"Tracking Deer Made Easy"

Alright, so a few people have asked me about this topic, and I've been wanting to write about it for quite some time now I just haven't got around to it with Ohio's rut going on. It's the age-old question of what to look for when blood trailing, and how long should you wait before tracking your quarry. A majority of you bow hunt whitetails so that's what I'm going to mainly focus on in this article. However; even though a whitetail's anatomy can be much different than other big game animals', a lot of this information can translate to other species that you may be chasing after with your stick and string. 

First off before you even enter the woods it's an absolute must to do one thing, and that's research the animal's anatomy that you will be pursuing. I've heard countless stories of bowhunters who said they made perfect shots, but never found the animal. Then when they tell me where they hit them I realize they have no clue about the anatomy of that animal. Bowhunting is all about learning, and it can do nothing but good to do your research before you start hunting a specific big game animal.

Second, if you can film your hunts, fantastic. You're going to have a tremendous advantage over everyone else solely because you can replay that shot over and over again to determine precisely where you hit that deer. It's always nice to have that luxury. It gives you much more confidence when you start at the head of that blood trail. However, if you do not film your hunts, you need to make sure you get a good look at where that arrow enters the deer's body. I know sometimes this can be very difficult, even near impossible because I've experienced it firsthand. Especially if you do not have a lighted nock (which I highly recommend using because they can be a life saver on identifying marginal shots). So if you don't shoot lighted nocks just do your best to get a good look at that entry hole.

The next step I believe is one of the most overlooked things in bowhunting, and that's watching how that deer acts after you send a broadhead through it's chest cavity. Does it run away? Does it sprint away? Does it just kind of hunker over, and walk away? You need to pay close attention to how that buck or doe acts once you've made contact with your arrow. I believe the main reason it gets overlooked is because you have all that adrenaline rushing through your body after you just arrowed a deer. You're blood's pumping, you're heart's going 100 miles per hour, and I understand that. I do it too. The day I don't react like that is the day I'll quit bowhunting. However; you need to do your best to watch that animal to see what it does. Pay attention to landmarks it goes by so even if it goes out of sight, and you have no blood trail at first (for instance on a single lung hit), you can follow it's route until hopefully you can pick up on blood.

Illustrated here is a diagram of the anatomy of a white-tailed deer.

Once you've watched that buck or that doe move out of sight, you need to wait at least a half an hour in your stand, or blind or what have you. Regardless of the hit, it's always important to give the animal at least this much time to expire. Plus, it gives you time to calm down from the excitement of releasing an arrow. The next part is going to depend on your shot placement, and the appearance of your arrow. In the second half of this article I've broken down each scenario on what to do based on your shot placement. Just be warned: not every deer is going to react the same. So waiting times, and how the deer acts once it's been shot can vary even with the same shot placement.

Here is a prime example of a double lung shot. The red line represents the path of the arrow.

Double Lung
A double lung hit can be indicated by bright-red and/or pink-colored blood. Air bubbles in the blood or on your arrow might indicate a lung wound. These blood trails are usually very easy to follow, with massive amounts of spattered blood reaching the ground, and sometimes sprayed on the sides of trees, bushes, etc. Be warned that the blood trail may not start for up to 50 yards of where the deer was shot, as most of the bleeding will be internal. Any external blood will come from fine spray exiting out deer's nostrils and mouth, with very little coming out of the entry and/or exit wounds. I always recommend waiting a minimum of 30 minutes before beginning any blood-trailing efforts despite knowing this shot can result in the deer expiring in less than 10 seconds after impact.

When we take the lungs away we can see here, a shot that probably passed through one if not both lungs, but also the heart.

Heart or Arteries
This shot includes the heart, or any major arteries leading to the heart such as the ones right next to it, the aorta that runs along the top of a deer's back, the carotid artery and jugular vein that are in a deer's neck, the pyloric artery that runs along their belly, and the femoral arteries that run down their back legs. For a heart or artery shot, blood will appear as a dark, crimson red. The blood trail will usually be steady and easy to follow. Be warned that even a heart-shot deer can travel a long distance, sometimes 100 yards or more. I would only wait a half an hour before beginning to look for blood.

Here is just one example of a single lung hit. Many times a quartering to shot or a low body shot can result in only hitting one lung.

Single Lung
What makes a single lung hit tricky, is just as a double lung hit this shot can be identified by bright-red and/or pink-colored blood. Again, there may be air bubbles in the blood or on your arrow shaft. The deer's blood trail intensity usually increases after 50 yards, but then slowly peters to a drop here, a drop there, etc. Single lung hits can be very difficult to decide what to do mainly because they can look just like a double lung shot. If you know for a fact you only hit one lung, wait at least 2 hours before picking up the trail. If it's hard to tell at first, then you begin to lose blood. Back out, and come back in 1-2 hours. Be prepared to make a follow up shot.

Here we see a liver hit. The arrow is almost dead center between the deer's back and front legs, and centered between the top of the back and the bottom of it's stomach.

Liver
For a liver hit, blood will appear as a dark red, almost an opaque-maroon. Note: this is NOT the same dark-red (blackish) as from a pure intestinal wound. The deer typically will lunge, then slowly lope away or even walk. A liver blood trail can be very spotty. Most blood will hit the ground when the deer runs. However; the wound can sometimes be clogged by intestinal pressure. This deer will be relatively easy to track if, and only if, you allow enough time for the animal to expire before you take up the trail. A liver hit deer will typically travel less than 300 yards if it is not pushed. Wait a minimum of 6-8 hours before you begin tracking.

Illustrated is a perfect representation of an intestinal hit. The shot is far back on the body, just in front of the back leg.

Intestines/Paunch
This shot includes both the intestines and the paunch/stomach. It can be indicated by puddles and/or droplets of brownish-green liquid and/or amounts of partially digested food matter on the ground and on your arrow. A gut shot (as it's commonly called) can be easily identified by a rank odor on the arrow. The deer may react just the same as a liver hit by hunching over and walking slowly away. In other instances I've seen deer walk just a few yards, and bed down after a gut hit. Do your best to get out of the woods as quietly as possible. The waiting time for this shot has been very misconstrued. A lot of hunters believe on a gut shot, if you return the following morning (after an evening shot) or if you return that night (after a morning shot) you will find the deer expired. It depends on the shot. If the deer was quartering away, and your arrow hit other organs maybe even vitals, the deer may expire more quickly. But on a pure intestinal shot, you should wait a full 24 hours before returning to search for your deer. I understand the concern of coyotes, and other predators getting to the animal first waiting that long. However; the meat is going to be spoiled with a gut shot anyways. In my personal opinion, I believe it's worth the wait (especially on a buck) to recover at least the rack, rather than push that deer too soon to hopefully save the cape and meat. Taking up the blood trail too soon will only put more anxiety on that deer and push them further, and may end up costing you finding that deer at all.

In this picture we see an example of a spine hit. The arrow misses all organs and vitals, but severs the spinal cord therefore dropping the animal on the spot.

Spine
I'm sure most of you know what a spine shot deer does, and how to resolve it based off personal experience or seeing it happen on television, but I still would like to touch on the subject. With a spine shot deer, it is going to collapse on the spot. The spinal cord has been severed or a vertebrae has been broken so the deer will lose the ability to move it's back legs and/or it's front legs. This will only immobilize the deer, not expire it. It's an unfortunate thing, but it happens in bowhunting. We can't all make perfect shots every time. So to expire the deer humanely you need to attempt a follow-up shot into vitals, even if this means getting down from your stand.

This is a prime example of a lower leg shot. This is usually a miss by the hunter who was aiming for the heart. It is non-lethal unless you happen to clip a major artery.

Lower Leg
A lower leg hit can be indicated by bright, red blood. Pieces of meat or bone might also be found near hit site or on your arrow. This usually happens when a bowhunter aims for the heart, but misses only by a few inches hitting only bone, muscle, and tendon. A lower leg shot is non-lethal unless you are lucky enough to clip a major artery with the broadhead. Begin tracking after 30 minutes if you're unsure, but if it's a pure leg hit than you'll likely lose blood quickly and the deer will likely live.

This is just one example of a muscle hit. There are many ways in which you could miss the vitals and hit just muscle, but this seems to be the most frequent. The shot is too high to puncture any vitals, while at the same time too low to sever the spine ultimately leading to a non-lethal shot.

Muscle
A muscle hit can be indicated by large amounts of bright, red blood. Pieces of meat, hide and fat might also be found near impact site or on your arrow. Sometimes this blood trail can look a lot like a vital hit. Unfortunately, it's not. Begin blood trailing efforts after a half an hour, but more than likely if it's a pure muscle hit, the deer is still alive for it is a non-lethal shot. You may get lucky, and get trail camera pictures later in the season if the deer wanders back into the area which I've witnessed on several occasions on both muscle, and lower leg hits.

So whether you're chasing whitetails in the midwest, or elk in the rockies, or any other big game across North America, knowing the anatomy of that specific game you'll be bowhunting is crucial. Do your research beforehand so you'll be educated when it comes crunch time. Once that moment of truth arrives, make sure you get a good look at where that arrow enters the animal's body. Whether that's through a camera, having a hunting partner spot you, using a lighted nock, or just watching that arrow with your eagle eyes. Then you need to ask yourself these questions. Is it quartering away, to, broadside? Is it back, forward, high, or low? Or is it right in the boiler room? Pay close attention to how that animal reacts. Does it limp away? Does it bed down just a few yards from where you shot? Or does it bust out of there like it just seen a ghost? Then if you find the arrow close by, check it to try and determine what organs that arrow may or may not have hit. Is it bright red blood, a dark/crimson, or does it have food matter and a rank odor? Questions like these are going to help you choose to wait the appropriate amount of time before you begin tracking that animal. These are the things that are going to help you make better decisions when it comes time to take up the blood trail.

"Redemption"

If I could give a fellow bowhunter one piece of advice for hunting the rut I'd have to stress, "Get your butt in the woods, keep your head on a swivel, your eyes peeled and your ears open, because you never know what's going to happen next." And that's just it. During the rut anything goes. You never know what's going to come around the corner. It's your best time to fill that tag, because the big boys are on their feet more during the day, and they've let their guard down. Yes, there aren't 140 inch caliber bucks behind every tree, but they can come walking by your stand in search of a hot doe just as easy during the rut as a little basket rack. The best description I've ever heard of what it's like seeing a giant bruiser of the mid-west walking towards your stand was, "It's like a ghost appearing out of a wall." Although I've never seen a ghost, I know it has to be exactly like that. They just appear and your hunt can go from a slow, boring night without seeing even a squirrel, to tagging out on your biggest buck ever in just a matter of seconds. It can happen that fast. I was fortunate enough to experience this magnificent occurrence first hand just last Wednesday, November the 12th. And that's exactly what we're going to talk about in this article: my wonderful journey that day, and my chance at redemption.

The morning of the 12th came just as most do during the rut; cool and crisp. But after nearly two weeks of hunting my rear end off and not seeing one shooter even in the distance, that 4:30 a.m. wake up call wasn't as pleasant as it was back in October. Temperatures were frigid all that morning starting in the mid-20s and then barely reaching the 30s by mid-day. The cold temps had the deer up and on their feet. I seen several smaller bucks in the 120s and 130s chasing does, hoping to finally wear them down to the point where they could possibly breed them. But the best thing I seen that morning was the picture my father sent me saying our buddy had downed a big eight off of another property. So when I retreated back to the house that morning, it was nothing but triumph and a sigh of relief from all of us because someone had finally got the first buck down on the ground for the year.

My father, Joe Fabian (left) captures a few memories of Chuck Beecher (right) and his beautiful Ohio buck he harvested the morning of November 12th.

However, in the midst of all the rejoice and reflection, we all knew we needed to get back into the woods as soon as we could for the evening sit. With the winds out of the west, the choices were quite limited for we have many stands set up for different winds to hunt out of, but just a handful are set up for a west wind. So although I couldn't get in a prime location for the rut, I still wanted to go to a spot that could possibly have a dominant buck come cruising through.

I decided to get in a stand we had just hung a few weeks before. A quadruple trunk cherry tree that sits on the point of a ridge line. The deer cruise both sides of the ridge, and the flat that the stand over looks is a pinch point where deer almost have to come by. My plan was to hopefully catch a giant cruising the ridge in search of a doe. When I reached the stand, I began my routine I had carried out hundreds of times before. Tie my bow onto the pull-up rope, climb in, pull up my bow, set up the camera arm, attach the camera, and settle in for the night. Before I could finish my duties, four does busted up out of the bottom and up and over the other side of the ridge going full speed. But not because of a trailing buck, but because state workers began using a boom saw to start cutting protruding tree limbs on a power line just 400 yards below my stand. My heart sank. I figured there was no chance I'd see another deer all night. I couldn't even hear if one was coming anyways because the saw was so loud. So I needed to be on my toes. Just a short five minutes later, like a ghost coming out of a wall, walked a giant whitetail of the midwest. By the time I seen him he was already 70 yards and closing! Quickly, I grabbed my bow and got the camera turned on and rolling film. The buck was massive. Just a stud. The first thing I noticed was how dark his rack was. And based off his mass, tine length and just overall stature I knew instantly he was a shooter. The first shooter I had seen all year: from on a trail camera, in the woods, from the truck, anywhere. So it came as a shock. Nobody had seen this buck before now. None of us anyways. But it didn't matter. Because he was here now, and it was judgement day.

I filmed the buck walking in, taking strong purposeful steps as if he owned anything and everything around him. It seemed as though he was going 100 miles per hour, and it happened in an instant. I turned the camera to a shooting lane just twelve short yards away, and came to full draw as the buck passed behind a hickory tree. The moment of truth had came, and I was ready. The buck walked right into the camera's viewfinder and I bleated to stop him. This would turn out to be a costly mistake… The buck stopped as if he was about to break through the Earth and fall down to the other side. Within milliseconds he glanced at me already at full draw, not moving a muscle, about to let an arrow loose, and just as fast, took off like a shot out of a cannon. I tried to raise up and put an arrow in him. But I was no match for the whitetail's speed. The arrow slipped just past his shoulder and into the passive ground. The buck darted over the ridge and stopped at the peak just long enough for me to get a few more seconds of video before he bounded away not knowing exactly what had just happened.

The view from my camera just moments before the buck stepped into my shooting lane.

My heart sank to my stomach. I was in utter disbelief of what had just transpired. That buck had left my life just as fast as it walked into it. I thought maybe it was a dream. I kept trying to pinch myself… but I never woke up. The one chance I pray for to have at a giant Ohio whitetail every year had came and went. Many guys don't even get that one chance. But I did. And I blew it. The encounter just kept running through my mind as I leaned my four head against the tree I was in. I thought to myself the chances of having a buck of that caliber walk within twelve yards of me was probably a million to one. So I knew the chances of him coming back ever, let alone that same night were astronomical. Just not possible. So my heart sank even further into my body. It was honestly the most distraught I had ever been over a big game animal. I just could not get the image out of my mind.

But that's bowhunting for you. If you're going to pursue this sport, then you have to have a short term memory and put that kind of stuff behind you, quick. So I tried to leave it in the past. And with comforting words from my girlfriend and from my father through some texts, I did. I turned my focus back on the hunt and the task at hand, putting the smack down on a big dominant buck of the Ohio woods. The night rolled on, and I had seen just a few other deer. A spike dogged a few does past my stand. Another two and a half year old eight point cruised through in search of a receptive doe. The light soon turned to dark as last shooting light was just a short fifteen minutes away when a doe came in and bedded just fifty yards away. Not even five minutes later, I heard a deep long grunt just out of sight in the brush. I let out a soft, deep response with my grunt call. Out came another two and a half year old eight point. But this one was different, he limped dramatically with every step of his front right leg. He kicked the doe out of her bed, and circled around to get within twenty yards of me, just off to my right. As he milled around for awhile, I heard a sound I will never ever forget. Off to my left, just a short fifty-some odd-yards away, I heard a giant branch snap, and the heavy steps of what I knew was a big big buck.

To my surprise out walked the EXACT same buck I had missed an opportunity at early that night! I couldn't believe it. He had circled back around still in search of does, but had heard me challenge that other buck with a grunt call. Just as fast as the first encounter I grabbed my bow and came to full draw with the camera already rolling. The buck stepped out into a shooting lane at a much more challenging forty yards. With no interest in the other buck, and his feet at a halt, I knew it was then or never. Just as fast as everything had happened with this buck, I let an arrow fly. The lighted nock cut through the night like a screaming firework, and when it struck the buck's side, I knew it was a great hit. It sounded like I had hit him in the shoulder with a baseball bat. With the arrow sticking out of his side, the buck bolted out of sight and into the thick timber. What happened next only added to the drama that had went down that night. It sounded like a 747 crashed into the timber as the buck fell to the ground. I raised my arms in triumph, and said the only thing that made sense, "REDEMPTION!"

What a roller coaster of a night. I went from being on cloud nine as one of the biggest bucks I've ever harvested walked into my life, to an all-time low when he left without an arrow in him, to an all time high when I arrowed him at forty yards in that timber. I've never been so excited to lay my hands on a buck before in my life. And I think it's because of the journey that led me there. The fact I had him at twelve steps, then lost him. Then was blessed by The Good Lord above with another chance. And to capitalize on that just got to me. It was unbelievable. There's no other word for it: just unbelievable. It just goes to show you what persistence can do for you bowhunting. I could have went home when they started cutting on the power line. I could have just as easily went home when I missed my first opportunity at the buck I will rightfully so nickname "Redemption," but I didn't. I kept on hunting. And it paid off. There are so many lessons that can come of this hunt, and I hope you can take at least one of them with you. Redemption scored a very respectful 150 inches, and goes down as my second biggest buck of my young bowhunting career. Look for this story to hopefully surface on a hunting show on the Outdoor Channel sometime in 2015. I'll be sure to update you all, and let you know air times. I wish you all the best of luck the remainder of the season. Hunt hard, but hunt smart.

Here's a picture of "Redemption" at his final resting place. Was a blessing getting to hunt, and harvest this magnificent animal.