Opinions wanted for PRB charge and whitetail

[Stumpkiller]

Blood trail tips:

After the shot and before you move: HOLD STILL AND LISTEN. With a muzzleloader there is no sense in moving for a second shot position. Most times you can hear a deer pile up - if it does it at a run. Mark the spot you were standing when you took the shot. From that vantage point, pick a landmark near where the deer was when you shot. Go there and mark it, and then verify it was a hit. Keep an eye out on the way for any signs the ball struk a tree and might have been deflected. Reload, relax. There should be hair cut by the ball passing through. Light, foamy blood means lungs, dark blood could be liver. Wait at least 10 minutes before following if the blood is dark or the trail is scanty. If you find bloody corn or chewed up greens . . . wait 30 minutes. The only exception would be a fairly good initial trail in a downpour. Then you're better off trailing while you can.

Carry toilet paper and put a small piece at each spot you find blood. Makes it easy to look back and see the trend (and it is biodgradable).

I drag a 30 ft length of line as I track for the same reason. If I loose the trail I drop the end and move in a spiral until I find the next spot, then I bring the line to that.

If there are fresh leaves, look at how they are disturbed. A running deer kicks up leaves and twigs. I have found deer that did not bleed much just by observing the disturbed leaves.

Go slowly. If you rush it you'll miss something, mess up the sign, or keep a weakened deer alarmed and on the move.

NEVER walk over a blood trail - you'll obscure it. Try to walk beside it as much as possible.

Look at waist level for blood on underbrush and twigs.

When all else fails, get as close to the ground as you can and move in an opening spiral pattern. Look under every tree and bush. Squat down and look in every direction occasionally. A heaped up deer is easier to spot from close to the ground. Hunker down, sit on your heels and try and think like a wounded deer. "Where is the heavy cover?" "What direction did I approach this spot from, I was safer there?" Even when following a blood trail it sometimes pays to look around occasionally. A wounded deer will sometimes button-hook around to get behind what's trailing it. (But be sure it's your deer if you shoot again.)

Never give up. I ended up crawling off a grid parttern in a swamp once and finally stumbled over my deer after four hours lf searching because I was certain it was a killing shot.

 

[Ohio Joe]

Ironsights,,, Your right, a thread on tracking would be a long dicussion with many useful tips and techniques. I would offer this if ever in a situation where one must track a deer after it's been shot and bolted off. You must keep in mind however that all terrain is different and weather conditions play an important part... The first tracks you see will be where it bolted from and will be dug deep and the tracks chewed up, maybe even a slip. The next set of tracks will appear fresh... If you can follow these, then you should notice where the deer's tracks have started to drag and you won't be to far from your kill at this point. Always look for things that are out of place, broken twigs, turned rocks on a trail, is the trail running straight or is it (from the wounded deer) staggering off from side to side. It is hard to explain tracking, it's something I have done and do every time I'm out in the wild. I'll track anything to keep learning the art. You also can learn to read tracks that are compressed in dirt and how loose or packed they are will give you an idea of how fresh a trail your on. This would be a good winter subject to get started!!!

 

Tracking skills can be increased by practise. Go into the bush, pick out a track, and even though you'll have to be on your knees at times, follow that single deer until you come up with it. When the tracks are easy to see, stand in one spot, and follow thm as far as you can with your eyes, without moving. I've used this many times for 'running' down a deer that put fresh tracks across the sandy road where I hunt them. The underbrush is fairly open, but ground cover is lush with celell or shelell and scrub strawberries, wide leaf plants, grass, and moss. Practise really does improve skills though and can be lots of fun, especially when packing a smokepole. Just remember to go VERRRRRY slowly and pause often, every couple steps, looking around slowly, closely and as far as you can see, before moving on. With a start on fresh tracks, you can usually come up with an unspooked deer within 300 yards, and if in camo, they don't even know you are there. Perhaps method is only good up here, but that's the way it is & it works about any where I've hunted them.

 

[musketman]

Tracking skills can be increased by practise.

It helps to be tracking something like a moose, the large tracks should be easy to see...

But don't get too close without a gun, there's nothing more scarier than a scared moose...

(I wonder what that cow is thinking right then...)

 

[bob1961]

that cow is thinking....oh no i'm in heat....and that aint hubby....bawlllllll harrrrrrrrrrrrr he he he he he he....i gotta stop doing this :haha: :haha: :haha: :haha:.........................bob

 

[Darkhorse]

Patience, persistence and sharp eyes are neccessary for good tracking. Even so, sometimes an animal hit high in the body, or lacking an exit hole, or a fatty animal such as a hog or bear, will sometimes leave scant or no blood.
I always carry a small flat compass around my neck. I listen for the animal as it runs and then take a compass bearing to the "Last" place I heard it. Then if I can't find sign where the animal was hit and if I can't cut a trail of some kind, I will go back to where I was when I shot and follow that compass course in as straight a line as possible.
Oftentimes that will put you into an area where the animal is beginning to bleed out or stagger and scuff up leaves. If not, then you are in a general area to start a grid search.

 

[Herb]

Best thing to do is to hit a deer so do don't have to track it. This is about a mule deer, but it applies. Couple of years ago I hunted deer with my Leman Green River rifle, with a .54 Orion switch barrel on it. Used 120 grains of Goex 2F and a patched round ball, at about 1800 fps. Saw this buck at about 90 yards, calmly following a doe. Shot him in the right side of the neck and he turned away. Reloaded, went up to gut him. No deer, no blood, no hair, and so many deer tracks in the sagebrush that after two hours I figured he wasn't there. Found more deer about half a mile away, sneaked up on one and shot it in the spine at about 70 yards, dead deer.

Gutted it out, threw it in the back of my Rabbit, drove home and hung it on the clothesline post to wash out. Saw about a 4" hole in the hair on the right side of the neck, 1" of bare flesh, no hole in it or blood. That was my earlier shot! Didn't knock him down, stun him, nor even inconvenience him. Cured me of shooting deer in the neck. Doc Gary White had about the same experience. In the "Lyman Black Powder Handbook", 1975, he writes about shooting a Dall sheep with his Green River Leman Trade Rifle. (His company). Using 150 grains of C&H and a ball at 1860 fps, he shot a ram lying down at 50 yards. "To my immense surprise he jumped up and ran off." Next, "I shot the wounded ram at 150 yards, hitting him in the lungs for a quick kill." So learn from me, don't shoot a deer in the neck with a muzzleloader. Also, be careful what you throw in the back of a Rabbit. About six years ago I killed a spike bull elk on this same mountain with my .30-06, cut off his head and cut him in half ahead of the hams, and barely managed to throw him into the back of this same Rabbit. Now my doctor tells me I have a hernia. Sure glad I didn't wait for that big bull at the end of that string of elk!

 

[roundball]

Hit'em in the pump and they should drop within sight of the stand. http://www.members.aol.com/wjcutbush/50cal8and7pointers3.jpg

 

[cayugad]

Tracking deer is not a favorite job of mine, but it is the duty of every hunter to recover what he shot. I will track that animal down. Where I hunt the ground cover is thick, and that is being nice to describe it as thick. There are times you have to walk circles because you could not go straight ahead without a good chainsaw. Yet them deer will do it.

When I shoot, the first thing I do is freeze, then watch the deer and direction, and listen. I have shot deer and if I made no sudden move, they will stand there for a second or two. For some reason this is especially true with black powder shooting. This is a good time to look for a wound. If they run, note where they were standing and what direction and what deer trail they were on. Normally here, they will run trails through this stuff. Finally, listen, you will hear them drop and flop, or crash. Sometimes you will hear them running and can note the direction.

Like already said, I take a compass reading of the direction the deer went, and then walk to where they were standing when I shot. Here I look for blood and what kind of blood I find will tell me a lot about the hit. Also look for hair. The color of the hair and length will also tell you information. Then I look for large blood splatters and note how high they are in the brush or on the trees.

After waiting 30 minutes (unless raining or unless I heard it flop and crash) I start my search. I mark the first blood with florsecent ribbon I tie to a tree (remember to come back and remove that ribbon later -- it will also lead you back out of that tangle of stuff).

If all there is are tracks, as soon as that deer stops bounding in panic, then look at the distance between the tracks. This is a good time to take a stick and measure the distance between the sets of tracks. You can always put that stick on the next set of tracks and it will surprise you how close it will come to the next set of marks in the dirt.

Move slow and keep your eyes and ears moving. Many times the wounded deer will bed down real close to where they are hit if they are not pushed, and they will be looking for you. Also stay low, there is nothing to see up in the trees. When you find a large pool of blood, mark it with ribbon. After you have set a few ribbons, look back through the woods at them. Are they in a circle, or straight, or wandering? Take compass readings, and note, is the deer moving in a straight line or is it running a circle. I have tracked them almost back to the point they were first hit.

From there look for turned leaves, broken twigs, anything out of place. Blood will sometime be in small splatters, and if it is getting dark, a lantern will help pick that blood splatter up if you hold the light low.

All you can do then is stick with it. You will either find the deer (or what ever) or you will see it or hear it move again. I have walked right up onto them when they are no longer able to get up from blood loss. Remember, they are wounded and very dangerous to get near.

 

[leadball]

Thank God our muzzleloading season starts when there is normally snow on the ground :applause:

 

[Rocky Johnson]

The muzzleloading hunters are the better hunters in my area, it's the shotguners that leave the lost & cripled deer. Ever year while rabbit hunting after deer season I find three or five deer that were hit and lost.I know you shouldn't tell this s becouse of the anti's. Rocky /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[musketman]

I know you shouldn't tell this becouse of the anti's. Rocky /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

I would rather take that chance than have someone cover up the truth...

Fact is, not all animals shot are found, but the precentage of harvested deer to loss deer is the real numbers they need to be looking at...

 

[Stumpkiller]

Perhaps all of those deer weren't hit. I once found five deer that laid up together and starved to death in one 20' square area in a "no hunting" state campground after a very hard winter in the early 80's. Nature has no mercy on a cold, hungry deer. If the snow stays deep in January and February there just isn't enough browse for them. If a deer lives 8 years, then 12.5% of an unhunted population dies annually. The winter is the hardest on the sick and old, so if say, half in those four months that's 6 in every 100 deer die in the winter in unpredated 'zoo like' conditions. Add pressures of habitat destruction, dog chasing wearing down fat/energy reserves, sickness and disease, etc. and even without hunters there would be significant winter kills. In fact, without the herd being thinned selectively, there is a chance a larger number would die in severe conditions because ALL browse would be gone and even the healthy would starve slowly to death.