I've tracked a lot of deer over the years. I was one of the founders of a suburban archery group in our area. Much of our hunting was on tiny woodlots where a homeowner wanted you to use nuclear weapons to kill deer that were wiping out their landscaping and the neighbor was feeding them as her "pets". In this kind of charged environment, short blood trails were imperative. We set a very high experience bar for membership when we started. Members were limited to broadside or slightly quartering away shots inside 20 yards from a treestand. There were very few lost deer and most had short blood trails. However, even when folks do everything right, things can go wrong. We had a phone bank members could call for difficult trails and others would come out to help.
One thing we found is that on a difficult blood trail, recovery success went up dramatically when 2 folks were involved. It is always good to have a second set of eyes, and some folks are simply better trailing than others, but the real advantage is peer pressure. When you lose a trail a couple times, it is easy to start thinking about how early you need to get to work the next day or to find an excuse to give-up. Just having a partner helping holds you accountable. This was also a great experience for me. I thought I was a decent blood trailer until I partnered with a few amazing guys.
Recovering deer requires a lot of context switching which is difficult for the new bowhunter. First, everything is in slow motion before the arrow is released. A good bowhunter is going through a detailed mental checklist and making sure everything is just right before releasing the arrow. The focus changes from a somewhat broad focus as you wait for the deer to present the proper shooting angle/distance and then narrows to the kill zone and finally to a tiny spot on the deer where you want the arrow to impact. Then suddenly as the arrow is released, the action goes high speed and very broad. You look for arrow impact, deer reaction, and the deer's exit path trying to mark the last position seen as well as listening for movement and hopefully a crash after the deer is out of sight.
Once you do get down and examine the impact site and hopefully the arrow, the focus narrows again. With a good low exit wound, a blood trail can be like a highway, but that doesn't always happen. As a blood trail becomes difficult, focus becomes super detailed. There are times where you can be on hands and knees and a droplet smaller than a pin head can keep a trail alive. Once a trial is lost, the focus broadens out again as you try to align markers and project a probably path for reacquisition.
All this context switching takes practice. It is part of the learning curve.
Things also change with hunting style. When I got the farm, I started to use ground blinds as well as tree stands. The first deer I shot out of a ground blind was a new experience for me. The shot was a great double lung shot, but the blood trail was almost non-existent. I had a great exit wound, but it was high because I was shooting from the same level as the deer. Most of the blood pooled up in the chest cavity making the blood trail very difficult.
Beyond the normal tools like a good bright light ( I haven't found anything better on a tough trail than a Coleman lantern), there are a couple more options. Several years ago, they made trailing dogs (on a leash) legal for bowhunters to find wounded deer. Another new technology approach is a FLIR (Forward Looking InfraRed). These have been used by the military and law enforcement for many years, but in recent years Pro-sumer level devices have entered the market. They run a couple K but are very valuable when trailing wounded deer. After losing the blood trail and being unable to reacquire it, I've located a number of deer by walking the projected path forward and scanning side to side with the FLIR.
Thanks,
Jack
