Being patient after the shot....

[DIYbowhunter]

great info!!! thanks guys!

[wackycouesaddict]

I haven't been hunting long, and i have only killed two animals but they were amazing shots on the fact i practice allot and was patient. But i have one that got away it was my first archery elk hunt (cow) when i was 13. I made a bad shot on by my standerds coutering too at 35 yards. arrow went completly in shooting 50 pounds and a muzzy broad head. after the shot we found first blood and sat on it for thirty min. When we started it was great blood and then it just stopped. We contintued to track it but then she went into the rocks and we lost her tracks as well. WE then went to grid work but never found her

 

Now to present day learning from those experiences. I shot my first coues with my rifle with a spinal shot at 50 yards witch as you would figure dropped him. (thought i had misssed and he disapeared due to the heavy cover) but i waited thirty min and found him where i shot him.

 

MY second was a monster carp that i shot at 75 yards threw the heart and both lungs. Witch i believed to be well with in range for me since i practised to 90 regularly with a 4 inch group. After making the shot i found first blood witch was shooting out both sides by a good two feet then i heard him crash and proceeded to recover.

 

my rules

 

1 practice

 

2 know limitations

 

3 wait for a good shot

 

4 be patient after the shot

 

5 always second guess your shot so to prepare your self for more work then needed (hopefully)

[Coues 'n' Sheep]

Again the mesage on this years hunts was the same.... "Be Patient"..... it was productive a couple of times and over kill a couple of times (rifle hunting as well as bow hunting)... but we did not lose one single animal on all the hunts combined this Fall and Winter.

 

We learned something new on Deer Anatomy this archery season that had never really occured to me.... If you look at the picture I previously posted with "My 12 ring", you will see that there is a LOT of vital real-estate infornt of that "blue dot"... We had AMAZING recoveries this year based on Everyone shooting low and forward. Basically straight up from the leg but at or below center.... So even my thoughts have moved toward shooting further forward with a bow (on deer) than I ever imagined before. If you look back at my post of our archery harvest you will notice that 3 out of 4 bucks were hit pretty far forward compaired to conventional archery logic.... and the 4th (Coltons buck) was shot straight down through leaving a very high entrance a very low exit on the opposite side.

http://forums.coueswhitetail.com/forums/in...c=17282&hl=

 

Hope some of you had better successes this year as a result of this thread.... and I encourage all of you to share the "Do's" as well as the "Don'ts" that you came across this season.

 

Just was re-reading the thread today and felt that this is Very important since so many are in the woods looking for their chance at archery gold! Good Hunting!

 

[Guest 300ultramag.]

Again the mesage on this years hunts was the same.... "Be Patient"..... it was productive a couple of times and over kill a couple of times (rifle hunting as well as bow hunting)... but we did not lose one single animal on all the hunts combined this Fall and Winter.

 

We learned something new on Deer Anatomy this archery season that had never really occured to me.... If you look at the picture I previously posted with "My 12 ring", you will see that there is a LOT of vital real-estate infornt of that "blue dot"... We had AMAZING recoveries this year based on Everyone shooting low and forward. Basically straight up from the leg but at or below center.... So even my thoughts have moved toward shooting further forward with a bow (on deer) than I ever imagined before. If you look back at my post of our archery harvest you will notice that 3 out of 4 bucks were hit pretty far forward compaired to conventional archery logic.... and the 4th (Coltons buck) was shot straight down through leaving a very high entrance a very low exit on the opposite side.

http://forums.coueswhitetail.com/forums/in...c=17282&hl=

 

Hope some of you had better successes this year as a result of this thread.... and I encourage all of you to share the "Do's" as well as the "Don'ts" that you came across this season.

 

Just was re-reading the thread today and felt that this is Very important since so many are in the woods looking for their chance at archery gold! Good Hunting!

 

 

hows it shaping up for you guys, up in ur neck of the woods

[Coues 'n' Sheep]

Again the mesage on this years hunts was the same.... "Be Patient"..... it was productive a couple of times and over kill a couple of times (rifle hunting as well as bow hunting)... but we did not lose one single animal on all the hunts combined this Fall and Winter.

 

We learned something new on Deer Anatomy this archery season that had never really occured to me.... If you look at the picture I previously posted with "My 12 ring", you will see that there is a LOT of vital real-estate infornt of that "blue dot"... We had AMAZING recoveries this year based on Everyone shooting low and forward. Basically straight up from the leg but at or below center.... So even my thoughts have moved toward shooting further forward with a bow (on deer) than I ever imagined before. If you look back at my post of our archery harvest you will notice that 3 out of 4 bucks were hit pretty far forward compaired to conventional archery logic.... and the 4th (Coltons buck) was shot straight down through leaving a very high entrance a very low exit on the opposite side.

http://forums.coueswhitetail.com/forums/in...c=17282&hl=

 

Hope some of you had better successes this year as a result of this thread.... and I encourage all of you to share the "Do's" as well as the "Don'ts" that you came across this season.

 

Just was re-reading the thread today and felt that this is Very important since so many are in the woods looking for their chance at archery gold! Good Hunting!

 

 

hows it shaping up for you guys, up in ur neck of the woods

 

VERY slow... Where are your late rifle deer pics?

 

[singleshot]

True scenario.

Very large bodied mature mule deer buck. Crosswind, buck fever, poor shooting, all of the above. 2 inch 125 grain vortex broadhead through the center of the neck, just in front of the shoulders. Immediate blood on impact side, POURING BLOOD on exit. Buck is desperate to stay with his does and travels approximately 1/2 mile. Both front legs to the hooves, shoulders and most of left side red. Buck cannot stot and will not bend his front legs. Beds in the wide open. Over the next 45 minutes tries to get up several times but cannot. His tail go's through spasms of constant movement. He finally gets up and walks slowly 20 yards and beds again.

Having taken close to 30 big game animals in AZ. with a bow and seen quite a few more taken, the hunter continues to watch through the bipod mounted swaros and wait.

The buck eventually staggers to his feet and slowly walks 50 yards and beds again behind a cactus. Been 2 1/2 hours and the hunter decides to try and finish the deal. Really good blood trail is found the entire distance.

During the stalk the buck at some point rises from his bed and walks, and walks, and walks.

Last bed has very little blood but 50 yards away good blood is found again. Nickel sized drops every foot for the next 3/4 mile slowly petering out to just blood where he has passed through the brush and then nothing. Hunter has seen this before, good blood, no blood, 50 yards recovered animal. Very little cover, some pear, short grass, and creosote bush. 3 men search for remaining 5 hours of daylight. 2 men search all next day.

If hunter had to do it all over again he would have pushed the buck immediately. Feels that the buck was in shock from the initial dramatic blood loss. Waiting allowed the wound to clot up, and the buck seemed to recover over time.

Hunter does not particularly like vortex broadheads but they fly beautiful, and has taken big bucks and big bulls and big javis with them. Hunter will return and look. Hunter wonders after 25 years of archery hunting, and recoveries, what went wrong.

[dieselroe]

Great Thread Guys. Lots of different situations and ideas on how to tackle them.

 

Awesome.

[couesntime]

My first archery bull was taken last year in NM. It was the first afternoon, and I called in a small 6x6 with 3 cows. He left his cows to come over and check things out. He was walking more or less straight at me. When he got to 9yds and went behind a tree, I drew, the bull must have seen my shadow. He then turned and ran to about 22yds and stopped behind another tree with his head totally hidden. I had a perfect broadside shot, and took it. when the arrow took off, he spooked at the noise and ducked. I ended up hitting him high and back without a pass through. My buddy had it all on film, so we sat there and watched it a couple times. After about an hr wait and determining that I probably still hit both lungs high, we took up the trail. There was very little blood, but excellent hoof marks. We followed for about an hr. and I was ready to call it off for the night when I saw something through my binos. It was my bull laying there dead. We snuck up, and determined he waa done, but not after 4-500yds of tracking with a high double lung shot. The arrow broke a rib on the off side and bounced back into the bull, when I got up to him only the broadhead was still in the bull. What a relief, considering I got to excited on a bull I shot 2 yrs prior with a good blood trail and just kept bumping him until I could no longer track blood or prints.(I learned a ton from this experience). Take a look at the entry spot.

great info from everybody, I will surely be thinking about this topic in Jan. Good luck to everyone!

[Catfish Hobo]

Ok, not trying to make a novel of a thread but none the less my opinions and experience. I give all deer 30 minutes even if I see them drop. If the run off and I am unsure of my shot I will usually give them 45min to an hour. I pay close attention to my arrow and blood trail. If I think I made a gut shot I will go as far as smelling my arrow and looking for any sign of digested waste or food (grimy looking stuff) on my arrow shaft. I look at the color of the blood and time will make your blood dry fairly quickly in the warm climate of desert lands. If I can't find the animal I have experienced in Arizona none the less a forked horn mulely being killed two days after a friend of mine broke his front right leg above just below his belly line. I actually picked up the deer’s track from a water tank and noticed a drag mark in the track and found him about 300yds later in a thick draw about 30yds wide and my body made about a 3yd kill shot on the deer, but we found and harvested his original deer pure luck at the age of 16yrs old that’s for sure.

 

hope this helps and like I said just my opinion.

[Guest oneshot]

Excellent points by many here, I have a few that may hopefully help...

Take in all clues as to what went-down, sound/location/angle of hit, animals reaction, color/amount/texture of blood, direction of travel, then make a plan as to how long you are going to wait...

If possible the shooter should NOT be the one running the trailing job, the shooter is normaly to emotional to be thinking straight most times... But if solo, follow that blood trail as if the animal was still alive, slow, quiet and arrow nocked...

Go slow and LOOK all around even when the trail could be followed by Hellen Keller...

If a blood trail suddenly goes from small drops to bigger drops, it could be the wound has opened up, OR that the critter has back tracked knowing it's being pushed...

If the blood all of a sudden stops completely, start your grid hunt, deer have a habit of going some distance on their "death" run...

Once we found a nice buck that my buddy jumped from it's bed with no further blood to be seen, we started a grid in tall purple reeds, I took his 6year old son and put him on my shoulders to gain extra height, the boy picked out the dead deer we had walked past a few times...

The same buddy seems to always try to get on the blood to soon and has given me alittle to much time blood trailing, but we have a 100% recovery rate, due to staying focused,knowing the land, useing every clue and knowing there are no set-in-stone reactions to a hit (straight line travel, heading for water, downhill travel only, etc)...

Two years ago I helped a guy that hunts the same area as me in 34A track down his buck, very little blood, high liver hit, had the buck up and moving in front of us after 6hours of tracking tiny blood drops on "high sign" (blood on brush leaves, not the ground), total time on trail was 8hours and we found the buck bedded and he put another arrow into him to anchor him in his last bed, The guy was so gratefull for my help and that I had given-up a days hunt to help him, but I feel it was just another day hunting and I was more then happy to help...

[pstrman]

I have to actually hit one in order to reply with any knowledge. Learned a lot tho. Thanks

[rabidApache]

I find that if you start from the POI whether gun or archery and watch an animal expire. Don't waste a great opportunity to learn. I've learned tracking through experiences just like these. Look and learn on the tracks, don't just follow the blood. Blood is just the second insurance.

Another thing is treat the immediate area almost like a crime scene. Don't let your buddies trample the area and disturb sign. Nothing worse than trying to track through people trash (disturbance).

This goes especially at night, you (hunter) should be in front since you have first hand knowledge of what happened.

Fresh gut matter on arrow usually will not have an odor until its dried completely if heavy blood is present. Blood smell tends to cover.

Its these little attention to detail that makes the difference as a tracker.

[alexjh1]

Wow, I wish I read this thread years ago when it started, and yes that is funny it started years ago.

 

I hit an Elk at 40 yards, and I swear it was a dead center shot...maybe a tad back but a kill shot for sure. I gave it an hour and put in the call to the buddies.....they all jammed up to my coordinates where I of course did my tracking for about 40 yards with some tape and yes I treated the area like a crime scene which is awesome advice. The buddies got there and the trail went from a beautiful red pool to slowly dropping down to very small drops but the elk was running....but I still had it..tracks, leaves turned over, dirt hoof prints and then boom another drop. I got all day baby!

 

Sure as... well...stuff.... one of my buddies tromped ahead to my last marked spot when I went back to grab the other buddy, around the corner he jumped the elk who was close to expiring from the pool of blood in the bed. My buddy without a bow just watched as it broke through thick brush and beyond...I came over, we waited another hour as the animal left a lot of blood in the bed so we had sack lunch on the mountain. After that we tracked another 70 yards to brush and trees that had blood smears but the animal stopped bleeding...but the blood thickened up and we never saw it again. I still feel bad, angry and a ton of other emotions. So great thread, and I agree with the crime scene comment, give the animals a few hours if its not to warm. If you have to get after it 30-60 minutes be ready you never know when they need another shot. Great information on this thread...Thanks Alex

[Coues 'n' Sheep]

Hard to believe this is an 8 year old thread and I still get messages about it... Good hunting this fall folks!