting there. Even Walt could not get permission to go onto the ground to recovered deer shot on his property.
From the blood in the bed, it was clear that the hunter had grazed the lower front of the buck's chest, ( White Chest hairs stuck in some of the dried blood) causing a lot of early bleeding, but the bleeding stopped as soon as he had a chance to rest in that horseweed. He was not limping, nor was he walking with his head down, and his injury did not prevent him from leaping across a cutbank to sneak around us and go back- probably within 50 yds of where we were following his trail, to make his escape. If infections did not kill him that winter, I suspect he survived another year.
The property he went to had lots of Evergreens planted, with Tall grass growing up in and around the trees. It would have been impossible ground to hunt without another half dozen hunters looking and watching for movement under those trees. Tracking would have had to been done on hands and knees, and on your stomach if you followed him under those evergreen trees.
That was my most extensive experience with Blood Trackers, and the use of TP. I had seen TP litter in the woods when hunting before, but did not make the connection that people were actually littering the forest with the stuff to trail deer! :shocked2: :idunno:
Walt made a point, later, when the Archers came into the barn after sundown, to " gripe " at them for littering his woods! The look on their faces was Priceless! :grin: :surrender: :thumbsup:
Walt told me later that he had heard I was a " Tracker", and had always been interested in that subject, but never met anyone who did it. He thanked me for showing him how its done, and commented on how tenacious I was trying to find the tracks after the deer jumped the cut bank, and re-establish the trail. He admitted he would not have seen half of the things I saw, and showed him, if he had tried to do that trailing alone.
I look on blood evidence as "Icing on the Cake". I pay attention to it when I find it, because there is so much information you can learn from blood that has not yet dried out. But, I follow tracks- NOT blood. Blood evidence merely confirms what the tracks are already telling me.
If you are going to insist on following blood drops, instead of tracks, you should know that a walking deer will drop blood about ever 4 feet, plus/minus 6 inches. If you cut a stick, or have a gun long enough to be 4 feet in length, it can help you find that next speck of blood on the trail.
Simply put the stick next to- not on-- the speck of blood you find, note the direction of travel( the speck will often be oblong, with the "tail" pointing the direction from which it came),and let the stick slowly go to the ground, with you bending over at the waist, so that the mark, or end of the stick helps you focus on the ground where the next drop is likely to appear.
This practice will cut down on eye strain, allow you to focus on a lot less area of ground, and help you move along the trail much faster than if you try to follow the blood specks without the stick. :hatsoff:
