Tracking Tips 101

[WapitiTalk1]

Tracking Tips

Always a good topic for discussion.

I'm sure many of us have had difficult tracking experiences; it goes with the sport. What are some of your tips for tracking elk once the arrow (or other projectile) has found it's mark? Let's skip past the standard ones that most big game hunters know (try to determine what type of hit it was, mark where you shot from, mark where the elk was standing, wait XX minutes before proceeding, mark every spot of bood). I'll throw out a couple.

1. Move slowly when tracking a hit elk. Stop often and listen.

2. An elk, even when hit well, may not bleed significantly for some pretty long stretches (depends on the hit, the hit angle, going uphill, downhill, etc.). Learn to tune in to the tracks of the target elk as much as the blood sign. This is crucial.

3. Realize that bright red/frothy blood does not necessarily signify a lung shot.

OK, these are just a very few. Tracking an elk after the shot is kind of an art and something that is learned through many years of doing it. Please throw out a few of your after the shot tracking tips.

[medic6]

I keep a small spray bottle of hydrogen peroxide for when the trail gets small and tends to blend in with the red stained ferns.  Helps with the guesswork. 

[WapitiTalk1]

I keep a small spray bottle of hydrogen peroxide for when the trail gets small and tends to blend in with the red stained ferns.  Helps with the guesswork.

Same here, good tip 

[BULLBLASTER]

Don't be afraid to use your nose. Elk smell (I'd say stink, but elk is really one of my favorite smells  ) strong.

[kellama2001]

tagging

[Bill W]

Flag your blood drops or track sign to establish a direction or trail.   Also when following the trail, do NOT walk on the trail, walk alongside the trail.  This is incase one needs to go back and reestablish a trail. 

[medic6]

When flagging your trail use something that is biodegradable like TP.  Wouldn't want someone to know where animals hang out.  I mark the ground not the trees/bushes.   

[huntindoc]

If blood is scant, you can pick it up where the elk has stepped over a log or fence or ditch and jumped.  Will often "shake" blood off.  Can pick it up on a the log/ bush etc if it's high enough as well.

Go slow, and if you loose the track, back up, and scan forward.  A hit animal is usually - NOT ALWAYS- looking for an easier path and sometimes you can pick up sign quite a distance ahead.  I've seen my brother follow a track for a long ways, and often the drips are more than 100 yrds apart. 

[police women of America]

Tagging

[Firedogg]

Blood trail stopped?  Wrap that white TP in your pack around your hand and sweep the brush with it checking for that little speck. It's a trick that has put me back on the trail several times and almost everyone carries it with them.

[kentrek]

Don't hunt in western Washington 

Looking back at some of the elk we lost I feel like the biggest issue or thing that I can point a finger at besides a less then perfect shot is rain.....rain storms suck....

Last year we lost a bull and after half a day on ny belly i really wish I would have had the peroxide, does peroxide work on day old blood ??

[D-Rock425]

Check the underside of branches and ferns for blood.  Sometimes elk as it walks will brush up against branches and and sort leaving blood on the underside.

[buglebrush]

Stay at it!  Flag every blood spot, and dont forge ahead.  Patience is key, unless you have very  limited daylight left.   Also carry a super bright flashlight in your pack.   Night tracking with an LED headlamp alone is difficult.

[DVET253]

Last seasons elk was standing in the marshy/muddy part of a feeder pond, legs half submerged. Great hit (lower heart) but bled internally, tracked and recovered by following the trail of mud and muck left on tree branches it brushed against once it entered the tree line, one small spot of blood on a branch very close to where is perished. Don't over look "other" signs and mark everything you think maybe a clue until you find your game.

[Squidward]

put some yellow(pick a color) food color in the peroxide can help see it when it foams up on the blood.
 
watch your pant legs for blood coming off the under side of brush while walking.

for muzzy I tie a small piece of flagging ribbon on my ram rod, after the shot and on the reload the ribbon will fall of the rod when you pull it out of the gun. It gives you the place you shot from with no extra effort in the brush.

never pick up blood / bone / hair , leave it on the trail.

[Jonathan_S]

Go very slowly.  With every animal that I've had to really track without blood, I slow down and crawl, spending sometimes several minutes at a spot.  I'll sit and think, "if I were hurting, feeling sick and scared..."  Every time I have done this, I have recovered the animal. 

Once I did this on a liver hit whitetail buck that went and died in the September sun and lay there for 3 hrs.  Man oh man was he swollen like a sick pup.  If I had waited like they do in the movies, he'd have been rotten.

Don't say, "well wounded animals always move down hill or always to water" because eventually you will find a buck, bull, or bear because it broke one of those rules and ran straight up a mountainside or away from a creek bottom.

[Okanagan]

Check the underside of branches and ferns for blood.  Sometimes elk as it walks will brush up against branches and and sort leaving blood on the underside.

Where the blood drips/spurts/smears are in relation to tracks can indicate accurately where the animal is hit:  left side; through wound bleeding from both sides; smearing only on the underside of limbs the elk passed under; blood consistently in one hoof track; paintbrushing logs and brush with sternum/chest; etc.

We tracked a wounded bull for 8 1/2 hours in western WA and during the entire time found only two tracks made in dirt (where he had stepped on gopher mounds) and hardly ever a drop of blood on the ground.  It was all smears on the underside of brush.  The bull was not hurt badly and we saw him several times later that winter, with a mussed up scar spot high on his withers where he was hit but otherwise OK.

With multiple trackers you can move ahead faster on marginal "spoor" (always wanted to use that word  )  One man works carefully from the last spot of sign, which as said needs to be marked with TP or something, while the other man roams ahead on the most likely route and scans places where the animal likely passed.  Sometimes you can jump the track ahead by 100 yards. while not losing the continuous trail of sign if you don't find sign way out ahead. 

[MagKarl]

I absolutely love trailing.  Be patient, things can get infinitely more challenging if the animal gets bumped.  I'd rather wait a couple hours and find them dead than push too soon and spend all day searching after the blood peters out.  That said, I'm prepared to work at night, I hate the TV hits where they leave them overnight and show daylight trophy recovery footage. 

[Jonathan_S]

I absolutely love trailing. 

The only time this is true for me is broad daylight in fresh snow with a yard-wide swath of lung blood 

[BULLBLASTER]

I absolutely love trailing. 

The only time this is true for me is broad daylight in fresh snow with a yard-wide swath of lung blood 

Way better than tracking the yellow trail through fresh snow 

[blackveltbowhunter]

Take in the big picture. Its easy in a tracking job to get tunnel vision into this strategy or that. Sometimes it pays to stop and assess where the animal has taken you and evaluate all clues you have available.

Its been mentioned, but noting blood patterns is huge IMO.

If you are unable to locate your arrow in an area where recovery is likely, suspect that it may still be inside the animal Blood sign can help to confirm this.

One I dont see mentioned much is the perfect shot. Or nearly perfect shot. Often times great shots bleed very little. If a double lung shot is a bit high, the bull may death sprint and die and lose very little if any blood. This can be very important  with darkness approaching. And is the one time, I will regularly violate the wait rule.  AT the very least mark ALL locations where you shot, and exactly where the elk was as well as direction of travel if possible. It is easy to track blood in the dark, but very hard to keep track of your surroundings. This is compounded when in unfamiliar terrain. Often par for the course on an elk hunt. If the elk didnt bleed you may have a large area to grid and will need these key pieces to get started.

 

[coachcw]

big animals leave tracks and there's always blood some where . if it makes it 300 plus yards expect a mile . I like to use two guys and have one guy stay at last blood and move slow on the trail while I jump ahead in the direction of travel or a easy route , you can save hours doing this .

[KFhunter]

sharp eyes, wear your glasses or contacts (eyes getting older, middle aged  )

As a kid I used to track coyotes, bears, coons all manner of critters just for fun.  Didn't shoot them, would just cut their tracks and follow them for miles often bumping the animals.  Coyotes used to double back and lay up watching me come along then take off again, often times they'd double back on their own tracks and jump up a ways trying to loose me. Lot of times I'd only see grass blades just starting to stand back up after being pressed down by a pad.  I've found plenty of shot deer by nothing more than my nose.

It was great fun, I didn't have xbox.  My advice, do it a lot and have very sharp eyes. 

[Okanagan]

A compass can be a huge help if the shot is across a canyon or across a river, lake or difficult terrain.  Always mark the spot from which you shot (something I have forgotten to do in the excitement of the moment a few times).  If a wounded animal goes out of sight over a ridge line or into a wall of brush or timber on the other side of a lake, take a compass bearing from where you are to where the animal disappeared.  Hang an orange vest or something visible when looking back from the spot where the animal went out of sight.  Then then take the easiest route around to that spot, without concern about keeping that spot in view so you don't lose it.  Once on the other side, walk along the ridge line, edge of brush etc. where the animal disappeared while holding the compass and line up a reverse compass bearing to the orange vest marker.  At that point you should be within a step or two of the tracks and blood trail.

I did this on a mule deer that crossed a ridge out of sight well over a quarter mile away across a DEEP and extremely difficult canyon.   The buck's tracks showing blood were within 6 feet and his trail followed easily from that point. 

Shortcuts:  I don't calculate a reverse bearing but simply line up using the south end of the needle when looking back.  Also, declination is irrelevant.  Just take a bearing from magnetic north.

 

[Duckslayer0513]

Wait awhile after the shot. Shot a spike a few years ago, long story short I thought I had made a good shot and proceeded to track him after only 5 minutes. Found pools of blood. Even found some bone fragments In the blood. After 6 hours of tracking on a good blood trail the whole time we never did find him. I think if we had waited an hour we would've found him dead, instead of pushing him. Went back the next few days and never did find him..

[buglebrush]

I thought of one other thing.   Listen intently for several minutes after the shot.  Many clues are missed by all the high-fiving, and celebration.   A couple years ago we shot a bull that took off to the north.   Blood totally ended after 70 yards.  We looked for hours and hours.   Finally found him way to the south and below us.   Totally opposite from where he headed at first, and it was all because we had heard a single crash down there about five minutes later.   

Also if you shoot a bull with a little group of cows they will sometimes bed down right where he lays to die.   If you jump cows go look in the direction they came from.   

[police women of America]

Blood trail stopped?  Wrap that white TP in your pack around your hand and sweep the brush with it checking for that little speck. It's a trick that has put me back on the trail several times and almost everyone carries it with them.

Very good advice! Ill be using that trick this year.

[Jonathan_S]

I thought of one other thing.   Listen intently for several minutes after the shot.  Many clues are missed by all the high-fiving, and celebration.   A couple years ago we shot a bull that took off to the north.   Blood totally ended after 70 yards.  We looked for hours and hours.   Finally found him way to the south and below us.   Totally opposite from where he headed at first, and it was all because we had heard a single crash down there about five minutes later.   

Also if you shoot a bull with a little group of cows they will sometimes bed down right where he lays to die.   If you jump cows go look in the direction they came from.

Years and years ago when I was a sprout, I was along on a hunt where my dad killed a coastal cow.  I big old lead cow and she was liver hit and she bobbed and weaved through a blackberry jungle...then circled back around and died in the original clearcut where she'd been hit 

Same situation, blood ran out about 200 yards from where she finally bedded.  The rest of the group got up and ran, we went to investigate and there she was.

Good tip 

[AKBowman]

I like to have my GPS in hand at all times so I can look at the path already traveled. This works well if you lose sign and need to try to anticipate where the animal may have gone next. Obviously necessary if you are trying to grid an area and pick up sign. I've found wounded elk or deer won't double back while a wounded or mortally hit bear bear will make a big circle.

Also like some have said, slow down and listen to your instincts.