Recurve
01-09-2001, 05:08 PM
The following is from the Winter 2001 issue of Outdoor Life.
TRAILING NOTES
Jim Perkins guides at Tara and Willow Point in Mississippi and Cottonwood Plantation in Arkansas and Louisiana. During the past nine seasons he's taken part in more than 1,200 blood trails and has come to the following conclusions:
1. The most common mistake bowhunters make is following a deer too soon after after it is shot or spooking it when they leave their stands.
2. Ninety-nine percent of all fatally hit deer bed down at least once within 150 yards.
3. If your arrow has blood on only one side of the shaft and on one or two fletchings it is likely a meat hit. Any cavity hit will cover the arrow in blood.
4. A blood trail that extends more than 250 yards before the animal beds down is going to be a tough one to follow.
5. Bowhunters often bring too many friends along for help with tracking.
6.Perkins has had more tracking problems with deer hit with mechanical broadheads than with fixed-blade broadheads. Reduced penetration of mechanical broadheads is the reason.
7. An arrow covered with bright blood and bubbles signifies a lung hit. Dark red blood is from the liver. A leg hit produces watery blood. You can smell paunch on the arrow after a gut shot, or find fibrous residue on the arrow.
8. Wait three hours before following a liver hit, one hour for a lung hit (unless you see the deer fall) and 10-12 hours for a paunch hit. Follow muscle-hit animals immediately.
9. Single-lung hits usually put out a lot of blood and should eventually result in recovery. Muscle hits rarely result in a recovery unless a major artery is cut.
10. Seventy-five percent of all wounded deer that aren't found will recover completely.
Good info from a guy who has ALOT of experience!
TRAILING NOTES
Jim Perkins guides at Tara and Willow Point in Mississippi and Cottonwood Plantation in Arkansas and Louisiana. During the past nine seasons he's taken part in more than 1,200 blood trails and has come to the following conclusions:
1. The most common mistake bowhunters make is following a deer too soon after after it is shot or spooking it when they leave their stands.
2. Ninety-nine percent of all fatally hit deer bed down at least once within 150 yards.
3. If your arrow has blood on only one side of the shaft and on one or two fletchings it is likely a meat hit. Any cavity hit will cover the arrow in blood.
4. A blood trail that extends more than 250 yards before the animal beds down is going to be a tough one to follow.
5. Bowhunters often bring too many friends along for help with tracking.
6.Perkins has had more tracking problems with deer hit with mechanical broadheads than with fixed-blade broadheads. Reduced penetration of mechanical broadheads is the reason.
7. An arrow covered with bright blood and bubbles signifies a lung hit. Dark red blood is from the liver. A leg hit produces watery blood. You can smell paunch on the arrow after a gut shot, or find fibrous residue on the arrow.
8. Wait three hours before following a liver hit, one hour for a lung hit (unless you see the deer fall) and 10-12 hours for a paunch hit. Follow muscle-hit animals immediately.
9. Single-lung hits usually put out a lot of blood and should eventually result in recovery. Muscle hits rarely result in a recovery unless a major artery is cut.
10. Seventy-five percent of all wounded deer that aren't found will recover completely.
Good info from a guy who has ALOT of experience!