tracking

[sidelock]

Are you a good tracker? That is one thing I have tried to prefect over my many years in the woods. I have tracked all sorts of things, game ,people, farm animals, even gloves. Yup! Gloves. The secret is simple. It really surprises me how unobservant people are. About 5 years ago my grandson was squirrel hunting in the mountains of SW VA. He came in that evening and said he had lost a glove in the oak woods. I'll find it in the morning I told him. Next morn. I found where he had entered the woods and tracked him for perhaps 100,000 yds. and there where he had killed his first squirrel lay the glove. Granddad How'd you do that? I see what I look at I said.

 

[pab1]

I found where he had entered the woods and tracked him for perhaps 100,000 yds.

56 Miles? He covers some serious ground squirrel hunting! :wink: :grin:

I agree most people are not very observant in the woods. I'm alright as a tracker. I do have a lot of room for improvement and do work on improving my skills.

 

[BrownBear]

I'm a fair tracker, but of course it varies with the terrain and what I'm hoping to track.

Best track job I'll claim was a cherished family heirloom revolver. Carried it all day in the hills on a sentimental hunt and got back to my truck with an empty holster! :shocked2:

Backtracked myself through brush and tall grass for 2 hours. Got it. :applause:

 

[sidelock]

Sorry about that, 1,000 yds.

 

[pab1]

Sorry about that, 1,000 yds.

That's what I figured you meant. Sorry, couldn't help it! :grin: :thumbsup:

 

[Britsmoothy]

I was tracking a fox with little blood a few winters back then it snowed and ruined everything :td:

 

[Captjoel]

She may be the laziest couch potato around the house, but in the woods Ole Bessy will find more than I am looking for!

 

[Shifty]

Great picture there of Ole Bessy.

As far as tracking goes i can track deer that someone else shot a lot better than i can the ones i shot.

 

[kituwa]

Tracking is a lot more than following a blood trail or its foot prints. If there is a blood trail its easy, you just follow it to the deer,lol. It is when the blood stops that things get harder. You get a line on the direction it is headed. You look ahead and think about what a deer would do, what looks likey for a wounded animal to do or go to. Is there water close by?Was the deer pushed real hard soon after it was shot? More than a few times i would ask the person i was helping witch direction it headed after the shot and how many other deer where there only to find out that the deer they thought was they hit and ran out the left side of a field was in fact not the one they hit.And more than one time they thought was only one deer around at the shot was not the only deer around .You have to sort of think like the critter your after.

 

[Spikebuck]

Gene Wensel relates the tale of the first time he went to Africa. He said he had a young black guy as a tracker and he was absolutely amazed at this guy's skills. As he said, "Obviously, the sign was written right there for anyone to see, but I couldn't see it. Finally I just stood back and watched this guy and tried to learn something."

I have color vision deficiency, so blood trails are not easy for me...I can do it, but it takes a LOT longer than it takes others. But, on tough trails, I have often been the person that found the tiniest sign or the animal. Part of it is what Kituwa said...trying to get down to the eye-level of the animal, look at the "landscape" and think like a game animal. Part of my past success has been sheer will and determination. When others give up, I don't.

I'm not saying I'm some super-tracker, because I'm not, but I think there are characteristics of good trackers that are probably common...clearly the skill of observation is one, but how one thinks and being persistent are at least two more.

 

[robinsroost]

Here is a tip that may help with your tracking. Fill a small spray bottle with peroxide, the same stuff you keep in the bathroom. If you see a spot in the leaves and are not sure whether or not it is blood, spry the spot with peroxide. If it is blood, it will foam up like it does for a cut, if it doesn't foam up, look further. Keep yer powder dry.......robin :wink:

 

[Patocazador]

I can usually find a deer unless it is not hit bad. Of course, the shooter always says he shot in the neck, heart, lungs, etc. Almost always they missed or gut shot it.

I felt like a NYC novice when I went to Africa and a bushman did the tracking. He followed a kudu that the owner of the property had tried a neck shot on but missed, he thought. The bushman found 2 specks of blood on a leaf that was 6' off the ground. He followed its foot track for 700 yards as it went into a small bunch of other kudu and then exited. 2 hours later he pointed at the kudu about 250 yards away and the owner, with binocs, saw that his ear was perforated. They let him go because of where he was. It was in a swamp.

 

[sidelock]

I understand that. Search post 1257938 for sim. story.

 

[Captjoel]

On another note, and I hate to acknowledge down-side's to muzzle loading hunting, but all the smoke generated from your shot does cause problems seeing where your target game has run. I usually go by the direction they were facing just before the shot. This of coarse may or may not help locate a downed or wounded animal. When I find no sign in the immediate area of impact, I make small circles from there and very slowly branch out. Looking for the slightest clue. On really tough losses, I go back to my open air ground blind and sit down, close my eyes and meditate a total re-enactment of the shooting scene. Remembering any clue can be helpful. This may sound kind of silly, but I'll share it here among friends of like minds. When I successfully locate a hard to find downed deer, one that many hunter's would have given up on, I can actually feel the "spirits" of woods within me. It is an exhilarating rush that gives me great strength for the hard work ahead. Ole Dan'l Boone 'd be proud!

 

[Spikebuck]

...all the smoke generated from your shot does cause problems seeing where your target game has run. I usually go by the direction they were facing just before the shot.

The very first ML deer I ever shot (which was also my 1st with any kind of gun) was with perhaps 20+ other deer. When I shot her at 8 steps there was smoke and deer going everywhere! One deer that temporarily got caught in a fence 20 yards away momentarily diverted my attention flopping around, but got free. Being a bowhunter, I was used to seeing my arrow strike and clearly watching the hit deer run away. But this was pure chaos!

I went in the direction the deer was facing 100% sure that's the direction the doe had run as I thought I saw that happen AND it's frequently what they do, although many times they also whirl back to where they came from. 100 yards later I couldn't figure out why there was no blood yet as I surely couldn't miss at 8 steps. Went back to the beginning and immediately found excellent blood going the opposite direction. The deer was piled up about 60 yards further.

I think the smoke screen and temporary blocked view make tracking skills even more important in muzzleloader hunting, not to mention that, at least in my experience, broadheads leave a better blood trail that bullets do.

 

[George]

On another note, and I hate to acknowledge down-side's to muzzle loading hunting, but all the smoke generated from your shot does cause problems seeing where your target game has run.

A trick I've learned which has occasionally helped me when that happens is to listen for the deer. Several times I've heard deer run into things and make crash/thrash sound, or give a final dying grunt or bleat. Most of them go down within 50 yards, or so, and you can hear them quite plainly at that distance.

Spence

 

[Devodud]

I shot a doe several years ago that was with 2 others down a lane of over grown baby pines. At the shot every deer went a different direction, under the cover of smoke of course. The deer was 60 yards, I had a good rest, and the load was a stout 110 gr 777 and a .50 conical bullet. I found zero blood or hair at the impact site and the resulting circling around the impact site out to 100 yards resulted in finding nothing of merit.

Thinking I may have missed I started looking hard in the dirt for a bullet impact. Instead I found one little shard of lead, about the size of a pencil shaving, with silverskin on it!

I spent the next 2 hours following sparse tracks and snapped twigs away from the site in the directions each of the separate deer went. I eventually found the deer 350 yards away when I tripped on it buried in the palmetto bushes. The shot was perfect with both lungs and the very top of the heart pierced by the bullet. I have no idea why it didn't bleed or why it ran so far. Most hunters would have called it a miss and left her for the coyotes, lessons learned here!

 

[pab1]

I eventually found the deer 350 yards away when I tripped on it buried in the palmetto bushes. The shot was perfect with both lungs and the very top of the heart pierced by the bullet. I have no idea why it didn't bleed or why it ran so far. Most hunters would have called it a miss and left her for the coyotes, lessons learned here!

Excellent work finding that deer. In a recent post the fact was brought up that an animal hit with a perfect/textbook shot does not always go down in a short distance. This is yet another example. :thumbsup:

 

[Captjoel]

I too have had deer run incredible distances away from the shooting scene, after a well placed ball in the "kill zone" boiler room. My only explanation (stupid as it may sound) is that I must have shot the animal while it was inhaling it's lungs full of fresh northern air. Better to hold the shot until it exhales! :shocked2: Over the years of hunting I will admit that though I have recovered nearly all of the deer I have shot at, there were a couple that I could not find. Even after using every tracking trick in the book, no luck. That couple haunt me to this day!

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I have no idea why it didn't bleed or why it ran so far.

It's odd compared to the number of deer hit that don't do that....the last buck that I shot did the same thing. I have noticed that I've had to track almost all of the bucks that I've shot, short distances, but all were NOT within sight of the location where they were hit, while the does go down faster. I think lack of blood from time to time is because the body cavity is capturing it.

One of the advantages of the ML gun that I've found is that once an accurate load is determined, and the shooter stays within that accurate range, if nothing else is there to spoil the shot, one can be sure the deer was hit. I have spoken to fellows who complained they "missed today" and can't understand it as it was their pet muzzle loader load, and they had a good resting position, tight, and good sight picture, but no blood trail and the deer ran off. I've helped them find their deer by going back with them and not assuming anything other than the deer was hit and hit hard. Every time the deer was found much closer than the hunter thought.

It happened to me on my last buck, but I didn't stop looking. The buck was on the side of a very low hill, only about 40 yards from me, and I fired. He jerked, then went over the top of the hill to the other side. So I reloaded while waiting 20 minutes, then went to collect him. It was a broadside hit, after all, and he should be just over the rise.....nope.

A mowed field of grass on a defunct sod farm was where he went, and no blood trail. He should've been right there. There was a barn about fifty yards farther away and north of where he had stood, so maybe he went around it and was on the far side...nope.

Well after two hours, back and forth in the field, looking for sign and ignoring the tiny clump of near by, knee high grass, no wider than truck tire in diameter, I found him lying down behind the clump of grass. I'd walked within 20' of him many times.



I assumed it was too small to lay down behind and hide.

DUH-OH!

LD