Tip - How to Blood Trail and Track Wounded Deer

The shot looked perfect. An hour after making it—on a large Minnesota whitetail that had come running to the sound of my rattling—Pat Gaffney with RAM Outfitters (minnesota whitetailhunts.com) and I inspected the blood-soaked arrow found a few yards past where the wide-racked buck had stood. It had been a complete pass-through. We’d barely walked 100 yards when Gaffney shouted, “There it is!” The problem was, it wasn’t dead. The buck leapt from cover and sprinted downhill. Blood saturated the ground where the deer had bedded, but a short distance farther, it disappeared altogether. With a regret I still feel today, we never did find that deer. But thanks to Gaffney’s amazing tracking skills—much of it hinged on identifying a turned leaf here or there and a keen understanding of the terrain and how deer travel it—he kept my chances alive much longer and actually picked the blood trail back up, trailing the buck at least a half mile before losing it for good at a wide creek.
Tags: Hunting, Whitetail Deer