Learning Blood Trailing!

[N5J]

What is the best way to teach someone new to hunting/bowhunting to track and blood trail wounded animals? I was taught by tracking blood (red dye) throught the sage and tall grass. This gives you a basic idea of what to do BUT doesn't give you all the different situations you can run into. Experience is always the best teacher BUT how did you guys learn to track/blood trail?

N5J

James

[bullrub]

As you said by experience. No one really taught me how to blood trail, everything I learn was pretty much on my own, and a lot of time on my hands and kness's.
But the red dye idea sounds good for starters.Very Good guestion. I'm sure there are alot of guys out there,that learned just like I did.

[otcWill]

Only way to learn is by experience. That said, I have learned over the years to track as if you are expecting to find a live animal regardless of how perfect you think the shot is. Also, giving an animal extra time is almost always a good idea.

[planebow]

In our bowhunter ed classes we use glycerin with red dye to make up our fake blood. We try to lay out blood trails as realistic as possable.

[WapitiTalk1]

Experience here also (initially, on the job training with dad way, way back in the day). Experiece under all types of situations is the ultimate teacher but here's what I've learned over the years and follow as my rule set.

1. Try to determine the route the animal went to after the shot by visual and listening.. This helps a lot.
2. Mark where you shot from.
3. Mark where the animal was standing when he was hit.
4. Find the arrow for pass throughs, determine the kind of hit by a.) remembering where you think the impact of the arrow was on the animal and b.) the type of blood on the arrow if the arrow is found.
5. Wait for at least 1/2 hour on any shot unless you either saw the animal go down, or, heard him down and thrashing/moaning right before silence.
6. Following the tracks are almost as important as the blood trailing.. Sometimes, they don't bleed much for a variety of reasons. "Most" of the time, you can follow the tracks where they churned up the dirt all the way to the animal. Mix this in with the blood on the ground, blood on the brush on either side, logs they jump over with blood sign, or standing pools of blood when they stop for a few seconds will get you to the animal. Mark each significant bit of blood with a tiny piece of flagging ribbon or TP.
7. If you think it's a bad hit... Mark where you shot from, where the elk was standing at, and back out to let the bull lay down and get sick. A gut shot elk will take up to 12 hours or more to expire. You don't want to push him.

Sorry, got a bit long winded but this is the method I use with good success. RJ

[Swede]

I think a good dose of instruction and experience together are best to make a good tracker. As anyone who has followed wounded animals knows, sometimes it is amazingly easy, and sometimes it gets impossible. The experienced tracker can make the extremely difficult possible, at least sometimes. The first thing I would want the new hunter to do is flag the location the animal was at when hit. Then, unless it is raining or snowing, if at all reasonable, go get an experienced person from the party to help. The time the shooter is waiting and going after help gives the animal time to die. The experienced person can help with the decision on when to go after the animal based on what the shooter says about the hit. If I was the experienced tracker, I would explain briefly how to follow the tracks, how blood drops can show the direction the animal was going, How height of the blood can show where it was hit. Pools of blood show where the animal stopped, or where it bedded down. Explain these things as you track the animal. Explain the meaning of dark blood or foamy blood. Things I would show the shooter would include protecting the blood trail ahead, and monumenting the trail behind. When the trail became difficult to follow decide who will try to porject ahead to find blood or tracks, and who will make the detailed search of the area immediately in front of the last known track or spot of blood. Ok its getting late. Lets get started. We don't have a lot of daylight left. Keep a good lookout for your animal.

[N5J]

I've found this isn't taught as much in hunter safety as compared to bowhunter saftey. Just trying to find ways to teach this to younger and even older folks. Thanks for the inputs.

N5J

James

[elkohalic]

Experience here also (initially, on the job training with dad way, way back in the day). Experiece under all types of situations is the ultimate teacher but here's what I've learned over the years and follow as my rule set.

1. Try to determine the route the animal went to after the shot by visual and listening.. This helps a lot.
2. Mark where you shot from.
3. Mark where the animal was standing when he was hit.
4. Find the arrow for pass throughs, determine the kind of hit by a.) remembering where you think the impact of the arrow was on the animal and b.) the type of blood on the arrow if the arrow is found.
5. Wait for at least 1/2 hour on any shot unless you either saw the animal go down, or, heard him down and thrashing/moaning right before silence.
6. Following the tracks are almost as important as the blood trailing.. Sometimes, they don't bleed much for a variety of reasons. "Most" of the time, you can follow the tracks where they churned up the dirt all the way to the animal. Mix this in with the blood on the ground, blood on the brush on either side, logs they jump over with blood sign, or standing pools of blood when they stop for a few seconds will get you to the animal. Mark each significant bit of blood with a tiny piece of flagging ribbon or TP.
7. If you think it's a bad hit... Mark where you shot from, where the elk was standing at, and back out to let the bull lay down and get sick. A gut shot elk will take up to 12 hours or more to expire. You don't want to push him.

Sorry, got a bit long winded but this is the method I use with good success. RJ

That about sums it up !!


Not sure about elk, but a gutshot whitetail will almost always head to water. They get a fever [ hightemp.] and need to cool down. You can usually find them laying in a creek or pond

[2OArchery]

Experience here also (initially, on the job training with dad way, way back in the day). Experiece under all types of situations is the ultimate teacher but here's what I've learned over the years and follow as my rule set.

1. Try to determine the route the animal went to after the shot by visual and listening.. This helps a lot.
2. Mark where you shot from.
3. Mark where the animal was standing when he was hit.
4. Find the arrow for pass throughs, determine the kind of hit by a.) remembering where you think the impact of the arrow was on the animal and b.) the type of blood on the arrow if the arrow is found.
5. Wait for at least 1/2 hour on any shot unless you either saw the animal go down, or, heard him down and thrashing/moaning right before silence.
6. Following the tracks are almost as important as the blood trailing.. Sometimes, they don't bleed much for a variety of reasons. "Most" of the time, you can follow the tracks where they churned up the dirt all the way to the animal. Mix this in with the blood on the ground, blood on the brush on either side, logs they jump over with blood sign, or standing pools of blood when they stop for a few seconds will get you to the animal. Mark each significant bit of blood with a tiny piece of flagging ribbon or TP.
7. If you think it's a bad hit... Mark where you shot from, where the elk was standing at, and back out to let the bull lay down and get sick. A gut shot elk will take up to 12 hours or more to expire. You don't want to push him.

Sorry, got a bit long winded but this is the method I use with good success. RJ

I always carry a roll of flagging tape. Its very usefull in this exact scenario. I mark everything (if I don't see the animal go down) where I was when I shot, where the animal was when I shot, the last place I saw the animal, the blood trail every 10-40 yards, depending on the terrain and the amount of blood. This has been invaluable when hunting with partners, especially when two guys are shooting at two different animals at the same time. Or if you have to come back in the morning, its very easy to pick up the trail again.

[>>>---WW---->]

I carry a roll of TP and mark every bit of sign I find with it. If you happen to loose the trail, you can always look back at the sheets of white paper and get a general idea of which way the trail is going. It has helped me out many times in the past. Another plus to using TP instead of flagging tape is that you don't have to go back and pick it up.

Another trick is to spray hydrogen peroxide on anything that even resembles blood. It doesn't matter if it is fresh blood or a trail that is several hours old. If it is blood, it will react to the peroxide by foaming up.

[Lefty]

Lots of practice


In a sence "blood trailing " is easy you have red blood to follow ,.. go slow, see the next blood before moving,
My last rifel bull had a single pin drop of blood on 140 yard trail(frontal heart shot) We followed track /sign in dry ground

The only way to get good is to get on tracks and follow them. Any time of the year.Every kind of animal
My brother and I started as kids,.. following everything in the snow, then good wet conditions, then good dirt,
Good trailing isnt blood trails,

[stickflngr]

I figured out many years ago that Id never learn to track wounded animals very well because here you can only shoot 1 deer and elk a year and that dont lead to much experience. So I started asking all the camps around me if I could help if they shot something and in turn Id help them pack it out when we found it.

Well over the years Ive got to learn from some very good tracking folks and made many friends along the way. Little tricks like hydrogen peroxide, turning over leaves on the ground to find blood underneath , getting low to the ground so your at the same level with a tough blood trail to see it better. The other thing I learned was to look at the shot sight and try to determine where you hit the deer by hair on the ground and reading blood splatter to determine direction of travel.

Other things like learning to read the blood on an arrow to give hints as whether it was a good shot ( pink blood with bubbles), dark blood ( muscle hit) very dark blood (liver) or a very oily stinky arrow indicating a gut shot. Also hints on the trial like blood in a bed with no animal is a good sign that your pushing the animal and should back out..

and (for me) the dreaded grid search when you've lost blood and tracks altogether. There's many other tricks to tracking that will come out in this thread that Ill be watching for but as said above the best teacher is experience... Shoot straight and track hard

[N5J]

Thanks for the inputs...a lot of good info. I've tracked my share of animals and most turned out well while some NOT so well! I've feel most want to give up to soon if they don't find blood right away. Patients, working slow, and staying after the tracks and blood trail has worked well for me.

N5J

James

[Blackhorn]

Tip I learned from experiance is looking or listining for flys and hornets. They love the blood and often times you can spot the bugs before the blood.