Tracking

[Pat B]

I always carry toilet paper with me when I hunt for the obvious reason but also for tracking. For tracking I put a small piece of TP at each blood spot and other obvious signs. While tracking it helps to be able to look at your back trail and the TP is obvious. If it starts to rain you can still see the TP for a while.
Following tracks, kicked over leaves, broken twigs and branches are part of tracking and following the contours of the land. Deer usually follow the path of least resistance and wounded deer usually head for water and/or thick cover

[Hawkdancer]

I know they don't always go downhill when hit!  Especially if you  happen to be down hill from them.
Hawkdancer

[Pat B]

...but in my experience when a deer is wounded it will head for security and in the areas I hunt heavy cover and water are in the low areas.
Generally, the deer I've shot have headed back to the area they came from because it was secure enough for them to travel in the first place.

[JEB]

What we do. If someone shoots a deer and it rains after the hit ( we just don't hunt in the rain) and the track is lost we gather as many folks as we can, usually 3 or 4 and do grid searches in the area. We really give it a fair and all out search before we walk away.

Like Pat, we use toilet paper when tracking a deer which gives you a real good look as to what direction the deer is traveling after the hit. We also hang a piece of bright (pink or flo green) ribbon over the last spot where blood was located.

Just an FYI.  I have left the woods in the middle of a hunt when it started to rain.

[Piddler]

Gonna throw in my two cents from my experience. I once shot a decent buck too far back (liver shot if you will). Anyway, shortly after the shot it started a light rain. I got scared I would lose the blood trail and started the search. The buck only went about 50 - 60 yards and laid down. He had lain there long enough to clot up and quit bleeding so bad BUT when I jumped him he ran away with out any more blood to trail. Never found that buck. Yes heartbroken I was and sick to my stomach. I would have found him had I given him time to expire but I got in a rush. Certain trails they will run sometimes makes tracking easier. They will get off the trail and lay down if wounded. Yes they turn and twist and sometimes come back where they came from. I stick a stick in the ground every so often to mark the trail and get a sense of their direction. Sometimes go back a few markers and think if I was running through woods which way would I go. Moral of my story, patience is your friend rain or not. Also as mentioned before, sometimes ethics need to come into play and decisions based on that before the shot.
Happy Hunting All

[turtle]

I'm color blind and can't  see blood trails. Did train my dog to track them tho. Makes it a lot easier.

[Pappy]

I try not to hunt in the rain also as others have said, but knowing your area well really helps. A well place arrow will usually put one down with in a hundred yards or so, not always but usually so watching the way the deer went as far as you can and mark that in you mind helps a lot, then if no blood trail grid it off and cover a hundred yards or so in every direction from last sighting. If still no deer then move the grid and do it again. Be sure to cover every inch, it is easy to just start wandering and you walk right passed one, it is also easy to bypass rough or thick areas, don't do that because that is generally where they will go. Also a tracking dog is an asset.
 Pappy

[WhistlingBadger]

Interesting thread, and some very good information here.  You all have me thinking: I usually hunt solo in the back country, so I usually can't just whistle up some friends to help, and the weather is so squirrely in the mountains that calling off the hunt every time it clouds up isn't an option.  Hard rains are fairly uncommon, though; Usually just drizzle.

I'm going to look into that Practical Tracking book, and start working more on my tracking skills while I'm wandering around the hills.  It's been a long time since I've deliberately worked on that.  But from past experience, I know that working on such things increases one's awareness of surroundings, and that makes us both better hunters and better people.

Thanks, everybody.  T

[Outbackbob48]

Another little tip if hunting from tree stands is to take a compass bearing to the last place you seen your hit deer, when ya get back down on the ground sometimes things look different. Bob

[Piddler]

Turtle,
I feel your pain on the colorblind part. Although I'm not super bad I have always had trouble with any color test. Anyone I have talked with also says it does make it more difficult. I really didn't know how much difference till I was blood trailing a deer with my son that he shot. Kind of embarrassed me a bit, actually I was more amazed. Also, kind of angry at him everytime he would say right there can't you see it. Blood on leaves not so bad, blood on pine needles or grass bad.
Good luck out there fellas.

[Hawkdancer]

Whiteout conditions do not help matters either and just like rain
can I liberate a trail and are dangerous!
Hawt

[mullet]

I usually don't hunt in the rain either. But I have hunted hogs in the rain and even a Tropical Storm once. Even so, I've only taken a close up, know exactly where I'm going to hit it shot, when I have played in the rain. I will gun hunt in the rain, seems like when all of the critters like to come out all day down here. I 'll use a .300 WinMag when I do. I've never had to blood trail using it.

[Ed Brooks]

I’ve used a spray bottle with peroxide in it to help find blood, but rain can be a blood trail killer. Ed

Now hows that work?
[/quote

It will foam up when it hits blood. Just like if you use it on a cut. Yellow food coloring is said to help see it. Good luck! Ed