Bloodtrailing

[wildboar6768]

Has anyone tried the starlight bloodhound product? I had difficulty trailing a 6 pointer I got last Sunday and was considering this product. Or mabye even making a concoction myself of hydrogen peroxide and luminol??? Any thoughts guys?

[flydunker]

I had a problem trailing a buck last year and just used 3/4 hydrogen peroxide and 1/4 water is worked great and I found the buck.

How does the peroxide formula work?? How do you do it?

[flydunker]

You put the mixture into a pump style bottle and spray it on the blood or what you think is blood. If it is blood it will turn white and foam, if it is not blood nothing happens.

thats is the coolest thing thanx for the info!

[Mr. 16 gauge]

For you guys who use Hydrogen peroxide: Remember to keep it in a brown or opaque bottle, and to keep it away from light and heat. Both will break hydrogen peroxide down into it's basic components, which are water and O2. Hate to see you loose a deer because you were spraying water on the blood instead of peroxide, and it didn't foam. Good luck and good hunting.

[NEMichsportsman]

In addition to Luminol, peroxide etc. and other products like those infra red gadgets. I would like to hear about how some of the forum members track their deer. In other words no matter what bells and whistles you use how do you go about tracking after you make the shot?

jp

Luminol!?!?!?! Thought that was only for Law enforcement agencies.. where do you find that?

[Big Al]

When I am tracking a deer I start out by watching it as far as I can after the shot and take several landmarks as places to start looking for blood. I usually sit for 1/2 hour 45 minutes before starting to track in case the deer has laid down. Once I find the trail I stick to it until I find the deer or the trail peters out. If the blood stops but I'm sure that I'm on the right trail then I will continue to follow the tracks until the blood starts up again, but if I'm not sure or their is more than one set of tracks then I'll start goin back and forth in a 90 deg arc every five yards or so until I find either the blood or the deer. I've helped trail and find several deer that my ex-hunting partner would gut shoot or shoot through the shoulder. The longest one we ever trailed was a doe that he gut shot, she ran over two miles through 2 swamps and across three roads before we finally found her 12 hours later. There really isn't much that is difficult to trailing deer, you just have to have patience and preserverance. Big Al

[Ken]

I have two bottles of Bloodhound, but haven't tried it yet. It has to be used at night, because it produces a "glow" and would not show up in the daytime. So, peroxide is better for daytime.

[Liver and Onions]

Big Al,
We have different ideas on trailing. On a gut shot we will wait 8-10 hours before putting the dog on the trail. Usually (not always) it is all over in 6-8 minutes and the deer is found within 125 yds. of the hit. How were you able to track a gut shot that far ? Snow ?
L & O

[Liv4Huntin']

One of the most important things that I do, I believe, is to do the initial sighting of land marks, as Big Al stated, and wait 1/2 hour or 45 minutes (unless there's 'yahoos' in the area that could abscond with the deer.... this has happened on more than one occasion.)

In trailing a 'not so noticeable' blood trail, I use flagging tape, or pieces of tissue put near the 'last blood'..... this helps, if the blood trail peters out, to look back at the trail of tissue pieces or tape and get a general idea in which direction the deer was heading, and therefore where to look for more blood. (It should go without saying to be sure and pick up the tape, etc. when done.)

It is also very important to not walk right on the deers trail. . walk alongside...... it's too easy to cover any blood sign and lose the track.

When I can (as in tall grass, etc.) I try to determine immediately if there's blood on both sides of the deers exit trail (this indicates a pass-thru shot and may help further down the trail telling which direction or which trail the deer took.) The initial check will also help to determine where the deer was hit, by noticing the color of the blood (foamy blood/lung shot, bright red blood/artery, etc.) and hair (brown tipped w/ black, all white, etc,), and therefore letting you know if you should back off for a few hours (as in with a gut shot.)

Sometimes the blood is sparce, and the only way to find 'next blood' is to get down and look on the sides of grass or other cover where the deer brushed against it..... not all blood is seen from 'up above'.

I always track slowly and quietly, listening for any noise ahead, like perhaps of a deer getting up and sneaking off or perhaps thrashing.

The toughest tracking job I've done was following up on one a relative thought he'd missed....... after four hours of tracking through water and sparce vegetation, the trail, what there was of it, finally ended in a grassy spot out in the middle of the water..... the buck was curled up in his bed...... for all purposes, he just looked asleep, but was infact, dead.

I have one time used a blood trail tracking aid called Sure Sign, but only once.... it was used the day after a friend hit one and the blood trail was sparce and dried. It DID turn small specs of dried blood yellow and foamy, so I feel it helped recover that doe. This time of year, some of those tiny red specs on maple leaves sure look like spots of blood.

Good hunting ---- and may all your blood trails be short ones.

~ m ~

[Mr. 16 gauge]

I agree with everything that Liv4Huntin' has said. We use a partial roll of toilet paper instead of tape to mark the blood trail...it's biodegradable, and it comes in handy for other purposes as well;) :D .
I would also like to reccomend a book that I read called TRACKING WOUNDED DEER by Richard P. Smith (Stackpole books). It is really a wealth of information on recovering wounded deer, and L & O, it even has a chapter devoted to recovering deer with dogs. Goes through all types of hits (shoulder hit, lung hit, gut hit, leg hits, nonfatal hits, ect. I cannot reccomend this book enough. Good luck and good hunting!

[Big Al]

L&O, I would usually wait for a few hours on a gut shot deer but unfortunately this was on state land during the second weekend of gun season. From past experience (I've had two deer stolen from me) you have to get started as soon as you dare or all you are going to find is a gut pile. On that deer we had a spotty trail of blood and gore for about half of the way but the last mile or so we did a combination of one person following tracks (yes we thankfully had a good snow the night before or we never would have found her) and the other person doing sweeps out ahead. He spotted her on one of his sweeps and I then followed the tracks the rest of the way to confirm that it was his deer. He also recognized a scar on her hip that he had seen just before he shot her. After he gut shot another deer that year during muzzleloader season that we unfortunately couldn't find I decided that it was time to find a new hunting partner.

[goose hunter]

good tracking skills and luck have alot to do with the recovery of marginal shot deer. There are companys that will bring in dogs if all else fails. I like to use toilet paper to mark all blood this can give you a idea of the general direction that the deer was going this has helped me pickup the trail several yards farther down the blood trail.

[jimbos43]

Well it happened, just got back from hunting the special private land,doe only hunt, and lost a wounded deer (i'd rather lose a toe). I've read through the posts and the info is helpful and can't figure out what else I could of done to recover the deer.

After reading through the posts I did most everything except wait. I shot the deer at 700pm and wanted to get some tracking in before dark. Initally I had quite a bit of sprayed blood for the first 15 yards and scuffed up leaves. By 40 yards I was picking up a 1/4 inch size drop every 20 feet. By 60 yards I picked up the last drop I found for the night, but seen tracks 20 yards further but no blood. I went back to where I shot looking for the hair and hand and kneed it a couldn't find any. But did find the small branch my shot hit on the way to the deer.So i'm going to assume I hit the deer low.
The next morning I got out and went to the last track I could see, no blood, and no tracks due to the leaves. I could see this deerwas heading straight, so I searched and searched and found another drop of blood 100 yards(1/4 inch in diameter) further down from the previous print and that was it. A small creek and 20 foot wide wet area came in crossing at an angle then a poplar covered hillside. For the life of me, I could not pick up the deers track after it cross the mushy area. I spent 2 hours looking for blood on the ground, on ferns, on the poplars and could not see where this deer crossed. So after about 4-500 yards I lost it.
I will bring some peroxide the next time.

Oh yes, the blood I was finding was on the exit wound side in relation to the tracks.

[Liver and Onions]

jimbos43,
Most anyone who has bow hunted a number of years knows the feeling that you just experienced.
You didn't mention finding the arrow or part of the arrow, to bad. Sometimes this can tell you a lot about your hit if you did not see the hit. I will say that since I've gone to 2 white vanes on my arrows that I do see the hits better. It is hard to say what I would have done if I had been there, but I probably would have waited until 9-10 o'clock and gone in by myself. Finding what you found in the first 50 yards I would have waited until morning and then put my dog on the trail. If the deer was dead within 250 yards she likely would find it within 15 minutes.
Again I'll say that I have felt what you felt several times. That is why I trained my dog to help out.
L & O

[wickedcarpenter]

Has anyone tryed the string trackers?i have not ,thinking they will affect the arrow pretty good under a 15 yard shot.
Any time i have tracked a deer,lost blood and direction, i will first look in the most dense, thick nasty stuff no one will go through.
They are hurt and wanna hide where they can lay down and not have to get up and run again.
If you can wait it out after the shot then stay put for at least a hour(if you don't see it drop).No need to run down a dead deer.