what was your longest or most difficult blood trail?

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Crazinamatese
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what was your longest or most difficult blood trail?

Unread postby Crazinamatese » Sat Aug 17, 2013 2:59 pm

In my 20 some years of hunting whitetail, the longest blood trail I have tracked was about a quarter mile with only a few spots of blood every couple yards. We were tracking mostly on over turned leaves. It was a spike buck and at the end of the trail, we found him dead in almost the same spot that I shot him standing in a few hours earlier. He made almost a complete circle. My first bow buck in 2011, the buck fell dead in his tracks. Really weird, but the shot put him down right there. He was alive for a few minutes, tried kicking and getting up, but died almost instantly. What is the longest blood trail you guys have followed? Any tips, or good advice on tracking a long blood trail? I personally have not tracked a wounded deer since 2007. I need some refreshing in this, and maybe a few others here too.

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Re: what was your longest or most difficult blood trail?

Unread postby Zap » Sat Aug 17, 2013 3:04 pm

First buck with the bow, 1.75 miles.

Started tracking at 5:30 bumped him close at 1am.
Back at 3am found him 100 yards from where I bumped him.

Shot him thru the neck.
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Re: what was your longest or most difficult blood trail?

Unread postby MOBIGBUCKS » Sat Aug 17, 2013 3:21 pm

I shot a 145 in 07' that I lost going into the neighbors property. I arrowed this buck in the liver but the blood trail was spotty at best. I tracked him to the neighbors fence and had a heck of a time getting permission to go over and get him. The guys with heartland Bowhunter actually hunted that property and I ran into them one day inadvertently; they had previously found my buck and gave it to me after telling them the story. Those guys are class act and we have been friends ever since.
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Re: what was your longest or most difficult blood trail?

Unread postby hunter_mike » Sat Aug 17, 2013 3:24 pm

I gut shot a doe one time and then made the mistake of tryin to recover her a couple hours later. The only reason i was able to find her was because there was good snow. It was the hardest tracking job i ever had because after the first few blood filled beds the blood petered down to just a drop or two every 30 yards. On top of that, there were all kinds of other deer tracks mixed in with hers. I went back early in the morning light and it probably took me four hours to find her. I was pretty proud to find her but the meat was all poopy tasting cuz the guts mustve got into the blood stream. Looked on the aerial maps the day after and figured out that at a minimum i tracked her 2.5 miles... within a one square mile block. It was amazing to see where all she went. I didn't think i was ever going to find her but kept finding the little blood drops in the back hoof track and then....there she was!

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Re: what was your longest or most difficult blood trail?

Unread postby Dewey » Sat Aug 17, 2013 4:12 pm

My longest and by far most difficult blood trail was a mature doe up north during the gun season about 10 years ago.

Shot her opening day just before closing at about 100 yards. She looked like she was stumbling but didn't go down. I headed across the swamp to check for sign and found a decent blood trail in the snow. Started tracking her and immediately knew something didn't seem right. She was leaving a weird drag mark with one leg. Decided to back out and go back to the cabin to get some tracking/dragging help since I was very deep in a swamp.

We got back out after supper and picked up the steady blood trail. Pretty soon it became apparent this was not a vital hit because she just kept going and going. We tracked her for a good 3 hrs and about a mile in a huge circle around a beaver pond and then the blood started getting less and less so we had to only follow tracks in the snow. This became difficult since there were lots of other deer tracks mixed in but every once in awhile I would find a speck of blood to verify I was still on her trail. To make matters worse a warm front pushed in and now it was raining! After another 3/4 mile or so we finally caught up to her as she was bedded. Got within 10 feet of her before she busted out hopping on 3 legs. The bed had a little blood in it but now she was leaving a pretty good blood trail again. Figured since she was bleeding good it would be best to push her and keep the blood flowing. Tracked her for quite some time and then she tried every trick in the book to fool us. She did 3 different back tracks but we unraveled every one luckily. Our luck ran out when she crossed out of the state land and into the neighboring private land. Since it was now after midnight I decided to get permission from the landowner in the morning and continue tracking then.

Woke up early and stopped by the landowner and got permission to track but could not carry a gun. Oh boy now I have a dilemma if she is still alive! Got back on her trail soon after and eventually I caught back up with her again and saw her bedded in a row of pines facing away from me. I snuck up on her slowly and she eventually got up very slowly and I could tell the old girl was hurting. She went about a 100 yards fairly and bedded down again. I walked up behind her rested my hand on her hind quarters and she just stayed bedded. No weapon other than my knife so the only option was to deflate her lungs on both sides. I know it sounds bad, but feeling a her die in my hands was almost a relief because I knew she was suffering from blood loss and had no energy to continue. Within 20 seconds she was dead and took her last breath. I would never tell this story to a non hunter but I know you guys understand the emotions that go with dealing with something like this.

After inspecting my shot it appeared I hit her left front leg just above the knee and the funny drag marks were from her leg hanging by a piece of hide. Not very proud of that shot but glad I recovered her.

Now I was faced with the task of getting her out of the swamp and the nearest road was about a mile away. To make matters worse my cell phone was dead as well. I gutted her out and started the long drag through the brutal downfalls, breaking through ice and tripping over rootballs. By the time I got her to the road I was physically spent and layed down in the snow to recover and think about what my next option was. Soon after like a miracle my buddies drove up as they were looking for me all morning and were wondering why I didn't answer my dead cell phone. They loaded my deer on their hitch haul since I had absolutely zero energy left and took me to my truck that was parked another mile down the road. Finally my tracking job from h$ll was done!!

Later I ended up finding out my scope was off and shooting almost 18" low. That morning my pull rope slipped and my gun banged against the tree on the way up. Only way I can figure that would have happened.

The doe I killed was the largest mature doe I have ever taken by far. Total tracking distance I'm guessing was 3 miles over two days.

The next day I recovered enough to get back out hunting again and ran into another hunter. I told him the story of my tracking job and he extended his hand. Told me he wanted to shake my hand for the effort I put into tracking a doe. Said most people would not have gone to that much trouble for anything other than a buck. I told him a deer is a deer and I will put everything I have into recovering ANY deer until I am convinced I did everything in my power.

Hope something can be learned by my tracking job. If anything don't ever give up if there is still sign. I am pretty proud I was able to unravel the trail and eventually tag her. Pretty hard to recover a deer with only a lower leg hit and she taught me a ton about tracking that weekend.

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Re: what was your longest or most difficult blood trail?

Unread postby Bigdaddy-yoyo » Sat Aug 17, 2013 7:13 pm

Dewey.....all I can say is "Awesome"

That was a incredible story....... Congrats :clap:
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Re: what was your longest or most difficult blood trail?

Unread postby Edcyclopedia » Sun Aug 18, 2013 12:08 am

6-pointer can in @ 13 yard shot slightly quartering to me, skimmed top of shoulder blade and deflected down through ponch.
Blood / stomach matter stopped after intestine plugged hole after tracking about 75 yards through thick snarly brush.
Close to 1/4 mile later my Tonto work paid off finding a slight rise in the spring...



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Re: what was your longest or most difficult blood trail?

Unread postby UntouchableNess » Sun Aug 18, 2013 2:36 am

Back in 1983, I was shotgun hunting with a group of friends. We were pushing a timber, I was on stand in the south west corner, heard shots from my friends back in the north east part. I just stood there a few minutes and a buck came trotting by. I raised the vent rib smooth bore Remington 870 and shot him as he went by. He was close and hunched at the shot, I was sure I put one in the boiler room. I was stunned that he kept on running out of sight. I followed the trail in the fresh snow a little ways, but there wasn't blood splashed everywhere, so I started to doubt the shot.

My friends joined they were able to find blood (I'm red/green colorblind). So with the new found confidence, fresh snow for trailing and the occasional blood spots that I would rub between my fingers, I took up the trail.

As someone else has posted, he basically started out doing a big loop, circling back to the spot my friends jumped him. I would guess that we were bumping him, but the timber/multiflora rose was so thick we didn't see him if we were. Finally, he must have gotten tired of us on his backtrail and decided to strike off across more open areas.

After crossing an open hayfield, he started following a set of railroad tracks toward town. When the tracks met a creek on the edge of town, he followed the creek, crossed a highway onto a golf course.

There were some giant ragweed patches on the far side of the golf course. I followed his tracks into one of them, as the tracks did a semi-circle. He had gone into the weeds, did a hook to bed down and watch his back track. When he jumped up, I tried to swing my gun on him but the ragweed was too thick; bending over the top of my gun, blocking my vision as well as stopping my swing.

So back on the track, paying better attention to more of the direction he was heading rather than the tracks at my feet. After a couple hundred yards further, I looked ahead and saw him standing, head up looking in front of him. It appeared that there was something ahead of him that spooked him. I put the bead on him, squeezed the trigger, missed. He spun and headed right at me down his back track. I guess he couldn't tell where the shot came from and was too worried about what was ahead of him to run forward. He saw me standing on the track at about 20 yards, flared to go around me and I dropped him when he got broadside.

It was the last day of the season and I spent the majority of the day tracking him down. I'm guessing 5 miles.

The first shot? When I had him gutted and skinned, there was a hole clear through him below the spine just ahead of the diaphragm. Looking from inside the rib cage you could see out.

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