How long do you wait?

[BigHunt]

I want to get down and look at my arrow/sign right away.
Depending on what I see I may move right out or wait.

x2 this is what I do.......unless its dark red blood or guts im tracking right away ....beside it takes me at least 15 minutes to break my stand down get every thing packed up and ready by then its 20 minutes ...in MOST cases that's MORE then enough time to start tracking MHO

[JoeRE]

I can think of many deer we recovered because we pushed them... Not just a few, but many. It really depends on the hit. I have seen a lot of deer lost from pushing to soon too...

Dan one thing you should keep in mind about recommending pushing deer. I suspect you are a very good tracker. When you decide to push a deer you know what you are getting into. Having someone try to push a muscle hit deer who is only an average or below average tracker (so at least half the hunters out there) is a recipe for disaster I think unless the deer is just about dead in which case pushing it probably doesn't matter.

Great thread! This is one of the old good ones!

[dan]

I never push deer. If the deer is dead its still gonna be dead in 30 minutes. I usually take a few minutes to calm myself down then look at the situation. If I have a good looking arrow n blood trail I go n recover.. if anything feels off I wait till morning. Pushing deer is the single biggest way to not recover a deer.

[ Post made via Android ]

I can think of many deer we recovered because we pushed them... Not just a few, but many. It really depends on the hit. I have seen a lot of deer lost from pushing to soon too...

The only way I would push is I knew it was a muscle hit. I have tracked many many deer that have been wounded by hunters. Where I live our parcels n public are very small. The deer will immediatly go to safety which is usually unaccesable land. The risk far out ways the rewards imo. It may be different if u have large tracts of land. I have to respectfully disagree with u on this one.

[ Post made via Android ]

Well, if you read what I wrote, you would see that I said you must be on large tracks of land, and its a given that it can't be a gut shot deer. You can disagree all you want, but I agree with everything you said... Not sure what your disagreeing with?

[dan]

I can think of many deer we recovered because we pushed them... Not just a few, but many. It really depends on the hit. I have seen a lot of deer lost from pushing to soon too...

Dan one thing you should keep in mind about recommending pushing deer. I suspect you are a very good tracker. When you decide to push a deer you know what you are getting into. Having someone try to push a muscle hit deer who is only an average or below average tracker (so at least half the hunters out there) is a recipe for disaster I think unless the deer is just about dead in which case pushing it probably doesn't matter.

Great thread! This is one of the old good ones!

I agree with some of your points... I do think if you can't tell a gut or liver hit deer, and are not positive you hit it elswhere, you should definitely wait over night.... If its probable your going to push it onto private, you should give the deer plenty of time... But, bad tracker, or good tracker, you find deer easier when they bleed, and when they die. Several of the deer I pushed to death I am sure would of survived... Telling someone not to track a deer that will survive his wounds if not tracked is worse in my opinion than giving him a fighting chance of recovery... I have tracked hundreds of deer in my lifetime, and have learned a thing or two.

[JoeRE]

Yea Dan I just don't see an average tracker having a chance in a million of staying with a deer for miles and probably days to wear it down. Since its impossible to know on a marginal hit deer just how bad it is hit at the start, I just think they would be better off waiting and hoping it lays up and dies relatively close by, if it keeps going they weren't going to get it anyway..unless they got someone pretty good on a trail to help them. Just so you know I have trailed quite a few deer too, even when I was a kid for some reason I had a knack for it. On an average year I will help trail at least half a dozen deer for other people. I have succeeded in pushing a deer till it drops a few times too.

[Ruger]

We shoot A LOT of deer here in Louisiana. In my lease we like a good blood trail and usually friends wait for friends to be a part of it in all but the shortest blood trails. It's part of the tradition of deer hunting. I don't kill a lot of deer (mostly by choice) but I have been on hundreds of tracking jobs with friends. You might say my friends are REAL MAD at deer.

Too many posts to read them all, but after hundreds of tracking jobs on wounded deer, my opinion on this is:

1) First and foremost, I always strive to get THE BEST SHOT ANGLE I can and will sometimes not take/get a shot waiting for that "best shot".

2) If the shot looks good I will USUALLY let him or her lay about 5-10 minutes. Dead is dead whether you go look at 10:00 or 10:10. There is no need to get down from the tree immediately, enjoy the experience.

3) On a shot I think is marginal, I will push the animal at least until I jump it twice. Continuing the pursuit depends on how fast the deer is moving after being jumped and how far they have gone before jumping it again. There is a lot to be said for pushing an animal that is marginally hit. IN MOST CASES, IF THERE IS BLOOD ON THE GROUND I'M GOING AFTER IT. The ONLY time I will stop pursuing a deer that's leaving blood is when we are approaching the limits of our lease (say within 250 yards).

4) Finally we will pursue EVERY deer within 5 minutes because of the predator population where we hunt. If you leave a deer overnight I can PROMISE you will not have it to eat the next morning.


I LOVE A GOOD BLOOD TRAIL!!!!!!!!!!

[dan]

Yea Dan I just don't see an average tracker having a chance in a million of staying with a deer for miles and probably days to wear it down. Since its impossible to know on a marginal hit deer just how bad it is hit at the start, I just think they would be better off waiting and hoping it lays up and dies relatively close by, if it keeps going they weren't going to get it anyway..unless they got someone pretty good on a trail to help them. Just so you know I have trailed quite a few deer too, even when I was a kid for some reason I had a knack for it. On an average year I will help trail at least half a dozen deer for other people. I have succeeded in pushing a deer till it drops a few times too.

I agree with most everything your saying... The only thing I disagree with is that he ain't getting the deer with the marginal hit unless he pushes. So he has nothing to loose, and more to gain by learning a little about tracking... The only point that I think makes it iffy, is those that are inexperienced will tend to believe they are not in the guts or liver when they are, and may be pushing a deer they could of recovered if they new the hit and waited.
This is mostly a more experienced group on the BEAST, but there are some new hunters here...

[dan]

I hate it when I show up to track a deer for someone that has been left an hour or so and good blood from a marginal hit leads you to a bed where the deer laid since it was shot, calmed down, licked its wounds, clotted up, and has now left no blood trail to follow.

[dan]

On a shot I think is marginal, I will push the animal at least until I jump it twice. Continuing the pursuit depends on how fast the deer is moving after being jumped and how far they have gone before jumping it again. There is a lot to be said for pushing an animal that is marginally hit. IN MOST CASES, IF THERE IS BLOOD ON THE GROUND I'M GOING AFTER IT.

On more than a few of the deer I recovered with marginal hits the blood trail stopped just short of finding them dead, and then when field dressing you realize there is no blood left in the deer.

[Tennhunter3]

Depends on the weapon and hit. With a bow on a good hit about 10-20 minutes enough time to climb down take a few breaths and walk to shot bad luckily I never had a bad bowshot on a deer I have missed some entirely though killed a few tree limbs. Muzzleloader or gun almost all of mine have dropped streight down or ran under 50 yards. I'll never forget a young 8 point I shot with my muzzleloader years ago the smoke cleared I thought the deer vanished he never ran I walk down to the spot he's laying upside down legs up in the air and never moved a inch kinda folded to the sides. Seeing a buck entirely upside down was a very strange experience wish i had a camera with me. My uncle shot a doe with a bow there was a tree hanging about 4 feet up sideways she close lined herself in full run broke her neck and died with her head facing the opposite way she was running.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[Dewey]

After the shot I focus on the reaction of the deer and the direction it goes to escape. If I don't see it go down I will stay on stand up to a 1/2 hour and then climb down to check the point of impact. If I find the arrow and it looks good I will immediately start tracking especially if there is a very good blood trail. Luckily my last 7 bucks have dropped within sight so no tracking was involved.

As far as pushing a deer to keep it bleeding I wanted to add this worked for me gun hunting awhile back. It was actually the last doe I ever killed about 6-7 years ago in Northern WI. I made a bad shot on her and while tracking could tell my shot hit her left front leg because I could see drag marks in the sparse snow. There was a very light blood trail so the snow really helped tracking her. She kept back tracking and trying to throw me off her trail but I never gave up because I knew it wasn't a vital hit so pushing her to keep her blood pumping was my only chance. Eventually once I got her running the blood trail steadily increased as I tracked thru the night. To make a long story short I eventually caught up to her the next day after 15 hours of tracking. She eventually lost enough blood that she was too weak to continue and stayed bedded when I finished her off. My shot hit just above her knee joint and the leg was only attached by the hide. Feel very fortunate to tag her considering the non lethal injury. I felt terrible that she had to endure that but glad I was determined to never give up. Later after shooting my rifle noticed it was shooting about a foot low. My rifle scope smacked the tree on the way up that morning so must have knocked it way off since it was right on the week before when I shot at the range. That doe taught me a lifetime of tracking skills.

[Dewey]

Wanted to add I am very leery about not getting on a fresh blood trail soon after while hunting pressured public land unless I know it was a bad shot. Heard a few horror stories about guys tracking a buck and only finding a gut pile the next day because somebody found the deer before them. Another issue we had up north was coyotes. If you didn't revover a deer in a few hours they were alreading eating it. Once as we were tracking a doe you could see in the snow where a pack ambushed her and left piles of hair as she escaped. Didn't find her until later and by then she was picked clean.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[pitz0022]

I can offer a perspective on the logic behind waiting 30 minutes to begin tracking.

I was taught to wait 30 minutes, timed on a watch, not just what felt like 30 minutes. My dad's reasoning behind this was simple. When we started hunting we used ladder stands without a harness. As young hunters my dad didn't want us trying to climb down out of a stand with all that adrenaline pumping through our bodies and falling out of the stand.

It had nothing to do with the deer. Kind of like waiting 30 minutes to swim after eating - it's just what you do. silly, maybe, but we never fell out of a tree after shooting a deer.

I still take maybe 5 minutes to sit and enjoy the adrenaline, listen for the deer, and replay the shot in my head. To me, it is part of the hunt. I enjoy tracking too and think it is part of the oveall hunting experience.

[stash59]

Good thread. I read an article quite a few years back by a bowhunting paramedic that went right along with what Dan is saying. An elk hunting buddy of mine that has bowkilled dozens of elk gave me a trick for aluminum arrows back in the day. He got it from an oldtimer. It involved drilling holes in the shafts (1/32"). 2 on each side down by the insert, 2 on each side up by the knock and every 4"- 6" on opposite sides in between. It helped to provide better bloodtrails because of not getting as many pass throughs on these larger animals. But the main reason was for the introduction of the cooler outside air into the lungs. He gave me a medical term for this but I can't remember it. One lung hit elk are notorious for making it into the next county. Don't know if even Dan in his younger days could have kept up with one of them. Richard P. Smith, a writer from the UP had an article in a magazine a few years back that Was supposed to be an excerpt from a book.It talked all about different clues for tracking wounded game. What I remember most was the part on hair found near the place the animal was standing at the shot. How fine or coarse it is, it's length and color and how that can point to where an animal has actually been hit. I lost the article and forgot to buy the book. Maybe an older Beast member has it. If not as far as the hair clues one would only have to study their next kill to figure that out.

[stash59]

Good thread. I read an article quite a few years back by a bowhunting paramedic that went right along with what Dan is saying. An elk hunting buddy of mine that has bowkilled dozens of elk gave me a trick for aluminum arrows back in the day. He got it from an oldtimer. It involved drilling holes in the shafts (1/32"). 2 on each side down by the insert, 2 on each side up by the knock and every 4"- 6" on opposite sides in between. It helped to provide better bloodtrails because of not getting as many pass throughs on these larger animals. But the main reason was for the introduction of the cooler outside air into the lungs. He gave me a medical term for this but I can't remember it. One lung hit elk are notorious for making it into the next county. Don't know if even Dan in his younger days could have kept up with one of them. Richard P. Smith, a writer from the UP had an article in a magazine a few years back that Was supposed to be an excerpt from a book.It talked all about different clues for tracking wounded game. What I remember most was the part on hair found near the place the animal was standing at the shot. How fine or coarse it is, it's length and color and how that can point to where an animal has actually been hit. I lost the article and forgot to buy the book. Maybe an older Beast member has it. If not as far as the hair clues one would only have to study their next kill to figure that out.