Following Up After The Shot by Shawn Carlock

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[Buffalobob]

I bowhunt the same small area year after year and I can pretty well tell you where each animal beds down even though I don't actually kill very many of them.

About 10 years ago I shot a small buck and he ran off all hunched over. I waited about a half an hour and went over to where he had been and sure enough there was my arrow covered in green slime. I went back to my car and waited for about 6 hours and then came back and picked up his trail. There was no blood so it was just tracking. There are about 6-10 deer that use that hillside so I quickly got confused as to which tracks were his. Believing that a wounded animal would not go uphill, I searched the low hillside for several hours. Finally, I was just tired and sat down on a log and pondered where could he be. The thicket up the near the top of the hill kept coming into my mind as the place where the bucks are always found bedded down and never killed because you can''t get up on them. I decided even though I had never seen a deer hurt that badly climb very much maybe he had decided to go "home". I climbed up the hill and there he lay already dead.

That is the only badly wounded animal I have ever seen go uphill, but he definitely wanted to go "home". That was what he was thinking about and that is what he did.

 

[Shawn Carlock]

Just about the time you thik you have them figured out they throw you a curve.

 

[Down Under Hunter]

Nice piece Shawn ! I know only too well you get one chance on a fresh trail !

DUH

 

[rocky_lange]

Great article Shawn.
Another trick I found helpful was to use my GPS, rangefinder and compass in concert.
My treestand overlooked several hundred acres of old clear cut and was now so choked up with sapplings, walking on the ground presented a problem. Dropping an animal in the thicket would pose a problem as everything at ground level looked the same. I did some thinking before commiting to hunt this location and this is what worked for me.
I shot my buck at 378 yards from the stand. From my vantage point, I could see where he expired, so I took a compass bearing from tree to deer. I then made sure my treestand was logged into my GPS. I didn't want to drag the deer all the way through the thicket to where I was, so I drove the truck to the closest logging trail to the deer. From there, I simply used my GPS to show me distance and reverse compass heading from where I was to my treestand and started in making corrections to my travel to make the numbers match and viola, there he was. Only a 65 yard drag and by using my GPS to the flagged position where I left the truck, it was pretty much in a straight line.
I don't see why it wouldn't work over a longer distance as long as your GPS gets a good signal.

Just my $.02
Rocky

 

[Shawn Carlock]

I don't use a GPS much but that is a good technique you used.

 

[the gman]

Excellent article indeed! Having tracked the blood trails of a few deer, elk & one memorable bear, I would only add that I have found it helpful to have some surveyors tape or similar to mark the blood trail as you follow it.

Mark it every 10 to 20 feet or if following a faint trail, every time the trail thins out. In this way, you can turn round & easily see the general direction the animal has taken to that point & you may get a better idea of where it's heading.

It also makes it real easy to come back to the last place you had sign when casting around looking for more blood or hair on a faint trail.

Like the idea of the GPS as well.

 

[Pdvdh]

Tracking down the blood trail of a beer? Dang, now that's talent! There's always a place for those kind of skills.

 

[the gman]

Tracking down the blood trail of a beer? Dang, now that's talent! There's always a place for those kind of skills.

Ah, ya nailed me...... Edited the original post to correct it. Altho' as a Englishman living in NM, I do have highly attuned beer hunting & tracking skills.............

 

[HeskethPritchard]

Right now in the UK where I Hunt the grass is chest high! The deer are only a meter or so of the floor and so you only see a small target area and thats when their stood on tussocks. I shot one this am and it took me twenty miunutes to find it even tho it was only 107mtrs away from the firing point and it fell to shot

When hunting/tracking I carry white toilet paper, I mark the POI and then as I'm tracking, I put a square down at each point I see. When you look back you can see where the beast is heading (roughly). At the POI you can hang a strip in the tree. The good thing is its biodegradable so you don't need go an pick it up after, it virtually dissolves when water hits it.

Just

 

[Meat Eater]

I use my topo map taking a UTM grid cordinate off the map of the downed animals postion.I get this by taking a heading of the animal on my compass then knowing my postion i measure the distance(distance i shot for off of the rangefinder)useing map scale and direction from compass i plot the animals postion.Then i take this UTM number where the animal is and put in my GPS.Then press the GO TO on GPS and this takes me right to the animal.Hope this makes sense.It is easier than it sounds.It is really worth the time to get to know how to do if you hunt solo and in some of the terrain i hunt Long Range.If anyone wants to no more just let me know maybe i can explain better over the phone.Thanks,Tom [email protected]

 

[elkaholic]

Shawn...great article and brings back a lot of memories in these types of situations. Many people just do not realize the difficulty of finding your way accross a canyon for 3/4 mi. with 1/2 hour of daylight left and recovering the animal when you get there. Even a good landmark at times can look completely different when you actually get in the area. I have spent the night a couple of times next to the kill so I could find my way back in the daylight from the opposite direction. This was before GPS. The point you make about a partner is invaluable! One trick is to mark your shooting position, as you mentioned, and laser back when you get to the area the animal was in. I have also used a clinometer to get the angle of trajectory before I leave my shooting position. Using the laser and clinometer on the other end, along with a good compass shot, can get you really close even without any good land marks, i.e.( a large brushfield). After stating all this, I will reference your comment from my "Long range elk mistake" (Use enough horsepower)
Again, GREAT article that should be considered by anyone attempting to take animals at long distance. This may not be so critical in some areas, such as the open country of Montana, but for those of us who are canyon bustin' in north Id., it is imperative....Rich

 

[Elkmen]

gman and I use the same tracking technique. I mostly hunt by my self so I mark everything, where the animal was standing when I shot, where I shot from, direction of the tracks, the tracks, it all becomes very handy when it is getting dark and you have been at it for a while.