Best practices for finding downed deer

If you've ever been around those who have been hunting for a long time, you know there are those who are well skilled at finding deer that were hit but have traveled some distance before hitting the ground. I've known guys who could find a spot of blood like no one else. Others just seem to have a sixth sense about the direction a deer traveled after being hit. IMO, it's a part of deer hunting where "best practices" come into play, in this case that being steps that have been proven time after time that lead to a successful retrieval of an animal that others might never bring to a meat pole.

One of the "best practices" that I've learned and heard others mention is to always mark the location of each spot where blood is found so that you can see the general route the deer took for its exit. This can often point to something about the route that helps identify where the deer might be headed, such as a water source that many say deer will often go after being hit. Not sure if there's any truth to it or not, but I've heard many old timers claim a deer will head to water after being hit. Some have said it's only true because deer prefer to head downhill after being hit, which often takes them to water. Others have claimed deer head to water more as an instinct to seek relief for the wound.

What best practices have you learned and found to be useful when searching for a downed deer?

In my experience, wounded deer head for water. If you get lost in the tracking process, go to water and work backwards

So in other words, if a nearby search hasn't uncovered anything and there's a tank or pond on your place, your next move should be to go to it and begin searching on your way back towards the spot where the deer was hit, correct?

I've also known guys would prefer a good lantern over a flashlight when searching for a downed deer. There may be some truth that 1500 lumens spread over a large area is more useful than using a 600-800 lumen beam.

I even remember on old timer who claimed he could see blood much easier with the light from a lantern.

I used to always use a Coleman lantern- put foil around the globe on your side so that all the light is reflected forwards.

Knowing a deers patterns helps a ton!!

Yup...harder to do in east Texas than west but still the same...

If they go more than a couple hundred yards start looking near water...

High shoulder shot with a 6.5 Creedmore in a High Fence. They won't stand a chance at finding water.

Since you put it that way, Texas Dan, yes. Absolutely. In my experience.

The deer of which I speak were hit pretty hard. A non fatal wound or a gut shot will run and run and run. They may end up as floaters somewhere but you probably won't ever find them. The floaters I'm talking about never went any further than 500 yards in most cases less.

Agree with marking the trail of blood. I also mark the point where they were when you shot them.
If you don't see them fall over and don't hear them crash, give it at least 30 mins before tracking. After the shot, I will listen to them run off, and will often hear them hit the dirt even when I can't see them.

When the search gets tough, I'm one of those who reaches for a Coleman lantern.

I'll never forget the time a friend came to solicit my help in finding a buck he had shot earlier that evening. He had been looking for at least an hour before he decided to come and get me to help. After about a 15-minute search, I found the buck laying near the edge of a stock tank. He had searched around the tank earlier and was blown away that he had missed it. Although he had been using a flashlight, I think my finding it was more a result of my walking closer to the edge of the tank so that l could better see near the bottom of a short bank that circled it. Anyone who would have walked another five feet away from the bank would have never seen the deer laying near the bottom of it.

That's another thing about searching for downed deer. Just about anyone who has done it enough can remember at least one instance when a deer was later found right under another searcher's nose.

This, make note of shot location and where ran to using bushes, trees, cactus as reference points. Once tracking look for blood and erratic tracks too, a well hit deer will be on adrenaline and erratic. Also don't discount elevated blood on cactus and bushes which will catch mid-level body shots. Deer will even circle their runs at times.

Years ago it was a lantern and me on my hands and knees looking for blood. These days, I just fire up the Pulsar thermal spotter and find the animal in short order.

A lot of good info so far. I have found deer near water and in water. Found one my Dad ha shot that was still alive and laying down in a small hole of water, He got up but went about 50 more yards with a chocolate lab hanging on to a broken leg.

Marking of trails, Toilet paper works well and is quickly bio-degradable if not all is picked up.

On the shot watch for reaction of the deer, does it do a

mule kick (usually good shot)
Hunch its back up good chance that it is gut shot or gut was at least hit.
deer will generally run the direction they were facing when shot but if able very well might circle back to where they came from if able

Do not just look on the ground for blood, trees, grass, brush.... can have blood on them up about the height of the wound.

If you are tracking one and you bump it, back out and give it more time.

If you have lost blood after a long trail start looking in the thick spots, have found them in some very thick spots that had to crawl into to retrieve them.

Coleman lanterns are great for night tracking. White bright 200+ lumen lights are good as well

If all else fails bring in a dog. Their nose is much better than our eyes will ever be.

One thing I see those who are less skilled at tracking do is walk right on top of the blood trail. Even if you have good blood, walk off to the side, so that you don't disturb any sign. Oftentimes, if the deer is on a good death run, the blood will run out or become very faint for the last 50-60 yards. If you are walking on top of the trail, you may miss those tiny specks that will give you a clue if the deer veers from the path you are on.

Also, if you are following good blood and it just seems to stop, don't give up. As I stated above, most are within 100 yards of that last blood.

Finally, just because there is not blood for the first 20-30 yards, doesn't mean there won't be blood. With a high hit or a hard down angle with no pass through, the blood has to fill up the chest cavity before it will start leaking out. That is when being able to follow actual tracks comes in handy.

Last years buck. 220 yards from the shot. Pretty much had perfect blood trail and then it ended...

I use flourescent marking tape and go thru a disciplined process of marking sign, whether or not I see the animal fall.
I mark the location where I shot from, and then the point of impact(where the animal was when shot), I do not move until these two points are establish, if I cannot find blood I will make circles, upon finding something, and follow the sign back to the point of impact and mark it with tape, instead of just following the trail.
Once these two points are marked, I establish the direction of travel and mark at regular intervals while the sign is good, in the even I lose the trail, I can easily go back to the last mark.
Sign is followed and marked until the animal is found, if its a hit with some bodily fluids dropped, or some ground disturbance it should reveal the animal, but nothing is 100%, this method works for me.

Had a part Shetland pony when I was a kid. If the deer didn't fall close, look for the horse. He'd be standing a few yards from the deer looking at it.

From my days as a Border Patrol Agent...a tracking stick...we carried a single ski pole but any mostly straight stick will work...and a rubber band... find 2 tracks or what appear to be tracks...tip of stick at one and rubber band at the other, now move the stick up and slowly sweep the stick tip left and right...looking for any disturbance...stay to the side of line of travel...and accent each known track...tp as mentioned earlier works fine...so do spent .357 brass...carried a small baggie, typically found in most Agents "trique" bag...see Cop Slang...anyway, this can be hands and knees work but with good terrain, with the rubber band adjusted correctly you can hold the stick out in front of you and slowly wave it side to side,,,and see the next disturbance...pretty soon you have a trail of "bread crumbs"...that usually will point you to the "lost" thing you are tracking...

Use a dog.
I shot a doe last week that never dropped a speck of blood. Was 20 seconds away from calling it a miss before my Lacy in training found it while I was doing a blind zig zag pattern in the pine tree thicket. Deer ran 150 or so yards and never bled, except right where she expired. I had poor shot placement, and just barely nicked the bottom of the chest. When I took one of the front shoulders off, she just poured blood.

It's also a myth that they won't run uphill.
And typically a gut shot deer does head to water.

Yep, we always kept a Coleman lantern in camp. They cast light downwards and it is a bright white light. Someone may have mentioned it in a previous thread but a lot of times a wounded deer will circle.

If it’s a long shot, these days I use my RF to find the distance to where the deer was. Makes it easier to find that first blood spot. Then I use toilet paper for marking the blood trail. If you can’t find the next drops of blood, look back at the tp trail to see if you are still on line. That is particularly helpful if you are trailing in failing light or dark. If possible, put the tp at waist or chest high, so it’s easier to see with eye or flashlight.

I shoot them in the lungs, so two things happen. First, they always die. Second, they will run a short distance, which I’ll say is 30 to 50 yards. My logic, assuming I placed the shot well, is that the deer is dead or soon will be. Give them time to die. 15 minutes should do it. Grandpa always said to smoke a cigarette before tracking, but I don’t smoke. Badly wounded deer usually run in a somewhat constant line. As they fade, they’ll lean on a tree to rest, so blood won’t all be on the ground. Look on the trees and bushes at knee high or a bit higher. If you are tracking in the wood, and the leaves on the ground are wet, you will notice that badly wounded deer will drag their hooves as they weaken, stirring up the leaves noticeably. Often that’s easier to follow than a blood trail.

As for deer going to water, I’ve always thought that gut shot deer will do that, and I have found a couple in the water. But, I grew up in the swampy lowlands along the Mississippi River, and water is everywhere, not like south or west Texas.

Hit em in the guts, they bow up and run.
Miss them, and run off with white tail held high.
Lung or heart shot, they run tail down, in my long experience.
They usually run generally in the direction their nose was pointing, but not always.

I used to say that I could track a lizard across dry rocks, but I do find it harder to blood trail nowadays. But again, I shoot them in the lungs. I start any trail in in the sure knowledge that the deer is dead. It’s just a matter of where.

I've read and heard other hunters say the position of the tail being up or down is not a reliable indicator if a deer has or hasn't been hit.

I always look for a backward jerk of the front legs for a heart and lung shot. When a hunter cannot tell me for sure how the deer reacted to the shot, I suspect a flinched shot.

I'm color blind, so step one is call in some better eyes!

I have the same problem. I have difficulty distinguishing between shades of green and brown, which can make it extremely difficult for me to see drops of blood on the forest floor.

The wife often laughs at me when I put on a shirt that looks brown to me but green to her.

Step one shoot something that will go all the way through. Exit wounds are typically bigger and bleed a lot better than entry wounds. Also if your shooting from an elevated stand or position the exit is lower on the body than the entry and will bleed more and sooner.

Pay attention to which way it runs off. Give it enough time.

Ive had several deer that I found and never found blood on the way to them but tracked a very faint blood trail from the dead deer back to where it was shot. Mark last blood found and keep looking. A dog even an un trained one can and will pick up on a trail.

I've always used the orange flagging tape and marked each drop I find. This year I had a friends kid shoot a buck on my place that left no blood and there were too many tracks around to determine which one belonged to the buck. We knew the direction it went. I used my thermal scope (off the rifle at that time) and caught a darker heat signature in some broom weed off the main trail and recovered the buck. It was the little mans first deer so I was glad we found it for him.

Many times I have shot deer out of a group that ran into brush or cover. The reaction of the other deer can tell you where the deer might have headed or gone down.

I once had a hunter shoot a BB in the belly with a 7 mag. I was watching the shot with binos. I saw the hit and saw some belly juice fly out when the BB turned and ran. We waited a bit then went to where the BB had been shot and found the 2 ft. line of stuff from the belly. I had seen the direction the BB had run. We waited a bit more then we in that direction. After traveling less than 50 yds. a BB ran parallel to us about 50 yds in front of us and stopped. I saw a red mark un the belly and told the hunter that was the BB. He shot it in the shoulder this time and it dropped. We went up to it and there was one small hole where the bullet went in and one small hole where it went out the other side and nothing coming out of either hole.. There was no expansion with the bullet. We were very lucky the BB showed itself of I would doubt it would have been found for a while.

Even if I see the deer drop at the shot I'll wait 15 minutes. If it runs off I'll give it at least 30. Worst thing you can do is push a wounded deer. He'll end up in the next county. Night tracking is tough. I keep a spray bottle of hydrogen peroxide in the truck. It'll make the slightest bit of blood foam up.

a lot of good tips and tricks ... something else that my dad taught me after I trailed a deer several hundred yards on a foaming lung shot that just disappeared ... look under near by trees, especially low hanging cedars. Mine crawled probably 15-20 feet up under a big cedar, next to the trunk and died, couldn't be seen without moving the low hanging branches.

This.

lot of good thought here, if all else fails start searching in a circle. If not found just keep making the circle larger.

Go for a high shoulder shot. If you do it right it breaks both shoulders and they take a dirt nap without taking another step. If they are not lined up for a high shoulder shot then place the bullet in a location where it will hit the far shoulder and not the near shoulder. That ensures you get the vitals and the force of the bullet breaking the far shoulder will make the animal fall on that side and they rarely get up. This eliminates having to look for wounded game in the first place.

These tricks were shown to me by a PH in Africa that hunts 5 different countries and has taken more than 5000 head of game in culling operations in places like Kruger National Park. They work.

I usually take a spray bottle of hydrogen peroxide in my back pack, when the blood trail peters out, spray the peroxide around, even the smallest drop of blood will bubble and you will be able to pick up the blood trail.

Toilet paper to mark a grid search from the last blood you find.

Cool idea. and

to the Forum

Got a "bloodlight" from Primos last year that enhances the color red. It works great where I hunt seeing as most the ground colors are yellows and browns. It might not work as good in leaf litter. 100% the best way to find a difficult deer is a dog, I've been training my hound for a year now and she has made quick work of tracks that would've taken us hours on hands and knees.

My daughter and SIL gave me one a couple of Christmas's ago and thankfully I've never had to use it. It's good to know there's someone who offers a good review of it.

This reminds me of a time at my old lease where a guy shot a deer and couldn't find it. Several guys went back to look for it with him and found the deer.....with 4 wheeler tracks across its back. He had driven right over it.

Let my Catahoula cur (Amber) out of the truck where the deer was standing when shot, wait for her to start barking.

My Catahoula cur Amber is the best blood trailing dog I have ever known, a natural. Great dog if a bit more than I can keep up with sometimes.