Tracking Tips 101

[WapitiTalk1]

Tracking Tips

Always a good topic for discussion.

I'm sure many of us have had difficult tracking experiences; it goes with the sport. What are some of your tips for tracking elk once the arrow (or other projectile) has found it's mark? Let's skip past the standard ones that most big game hunters know (try to determine what type of hit it was, mark where you shot from, mark where the elk was standing, wait XX minutes before proceeding, mark every spot of bood). I'll throw out a couple.

1. Move slowly when tracking a hit elk. Stop often and listen.

2. An elk, even when hit well, may not bleed significantly for some pretty long stretches (depends on the hit, the hit angle, going uphill, downhill, etc.). Learn to tune in to the tracks of the target elk as much as the blood sign. This is crucial.

3. Realize that bright red/frothy blood does not necessarily signify a lung shot.

OK, these are just a very few. Tracking an elk after the shot is kind of an art and something that is learned through many years of doing it. Please throw out a few of your after the shot tracking tips.

[Elkduds]

Elk tracks disrupt the surface they cross, the trail looks different than undisturbed ground around it. Hard to describe, easier to see. Mud, snow, sand, dry leaves and needles make it easier to see the trail. If I see the target leave after the shot, I go to the place where the animal was when shot. I mark the spot and the direction it left, including the last place I had visual on it. Careful, don't push a wounded animal for @ least 30 min after the shot, longer is better.

Back @ the shot location, go CSI to figure out what happened. Look for blood, arrow, hair. This is easier w a buddy to direct to the spot while you stay where you shot. Likewise when tracking, one stays @ the last sure track or sign and points the direction to the other.

[Da White Shoe]

After the shot, if you need to confab with a partner or partners...
get together quietly and walk 200 yards in the oposite direction from where the elk ran off... before you do much talking.
It can be very difficult to converse quietly in the excitement of the moment. A bull that only ran off a short distance may hear you, get up and then, your job is going to be tougher finding him.
On that note, once you have decided on how much time you need to give him... judging from where the arrow hit... don't walk over to where the elk was standing or look for the arrow until after that time has expired.

[Tigger]

Go slow. I am always a little (or a lot) excited and want to move quickly. Stop frequently and look at your (and his) backtrail. Is he going in a straight line? Look ahead, where would I run if I was in a panic? But be prepared, because inevitably it seems, he will change direction for no apparent reason and go somewhere you are not anticipating.

Look left and right ahead of you. I have more experience with whitetails than elk, but many times that last jump they have, they go hard right or left.

And always, always, rub your lucky rabbits foot before you start.

[Mike_Parson]

i carry orange reflective tape with me. usually i hunt alone so its hard to sometimes remember exactly where you were standing and the animals spot and such in the excited moment. Once i have shot. i will place a strip of tape at my shooting location so i can remember where it was. then i walk to the targets spot and mark that as well. this way when i am searching for an arrow or blood in the immediate area i can still find the target spot. then i proceed with the stalk after a sufficient time has passed. i will mark along my trail as i go so i can maybe see a pattern to the direction so if i lose sign i have some help getting back on the path.

[CurlyTail]

Sometimes with a high double lung shot, it takes time to fill the chest cavity with blood, and you will not see much blood until the chest cavity fills to the level of your entry hole. No blood does not always mean a bad shot.

[Swede]

I have found downed game by going down wind of the animal. This can work well in the evening when the thermals are downslope. Just get in the draw or otherwise below where you think the animal should be and start checking for scent.

[mottlet]

A poorly hit (gut) whitetail will often head for water. Do elk have similar tendencies?

[Swede]

A poorly hit (gut) whitetail will often head for water. Do elk have similar tendencies?

I can't say they even go downhill. Elk are just tough that way. This I have observed, and surely many others have too. If an elk is hit hard, they will bed not far away. Usually that is under 200 yards from where they were shot. If you make a gut shot, leave the area and come back hours later. If the hit is well back allow 8 hours for them to die. They are a lot easier to find if you don't push them.

[Russel Reed]

Mark each spot of blood with toilet paper so you don't get off the trail. If you can't tell for sure if it is blood or just a red or brown spot on the ground, give it a spray of hydrogen peroxide. It will foam up if it is blood. If you have to track at night, blood will shine from the light of a coleman lantern if it is still fairly fresh.

[Lefty]

Ahh,.. I didn’t save what I wrote yesterday.
Practice during the off season.
Moving slow and silent and not moving until you see the next evidence.
My brother and I us to practice tracking deer a lot as young teenagers. We were often called to track lost game. Once we were paid $50.00 to track a deer down for a trophy hunter, while he sat on his stand hoping we would push the deer though.
One of the biggest problems is others messing up the spor, any sign that had been left.
Don’t advance until you see the next sign,.. Move slow and quiet. Slow and quiet has gotten us up on deer that had flesh wounds and had naturally bedded.
One time a fellow got way too excited and made a poor shot on a huge white-tail. He and his family gave up looking around noon. Our Dad took us out, we tracked the buck for 4 ½ hours and nearly four miles. We got on the track and an occasional speck of blood kept us going. The sun had just set. The family got jumpy and decided to leave. About the same time I motioned my dad up to the track. The buck jumped, and my dad dropped it 40 yards out. The original shot had pierced the scrotum. My dad was cordial and let the original shooter keep ‘his buck”. That was over 40 years ago. Last summer my brother was at some event, where that hunter was at showing off the buck,.. the story was much different than what my brother and I remember.
After the shot I mark where I shot from. Sometimes a jacket. Instead of tape I use toilet paper for marking as I go.
If you have another person their job is to look ahead at all times,.. from behind the tracker. Keep as quiet as possible, always.
The bull I shot when my nephew was tagging along, I thought I had made a good frontal shot , with no blood,.. I did find a speck of blood,..one speck. I was following track when my nephew started yelling “there it is, there it is”. Instantly I thought the bull was up, I looked and looked while trying to quiet my nephew,.. It was dead twenty feet away. I guess in the next minute I would have tripped on it.
In heavier cover look ahead where the animal may have gone, even without ground sign you can sometimes see turned leaves. Some sign will disappear, during rain,.. Some will be obvious, turned vegetation, wet on both sides.
Dew and frost can be very obvious but that can disappear as the morning goes on. My dad was the wait 45 minutes . A kill shot is a kill shot, And at times you shouldn’t wait.

Did I mentiuon Moving slow and silent and not moving until you see the next evidence.

[ishy]

If any of you hunt in the rain Blue Star is priceless. I have sung its praises before, but that stuff is one of the coolest inventions ever. Law enforcement uses it on crime scenes to light up blood. Even after suspects have scrubbed and tried to clean up it will still light up residual blood on them. For hunters they make a cheaper version that doesn't preserve DNA. You just mix with water in a spray bottle and use on the last known spot or track. Only works at night, and the darker the better. It even works better in the rain as the hemoglobin from blood just spreads out more. Any doubters need to buy some and spray anything you've packed with before and be amazed. I tried a pack frame I used months before and had washed, the thing still lit up!