Reading a blood trail?

[walley]

What signs do you look for when reading a blood trail to try and determine what kind of hit you have on an animal? Such as,Heart,Lung,Liver, Artery and Gut shots.

Thanks

 

[Nifeman]

Hey there, frothy and on branchs-lung shot, bright red-heart shot, dark red-liver shot, and bits and pieces of leaf, corn and whatever else- gut shot. And the best for last dropped dead on the spot- perfect hit :rotf: ...Bud

 

[PreglerD]

Hello from Germany,

first I look if there is any cut hair of the deer, then I'm looking for blood an its colóur and consistence. If there is no blood at all I try to find trapps, because when "reading" the trapps you sometimes can see if the deer was hit, because it cramps and that can be seen. Sometimes the wound closes by fat or skin when the deer run away, so there is no blood for meters. In this case trapp reading is very necessary.

 

[bramble]

I agree with all of the above. A rule of thumb (not infallible) is that deer generally run in a straight line when escaping. If there is no immediate trail, look ten to twenty-yards away, and do so in a circle in case the deer does not know the rule of thumb. When you find a blood trail, look to see if the blood is only from one side and you can sometimes determine if it was a through & through, if so, the hit was probably somewhere between the shoulders and hams. Arterial shots give you a spray or splatter of blood rather than dripping. Also, look for blood on brush and trees, the height and consistenty of this adds information. A stumbling deer with little blood suggest internal bleeding (or intoxication). Hope you have a few trails to follow, but as above, a dead drop is best.
bramble

 

[paulvallandigham]

KaBoom: Blood is like icing on a cake. If you have it, it can be a rich source of information about how badly wounded the deer may be. However, that coat of fur will absorb a lot of blood, and you may not have any to follow for some distance, if at all.

If you are going to be a hunter, PLEASE, learn to track TRACKS! I have written two articles for Muzzle Blasts on how this is done; TRACKING: The Science of Reading Footprints and Sign; Sept. 1998, and USING YOUR OWN FEET TO LEARN TO TRACK ANIMALS, July, 2002.

If you want some very good books to add to your library to learn how to track, and read sign, send me a PM. I teach people how to track, and do it over the internet with questions and answers, free of charge. Blood is sign, I never ignor it, but I don't rely on it. I have done so in the past, and lost the trail of a wounded deer. I didn't like the feeling then, and don't want to repeat it. I don't want you to experience that sick feeling in your gut when you lose a wounded deer either, simply because you didn't take the time to look at and find its footprints, and sign.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Reading any sign involves understanding the inferences that can be drawn from what you do see, and also understanding the inferences to be drawn from what is not there to see. Sometimes, the most important information you can glean from sign is what is not there that should be there. This takes practice and education. We all learn to do deductive reasoning, drawing conclusions from known premises. INDUCTIVE reasoning requires you to have an education about how things work. When you see only part of what should be there to see, you can KNOW that the rest was there, but is gone from view for some reason. Blood trailing can be like that. It will tell you what part of the animal the would is located in, by the color, volume, and location on the forest floor and brush where you find it. But, as a deer continues to travel, the blood trail may dry up. That also tells a tracker something about the wound. I tracked a deer for another hunter which left small spots of blood from the point of impact, along the trail until it lay down in some horseweeds about 75 yds from where it was hit. The location of a bloodstain in the bed( kidney shaped flattening in the weeds) showed me that he had grazed the chest of the buck, causing it to bleed profusely, but then as the bleeding clotted, and the blood flow slowed, it collected in the fur on its chest. By the time the deer got up and left that bed, the blood flow had stopped. As it was, the blood was leaving droplets only about every 20 feet or so the last 30 yds to the bed. My blood tracking friends hurried from one drop to the next, putting toilet paper squares on each drop, then hurrying on to the next. I was showing the landowner how I track prints, but I cut a 4 foot stick for him, and told him to put the stick next to the next drop of blood and let the stick slowly lean forward toward the next drop, without lifting the stick off the ground. He found that the next drop was within 6 inches of the other end of the stick I had cut for him, and that each succeeding drop was located about 4 feet from the last. Then I showed him how to determine eye dominance from the tracks, and when he was satisfied we were tracking a right eye dominant deer, I had him look back at all that toilet paper on the forest floor, and, sure enough, the buck was walking in a slow clockwise arc on the flat forest floor. Every time we came to a cross trail, my friends went LEFT. And were busy scouring the debris on the trail looking for that next drop of blood. We went RIGHT, and within a few feet, found blood. We called them over and showed them the droplet, and barely had time to remove our hand before they slapped TP on it! And off to the races they went! The landowner didn't say anything, and neither did I. I just kept reading the tracks, and following the wounded deer. The guys were at least 150 feet north of us when we found the deer's bed. I don't know what they thought they were seeing or following. It certainly was not blood, and they were not gaining any information from either own hard work, or from mine. I refer to missing evidence in these situation as " Negative evidence", as it does tell me something when its not present, and should be, if other facts are correct. Tracks don't lie.

 

[Boomer]

Sheesh Paul... And I thought I was a good tracker.

Only time I bring TP into the woods is for... Well ya know :redface:

Right eye dominant deer? :shocked2: We need to sit down over a cup of Joe! :hmm:

 

[Legionair]

Don't forget to take a compass reading so you can compensate for the coriolas effect (rotation of the earth).... :haha: :youcrazy:

Legion

 

[crockett]

The second you shoot an animal keep your eyes glued on the spot it disappeared and reach in to your pocket and pull out a compas and take a sighting from your site to where you last saw the animal. Write it down. Walk right to that spot and start the "toilet paper trail"
It's true, most shot game runs straight, if it turns it may only turn once- you usually don't get a zig zag trail.
Blood will often be on the UNDERSIDE of leaves. The front of the animal pushes the braches and its the underside that rubs against the lung area and picks up the blood.
Look at all the signs others have stated, also look at the ground for displaced braches or stones. That is, look for a dark damp spot and you may realize that rock or stick a few inches away fit into that spot and something just kicked it aside.
BE PREPARED TO SHOOT. That wounded buck may be just up ahead.
OKAY now for the UNSPORTING TIP. This has saved the day for me many times in the deep South ( no snow). If you tried your best and you just can't find the animal- it's probably only a few yards away. FIRE A ROUND INTO THE GROUND AND LISTEN. If the animal is still alive it will try to run but will only go a few yards at best- in any event you will have picked up the location. I recovered an 8 point buck and a turkey with that trick.
Good luck.

 

[bramble]

sporting or not, it beats losing a wounded animal. With the time it takes me to reload, I get to think and replay exactly what happened. That has given me clues as to how to proceed (how the deer reacted to the shot, was anything "off" in its running, which way was it running, what is in that direction, was there any sound the animal made, etc.) Many times we see things we don't realize, and remember them too late.
The underside of the leaves blood is a good tip crockett
bramble

 

[Stumpkiller]

Then I showed him how to determine eye dominance from the tracks, and when he was satisfied we were tracking a right eye dominant deer . . .

:hmm:

Well now that's a new one on me. Though here in the hill country it's not uncommon for deer to have shorter legs on one side than the other and they'll fall over if you can get them to turn around.

I like to drag a 20 ft length of 1/4" line. When I'm following a blood trail (off slightly to one side so as not to spoil it of course - I think the left side as I am right eye dominant) I pull the line along. When I lose the trail I drop the line and begin fanning side to side. If that fails I spiral out from the end of the rope. I've had wounded deer jump sideways or double back many times. They live with feral dogs and coyotes year round and are no fools at "jinking" to confuse a scent trail, though I doubt they understand they may be leaving a blood trail.

As far as the type of blood sign. It's been pretty well covered. Arterial is sprayed and bright red. Venal is darker, as is liver. I always examine the impact site carefully. Hair, lung tissue, back-scatter of tissue from the off-side of the deer are all clues. Blood from the lungs is frothy. Mixed with corn or cud is a very bad sign, but not hopeless. Lots of large blood vessels in the stomach and liver. Wait at least an hour before trailing that deer. I give 15 to 20 minutes for anything that I do not hear pile up after the shot. And, as mentioned earlier, check bruck and trees for spatter or rubbed blood as the deer passes.

I've also tracked several deer on disturbed leaves and dirt alone. Be sure to pause and look up. It's easiry to plot the course and many times you'll notice the tell-tail patch of white of the expired deer a ways ahead.

Don't give up. Worst case with recovery for me was a six hour ordeal (hit a 1" branch I hadn't noticed and hit the buck very low in the chest - and broke a foreleg. Almost no blood at all.

Worst case of all was a huge buck I put an arrow into almost directly beneath my tree stand as he passed underneath me from behind (I could hear him but didn't move for a very long time. Maybe 15 minutes). The deer went down in a heap and laid there for 20 seconds, but then regained his feet and stumbled off drunkenly. I had no follow up (nor was I ready or thinking one was needed). I could see half of my 31" yellow fletched and crowned cedar arrow sticking up from between his shoulders. I looked for that deer for three days of a canoe-in camping hunt and found blood where it laid up, but never found the deer, or any part of my arrow (??). It was in a cedar/hemlock swamp in the Adirondacks and the deer was crossing knee-deep stretches of swamp and grassy hummocks. Bitterly, bitterly disappointed. I haven't hunted from a tree-stand since, either. Maybe it's a way of punishing myself?

 

[oneshot]

Ok last week made two Bad Bow hits with two Deer.No blood Trail on either of them.The first one I just followed where it had went through the Leaves.

The second one I looked couldn't find the Deer or Blood.Went Home got my Jack Russell found it right off.

With my Muzzleloader I'm just use to them dropping in their Tracks.

oneshot

 

[paulvallandigham]

So, does that mean you are interested in learning how to tell eye dominance in a deer, Stumpy? Its really not that hard to learn, or see. Once you know how to do it, you kick yourself for not being able to have figured it out yourself!

Let me know. I underatand the frustration of losing a deer.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Oneshot, when you found the deer, where were they hit? It would be nice to learn from your experience about why a deer drops no blood after taking a broadhead in its body somewhere.

 

[oneshot]

Oneshot, when you found the deer, where were they hit? It would be nice to learn from your experience about why a deer drops no blood after taking a broadhead in its body somewhere.

Like I say both were Bad hits that I'm working on not ever happen again.

The first one I shot about dark.She spun around,went down.I could hear her walking through the brush.Went checked the Arrow.No blood,smelled of rotten weeds Gut shot.I left waited until morning.She only went about 80 yards.

The second one I watched her for a long time.She started making tracks for the brush right by me.I rushed the shot.It made a very loud WHACK.She turned and ran,I seen the Arrow come out the Ham on the far side Thought to myself,dang another Gut Shot.She was standing down in the brush,too far for a shot.She was kind of humped up.She walks about 15 yards lays down.I thought I'll slip down get the Arrow and look at it.She spotted me and went on up in the brush.I backed off and waited a little bit more.Went down found the Arrow,more Blood than before and Meat.Really didn't know what to think of it.Went check where she had stood.Nice big spot of Blood there but no Blood Trail.went the direction I had seen her go.She gets up and goes further into the brush.Once again I go home,to wait until the next morning.

Get out there.Had problems seeing where she had went through the Leaves.Once again didn't find any Blood.I crisscross through the brush,no Blood or Deer.Checked Water Holes nothing.At this point I had given up on finding this Deer.

I go home got my little Jack Russell.It is Legal here if you have no weapon and the Dog is on a Leash.Well took him were it had bled,he follow it through the brush.Found it laying in a small depression,in the brush.I had went by this Deer a couple time,but didn't see it.It had been hit in the Hams.I think it nicked the Artery in one,it held the Blood in that one Ham,so I lost that Ham.

Firearms Season starts next[url] Saturday.Things[/url] should be much better.i had never had this problem before.But I sure learned from it.

oneshot

 

[PreglerD]

Even when you have a good hit in the lunge or heart it can be possible that there is no blood for meters. 2 years ago I shot a roe over snowy surface. Only hair was at the place it has been hit. No blood trail at all in any direction. The snow surface was new and so I could find the deers track and followed it. After about 30 meters I find the roe dead on the ground, when I turned it round I saw the first blood. After guting the deer I noticed that skin and fat had closed the wounds. This seems to be possible while the deer stands stretched in the moment it has been hit by the bullet. Cramping together and running then closes the wound for a while. If the deer doesn't fall to the ground after a short time of escaping then certainly the wound starts to blood. So as it has been said you have to make cicles and search.

If all this is not successfull so you have to use a hunting dog for finding the deer.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Kirmeister: You don't have to make circles and search if you are already following its tracks. That is the whole point in learning to track footprints, rather than blood. Blood is not always there to follow. Until deer learn to fly, there are always footprints.

I helped a young hunter locate his dead deer- he wasn't sure of where the tree was that he was sitting in, and as we walked through the woods to find it we came on his deer. I had him unload his gun, and stand it against a tree, while I back tracked the deer with him to show him how he lost it in the first place. There was almost no blood. About a silver dollar sized spot in the middle of a logging road where he lost saw the deer. He walked right over that spot and didn't see even that, until I came back with him to find the deer. I had to show him his own footprints in the leaves to show him where he walked. He followed the logging road, because it was easier going! The deer turned RIGHT, and walked about 20 yds into the woods before it died. I tracked the deer back to the place it was standing when it was shot, found a tuff of fur hanging on brush behind the deer, indicatin the shot had penetrated the deer, and then my friend turned around, and saw the tree where he was sitting when he took the shot. A large dead tree that had been down for many years, about 25 yds from where the deer was hit. He, and another man who came along to watch were simply amazed at how I could find those tracks in the dead leaves, but, of course, when I pointed the tracks out to them, they had not trouble seeing them. I showed them how to find cuts and deformities( accidentals) in the 8 toes of the deer by inspecting the four tracks made when the deer was hit, and flinched, then took them back to the tree, and showed them both how to scuff their feet the next time to give a direction for both where the shot was fired, and the place the deer was last seen, so they could come back to the tree and start their search for tracks all over again, if needed. I showed them how to identify the sex and age of the animal from its tracks, and then we walked the tracks back to the deer carcass, retrieved my young friend's gun, and dragged the deer out to the truck.

That is what tracking footprints can do when you don't have a blood trail. Its great if you have a dog that can do scent tracking and is trained to trail deer. But, I have taught visual tracking to Police K-9 officers, too.

 

[Runner]

I agree, but we hunt different areas. Where I have mostly been hunting for the last 20 years, most hit deer fled down trails used by lots of deer each day. Once they hit the main trails, unless they are throwing a hoof or sliding one, following that one specific deer track becomes almost impossible. In woods, your comments are spot on if the area is not already disturbed by other deer fleeing or other searchers before you get there. Because of that, I want full penetration. I don't take iffy shots for the most part. I don't shoot at running deer. Nothing increases the chance of a recovery as much as a good blood trail does.
We sat and watched video after video of deer hit with arrows thru the heart lung complex years ago. A deer is dead in an average 20 seconds after such a hit. How far they travel in that 20 seconds depends on the terrain and the animal. In flat open woods, a deer can go a long way in 20 seconds. It dense hilly woods, not as far.
A big buck in high gear has to be leaking pretty bad to leave a blood trail. Even then the blood can be far apart where he lands between jumps. There are a lot of things that you can learn that up your chances of finding that next drop of blood. Most guys simply never get the chance to practice tracking wounded deer enough to get good at it. I was gifted with the opportunity to learn from one of the best, and then given the chance to track a lot of deer for years.
First info is where you were when you shot.
2nd, where the game was when you shot.
3rd, the last place you can specifically identify that the game ran thru.
4th, the state the animal was in when shot.
5th, were there other deer there that ran away with the deer you shot.
There are a lot of things that have to be figured, but unless you get the actual chance to practice, it is hard to teach well.

 

[wolfers]

The way I learn to track by using tracks was to get out when it is not hunting season. When I was a kid I used to wait for a snow and then go into the woods and identify and track various animals. I learned more about tracking deer that way then I would have hunting them. Eventually I started going out when there was no snow in an area where I knew there would be deer. Once I spotted them I would track them just to see what their habits were etc. I learned more about deer and their habits doing this then I could have ever learned just during hunting season. So my advice is get out at and practice. The day will come when you will be really glad you took the time in the off season to learn this skill.

 

[Goldhunter]

My experience with a broadhead this year was on a cow elk. 40 yard quartering away. When the arrow hit, she dropped like a sack of, well you know. She tried to get up, dropped again, and then pushed herself into the trees. The shot looked a little far back for my liking but she appeared to be hit hard, I shoot 28 inch arrows and half was buried! Was at dusk so had to finish following trail in the morning. Blood was dark so I thought it might be a liver hit.

Long story short, she didn't bleed very much and the arrow was in her in such a way that it wasn't sticking out enough to cause more damage. She was walking through trees that should have been bumping it and creating more damage but wasn't. She eventually quit bleeding and we lost her tracks in a area where alot of elk had been moving through the night before (when I shot her) and the movements of the herds that morning. We never found her. I am going to make sure this doesn't happen again and will be reading up this winter.

I have a couple of friends that have hit bull elk solidly and have not had blood at all, yet found them piled up with it 75 yards.