Finding it after the shot

[Okanagan]

Brodieross' dandy video nudged some thoughts about finding down game into the front of my mind.   On this forum I'd guess we could post some good tips on finding down game and learn from each other.   Brodieross had a bit of trouble finding a down deer.  It was farther away than he thought so he was looking too close.  I did the same on a mule deer a few years ago.  A couple of actions will help enormously in finding the animal but they are often hard to remember to do in the excitement seconds after a shot.

1.  Mark the spot from where you shot. 
2.  Mark the spot where the animal was when you shot.

Where was I and where was the animal when the shot fired?  Nailing down those two locations IMO would eliminate many “killed it but never found it” stories (assuming the hunter can track moderately well). 

IE. My grandson had trouble finding his elk last week on a permit hunt.  He shot a cow at maybe 50 yards in mountain timber.   At the shot the cow ran behind some bushes and emerged on the other side running away with a herd.  He chased after her in a maze of elk tracks, no blood in sight, and eventually followed them 600 yards down the ridge.  Then he decided to go back to where he'd shot and work out her trail.  His dad, who is a very good tracker, and his cousin Code joined him there.

He went to the spot from which he shot, but could not find his empty brass.  He directed the others to where the elk was at the shot but they found no tracks let alone blood or hair.  Hmm...  Eventually they realized that he had run forward nearly 10 yards after he first saw the cow as he had maneuvered to get a good shot, which changed his perspective on where she had been standing.    They figured that out by back-trailing because his dad had started them on a careful sweep across the slope and had hit a pinch of elk hair beside a fresh elk track.   

Code found a speck of blood another ten yards along the same elk tracks, and the tracks turned straight downhill rather than going with the herd.   (A different cow had come out from behind the bushes his elk had gone behind).   Trailing a few yards farther they saw the cow standing only 75 yards down the slope from where she'd been hit hard on the first shot.  Grandson finished her.

My temptation, always, is to run toward the hit animal and after 60 years of hunting, sometimes I still forget to mark where I was at the shot.  As soon as we move, marking the second critical location (the spot where the animal was) gets harder, sometimes impossible.  Spoken as one who rarely shoots from any kind of stand. 

Tracking snow is invaluable in finding the spot of the shot again and gives us much more latitude in immediately chasing a critter to try to get a follow-up shot.

If I want to run after a critter, nowadays I often toss my cap down or hang it on a limb.  An orange vest makes a great marker.  At least scuff the ground or break down a limb or something to mark the spot of the shot.

If you cannot mark the precise spot where the animal was at the shot, try to mark a line from the shot location to the animal.  You have to do that before you move a step while keeping your eyes on the spot where the animal was.  If possible pick out a distinctive tree or peak beyond, in line with where the critter was.  I keep a compass in my shirt pocket for instant use and many times have quickly set a compass heading from the spot of the shot to the animal.  That takes only seconds.  If you mark the shot location with an orange vest and have a compass course, you can look back to the vest and keep walking the line away from it.  You WILL cross the spot where the animal was at the shot.

These may be obvious to old timers but not to newbies.  What are some other helps in finding down game?

[nastygunz]

 You can't beat a good tracking dog if you lose an animal, they are legal here.  I will pick a tree near where the animal took off from which isn't hard here because it's 98% forested  which can sometimes make finding an animal pretty tough.  Snow is your friend when it comes to tracking especially in the woods.

[pitw]

Birds.  Watch the birds as a magpie can be on the blood trail within minutes.  Never seems to matter how many times a person tells another to not go after a wounded animal right away how Adrenalin kicks a clock into super drive.   

[HaMeR]

Seeing the pics you post I fully understand the need to get on the trail right away.  All those deep ravines & sharp drops plus seeing larger numbers of animals at one time would dictate an immediate call to action after the shot in your parts. Here in East Central Ohio we don't have the terrain you have by any means so we do have the luxury of shooting then watching.

I do agree tho that it's very important to know your surroundings & terrain. Wounded deer prefer to run downhill in my experience. Whether bow or gun shot. Does most generally run. Bucks more than likely will head to the nearest thicket. If it's a long tracking job with a nice blood trail in the beginning then slowly drying up look for the nearest water hole. They will over heat & look for water if pushed far enough.

White hair on the ground near the POI is most generally bad news. Normally means a bad shot since there isn't any white hair on a deer near the vitals. Shot angle will dictate if you hit close to the vitals & left white hair.

[Okanagan]

Good stuff.  To clarify:  we usually don't start tracking immediately but give it some time to lie down and bleed out rather than spooking it into running farther.  We do go check the sign at the spot where the critter was hit to make sure it was hit, discover how much it is bleeding, location of the hit on the critter if possible (by hair, relation of blood to tracks, color of blood etc.) and then decide whether to give it more time.  I.e. Gouts of blood splashed out in cup quantities every step indicate a low chest heart shot and the critter can't survive that more than a minute or two, so no need to wait.  A hard rain that is washing out blood (common situation for us) means we go after it ASAP.  30 minutes is a good length of time to wait, and we prefer to wait an hour on big critters like elk that are hit with an arrow.  Each animal and situation is different.

Blood sign on my son's first deer indicated to me that we should go after it immediately and push the buck to keep his wound bleeding and not letting it clot and stop leaving a blood trail.  In an inch of melting snow, the blood trail was two rows of fine sprayed blood spots two feet apart with his hoof tracks in the middle.  It looked to me like he was hit in the neck and a small artery was spurting blood out both sides.  That turned out to be the case.   We tracked him over half a mile and the fine blood trail never stopped, not much at any one point but accumulated to be a lot of blood loss over time.  His blood pressure gradually dropped till the two lines of blood spots were three inches apart, dripping straight down from the entry and exit holes. 

One other bit:  When a good blood trail ends, the critter is probably dead not much farther.  He is bled out too much to bleed externally and can't go much farther.  Keep tracking and looking.  On my son's buck above, the blood trail stopped entirely.  With no more blood in mostly melted snow amid other deer tracks, we were having trouble staying with his track.  Rather than think that he had quit bleeding and gotten away, we figured that he had run out of blood to leak.  He was lying dead 50 yards beyond the last drop of blood. 

[HaMeR]

I see what you're saying. Good stuff for sure.

One other thing I forgot to mention is on blood trails. I've found that once the blood trail ends on the ground that doesn't necessarily mean there's no more blood trail. I've helped track deer before & when the ground doesn't show blood any longer I like to start looking for it on the top of the short vegetation that could be just tall enough to rub the blood off it's belly. Trees are another good source of blood trails. Anywhere from about 12" off the ground up to about 30". Animals sometimes rub against trees as they sort their way thru them. Especially if they are wavering from the blood loss.