Lesson Learned - No Blood Tracking / Meat Spoilage - Personal Examples

[TagSoup_Chef]

What’s your “no blood” recovery story?

LEARN FROM MY MISTAKES!

Story (The Good)-

I’m a new big game hunter. I’ve bow hunted Whitetails for a few years, shot a doe over a feeder with a rifle, but largely hunted birds. I moved to CO and immediately went all in on western big game. No luck year one, but learned lots and met @Upwolf (who is a real killer) and put in lots of work in the off-season. Hard work paid off! Scouted all summer, was in my unit 2 days early, picked up various herds migrating, probably saw 20 bulls (including some real dandies). Goal was first legal bull in range - glassed this guy with 3 others the night before. Slipped in to his drainage as they bugled all morning. Shot him at 75 yards on morning 2 of the season.


The Bad / Ugly -

I initially felt really confident with the shot. We both (my dad) thought we saw the bull stumble, but he and the other 2 bulls walked off immediately post shot like nothing happened. I tried for a follow up but only had an angle at his rump as they entered a thick aspen patch. We went to the shot location and found 0 blood. We searched that location + 100 yards and never found a drop or any hair. We worked some game trails where we thought the elk went. The less we found the less confidence I had. I should mention, I was 1.5 months removed from pec tear surgery and in a sling. Shooting stationary was doable, but I thought maybe I moved or was supporting myself funny and threw the shot off. We hunted that basin that evening but saw no more elk.

We hunted 2 more days in the same area and were all over elk, but I never had a better shot than 350yrds with a bull walking in a group of cows. My dad left on the last day of season. Being unable to pack a bull out by myself at the moment, I decided to go back to the shot location and look around. It didn’t take long. Magpies lead me to him. He was about 200 yards from the shot in a pretty open area. We walked about 15yards below him at one point. I looked between him and the shot location and never found blood. He was caked in flies, but from what I could tell I think it was high lung and never exited but went into his opposite shoulder.

For the amount of effort I put in to get close to bulls, I did not track nearly hard enough. Hell, I’ve rewalked entire sections of pheasant fields looking for wounded birds. From now on, if I think I’ve hit one, I’m giving it no less than 1 day and a 500yrd radius. Curious on others’ stories and input. I pride myself on hunting ethics and feel like a grade-A idiot.



Summary -

Shot Bull. No blood. Bad tracking. Kept hunting. Found bull late and feel terrible.



Hoping someone reads this thread in the future and puts more effort into a no blood track than myself.

 

[NRA4LIFE]

My dad shot a mulie in MT a number of years ago. I was watching through my binos and seen the deer go down in some thick/high sage brush. I mentally marked the spot and sent my dad down the hill where it went down. Nothing. No blood. I had him mark the spot with some TP and we proceeded to look for this thing for the better part of 2 hours. I finally smelled something and started working up into the wind and found it. Turns out he hit the liver and the bullet hit the front part of some of the guts, hence the smell.

 

[butcherboy]

Don’t beat yourself up over it. It happens to everyone at some point. I’ve lost 4-5 since about 1988. Two of those should have been dead immediately but realized they were high lung shots and no blood. Recovered one when my arrow deflected and hit the bull really far back but the bull was quartered away so I hit one lung. Found him 3 days later. Another one I punched the trigger on my release and the arrow hit the bull far back. One spot of blood about 15 yards from where I hit him and that was it. Never found him. We never like it when it happens. All we can do is remember what happened and try to change the outcome on the next one.

 

[waspocrew]

Chalk it up as a lesson learned - it'll happen at some point if you hunt enough. I hit a bull high last year during archery and only found 2 drops of blood. Gridded the area out over the next few days and never found him. No birds, etc which led me to believe likely wasn't a fatal shot.

Good for you for sticking it out and eventually finding him. Closure is nice.

 

[moewells100]

Curious was this archery or rifle equipment?

 

[TagSoup_Chef]

Ya important missed detailed.

.270 rifle.

 

[JPeters218]

My dad shot a mulie in MT a number of years ago. I was watching through my binos and seen the deer go down in some thick/high sage brush. I mentally marked the spot and sent my dad down the hill where it went down. Nothing. No blood. I had him mark the spot with some TP and we proceeded to look for this thing for the better part of 2 hours. I finally smelled something and started working up into the wind and found it. Turns out he hit the liver and the bullet hit the front part of some of the guts, hence the smell.

This is a good tip. I’ve found two deer we’ve been struggling to blood trail by smelling them.
Even if you don’t hit guts, animals still have a pretty distinct smell if you’re close enough to them

 

[Rich M]

Sorry to hear about that. Dont beat yourself up, you weren’t sure you hit it.

Curious - Next time will you shoot again in the ass/hip/neck if thats what the next opportunity is?

I an not judging - ask cause it usually takes losing an animal for someone to break thru the “good shots only” mentality. After the first shot, hunt changes from getting an ethical shot to getting the animal.

An uncle taught me about breaking hip on deer to anchor it. We hunted thick cover and the animals could vanish in a few steps. He would shoot the base of the tail if the deer was walking away.

Anyway Im babbling. Glad you have closure. Hope you heal quickly and sorry bout the bull. Your next one will be diff.

 

[mtnbound]

What’s your “no blood” recovery story?

LEARN FROM MY MISTAKES!

Story (The Good)-

I’m a new big game hunter. I’ve bow hunted Whitetails for a few years, shot a doe over a feeder with a rifle, but largely hunted birds. I moved to CO and immediately went all in on western big game. No luck year one, but learned lots and met @Upwolf (who is a real killer) and put in lots of work in the off-season. Hard work paid off! Scouted all summer, was in my unit 2 days early, picked up various herds migrating, probably saw 20 bulls (including some real dandies). Goal was first legal bull in range - glassed this guy with 3 others the night before. Slipped in to his drainage as they bugled all morning. Shot him at 75 yards on morning 2 of the season.


The Bad / Ugly -

I initially felt really confident with the shot. We both (my dad) thought we saw the bull stumble, but he and the other 2 bulls walked off immediately post shot like nothing happened. I tried for a follow up but only had an angle at his rump as they entered a thick aspen patch. We went to the shot location and found 0 blood. We searched that location + 100 yards and never found a drop or any hair. We worked some game trails where we thought the elk went. The less we found the less confidence I had. I should mention, I was 1.5 months removed from pec tear surgery and in a sling. Shooting stationary was doable, but I thought maybe I moved or was supporting myself funny and threw the shot off. We hunted that basin that evening but saw no more elk.

We hunted 2 more days in the same area and were all over elk, but I never had a better shot than 350yrds with a bull walking in a group of cows. My dad left on the last day of season. Being unable to pack a bull out by myself at the moment, I decided to go back to the shot location and look around. It didn’t take long. Magpies lead me to him. He was about 200 yards from the shot in a pretty open area. We walked about 15yards below him at one point. I looked between him and the shot location and never found blood. He was caked in flies, but from what I could tell I think it was high lung and never exited but went into his opposite shoulder.

For the amount of effort I put in to get close to bulls, I did not track nearly hard enough. Hell, I’ve rewalked entire sections of pheasant fields looking for wounded birds. From now on, if I think I’ve hit one, I’m giving it no less than 1 day and a 500yrd radius. Curious on others’ stories and input. I pride myself on hunting ethics and feel like a grade-A idiot.



Summary -

Shot Bull. No blood. Bad tracking. Kept hunting. Found bull late and feel terrible.



Hoping someone reads this thread in the future and puts more effort into a no blood track than myself.

Well, you obviously hit him good enough to be fatal within minutes, so he didn't suffer, which is good. As someone who has had 2 torn pecs, I can't imagine even being in the woods that soon, and I believe that played a big part in you not finding the animal. What I have seen is that folks become increasingly unsure if they have even hit the animal when no blood or body is discovered quickly, which mentally distracts them from being visually observant. Mark the animal's last position with a GPS unit. If using OnX, enable the Waypoint Radius feature, turn on your track log to have a visual representation of your search path, and search the area slowly and systematically. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Taudisio]

Ha! I have a few.
My most memorable was a small buck I shot rear lung/liver with a rifle. Never saw a drop of blood, the only tracks were from the shot location where he took off. It was pouring rain, and he was in a madrone grove (red leaves about 4” deep). Found him spiral searching, he went uphill and only 30 yards from the shot location. The shot was only 50 yards, and it still took me 2 hours to find the thing after walking in circles downhill first. I probably searched a quarter mile downhill before returning to the shot location and starting over. I was nearly at the point of giving up when I saw his belly.
My lesson from that one, not all fatally wounded animals go downhill. I had a bear run uphill this spring as well, but I got to watch him the whole time. Those are the only two times I can remember them going uphill.

 

[CMF]

We've found a few critters with no blood, just going in the direction they went. My daughter's muzzy elk probably went 100 yards. I shot a mature bull frontal with archery, and he went 140 yards downhill with no blood.
My search usually starts with a hard search for blood, down to hands and knees.
Once the search for blood or blood trail is exhausted, I head toward the last direction the animal went, at least a few hundred to a half mile, depending on terrain.
Then, back up and search based on game trails and the path of least resistance.
If all that fails, do a grid search.
If possible, before gridding or walking all over, find a tracking dog. If it's dead, a dog will find it.

We've never found one dead later that we had searched for, but that's not to say it hasn't happened.

I do know of a whitetail that I shot, which went on to live a few more weeks. It's the only whitetail buck I can think of that I actually spot/stalk in MS. I spotted him with two other bucks down in a creek from the road. Put a stalk on and took a shot at the best one while quartering away. I hit too far forward on his right side. I tracked blood til it ran out, then called a dog. The guy put his dog on it, jumped him, and ran him a straight line mile. The dog came back, and the guys said the deer is going to live. A few weeks later, a guy from work called and asked where in the wma shot the buck and where I hit it. A kid got it with a rifle on the youth weekend. Pic below.

 

[HunterGatherer]

I’ve tracked and recovered more game without blood trails than with. They’re almost always closer to the hit site than you think. I’ve heard lots of stories like this, where guys search for days and end up finding their kill within just 200 yds of where they shot it.

When I grid search I put on the “track” function in OnX the whole time I’m searching. It helps to see holes in your grid after you make several passes. I prefer to search alone rather than calling in a bunch of guys to walk all over any sign that is there. My friend might think he “walked every inch “ of an area and the reality is, they didn’t.

Shed hunting will show you how easy it is to miss something that’s just on the other side of the tree, 10 yards from where you’ve walked a bunch of times. I can’t count how many old chalk sheds I’ve found in areas that I go to year after year, having walked within a few yards of them multiple times. I think a lot of times hunters are too anxious to get back to hunting, to get another opportunity - assuming “he probably lived”, rather than spending the time it takes to find an animal without a great blood trail.