After the shot - your experience

[Someday isle]

My situation - I’m a small property owner, 36 acres, we’re just your average deer hunters. We’ll of course shoot a big deer given the opportunity and we sure get excited when we see them on camera. Mostly we enjoy hunting and the taste of venison. Last year we put three deer in the freezer. We’re down to six lbs of burger and one backstrap. So it’s time to refill. Only my third sit of the year and my intention was to take the first decent shot opportunity I got and put a deer in the freezer. Opportunity presented itself on an antlerless deer, turned out to be a button buck. I know some people have opinions on shooting button bucks but that’s a topic for another time.

Here’s my story and the purpose of the thread - what I thought was a solid shot turned into a tracking and trailing challenge. I’ll share what I did, how both experience and luck prevailed, and how I eventually recovered this deer. I know there are lots of very experienced hunters on here but also some new ones. I’m probably right in the middle. Share how your experience has helped you trail a wounded or fatally shot deer. Small tidbits of information or full stories are great and we can all learn from them.

Pretty mundane story to start with. I had just texted my wife that it’s been really dry. Our food plots were struggling and not showing much use. To top it off there was a storm in Springfield, about two hours drive from us, and headed our way. My previous sit had also been cut short by a pop up storm. I told her it might just be one of those years but you can’t shoot them if you’re not out there. I was going to stick it out until 6 p.m. and then get out before the storms hit.

Less than twenty minutes later along came this deer. I took what I thought was pretty close to a broadside shot right at 20 yards. Seemed like a good hit but maybe just a tiny bit high and a little further back than a heart shot. I for sure thought double lung. Great impact sound, the arrow passed through and both the deer and the arrow actually spun around 180 degrees after the pass through.

Normally I’d wait a half hour after a shot like that but knowing there was a storm coming within an hour or an hour and a half I gave it twenty minutes. I climbed down, went to the truck and dropped off some stuff I didn’t need and went back to the spot where I knew the arrow was laying. Picked up my arrow and it was covered in good blood. So far so good. Only a couple drops of blood initially. Not too unusual for a shot that might have been a little high. I figured once the chest cavity filled with blood I’d eventually start seeing more blood. I never did. Tracking was slow. I knew from past experience that an arrow shot deer will often travel initially in the direction that the arrow was headed. That was the case with this deer. A few drops here and there. Being dry and dusty was a benefit for a while because the deer followed one of my food plot trails for about fifty yards and where I couldn’t see blood I could see where dust was kicked up and could slowly follow those spots until I’d find another small drop of blood. After about fifty yards the deer turned into the woods. By now the sky was becoming overcast and I really started to worry about rain. It was still an hour before sunset but I already had my flashlight out looking for blood and other sign. After about 100 yards I quit seeing any blood. I had some pink survey tape that I was using to mark my last blood every time I lost the track. I looked back at the direction of the trail then began slowly walking in semi circles out in front of the path hoping to see something. I found a pile of fresh deer droppings. I’ve seen this before in a deer that was fatally hit. I made the calculated assumption that it was from my deer and proceeded again from that spot. Then the rains came. I probably should have left the woods until the storm passed but I kept going. By this time I knew it was raining too hard to find any blood since it was so sparse anyway.

I kept replaying the shot in my head and still was very confident that it had been a good shot. I was getting frustrated by the lack of blood but still believed it too be a good shot. I now decided to,change my approach. I knew I wouldn’t find any blood so I started circling around the last sign and instead of looking down for blood I looked outward hoping to see a deer instead. That finally paid off. I found him laying at the bottom of a small hill right behind a wet weather creek. He had only gone about 200 yards. My entrance hole was right where I thought it would be. Just a little high but still in the lung area. He must’ve been quartered towards me at a sharper angle than I thought though because the exit was low in front of the rear hind quarter. I had only hit one lung. I was mostly lucky to find him, and I should have waited out the storm and not been in the woods with lighting around me, but I also think that past experience had told me it was a dead deer and that I was confident in how I was trailing him because I had an idea of where to go and how to go about it. What seemed like a long and arduous task ended with a deer in the back of the truck almost two hours after the shot.

Please share your tracking experience.

 

[trampledbyturtles]

Weird stuff can and will happen.

Couple things I noted over the last few years that most people probably know but were new for me.

1: The hit deer seemed to bed looking back where the "danger" came from, watching their escape trail.
2: Before I found one, I was repeatedly getting wiffs of something dead. Thought it was just the smell of the arrow in my quiver. Turns out after another 20min of blood trailing he was laying straight up wind of me. Just not one of the senses I nornally use on the trail. But will be more aware of in the future.

 

[j-bird]

Like mentioned you can sometimes smell deer before you see/find them. Especially gut shot or really rutted up bucks.

Deer do not follow rules....they will do all the things so called experts swear they won't do. Follow the sign....think like a hurt deer. Path of least resistance and thick cover, less exertion.....

Be prepared to find very small sign. I have seen very weak sign from deer hit high. I find myself down on hands and knees at times....

Follow up "misses". I have zipped a deer at 10 yards and watched it jump only to trot 10 yards or so and stand there and look around and simply wander off like nothing was wrong. It fell over about 100 yards later.

Don't go after deer that are not dead. I am VERY guilty of this. I have dropped deer in their tracks....only to have them get up minutes later. I have had a buck pull away from me before as well....I about wet my pants! and of course I have bumped deer that led to far worse recoveries. And take whatever weapon is legal when you trail! I had one jump on me and I could only watch.....talk about feeling stupid!

Despite this list I find far more than I have lost, but I certainly don't make it easy on myself at times.

Grid searching and even the house dog can help at times. I also like flagging the trail so I can see the direction of travel to help make some "guesses" if needed.

A good light and some marking tape/ribbon is worth it's weight in gold for tracking. Also - make sure your cell phone is secure and the ringer is on!

 

[35-acre]

I have an app called Viewranger on my phone. I use that app to track me while I am trailing. I mark blood sign with waypoints plus it has a line and arrow showing my direction (deer's direction) of travel. It has various maps. I use the hybrid open cycle map. It has topography and state game lands. I guess this is the more modern version of the flagging tape.

I know that there are other apps, just one that I've been using for years.

 

[John-W-WI]

Sounds like you did everything right given the circumstances.... One thing I would add is to use toilet paper rather than flagging tape. Drop a square every time you know you are on the track. Makes projecting the direction of the animal easy and nothing to pick up.

That quartering toward/away is always easy to mis-judge. Error on the side of quartering away

-John

 

[bigbendmarine]

Lessons learned the painful way over the years (and appreciate some will be VERY obvious to all but complete noob hunters)...

After taking a shot do everything possible to mentally mark EXACTLY where a hit animal runs before mentally releasing/taking a break. With the lay of my land favoring evening hunts and tracking often starting near last light, it's such a time saver to be able to start tracking at the last point the animal was visible.

If you're confident of your shot placement don't get too discouraged when a blood trail gives out and switch to a grid type search for an area encompassing at least a few hundred yards. I've had several bucks I've quickly found this way that would have laid for many more hours, or even overnight with coyotes sure to feast on them, had I not switched gears to a grid style search. At least two of them were within 100 yards or so but had run down into thick boggy areas. For that matter, fat on bigger hogs often plug up shot holes so that they leave very little blood outside of whatever spot they eventually fall, so again I've moved to be quicker to try a grid search on all game I shoot AS LONG as I feel very confident the shot hit vitals and I sat still an adequate amount of time in the stand before starting my searches.

While this hasn't proven 100 true, I'd say about 3 out of 4 hits I've made that didn't instantly drop game found the animals running downhill into wetter areas. The wet areas in my woods include small gully-pockets and I always search them carefully when I approach one in my search as more than once I've had game end their runs by dropping into the low spots, making them very easy to overlook without an adequate scan of the low spots.

If you're hunting in / near a wooded area and blood tracking and a quick grid search don't work, be sure to push your search at least a few hundred yards in each direction around your stand and not just the direction the shot deer first traveled. Only deer that took me more than a day to find was one I hit SOLID with a 30/30 round at only 30 yards. I KNEW I hit it cleanly, with it briefly knocked down, only to have it run leaving a solid blood trail into a woodline to then have the blood trail completely trickle out. Buzzards helped me find the buck a couple of days later and it turned out that after getting to the treeline he'd run along the outside edge of the field I was hunting and circled around to the woods ACROSS the field I was hunting / the opposite direction he'd first run. He was only about 150 yards away, but my stubborn boneheadeness / ignorance at the time had me so stuck on expanding my search in the same direction he first ran that I walked a HUGE block area for almost a full day without giving pause to simply check a much smaller circular area around my stand.

Now for a few "don't"s... be slow to ask non-hunting friends for help unless you have the patience to supervise them as they can do more harm than good, at least in a night search, by actually rushedly stepping on / damaging blood trails making them harder to track, and they can be prone to overlooking game if they're not fully devoted to the search...

And finally, resist the temptation to ever use a great dane as a tracking dog. I've used a family pet lab with success once, and based on that positive experience out of desperation I once tried using one of my great danes... and it went something like this... repeatedly...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/femail/video-1422017/A-Great-Dane-powerful-lady-loses-control.html

 

[j-bird]

Lessons learned the painful way over the years (and appreciate some will be VERY obvious to all but complete noob hunters)...

After taking a shot do everything possible to mentally mark EXACTLY where a hit animal runs before mentally releasing/taking a break. With the lay of my land favoring evening hunts and tracking often starting near last light, it's such a time saver to be able to start tracking at the last point the animal was visible.

If you're confident of your shot placement don't get too discouraged when a blood trail gives out and switch to a grid type search for an area encompassing at least a few hundred yards. I've had several bucks I've quickly found this way that would have laid for many more hours, or even overnight with coyotes sure to feast on them, had I not switched gears to a grid style search. At least two of them were within 100 yards or so but had run down into thick boggy areas. For that matter, fat on bigger hogs often plug up shot holes so that they leave very little blood outside of whatever spot they eventually fall, so again I've moved to be quicker to try a grid search on all game I shoot AS LONG as I feel very confident the shot hit vitals and I sat still an adequate amount of time in the stand before starting my searches.

While this hasn't proven 100 true, I'd say about 3 out of 4 hits I've made that didn't instantly drop game found the animals running downhill into wetter areas. The wet areas in my woods include small gully-pockets and I always search them carefully when I approach one in my search as more than once I've had game end their runs by dropping into the low spots, making them very easy to overlook without an adequate scan of the low spots.

If you're hunting in / near a wooded area and blood tracking and a quick grid search don't work, be sure to push your search at least a few hundred yards in each direction around your stand and not just the direction the shot deer first traveled. Only deer that took me more than a day to find was one I hit SOLID with a 30/30 round at only 30 yards. I KNEW I hit it cleanly, with it briefly knocked down, only to have it run leaving a solid blood trail into a woodline to then have the blood trail completely trickle out. Buzzards helped me find the buck a couple of days later and it turned out that after getting to the treeline he'd run along the outside edge of the field I was hunting and circled around to the woods ACROSS the field I was hunting / the opposite direction he'd first run. He was only about 150 yards away, but my stubborn boneheadeness / ignorance at the time had me so stuck on expanding my search in the same direction he first ran that I walked a HUGE block area for almost a full day without giving pause to simply check a much smaller circular area around my stand.

Now for a few "don't"s... be slow to ask non-hunting friends for help unless you have the patience to supervise them as they can do more harm than good, at least in a night search, by actually rushedly stepping on / damaging blood trails making them harder to track, and they can be prone to overlooking game if they're not fully devoted to the search...

And finally, resist the temptation to ever use a great dane as a tracking dog. I've used a family pet lab with success once, and based on that positive experience out of desperation I once tried using one of my great danes... and it went something like this... repeatedly...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/femail/video-1422017/A-Great-Dane-powerful-lady-loses-control.html

I second this^^^^^ not all help is helpful!

 

[Lee Haakenson]

Ive shot two deer where the arrow entered where i wanted, but deflected inside the body. One was a steep angle shot, aiming higher on the ribs. Arrow deflected up off ribs and hit the spine versus coming out lower chest. The other was quartering away and arrow deflected forward. It entered in the lung are, turned left and came out neck. Got pics of that buck 3 days later alive and found it months later. One of these deer was shot with stinger magnus buzz cut fixed blade and the other with a 2 blade rage. Wierd stuff happens. Only had these deflections occur from tree stand shots. Shot many deer from ground blinds and never had that happen. I now rely on the appearance of the initial blood trail to decide to continue tracking or wait it out. Most deer ive shot went the direction the arrow was pointing. Never though of that until reading this thread

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[yoderjac]

My situation - I’m a small property owner, 36 acres, we’re just your average deer hunters. We’ll of course shoot a big deer given the opportunity and we sure get excited when we see them on camera. Mostly we enjoy hunting and the taste of venison. Last year we put three deer in the freezer. We’re down to six lbs of burger and one backstrap. So it’s time to refill. Only my third sit of the year and my intention was to take the first decent shot opportunity I got and put a deer in the freezer. Opportunity presented itself on an antlerless deer, turned out to be a button buck. I know some people have opinions on shooting button bucks but that’s a topic for another time.

Here’s my story and the purpose of the thread - what I thought was a solid shot turned into a tracking and trailing challenge. I’ll share what I did, how both experience and luck prevailed, and how I eventually recovered this deer. I know there are lots of very experienced hunters on here but also some new ones. I’m probably right in the middle. Share how your experience has helped you trail a wounded or fatally shot deer. Small tidbits of information or full stories are great and we can all learn from them.

Pretty mundane story to start with. I had just texted my wife that it’s been really dry. Our food plots were struggling and not showing much use. To top it off there was a storm in Springfield, about two hours drive from us, and headed our way. My previous sit had also been cut short by a pop up storm. I told her it might just be one of those years but you can’t shoot them if you’re not out there. I was going to stick it out until 6 p.m. and then get out before the storms hit.

Less than twenty minutes later along came this deer. I took what I thought was pretty close to a broadside shot right at 20 yards. Seemed like a good hit but maybe just a tiny bit high and a little further back than a heart shot. I for sure thought double lung. Great impact sound, the arrow passed through and both the deer and the arrow actually spun around 180 degrees after the pass through.

Normally I’d wait a half hour after a shot like that but knowing there was a storm coming within an hour or an hour and a half I gave it twenty minutes. I climbed down, went to the truck and dropped off some stuff I didn’t need and went back to the spot where I knew the arrow was laying. Picked up my arrow and it was covered in good blood. So far so good. Only a couple drops of blood initially. Not too unusual for a shot that might have been a little high. I figured once the chest cavity filled with blood I’d eventually start seeing more blood. I never did. Tracking was slow. I knew from past experience that an arrow shot deer will often travel initially in the direction that the arrow was headed. That was the case with this deer. A few drops here and there. Being dry and dusty was a benefit for a while because the deer followed one of my food plot trails for about fifty yards and where I couldn’t see blood I could see where dust was kicked up and could slowly follow those spots until I’d find another small drop of blood. After about fifty yards the deer turned into the woods. By now the sky was becoming overcast and I really started to worry about rain. It was still an hour before sunset but I already had my flashlight out looking for blood and other sign. After about 100 yards I quit seeing any blood. I had some pink survey tape that I was using to mark my last blood every time I lost the track. I looked back at the direction of the trail then began slowly walking in semi circles out in front of the path hoping to see something. I found a pile of fresh deer droppings. I’ve seen this before in a deer that was fatally hit. I made the calculated assumption that it was from my deer and proceeded again from that spot. Then the rains came. I probably should have left the woods until the storm passed but I kept going. By this time I knew it was raining too hard to find any blood since it was so sparse anyway.

I kept replaying the shot in my head and still was very confident that it had been a good shot. I was getting frustrated by the lack of blood but still believed it too be a good shot. I now decided to,change my approach. I knew I wouldn’t find any blood so I started circling around the last sign and instead of looking down for blood I looked outward hoping to see a deer instead. That finally paid off. I found him laying at the bottom of a small hill right behind a wet weather creek. He had only gone about 200 yards. My entrance hole was right where I thought it would be. Just a little high but still in the lung area. He must’ve been quartered towards me at a sharper angle than I thought though because the exit was low in front of the rear hind quarter. I had only hit one lung. I was mostly lucky to find him, and I should have waited out the storm and not been in the woods with lighting around me, but I also think that past experience had told me it was a dead deer and that I was confident in how I was trailing him because I had an idea of where to go and how to go about it. What seemed like a long and arduous task ended with a deer in the back of the truck almost two hours after the shot.

Please share your tracking experience.

I've had a lot of tough blood trails and lost my share of deer. Years ago, I was one of the founders of Suburban Whitetail Management of Northern Virginia, a suburban population control bowhunting group. Because of the sensitive small properties, recovery was vital. Beyond all of the things we did to minimize chances of a poor hit, we also instituted a recovery rule. Basically, if you don't find the deer, you call someone else in the organization who comes out to help. We required at least a 2-man consensus of experienced bowhunters that the deer was not recoverable.

That gave me a lot of experience tracking deer for others, and I got to rub shoulders with some incredible blood trailers. For some reason, a Coleman lantern makes blood more visible than the very bright flashlights (which are more convenient) that you can buy today. I've also done a reasonable amount of self-videoing bowhunts. I've been amazed at the difference between what I saw (or thought I saw) and what the video showed in terms of shot. Beyond jumping the string, deer often move naturally between the time our brain says "release" and the time the arrow arrives.

Your case is pretty common. An exit through the paunch clogs the hole causing the blood to pool in the chest leaving no blood trail to speak of. One thing many new bowhunters do is to look at where they want their arrow to impact the deer and focus on that spot. Our brains forget deer are 3D animals. One key is to always focus on where the arrow will exit before you release. They will help decide if a deer is really broadside or slightly quartering toward you. Keep in mind that deer move, so that even when you do everything right, things can go wrong.

You did all the right thing trailing in general. There are a couple things I've found that are helpful on tough blood trails. The first is a trained dog on a leash. Check our state regs before doing this. The second is technology. This is probably too expensive for the average hunter, but since I was doing a lot of trailing for others as well as myself, I got one. It is a Forward Looking InfraRed (FLIR) device. It works best after dark. If there is line of sight to any part of the deer you will find it. It is great when you get to the point of walking circles from the last sign.

I just had an interesting trailing job on opening day. I shot a gobbler that ran off with the arrow in it. I waited until dark and went to the last point I saw it run into the pines and scanned around with the flashlight and FLIR. With turkey, there is rarely much blood because of the feathers, but I got lucky. I happened to look down and there was blood at my feet. There was no trail, but I had at least two points, were the bird entered the pines and the blood. I took a few more steps forward looking for blood and finding none. I started to do another scan with my flashlight but before I could I saw a little red light. It was my illuminated nock. Fortunately, the arrow was standing near vertical leaning against a pine. I scanned as I walked the 30 yards or so to the arrow and found the bird in a dip about 10 yards further.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[yoderjac]

I have an app called Viewranger on my phone. I use that app to track me while I am trailing. I mark blood sign with waypoints plus it has a line and arrow showing my direction (deer's direction) of travel. It has various maps. I use the hybrid open cycle map. It has topography and state game lands. I guess this is the more modern version of the flagging tape.

I know that there are other apps, just one that I've been using for years.

This is a great way to augment flagging tape or toilet paper, but not a substitute. General GPS accuracy is about 10 meters. In the dark, it is hard to find blood again, especially as it degrades over time. if you only know the trail is within 10 meters. In wooded environments, I like to hang reflective flagging tape from a sapling over the blood and drop some toilet paper on it. I don't know how many times I thought the back trail was at a different angle than it actually was. Being able to turn around with a flashlight and easily see the back trail at eye level, really helps when sign gets scant. I've been on trails where there may be a gap of 40 yards or more before I've found a tiny blood droplet. Deer do turn sharply, especially if pushed, but that is the exception not the rule.

I love playing with new technology and it can really be an aid, but it is rarely a full substitute. One good example is that FLIR. When I first got it, I tried just going to where I last heard or saw the deer and start scanning to save time because it seemed so effective. I was amazed at how rarely that works. When teaching new hunter to blood trail, after they have the basics down, I let them lead. I walk behind them with the FLIR. I've been amazed how often this happens. The blood trail will end. I will spot the deer within 30 yards using the FLIR. They will continue to look for blood, never find more, and start doing circle or grid searches from that last sign. It is not uncommon for them to look for 45 minutes in the dark with flashlights before finding a deer that was 30 yards away. Depending on the cover, terrain, and the position the deer is in, it can be very difficult. It is also not uncommon for them to come back and say "it must have been a flesh wound" ready to give up. In daylight, they would easily find that deer.

The point is this, while that FLIR can make a huge difference in finding dead deer, by itself it is not as good as blood trailing skills. However, when you combine good bloodtrailing with this new technology, you can find a lot more dead deer a lot more quickly.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[yoderjac]

Just had another tough blood trail last night. Details are here: http://www.habitat-talk.com/index.php?threads/new-crossbow.11472/page-2#post-209612

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Tap]

Add some Luminol to your box of gear. Its a blood finding agent used in forensics and police investigation of crime scenes. The stuff is for real...its not a gimmick.
The best part is that rain cannot truly wash blood away...Luminol finds blood after substantial rain. In fact, it works better AFTER rain.
Since it glows when sprayed on blood, Luminol is used only at night, with no light. Mix it in a spray bottle and spray where the wounded deer ran. If there is blood, Luminol will find it.
Google Bloodglow, or Bluestar.
I get mine from Bloodglow, sold by Jerry Allen.

 

[ksgobbler]

Shot a doe tonight. Watched her bed down and thought she was out. Went to go get her and she gone.
Point of impact

Where she was bedded

Blood trail after her bed wasnt great so I backed out.

 

[Crimson n' Camo]

I’m starting my sixth season of blood trailing deer with dogs for the general public and we’re tracking around 80-100 deer a year now. I’ve also killed around 150 deer of my own that I’ve tracked. I’m not trying to say that in order to brag but rather so you know that the things I’m about to say come from a good deal of experience and not just from a few deer I’ve chased after.

The most important thing I could tell anyone about tracking and recovering deer is being patient and waiting the proper amount of time after the shot to track it. If you don’t see the deer crash and go down then don’t assume it’s a good hit and go after it. Everyone assumes the best scenario and we’re often wrong. Our brain plays tricks on us when hit with big doses of adrenaline and what we often think we saw happen is not what actually occurred. Play it conservatively and give the deer PLENTY of time to expire. Thirty minutes is nothing…..an hour is nothing. If you haven’t smoked the deer through the heart or lungs then it may take hours for it to expire. I commonly find them 12-16 hrs after the shot still alive. What I commonly find as well is that most deer that are badly wounded will bed up quickly. They most often times bed up anywhere from 50-300 yards from the hit site and its only when the hunter comes in behind the tracking too early that they jump up and travel long distances. If there’s any doubt then back out. The worst thing you can do is to jump him up out of that initial bed and trigger his flight response. Until the hunter gets after them tracking, I don’t think most deer even know what happened. They simply know that they got injured somehow and they need to get somewhere that they can lay low and recover. If able to do so, many deer will eventually try and circle back to their normal bedding area that they feel safe in.

 

[Someday isle]

Love these responses - that’s why I started this thread. There are so many experiences and so many of us with differing degrees of experience. All of these thoughts may some day help one of us recover a deer we might otherwise have lost.

 

[Bill]

I’m starting my sixth season of blood trailing deer with dogs for the general public and we’re tracking around 80-100 deer a year now. I’ve also killed around 150 deer of my own that I’ve tracked. I’m not trying to say that in order to brag but rather so you know that the things I’m about to say come from a good deal of experience and not just from a few deer I’ve chased after.

The most important thing I could tell anyone about tracking and recovering deer is being patient and waiting the proper amount of time after the shot to track it. If you don’t see the deer crash and go down then don’t assume it’s a good hit and go after it. Everyone assumes the best scenario and we’re often wrong. Our brain plays tricks on us when hit with big doses of adrenaline and what we often think we saw happen is not what actually occurred. Play it conservatively and give the deer PLENTY of time to expire. Thirty minutes is nothing…..an hour is nothing. If you haven’t smoked the deer through the heart or lungs then it may take hours for it to expire. I commonly find them 12-16 hrs after the shot still alive. What I commonly find as well is that most deer that are badly wounded will bed up quickly. They most often times bed up anywhere from 50-300 yards from the hit site and its only when the hunter comes in behind the tracking too early that they jump up and travel long distances. If there’s any doubt then back out. The worst thing you can do is to jump him up out of that initial bed and trigger his flight response. Until the hunter gets after them tracking, I don’t think most deer even know what happened. They simply know that they got injured somehow and they need to get somewhere that they can lay low and recover. If able to do so, many deer will eventually try and circle back to their normal bedding area that they feel safe in.

^^^^This is it for me...

Last year the buck I shot made it 80 yards across a small plot and into the woods. I watched him stand for a moment. Seemed like an hour. Then I lost sight of him.. figured he went down hill. Two hours later I went quietly to my arrow and didn’t like the looks of things and backed out. 8 AM the next morning he was dead with in 20 yards of where I saw him standing.

I’m sure if I pushed on the night before I would have bumped him and never saw him again. Very hard to do with a deer you were targeting for two years.

 

[yoderjac]

Add some Luminol to your box of gear. Its a blood finding agent used in forensics and police investigation of crime scenes. The stuff is for real...its not a gimmick.
The best part is that rain cannot truly wash blood away...Luminol finds blood after substantial rain. In fact, it works better AFTER rain.
Since it glows when sprayed on blood, Luminol is used only at night, with no light. Mix it in a spray bottle and spray where the wounded deer ran. If there is blood, Luminol will find it.
Google Bloodglow, or Bluestar.
I get mine from Bloodglow, sold by Jerry Allen.

I think Luminol could be great if you are trying to answer the question "Is that redish spec I see really blood or not?". Is there a practical way to use it to find blood? On a thin blood trail, when finding blood is hard, it seems like there is a lot of area where there is no blood that one would be spraying. With experience, I'm pretty good at differentiating blood from bits of red on vegetation. Are you suggesting that on a thin blood trail, there is blood between the drips we find that is not visible to the human eye without Luminol? I feel like I'd be spraying and only seeing blood where I would find it without the Luminol. Please elaborate more!

 

[yoderjac]

Shot a doe tonight. Watched her bed down and thought she was out. Went to go get her and she gone.
Point of impact
View attachment 26674
Where she was bedded
View attachment 26675
Blood trail after her bed wasnt great so I backed out.

If you are at all concerned, backing out is usually the right thing to do. As shot that only picks up one lung and goes through the paunch will often kill a deer and show good blood at the impact site. Such a deer will usually lay down, and if not disturbed, die in that bed. Deer blood coagulates quickly and stomach content, leaves, and debris from the bed can clog the wound. If pushed and the deer moves from that bed, there is often little if any blood trail from there to where the deer dies. If pushed they can travel quite a distance in that condition.

Good Choice!

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Tap]

I think Luminol could be great if you are trying to answer the question "Is that redish spec I see really blood or not?". Is there a practical way to use it to find blood? On a thin blood trail, when finding blood is hard, it seems like there is a lot of area where there is no blood that one would be spraying. With experience, I'm pretty good at differentiating blood from bits of red on vegetation. Are you suggesting that on a thin blood trail, there is blood between the drips we find that is not visible to the human eye without Luminol? I feel like I'd be spraying and only seeing blood where I would find it without the Luminol. Please elaborate more!

Luminol is used for locating blood that cannot be seen with the naked eye. It can be used for identifying those red specks on leaves, but peroxide is good for that so why waste luminol on visible blood?. Also, wiping the spot with a white cloth is good for distinguishing blood from leaf color...pink showing on the cloth indicates blood, while no pink means leaf color is what you see.

Luminol detects hemoglobin in blood and it glows blue when it comes in contact with hemoglobin.
Luminol is not a substitute for solid blood trailing skills, but it is a fantastic tool for last resorts, such as when the trail is completely rained out.

From the OP #1 post...
I probably should have left the woods until the storm passed but I kept going. By this time I knew it was raining too hard to find any blood since it was so sparse anyway.
This is where luminol is most amazing. Hemoglobin cannot be washed away with rain or even soap and water. It blood is (or was) present, luminol will show it.
There is a bit of a learning curve to using the stuff because there can be false positives, but false positives glow differently than actual blood so it's highly advised to put down a test trail to practice using it. We did that.
As per advice from Jerry Allen, we purchased a small amount of dried blood from him and laid down a practice trail. We mixed the dried blood with a little water, then dipped a rag in it and dragged it thru the woods. Let me stress...after we did that, the blood trail was so light that it was not visible with the naked eye. We knew exactly where the test trail was, yet it was not visible at all. We came back several hours later (after dark) and misted the area of the invisible blood trail with luminol. The blood glowed and the trail that was otherwise undetectable was now evident.
But what was even more amazing was the next night. The day following the 1st test, we received nearly an inch of rain. Even if there was originally any visible blood (which there wasn't) it was surely rained away to the naked eye. We returned to the test trail and sprayed the luminol. It glowed! In fact, luminol actually works better after a rain because the hemoglobin gets spread out a bit and multiplies in surface area.

A few things to keep in mind about luminol...

It can't find blood that isn't there. If it's a wound bleeding internally (or not at all) luminol won't detect something that isn't there.

Blood can be tracked to create false locations because the hunter or other critter walked thru the blood and essentially relocated the hemoglobin. That type of glow will have a different appearance than a true blood trail. On our original test trail, we must have had a squirrel walk across the test trail and he left a secondary trail that showed a glow actually going up a tree. It's important to not walk all over the blood trail before applying the luminol. Not walking on the trail is basic to blood trailing, regardless of the trailing method.

Also, it's the iron in hemoglobin that makes luminol glow. Certain soils and even plants contain iron so you need to learn the difference in how luminol glows when on actual blood. It's not hard to learn the difference, which is why a hunter should run a test trail while learning how to use it.

Another thing, the water you mix luminol with is important. Minerals in the water can mess up the mix. The best mix is windshield washer fluid. pH is controlled in washer fluid, plus it won't freeze in spray nozzles.

I'd still rather have a skilled tracking dog, but luminol is a tool every hunter should have in their bag of tricks.

A typical 16 ounce mix should locate ~100 yards of blood trail. It does not need to be sprayed the entire distance of the trail. It can often point us in the right direction when we can no longer actually see the blood.
The stuff is not a magic bullet. But there are times when the unforeseen happens...sudden rain storms are one example. Even a very adequate blood trail can be washed away from being seen with the eye. Luminol locates trails like that.

 

[yoderjac]

Luminol is used for locating blood that cannot be seen with the naked eye. It can be used for identifying those red specks on leaves, but peroxide is good for that so why waste luminol on visible blood?. Also, wiping the spot with a white cloth is good for distinguishing blood from leaf color...pink showing on the cloth indicates blood, while no pink means leaf color is what you see.

Luminol detects hemoglobin in blood and it glows blue when it comes in contact with hemoglobin.
Luminol is not a substitute for solid blood trailing skills, but it is a fantastic tool for last resorts, such as when the trail is completely rained out.

From the OP #1 post...
I probably should have left the woods until the storm passed but I kept going. By this time I knew it was raining too hard to find any blood since it was so sparse anyway.
This is where luminol is most amazing. Hemoglobin cannot be washed away with rain or even soap and water. It blood is (or was) present, luminol will show it.
There is a bit of a learning curve to using the stuff because there can be false positives, but false positives glow differently than actual blood so it's highly advised to put down a test trail to practice using it. We did that.
As per advice from Jerry Allen, we purchased a small amount of dried blood from him and laid down a practice trail. We mixed the dried blood with a little water, then dipped a rag in it and dragged it thru the woods. Let me stress...after we did that, the blood trail was so light that it was not visible with the naked eye. We knew exactly where the test trail was, yet it was not visible at all. We came back several hours later (after dark) and misted the area of the invisible blood trail with luminol. The blood glowed and the trail that was otherwise undetectable was now evident.
But what was even more amazing was the next night. The day following the 1st test, we received nearly an inch of rain. Even if there was originally any visible blood (which there wasn't) it was surely rained away to the naked eye. We returned to the test trail and sprayed the luminol. It glowed! In fact, luminol actually works better after a rain because the hemoglobin gets spread out a bit and multiplies in surface area.

A few things to keep in mind about luminol...

It can't find blood that isn't there. If it's a wound bleeding internally (or not at all) luminol won't detect something that isn't there.

Blood can be tracked to create false locations because the hunter or other critter walked thru the blood and essentially relocated the hemoglobin. That type of glow will have a different appearance than a true blood trail. On our original test trail, we must have had a squirrel walk across the test trail and he left a secondary trail that showed a glow actually going up a tree. It's important to not walk all over the blood trail before applying the luminol. Not walking on the trail is basic to blood trailing, regardless of the trailing method.

Also, it's the iron in hemoglobin that makes luminol glow. Certain soils and even plants contain iron so you need to learn the difference in how luminol glows when on actual blood. It's not hard to learn the difference, which is why a hunter should run a test trail while learning how to use it.

Another thing, the water you mix luminol with is important. Minerals in the water can mess up the mix. The best mix is windshield washer fluid. pH is controlled in washer fluid, plus it won't freeze in spray nozzles.

I'd still rather have a skilled tracking dog, but luminol is a tool every hunter should have in their bag of tricks.

A typical 16 ounce mix should locate ~100 yards of blood trail. It does not need to be sprayed the entire distance of the trail. It can often point us in the right direction when we can no longer actually see the blood.
The stuff is not a magic bullet. But there are times when the unforeseen happens...sudden rain storms are one example. Even a very adequate blood trail can be washed away from being seen with the eye. Luminol locates trails like that.

Great explanation of how it can and can't help as well as good application information! Thanks!