Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide
Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, and now your host,
Speaker 1: Tony Peterson. Hey everyone, welcome to the Wire to Hunt
Speaker 1: Foundations podcast, which is brought to you by First Light.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Tony Peterson, and today's episode is all
Speaker 1: about blood trailing and the mistakes we all make. Back
Speaker 1: when I was elk hunting in September, my hunting partner
Speaker 1: hit a monster meal dear too high. He was distraught.
Speaker 1: He told me quite a few times how he never
Speaker 1: makes bad shots, and to be fair, he's like one
Speaker 1: of the best shots I know by far, and he
Speaker 1: honestly doesn't screw up very often when he draws that
Speaker 1: bow back to his face. But it happens, and it
Speaker 1: might be something between your ears, or it might have
Speaker 1: been something I don't know what happened with your rig.
Speaker 1: But bad shots do happen. Good shots happened too, and
Speaker 1: how you follow up on all of them. You know,
Speaker 1: that's probably big enough topic to cover ten of these episodes,
Speaker 1: but I'm only gonna give you too. I do think
Speaker 1: this is probably more important than almost any other theme
Speaker 1: I could hit on with this podcast. I hope you
Speaker 1: listen closely, and I hope you'll learn something from it.
Speaker 1: You know how when you go out like with old friends,
Speaker 1: like maybe high school friends or some buddies from college,
Speaker 1: and they tell a story about how you did something
Speaker 1: really stupid or crazy, and when they tell it, you
Speaker 1: think to yourself, that's that's not how that happened at all.
Speaker 1: You remember it totally different. If you ever take a
Speaker 1: criminal justice course at a college that dives into the
Speaker 1: topic of eyewitness a counts, you learned pretty quickly that
Speaker 1: we are really bad at witnessing events and then remembering
Speaker 1: them as they actually happen. It's hard to fathom, too,
Speaker 1: because we all trust our memories a lot, but this
Speaker 1: is the truth. You learn this in life in many ways,
Speaker 1: especially if you marry a woman who has a memory
Speaker 1: like a steel trap and you have a memory like
Speaker 1: one of those I don't know, sand sifter beach toys
Speaker 1: you give two year olds to play with at the
Speaker 1: beach if you want to. Totally random example has nothing
Speaker 1: to do with my every day grind your soul into
Speaker 1: the ground life. Anyway, we just generally suck at remembering
Speaker 1: things correctly. And what does this have to do with
Speaker 1: deer hunting, well, we all pretty much kind of suck
Speaker 1: it remembering how we shot a deer or how we
Speaker 1: shoot our dear. You know, the adrenaline kicks in your
Speaker 1: nerves are afraid and we are just pure reptile brain.
Speaker 1: A lot of times when we try to shoot a
Speaker 1: white tail. That means we don't really interpret the events
Speaker 1: as they actually happened, and we have to fill in
Speaker 1: the blanks. And new hunters often fill in the blanks
Speaker 1: to their benefit, Like instead of a low brisket style hit,
Speaker 1: they might decide that they must have hit the harder,
Speaker 1: low lungs. Hunters with tons of experience they kind of
Speaker 1: often go the other way. This is I think due
Speaker 1: to being on surprising and often disappointing blood trails. Those hunters,
Speaker 1: those experience hunters often make a pretty decent shot and
Speaker 1: they get overly cautious because they've seen what can go
Speaker 1: wrong and they don't want to make any mistakes to
Speaker 1: make it go even more wrong. You can count me
Speaker 1: in that camp. I second guess myself a lot, and
Speaker 1: I'm always learning that what I see during a shot
Speaker 1: and what I remember are often at odds with what
Speaker 1: actually happened. Every white tail outfitter out there will tell
Speaker 1: you this is damn near the rule and not an
Speaker 1: exception to it. Acknowledging this reality, I think it's real important.
Speaker 1: We all have to know and believe that we get
Speaker 1: details wrong when we shoot a deer, because we do.
Speaker 1: When I started filming hunts, this hit me right in
Speaker 1: the face, like one of those flying Asian carp that
Speaker 1: keeps marching their way up river to places once devoid
Speaker 1: of them. Now, filming hunting mostly sucks, and I know
Speaker 1: that's the first world problem to bitch about, but I
Speaker 1: hate having someone in a tree who ultimately has the
Speaker 1: thumbs up or thumbs down on you know, whether I
Speaker 1: can shoot or not. I hate it for other reasons too,
Speaker 1: But what I like it for is that it shows
Speaker 1: me how wrong I can be. I've shot quite a
Speaker 1: few critters on film over the years, and most of
Speaker 1: them have shown me that in some way my memory
Speaker 1: had betrayed me. It might be I don't know how
Speaker 1: much a buck dropped, or the actual body position of
Speaker 1: an antelope or something else, but it's pretty much a
Speaker 1: guarantee that what I remembered isn't exactly what happened. This
Speaker 1: is the first point I want you to really consider
Speaker 1: because it feeds a bigger blood trailing strategy. But and
Speaker 1: there's always a but it's also really important to take
Speaker 1: note of your initial impression when you shoot, Like, what
Speaker 1: did your instincts say in the moment? Did you believe
Speaker 1: the angle was really good and at that point of
Speaker 1: impact was close to where you intended good, that's good?
Speaker 1: Or did you have a feeling that something went a
Speaker 1: little ry maybe the hit was a bit farther back
Speaker 1: than you like, or maybe the dear mood right before
Speaker 1: the shot and took your slight quartering away angle and
Speaker 1: made it more severe. Okay, remember that. Also, try really
Speaker 1: hard to remember right where your dear was standing and
Speaker 1: right where it ran. What did it do when you shot?
Speaker 1: Did it mule kick? Did it hunched up to take
Speaker 1: off like a rocket? And when it ran, was it,
Speaker 1: you know, at the edge of the ridge or maybe
Speaker 1: did it just step over a log in the trail?
Speaker 1: Did it bound off between two birch trees, or maybe
Speaker 1: splash its way through a low spot in the swamp
Speaker 1: next to an island a willows. All of that stuff
Speaker 1: matters a lot. Initial reactions initial impressions. They are important
Speaker 1: because they are usually somewhat right. What happens, though, is
Speaker 1: that once we settle down and start replaying things in
Speaker 1: our heads, we start to rewrite the script. One of
Speaker 1: my favorite songs in the world to listen to and
Speaker 1: play on guitar is Schism from Tool, and in it,
Speaker 1: the good Reverence sings, I've done the math enough to
Speaker 1: know the dangers of our second guessing. I think about
Speaker 1: that a lot, and I'm reminded of it a lot
Speaker 1: when I shoot deer. The initial impression is important, but
Speaker 1: it's kind of like a sand castle. As soon as
Speaker 1: you build it, the wind comes along and start whisking
Speaker 1: away some grains of sand here and there, and then
Speaker 1: the waves start lapping at its foundation. Soon the whole
Speaker 1: thing looks different from when you built it. And what
Speaker 1: I'm saying is take note of what you believe happened
Speaker 1: as soon as it happened your first impressions. You will
Speaker 1: reference these often. You will also use this to counterweight
Speaker 1: what happens next, which is that it's time to gather
Speaker 1: some evidence. Now, this is the first part that gets
Speaker 1: a little tricky. After you shoot a deer, how long
Speaker 1: should you wait to get down and look for your
Speaker 1: arrow or look for blood at or near the impact site.
Speaker 1: To me, this depends on one thing. What are the
Speaker 1: odds I'll spook the wounded deer if it's dead, calm,
Speaker 1: and the cover is thick, or basically a situation where
Speaker 1: I don't know how far the wounded deer went, I'm
Speaker 1: going to sit up in that stand for a while,
Speaker 1: maybe an hour, maybe more. If there is a thirty
Speaker 1: mile prour wind and I watched the deer drop down
Speaker 1: into a valley and out of sight, I know the
Speaker 1: odds of me getting down and spooking it are pretty low.
Speaker 1: The very first consideration always is to not spook a
Speaker 1: deer when you don't have to. This is probably a
Speaker 1: horrible comparison, but they always say that if you're abducted,
Speaker 1: don't let them take you to a second location, because
Speaker 1: if they do, it's lights out for you. When it
Speaker 1: comes to wounded deer, you do not want to push
Speaker 1: them to a second location. You want them to tip
Speaker 1: over or bed down in a spot of their choice
Speaker 1: and then be there expired. When you do slip into
Speaker 1: blood trailer, the deer that beds down and gets pushed
Speaker 1: to a new spot is a deer that you are far,
Speaker 1: far less likely to recover. Sometimes we make that mistake
Speaker 1: by just getting down from our standard looking for our
Speaker 1: arrows or looking for blood at the impact site. If
Speaker 1: you can get down safely and start looking, you should,
Speaker 1: but only only for the first bit of evidence. Finding
Speaker 1: your arrow is huge, and this is where lighted knocks
Speaker 1: are a really great option. Hell they're a great option
Speaker 1: for seeing what happened throughout your shot and immediately following it.
Speaker 1: An arrow that passes through and burries in the ground
Speaker 1: with a glowing knock is pretty easy to find. An
Speaker 1: arrow that buries into the deer and then leaves the
Speaker 1: scene with them is pretty easy to see with a
Speaker 1: lighted knock. But even if you don't use lighted knocks,
Speaker 1: you should still try really hard to find your arrow.
Speaker 1: I see people make this mistake a lot, and it
Speaker 1: drives me crazy, mostly because it's a testament to how
Speaker 1: impatient a lot of people are on blood trails. This,
Speaker 1: by the way, is something that everyone needs to understand.
Speaker 1: Patience not only kills big bucks, but it's really your
Speaker 1: best friend on a blood trail. It is too often
Speaker 1: we default to looking for a whole dead deer, when
Speaker 1: we should be looking for the tiniest amount of evidence
Speaker 1: that will tell us not only what kind of hit
Speaker 1: we are dealing with, but what direction our wounded deer
Speaker 1: really went. Remember that, please, So you sneak down as
Speaker 1: quiet as a mouse pissing on a cotton ball, or
Speaker 1: I don't know, something like that, and you walk over
Speaker 1: to the impact site. Unless the ground is rock hard,
Speaker 1: I tend to almost always look for running tracks. Even
Speaker 1: little deer move some dirt and leaves when they run,
Speaker 1: especially if they go from standing still to full on
Speaker 1: get the hell out of here mode. These scarred up
Speaker 1: tracks almost always kick off a blood trail. But even
Speaker 1: if they don't, your job is to find the arrow.
Speaker 1: If it's there, Your arrow and what will be on
Speaker 1: it are crucial to developing a high odds blood trailing plan.
Speaker 1: To find it, you have to find exactly where the
Speaker 1: deer was standing when you shot, and then work it
Speaker 1: beyond that point. I know that's simple, but it's true.
Speaker 1: Sometimes the arrow is right there. Sometimes it's twenty yards
Speaker 1: farther downhill, buried in a patch of thorns or nettles.
Speaker 1: Occasionally it skips off in a random direction. The point here,
Speaker 1: my friends, is that people often give up way too
Speaker 1: quickly on finding their arrow. This is a bad idea.
Speaker 1: Do your best, give it some time and understand that
Speaker 1: often the arrow is within maybe twenty or third yards
Speaker 1: of the impact site, but usually, or at least sometimes,
Speaker 1: isn't overly visible. Now, if you do find your arrow,
Speaker 1: pay attention. Is it stuck six inches in the dirt
Speaker 1: or is it laying on the ground? Is it broken?
Speaker 1: Is it covered in dark red blood or little pieces
Speaker 1: of meat and fat? Is it covered in the deerest
Speaker 1: partially digested breakfast. Are your broadhead blades still intact or
Speaker 1: they busted up like you hit bone. This is something
Speaker 1: I say to myself all the time, and we'll circle
Speaker 1: us back around at the beginning of this podcast. The
Speaker 1: evidence doesn't lie, even if our memory does. The evidence
Speaker 1: on your arrow just doesn't lie. If you believe you
Speaker 1: double lunge your buck but the arrow is covered in
Speaker 1: gut material, then you're just wrong. Something happened that you
Speaker 1: don't remember, and it doesn't matter because the arrow and
Speaker 1: its evidence aren't lying. This initial finding is crucial for
Speaker 1: planning out the rest of your trailing efforts. Trust me,
Speaker 1: when I say trust the evidence. Now you might be
Speaker 1: thinking that's really great advice, Tony, But I shoot my
Speaker 1: dear with a muzzle order or maybe a two seventy.
Speaker 1: There's no arrows involved. Thank you very much. Well, you're welcome.
Speaker 1: And in the case of shooting a deer with just
Speaker 1: about anything shy of a nuke, the impact site is moody. Importante,
Speaker 1: is there blood right there? That's usually a good sign.
Speaker 1: Instant blood or blood within a few feet of the
Speaker 1: impact site always makes me feel a little better. It's
Speaker 1: not a guarantee that immediate recovery is imminent, but that
Speaker 1: at the very least you hit something that is carrying blood.
Speaker 1: I like that. Is that blood splattered on the tree
Speaker 1: right by the impact site or just missed it on
Speaker 1: a few leaves? Is it like gouts of blood that
Speaker 1: almost look like an impressionist painting of rose petals? Or
Speaker 1: is it just a few random drops stippled across the
Speaker 1: maple leaves? Can you glass down the trail and pick
Speaker 1: up more blood pretty quickly or not? What's the quantity? Like,
Speaker 1: what's the quality like to is it frothy, pinkish lung
Speaker 1: blood or dark red blood that might indicate a liver
Speaker 1: head or possible be a heart or artery hit. Is
Speaker 1: it just your run of the mill looking blood and
Speaker 1: not so great quantities that could indicate any number of
Speaker 1: different hits. Is their hair there? What color is it?
Speaker 1: Is it short and brown or is it long and white?
Speaker 1: Does the hair indicate that you might have hit lower
Speaker 1: than you thought? What does the evidence tell you? And
Speaker 1: each piece of evidence that you find, Really your job
Speaker 1: is just to filter a few things. The first is
Speaker 1: to compare it to your initial impression right after the shot.
Speaker 1: The next is to use it with whatever other evidence
Speaker 1: you've got to make a better and better plan. Did
Speaker 1: you think you smoked your buck and that he'd be
Speaker 1: dead in seventy five yards only to find some bit
Speaker 1: of evidence on the arrow of the impact site that
Speaker 1: makes you think he might be a lot farther away.
Speaker 1: Trust the evidence. The biggest mistake I see a lot
Speaker 1: of hunters make is that they convince themselves that they
Speaker 1: should take off on the blood trail too early and
Speaker 1: that they'll recover their deer in no time due to
Speaker 1: the fact that they think they made a good enough shot.
Speaker 1: The other mistake they make at this point is they
Speaker 1: text three of their buddies, and they say it's time
Speaker 1: to run up the posse and start blood trailing together.
Speaker 1: I highly highly advise against this at the onset of
Speaker 1: any questionable blood trail. The reason why is that the
Speaker 1: more people you get involved, the faster you'll go, because
Speaker 1: the most impatient person in the group will often set
Speaker 1: the pace. This happens with large groups of pheasant hunters, too,
Speaker 1: and it drives me crazy. It's one of the reasons
Speaker 1: why I don't hunt in large groups. Everyone wants to
Speaker 1: be the first one to shoot the rooster or find
Speaker 1: the next drop of blood, but both activities should be
Speaker 1: closer to a crawl than a sprint. I'd much much
Speaker 1: rather trail solo or with one other person who knows
Speaker 1: what he's doing, and then we'll follow me and allow
Speaker 1: me to set the pace because it's my blood trail.
Speaker 1: And I can't stress this enough. If you have to
Speaker 1: grid search later than all the help you can get
Speaker 1: as good. But for now, right at the onset of
Speaker 1: a blood trail which you don't know how it's gonna end,
Speaker 1: keeping it small and keeping it slow is the best plan.
Speaker 1: And before you get too far down that trail, decide
Speaker 1: what an appropriate amount of time is to wait. Now,
Speaker 1: there are some general rules about this stuff, but I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna tell you because they don't matter to me.
Speaker 1: A whole lot. Well hit, double lunger, heart shot, Dear,
Speaker 1: he isn't gonna lay out there long before I go
Speaker 1: get it. Anything else is going to get a buffer
Speaker 1: of at least a couple of hours, maybe quite a
Speaker 1: bit longer. If I know I'm dealing with a liver
Speaker 1: or a gut hit, I'm going to give it probably
Speaker 1: six to eight hours. Now, I know you're thinking, what
Speaker 1: if it's hot? What if I got a ton of
Speaker 1: coyotes in my area? This is another time when patients
Speaker 1: and caution are important. We way overstate the likelihood of
Speaker 1: losing our meat to heat, especially overnight when it comes
Speaker 1: to white tails. I have a boatload of September deer,
Speaker 1: and I've never lost any too heat spoilage. Overnights in
Speaker 1: September are cool enough in general to make it less
Speaker 1: of an issue than we often think. Now, I'm not
Speaker 1: talking Florida or Louisiana deer here, though I get it.
Speaker 1: Your local conditions will vary, and if it's not supposed
Speaker 1: to get below seventy five degrees tonight. You have got
Speaker 1: to consider that. You have to filter that info through
Speaker 1: your plan and decide that maybe eight hours is just
Speaker 1: too much time in that heat, but four is doable.
Speaker 1: You don't want to be cavalier here. You want to
Speaker 1: be as cautious as you can while still being smart
Speaker 1: about it. And as far as the song dogs go
Speaker 1: coming in and munching up your deer, this is another
Speaker 1: danger that we often overstate. Now. I've heard horror stories
Speaker 1: out of places like Kansas where a pack of coyotes
Speaker 1: will clean up a whole deer in a matter of minutes.
Speaker 1: If you know that's a real possibility in your area,
Speaker 1: you have to factor that in and play those odds,
Speaker 1: just like you would with heat. You can't control the
Speaker 1: coyotes or the weather, but you can control it. If
Speaker 1: you talk yourself into going after a gut shot buck
Speaker 1: an hour after you hit him, just because there is
Speaker 1: a possibility coyotes will find him, got to be real
Speaker 1: honest with yourself after looking at the initial evidence and
Speaker 1: then factoring in the likelihood of meat loss for whatever reason.
Speaker 1: This is a balance that's hard to find, even if
Speaker 1: you have a ton of experience. Sometimes you'll get it wrong,
Speaker 1: but the goal is to get it wrong as rarely
Speaker 1: as possible. Does this seem like a lot. It is.
Speaker 1: Our job once we shoot is to do our best
Speaker 1: to find our dear and not lose an ounce of venison.
Speaker 1: It's a heavy lift sometimes, but just like when you're
Speaker 1: facing a torturous pack out of a bull elk, you
Speaker 1: bought the ticket, so you better get ready to take
Speaker 1: the ride now. Next week I'm going to talk about
Speaker 1: what to do during a blood trail and how to
Speaker 1: ensure that with every step you take you're getting closer
Speaker 1: to your dear and not skiing losing it. That's it
Speaker 1: for this week, my friends. I'm Tony Peterson and this
Speaker 1: has been the Wire to Hunt Foundations podcast, which has
Speaker 1: brought to you by First Light. As I always thank
Speaker 1: you so much for your support. I can't tell you
Speaker 1: how much it means to me. It's really great. If
Speaker 1: you want more of a white tail fix this time
Speaker 1: of year, you can't get enough of it, head on
Speaker 1: over to the Mediator YouTube channel. You can check out
Speaker 1: Mark's new show Deer Country. You can also head over
Speaker 1: to our Wire to Hunt YouTube channel, and we've got
Speaker 1: a boatload of how to videos on there, or you
Speaker 1: can head on over to the metator dot com slash
Speaker 1: wired and you're gonna read all kinds of white tail
Speaker 1: related articles written by myself and Mark in a whole
Speaker 1: slew of white tail Killers