Rastreando Trilhas de Sangue

Alguns textos e dicas em ingles, a maioria eh sobre veados mas da pra aprender bastante coisa



Practical Bloodtrailing Tips

Bloodtrailing is a skill that every bowhunter should work hard at mastering. We owe it to animals we hunt, as well as to the sport, to follow up as best we can on the shots we take. While bloodtrailing is more of an art than a science, anyone can become competent at it. It just takes a little careful thought before, during and after the shot. Establishing a standard bloodtrailing routine can make bloodtrailing much easier. The routine that I use is described below. Much of what you'll read here I learned from outdoor writer and lecturer John Trout, Jr. His book, Trailing Whitetails is easily one of the definitive works on bloodtrailing. Unfortunately, the book recently went out of print. If you're lucky you may still be able to snatch up a copy before they're all gone. Because the whitetail is the most popular big game animal sought by bowhunters, that's the type of bloodtrailing situation that will be discussed here. Most of this information, however, is applicable to trailing other animals.

KNOW Where the Animal Was When You Shot
You can often tell a lot about the nature of the hit from what you find at, or near, the site of the hit. But first you have to be able to find the spot. You might want to note the animal's position as you're drawing your bow or calculating the distance of the shot. I usually pick a tree or bush that the animal is next to as a reference point. Immediately after the shot, when the animal has left the area, I look back at the landmark I've chosen and etch it into my mind again.

REMEMBER How the Animal Was Standing When it Was Hit
You already know the importance of shot placement. (For a brush-up on the topic, follow this link to the NBEF's shot placement guide here on THE BOWSITE ). Note, however, a deer in perfect position just as the arrow is leaving your bow can move into a bad position before the arrow actually hits. What you observe during the arrow's flight, along with other clues to be discussed later, can help you make some very important bloodtrailing decisions.

WATCH the Animal Closely as it Leaves
Carefully note the animal's direction of travel after the shot. This can make finding the initial trail much easier, especially in the event there isn't much blood. At the very least, pick out a distinctive landmark at the point where the deer disappears from sight. It's not a bad idea to take a compass reading either to map the animal's general direction of travel. Also, check to see if the arrow is still in the animal, otherwise you might spend a lot of time looking for it on the ground at the scene of the hit. Many bowhunters believe you can tell where a deer has been hit by how it runs away. This is certainly true some of the time, but it isn't a dependable method of analysis. Deer do have a tendency to "hump up" in the middle and leave the area more slowly if they're gut shot. Other hits aren't as easy to diagnose, however. Some deer will race off with no indication of being hit even though they've been 'double lunged.'



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CAPTION- A walking deer (left) leaves a significantly different blood trail than one that's running (right). The direction of the blood splatter from the running deer points out its direction of travel.



SEARCH the Scene of the Hit for Clues
What you find here can help you determine what type of hit you're working with. Let things quiet down after the shot for five to ten minutes before moving to check the scene (if lighting and/or weather conditions will allow it). Be as quiet as possible when you make your move as the animal may still be alive and close by. The most important clue to be found here is the arrow (which will be discussed in the next section), but hair cut off by the broadhead's entry and/or exit can provide important information too. This is especially true with whitetails... if you know what color hair comes from what part of a deer's body. This chart from Trailing Whitetails can be very helpful in determining the nature of a hit, especially less than perfect ones.




An Identification Guide to Whitetail Deer Hair
Heart and Lung Hair -- Very coarse, very long dark hair, with black tips.

Stomach or Side Hair -- Very coarse, hollow, brownish gray and medium length. Tips are not dark as they are higher up on the deer.

Navel Hair -- All white, hollow, very coarse and very long. Will appear curly and twisted.

Spine Hair -- Very coarse, hollow, long dark gray hair with black tips.

Top of Back Hair -- Very coarse, hollow, long dark gray hair with black tips. Shorter than spine hair.

Ham Hair -- Very coarse, medium length, and dark gray with dark tips.

Lower Leg Hair -- Coarse, medium to short in length, gray to brown in color with dark tips.

Hair Between Hind Legs -- Not hollow, very fine, white and silky, and also curly.

Brisket -- Very coarse, long and dark gray, with dark tips. Very stiff, but can curl.

Neck Hair -- Dark gray and short. Front of neck will be light gray to white, also short.

Tail Hair -- Top hair is dark and wavy, very long and tipped in black. Underneath is white and also wavy.

Reprinted with permission from "Trailing Whitetails," by John Trout, Jr.


Good blood at the site is usually a sign of a lung hit. If this is the case you'll sometimes find blood sprayed out on the ground in a shotgun-like pattern, the result of the arrow and the deer's respiration forcing blood out through the broadhead's exit hole. Of course the most important thing to find here is the arrow. Given a body hit on a whitetail, you're most likely to find the arrow nearby.


PERFORM a Thorough Arrow Analysis
The arrow will often tell you a lot about the hit, and its more than worth your time to search for it if its not immediately visible. Because much has already been written on deducing the nature of the hit by the condition of the arrow I won't go into detail here. But generally speaking, there are four types of hits that are relatively easy to diagnose from examining the arrow:

-An arrow that passes through a deer's heart or lungs will likely be covered completely with crimson red blood, almost a reddish pink in the case of a lung hit. There may be some tiny air bubbles in the blood in the event of a lung hit too. There should be an excellent blood trail to follow with blood right at the site or within 20 yards.

-A liver hit is often indicated by an arrow completely covered in a medium to dark red blood. A blood trail should be evident within 30 yards, but it may be sparse at times. Here's where paying close attention at the time of the shot can help. Match these conditions up with the perception that the arrow may have hit too far back and you probably have a liver hit.

-An arrow that travels through a deer's paunch may not have much blood on it at all. Instead, it will be coated with a foul smelling fluid/material, sometimes greenish in color (the contents of the deer's stomach or intestines). While there will be some blood to follow, the trail will likely be sparse.

-The last type of hit, one in a leg quarter, neck, rump, or loin, is sometimes called a "meat hit." It will leave a blood soaked arrow and a poor to fair initial blood trail that tapers off after a few hundred yards.

Some meat hits result in only partial arrow penetration, with the arrow being found down the trail a ways. In this case the arrow may only have its front portion covered in blood, the part that was in the deer. It's not uncommon to find just the back end of an arrow in these cases too, an indication that the front of the shaft may still be in the animal. Don't forget to examine any hair that's on the arrow. Hair here, along with that found on the ground, can indicate the type of shot you're dealing with.



CONSIDER How Long to Wait Before Trailing
How long you should wait before trailing depends upon what type of hit you think you're dealing with. Weather can also be a factor and that will be discussed later. While there are no hard and fast rules.


MARK the Trail You're Following
Trail makers are a good idea anytime, but they can be especially helpful when you're dealing with a marginal hit. A marker, at the very least, can help you go back to the last spot you found blood in the event that you've lost the trail. From here you can start searching for new sign all over again. Markers can also help you determine a deer's general direction of travel. Sometimes this will point you toward the next bit of blood or the deer. Toilet paper makes an excellent marker if it's not raining. Bright orange biodegradable surveyor's tape also works well.

TRAILING Dos and Don'ts
Do take your time while trailing, and try not to get frustrated if things aren't going well. Slow and steady is more likely to lead to recover than quick and hectic. Try to stay off the trail the deer has taken. You may want to go back and examine some of the blood sign and you can't do that if you've walked all over it. Having a buddy along to help you trail isn't a bad idea, but limit the number of helpers. In the event of a marginal hit, you want to trail slowly and quietly. That can be impossible with a crowd. Get down on your hands and knees to search for blood if you've lost the trail. Sometimes that's the only way you'll find it. And don't forget to look on the sides of bushes, trees and grass for blood wiped off as the deer passed by.


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If you jump the deer while trailing, it's probably a good idea to back off for a while and give the deer more time to expire (unless you're dealing with a meat hit). Continuing to trail will just push the deer and result in a marginal blood trail that's difficult to follow.

DEFEATING Foul Weather and Darkness
Rain and falling snow can wipe out a blood trail in short order. If you're certain of a good hit you should begin trailing right away. Dealing with a paunch hit in rain or a snow is more tricky. If you have a good idea of where the deer went you may want to wait the usual amount of time. The deer probably won't go far and you'll have a decent chance of finding it when the weather clears. If you're uncertain where the deer went you may be out of luck. This is a bad situation to be in, and it points toward being extra careful when taking shots when there's bad weather. You may have to begin trailing right away with the hope of jumping the deer, hopefully getting and idea of where it might bed next, and then backing off until later. Trailing at night has its own difficulties too. Not only is it easy to miss obvious blood sign, it's easy to walk right by a downed animal and never know it. A super-bright flashlight is essential, and a gas lantern is even better. Also, take extra care not to get lost. Even familiar woods can be confusing in the dark.

HOLD on to Hope
If you loose the trail there are a couple of things that you can try to get on the right track again. The first is to begin a zig-zag pattern projecting outward from the last blood sign along the deer's general direction of travel. The second thing to do is search nearby sources of water for sign. Deer often go to, and stay near, water when they're wounded.


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Keeping a positive attitude is essential when things aren't going well. It's easier to overlook clues when you're dejected. Don't give up if there's the slightest chance that the animal may be down. As John Trout says, "It's not always the bloodtrail that will lead you to the deer, for it is so often the effort you put forth."
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Blood Trailing Deer Tips
Once you fire an arrow and draw a buck’s blood, it is your ethical duty to work until you find him. Do whatever it takes, for however long it takes. Remember these blood trailing deer tips. It might take you five minutes or five hours, but heed this advice and the blood trail will end, happily, at your 8 or 10-pointer trophy buck.

1. See Buck Run
After the thwack of the arrow, watch the buck run as far as you can see him. In thick woods, look for flashes of white as he darts through the trees. In open country, follow him with your binoculars. At the spot where you lose the buck, pick a marker—big tree, rock, fence post, etc. Climb down from your tree stand, walk to the marker and flag it before you forget it.

2. Listen Up
Watch and listen. If you lose sight of the deer, cracking sticks, clattering rocks or sloshing water will tell you the general line the deer fled. Listen for him to crash down, that’s music to your ears man! From your tree stand, take a compass reading to the last sound you heard. If the tracking gets difficult, go back to your tree stand with your compass and re-gain a line to him.

3. When in Doubt, Back Out!
Big deer expert Terry Drury says, “Even when a shot looks and feels great, don’t get carried away. If you don’t see a buck go down, trail 50 to 75 yards and look for sign. But if you get the slightest doubt he is not dead within another 50 yards or so, back out. It never hurts to wait an hour or longer to trail a buck, even one that you find shot through both lungs.” That advice is gold, remember it.

4. Where Did You Hit Him?
At the point of impact, examine the blood and cut hair on the ground. Look for your arrow. Determine as best you can where you hit the deer. Walk out to the marker where you last saw the buck and pick up the trail. Walk along the trail out to your marker—you might find your arrow or part of it—but don’t waste too much time between the impact spot and your marker, you know he’s farther away than that.

5. Take It Easy
Move slowly and quietly off to the side of a blood trail, almost like you’re stalking. You never want to jump a wounded deer because he can run a long way on adrenaline. He might cut hard left or right and then back again, making the trail doubly tough to pick up again. If his blood clots, you might lose the trail altogether.

6. Two Trailers Max
Only you and maybe one buddy should follow a buck at first. You don’t want a crowd making noise and possibly stepping on specks of blood or tracks. “Any friend with you should be a good hunter with tremendous eyesight,” adds Terry Drury. “He should know what sign to look for and have a knack for finding blood. Some guys are just better at it than others, so take along the best deer hunter you know.”

7. Check Low and High
Don’t just look for blood on the ground, but check high on brush, weeds and trees. A lot of times you’ll find streaks or specks of blood from an arrow’s exit hole on stuff two feet off the ground.

8. Use Peripheral Vision
Look well off to the sides of a blood trail as you creep along. A deer might have leapt a log and sprayed blood three feet off to one side.

9. Tape the Trail
Beginning at point of impact, mark a blood trail with orange tape at 10- to 20-yard intervals. Turn back and study the flags, and it will give you a line on the general direction the buck is taking. Keep projecting that line out front as you look for more blood.

10. Scan the Woods
You can become so engrossed in stalking on a the trail, staring at the ground for blood and tracks, that you don’t see a wounded buck standing or bedded up ahead. Stop every so often and scan 100 yards out front. Use your binoculars and check for movement and white patches of hide in a thicket or depression, against a fallen log, etc. If you see the deer, most of the time it is best to hold tight and watch him. But, you might be able to stalk him from downwind and shoot him again. Use your best judgment.

11. Where Would He Go?
While you’re glassing out front, think and try to predict where a buck might be headed--maybe to a river, a low creek crossing or a big thicket up ahead. Check brush piles along a blood trail. A buck might crawl into a patch of cover and die. Mark last blood and veer over to check those thickets and terrains for more spoor.

12. Read the Tracks
When a buck’s running tracks slow to a walk (the stride gets shorter and drops of blood fall straight to the ground) stop and back out of the area. Chances are the deer is looking for a spot to lie down. Give it a few hours, come back and you’ll likely find your trophy buck a short ways ahead.

13. Don’t Spook Other Deer
One morning 2 Montana longbow hunter trailed an 8-pointer they had just shot on the Milk River. “Wait,” he whispered, “let those does move on.” Six animals that had been with the buck I shot had gathered and were milling in the head of a small wood 120 yards away. “If they spook and run, your buck might get up and try to run with them, and we might lose the trail,” one of the deer hunters said. That was fantastic advice that the other hunter had never considered. They knelt and waited, the does drifted off and we found the trophy buck 80 yards ahead.

14. When the Blood Stops
If you lose a trail, get down on your hands and knees and look for upturned leaves or stumbling tracks. Many times I have followed leaves and tracks for 50 yards or so, and then found where a deer started bleeding again.

15. Grid It Out
A few years ago, a deer hunter looked for a 10-pointer trophy buck for hours. He went home and called a couple of buddies, and we went back to that 100-acre block of woods. (When it is time for a grid search, call in a couple more hunting friends.) They spread out 75 yards and did a grid for another two hours. The hunter was feeling low when one of his friends yelled, “Here he is!” The buck had pulled a giant fishhook, turned back, crawled under a deadfall and died about 120 yards from the tree stand where he shot him. When all else fails, grid it out for hours, and stay as positive as you can. You’ll find him yet.
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Lanternas para rastrear trilhas de sangue:

Fotos de uma trilha de sangue em q a flecha acertou o coraçao, um pulmao (tiro lateral) e atrevessou o veado:


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Here is the clearing she was in. She was about 10 yards away broadside. If you look carefully that orange dot to the left of the tree is my arrow fletching stuck in the ground.
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Hair on arrow. Low exit wound. Should be a good bloodtrail.....
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First blood - just a foot away from the arrow! The arrow is in the bottom right corner of the pic.
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A few yards from impact....
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10 yards into the blood trail. Spraying 4 feet wide!
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Spraying on trees....
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Brushed against a tree.... Notice the blood sprayed on the far tree to the left as well.
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Jumped a log...
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Slowing down after 20 yards....
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There she is! Total blood trail was 30 yards from impact. I saw her go down. I was very excited to make a good clean kill. Note the exit wound....
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Here is the entrance wound. Heart shot with a low exit. Hence the great bloodtrail.
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sera que esta lanterna e boa para sangue de java a noite??
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Fotos e relato de uma trilha de sangue bem mais dificil em q o veado se assustou com o barulho do disparo e ao se mover a flecha acabou acertando quase no estomago:


Whoops!
As I settled in on the stand, I clumsily bumped my quiver, which I'd removed from my crossbow and set aside. Naturally, as it fell to the ground it missed no opportunity to bounce and clunk off of each crosspiece on the deer stand. I already had one Rage-tipped arrow in the crossbow, so I just gritted my teeth, hoped the noise wouldn't spook any nearby critters, and let the quiver stay where it was. If this turned out to be a normal morning hunt, I wouldn't even need one arrow anyhow. Incidentally, the arrow on my string was the same one that had taken my first-ever archery deer more than three years earlier.

Action!
I'd been in the stand for about an hour and a half when I had a fleeting chance at a coyote and flung an arrow at it. The vagrant vermin handily jumped the string and left the scene unharmed, and I was left in the stand without ammo - so I climbed down and retrieved the quiver I'd dropped earlier. The arrow now on my string was a virgin.

The Deer Cometh
About 40 minutes after I'd tried to nail the coyote, a deer - and then another - stepped into the plot from the right. One was larger than the other, and was clearly a mature doe - which made her a perfect candidate to come home with me. The doe was alert and although I managed to quickly confirm the range to her (35 yards) with my range finder, I was soon frozen in place while she stared up at the stand, trying to figure out what was wrong with this picture. My camo face paint may have helped prevent her from spooking immediately, but she was still pretty interested in me. To see what I could get away with, I sloooooowly shifted the crossbow on the stand's rail and slid into position behind it, and found the deer in the scope. So far, so good. The deer was fully alert, but not twitchy; that is, she was intent on the stand but didn't appear as if she might bolt unpredictably. She faced me, almost head-on but quartering just a touch, and I could see some of her left side.

Choosing the Shot
I quickly coached myself into finding the correct elevation using the scope's aiming points; I split the difference between the 30- and 40-yard marks. Knowing that shot placement is critical, I did as I always try to do and aimed at the vitals inside the deer. The center of the three-dimensional heart/lung area is where I wanted to put my arrow, and I aimed just to my right of the deer's centerline. The crossbow arrow, as aimed, should have easily penetrated ribs just inboard of the left shoulder, finding plenty of good stuff inside to decommission. That was the plan, anyway. Through it all, my heart hammered and my adrenaline surged... I was working methodically and carefully, but I was still pretty jazzed up.

Thunk!
With a squeeze of the trigger, I let the arrow fly. It got there quickly, but the deer was faster. I could tell that she had "jumped the string" and moved before the arrow arrived... the question was, how much had she moved? It had looked like a pretty good shot, but it was not easy to tell. The deer wheeled and ran back into the woods in the direction from which she'd come. I heard her crashing in the brush and told myself to calm the heck down, that I had seen the arrow hit her front end and that's where the vitals are located. I got out a compass and busied myself determining the direction of the most recent crash I'd heard. I re-cocked my crossbow and placed another arrow on the string as I sat there, forcing myself to wait. The time at the shot was 9:13. Finally, I climbed down with all my gear and gathered the things I thought I would need for the task: handheld GPS unit, paper towels for marking blood as I found it, crossbow and arrows, and compass. I put my camera around my neck, too, so I could document what I found.

A Hairy Start
I found the place in the small field where the deer had been when I'd shot. The ground was scuffed by her hooves and a large tuft of hair was evident, but I saw no blood. I eyeballed the semi-bare clay and soon found her tracks leading towards the thick brush, then another gob of hair lying at the edge of the field. One tiny opening in the thorny wild hawthorns was her obvious route, so I dropped to hands and knees and crawled through, ready to begin the blood-trailing.

My Arrow
Just inside the woods, several feet past the hawthorn hole, lay my arrow. It appeared to be straight and undamaged - and was pointing in the direction the deer had gone. It was thinly covered in blood and other stuff, indicating that it had passed entirely through the deer.

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Nearby, on the blades of some small sawgrass, were some splatters of "gut juice," a brownish-gray substance that indicates the unhappy condition of having hit an animal in the guts.
That was not welcome news.

Things Start Looking Up
Shortly thereafter, though, I began finding blood instead, and was encouraged. I slowly followed the blood sign, often scanning the woods ahead for the deer. I tore off small pieces of paper towel and used them to mark the trail as I went. After just a short ways, the blood became much more sparse and difficult to find. The trail showed that the deer had gone steadily downhill, which encouraged me. I moved slowly and methodically, searching for for the next sign and marking the trail as I slowly progressed. Sometimes, scuffs in the leafy forest floor showed the way when I could find no blood. As you can imagine, I prayed often during this.

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Deer!
I had been tracking for about 50 minutes and had covered about 100 yards when I spotted movement ahead. It was a deer! "Oh, s--t," thought I, thinking that my deer was up and about. Instead, it turned out to be two does with two fawns, all perfectly healthy, which found me quite interesting and came closer to investigate before slowly moving on.

Going Downhill
The natural tendency for a wounded animal is to walk downhill, because it's a lot easier than going up. The trail had so far led me from a ridge down into a hardwood bottom, or shallow valley. Along the lowest part of the bottom was a deep ditch. More than once, I walked to that ditch and looked down into it, hoping to find my deer. I walked ahead of the blood trail several times, scanning the forest floor for my deer, then walked back along the ditch, looking down into it. But I couldn't find any sign of my deer. At one point, the blood trail turned left and started heading up the steep slope - and that bothered me. I wanted the deer to be weakening to the point where it couldn't climb a hill, but that didn't appear to have been the case. All I could do was track and look ahead, and hope for the best.

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Dead End
I finally found some blood on a fallen pine tree, and could find no more. I scoured the area nearby on hands and knees, I walked ahead to look for sign, I sat and prayed and tried to figure out if there was anything else I could do. I had tracked the deer for 168 yards (I measured the trail later) and found myself unable to do more. I finally decided that I had to go back to camp, and I started heading that way at 11:45.

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Regroup and Recharge
Back at camp, I had what I hoped would prove to be a secret weapon: a small spray bottle containing hydrogen peroxide - the same stuff used as a first aid disinfectant. The idea was that it would make blood foam, to make it easier to find or identify. I had been moving that little bottle from camp to camp for more than three years and hadn't needed it until then. It was time to find out whether it was worth anything. Back at camp, I borrowed an ATV from a friend (my Polaris Ranger was dead at the time), quickly chomped a peanut bar and guzzled a soda, packed a small cooler with more bars and beverages, and headed back out.

Determination
I was prepared to keep searching until dark if I had to; only then would I concede defeat. I got back to the blood trail's "dead end" and began searching again at 12:45 or so. After searching for a while, I finally found more sign and began finding the deer's trail once again.

Slow, Foamy Progress
While the hydrogen peroxide doesn't produce a very dramatic effect (you can't spritz it over an area and easily spot the blood foaming), I found it extremely valuable for identifying tiny specks of stuff as blood (or other bodily fluid) as opposed to naturally-occurring specks. And when I say specks, by golly I mean specks. Some of the spots were a little larger, but most of them were barely the size of pin heads - and many were only about the size of a pin point. If applying a small amount of hydrogen peroxide made it foam, I knew I had found some blood or other bodily substance. That confidence would have been impossible to achieve without the confirmation provided by the hydrogen peroxide, because these were very tiny specks that were few and far between, and they didn't always look nice and red.

Use With Care
One must be careful with this stuff, because once hydrogen peroxide reacts with blood, the blood is gone - therefore you must mark every spot as you go, because you can't re-find blood spots that aren't there anymore. And by the same token, if you spray down an area and miss seeing any blood foam, you may have just destroyed some valuable tracking evidence.

Trail's End
I spent the next hour and a half mostly on my knees, tracking the deer for another 80 yards. The blood trail had turned back down the hill and led me to - and along - a trail that roughly ran parallel with the ditch. By 2:00 I had found all the blood that I could manage to turn up, even on hands and knees using the hydrogen peroxide. At least I knew that the deer had walked down that old trail. It seemed natural to me that it would have finally ended up dead in the ditch, but every time I had checked the ditch I had failed to find the deer; my forays forward and then back along the ditch had turned up nothing. I was beginning to seriously lose hope. I went and fetched the ATV and had some water, then just walked slowly down the old trail, scanning the woods on both sides for brown or white bits of a dead deer. I walked a long ways down the trail, turning up nothing but refusing to give up. Finally it was time to turn around and head back, following the ditch and looking down into it. I had come a good ways when I rounded a bend, looked forward in the ditch, and spotted my deer lying there.

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Jubilation
"Praise the Lord!" were the first words to escape my lips upon viewing that most exquisitely beautiful sight. Words do not have the power to convey the relief, the joy, the satisfaction, the realization of my labors, which I felt at that time. A great weight lifted off of me, and life became beautiful once again. The time was 2:53. An hour had passed since I'd found the last blood - and the deer lay 175 yards beyond that last bit of blood. Five hours and forty minutes had elapsed since I'd loosed the arrow in her direction. I said sincere thanks to God and hustled off to get the ATV. The weather was fairly cool, but I needed to deal with shucking her out ASAP - which I did.

Grim Reality
As I went about my work - grunted and dragged the deer out of the ditch that was deeper than I am tall, muscled it onto the ATV and strapped it down, took it back to camp and went about the messy work of skinning and quartering it - I did a lot of smiling. But behind and through it all ran a thread of grim reality: this day had very nearly come to a very different conclusion. The arrow had hit the deer behind its right shoulder - which, as you may recall, is on the opposite side of its body from where I was aiming. Although poorly placed by me, the Rage broadhead did its job well, and took out the rear of the right lung before punching out through the gut. It was inches away from being just a gut shot, and that just isn't acceptable.

An Accurate (but Poor) Shot
To be clear: my arrow had flown accurately, but the deer had been alert and had reacted instantly to the sound of my crossbow when I'd fired the arrow - thus she had been able to move her vitals almost entirely out of the way before my arrow even got there. I shouldn't have taken a shot with any kind of bow at a fully-alert deer - especially at the longish range of 35 yards. My tale had reached a happy ending, for sure. The deer was recovered, its meat was fine, and I can still say that I have never lost a deer that I hit. But overall, the story is a sad one, and I hope I won't forget the lessons that it taught me:

-Never - as in, not ever - shoot an arrow at a deer that's on high alert.
-Always mark the trail as you go. Finding blood one time can be challenging; finding it twice can be impossible, especially if it's been sprayed with hydrogen peroxide. I tear off small hunks of paper towel to leave at each spot.
-Remember that rules always have exceptions. "Critically hit deer won't walk uphill" is clearly false - and it's not the only deer myth out there. Don't let fireside lore BS kill your hope.
-Be willing to look farther ahead, once a deer's direction of travel has been determined. If I had walked farther along the ditch when I'd first began looking into it, I could have found her hours earlier. I had been concerned about wasting time by randomly looking instead of trying to find her exact trail, which ironically probably cost me time.
-Never hunt very far away from a pump sprayer containing hydrogen peroxide. Using it helped me prove that the deer had gone downhill after the first dead end, significantly narrowing my search area. But again, mark the trail as you go because hydrogen peroxide destroys blood.
-Heed Churchill's advice: Never, never, never, never give up.
-Here's hoping you can use my experience to avoid coming as close to failure as I did - and that if you ever do, my experience and conclusions here can help you give a happy ending to a bleak occasion.

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fishingwithabow1 escreveu:

sera que esta lanterna e boa para sangue de java a noite??
[Tens de ter uma conta e sessão iniciada para poderes visualizar este link]

Acho q da pra improvisar com uma luz UV ou uma laterna com luz negra pois o sangue fica fluorescente sob esse tipo de luz (pelo menos eh assim nos filmes e seriados tipo CSI )



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Outra soluçao eh levar um borrifador com agua oxigenada (peroxido de hidrogenio) e borrifar numa area q tu acha q o bicho passou quando a trilha for muito escassa pois ao entrar em contato com o sangue ela faz espuma, como o cara explica no texto acima

Nao gostaram do topico ou o ingles nao eh o forte do pessoal aqui mesmo... ? Aqui vai um resumo das dicas numa traduçao livre entao:



Rastrear trilhas de sangue eh uma arte que todo caçador com arco deveria dominar em respeito aos animais caçados. Para recuperar o animal abatido eh preciso fazer uma analise antes, durante e depois do tiro e persistencia (dure 5 minutos ou 5 horas) ate encontra-lo. Estabelecer uma rotina para rastrear pode facilitar em muito processo, portanto aqui vai um passo-a-passo do que fazer ao se rastrear:


1 - Saiba onde o animal estava parado e em que posiçao ele estava quando voce atirou. Eh possivel obter muitas informaçoes no local em que o animal estava parado quando foi antigido, por isso gravar bem o local onde ele estava ajuda muito (escolha algum ponto por perto pra usar como referencia depois - como uma arvore ou um arbusto). Lembrar em que posiçao ele estava quando foi atingido tambem pode ajudar pois mesmo que voce mire no local perfeito em uma posiçao lateral perfeita, as vezes o animal pode se mexer antes que a flecha o atinja, portanto observe atentamente o animal durante o voo da flecha ate ele ser atingido.


2 - Veja ele correr e permaneça imovel. Observe bem a direçao pra onde o animal correu e tente acompanha-lo com a visao o mais longe possivel prestando atençao tambem no barulho de galhos quebrando ou se movendo no mato fechado. Aonde voce perde-lo de vista marque outro ponto de referencia. Isso vai facilitar muito depois na hora de começar a rastrear a trilha de sangue. Eh bom observar tambem se a flecha ficou cravada nele ou atravessou totalmente, pois vai economizar tempo ao se analisar o local em que ele estava quando foi atingido.


3 - Analise a "cena do crime". Espere as coisas se acalmarem apos o disparado por uns 5 ou 10 minutos e va ate o local em que ele estava quando foi atingido. Sempre se movimente silenciosamente pois o animal ainda pode estar perto e procure pela flecha e marcas de sangue (tufos de pelo tambem podem ser uteis pois alguns animais tem variaçoes no pelo em diferentes partes do corpo). Eh posivel descobrir muitas coisas sobre aonde a flecha acertou o animal ao analisa-la, e eh importante saber isso para determinar o tempo de espera antes de começar a rastrear:

-Uma flecha que passou pelo coraçao ou pulmoes estara coberta de sangue com um tom de vermelho forte, brilhante e profundo; um pouco rosado em caso de se ter acertado um pulmao e tambem podem haver pequenas bolhas de ar no sangue; A trilha de sangue deve ser excelente e ja deve haver bastante sangue no local ou no maximo a 15 ou 20 metros de distancia; as vezes podera se encontrar sangue espalhado como chumbo em um tiro de espingarda, isso se da quando o animal tenta respirar e o ar escapa do pulmao espirrando sangue pelo buraco de saida da flecha;

-Uma flecha que passou pelo figado (logo atras dos pulmoes) estara coberta de sangue com um tom nao tao escuro e uma trilha de sangue que devera ser evidente de 25 a 30 metros de distancia e as vezes podera ser espassada; se voce encontrar essas caracteristicas e tiver a impressao de ter acertado o animal um pouco mais atras do ideal na hora do disparo provavelmente voce acertou o figado dele;

-O pior pesadelo dos caçadores com arco, em que a flecha acertou o estomago ou intestino do animal pode nao ter quase nada de sangue na flecha e ela podera estar coberta com um liquido de cheiro fetido (suco gastrico do estomago ou bolo fecal do intestino do animal); Havera pouco sangue e ele sera bem escasso para seguir na trilha;


4 - Marque a trilha que voce esta seguindo e seja o mais silencioso possivel. Va ate o local onde voce perdeu o animal de vista e comece a procurar por marcas de sangue, mato quebrado, pegadas, etc. dependendo daonde foi atingido os rastros de sangue podem ser muito espassados, entao eh importante rastrear outros sinais que o animal pode ter deixado por onde passou. Nao procure por sangue apenas no chao, olhe tambem para os lados em arvores e arbustos por sangue que pode ter espirrado pelo ferimento quando o animal passou. Se movimente silenciosamente pois um animal ferido pode percorrer longas distancias sob o efeito da adrenalina quando assustado e ate desviar bruscamente de direçao ou dar voltas pra tentar despistar uma possivel ameaça e nunca ande sobre a trilha pois voce pode querer analisar ela novamente. Para facilitar a visualizaçao va marcando a trilha em intervalos de 10 em 10 metros com pedaços de papel higienico por exemplo, pois isso tambem pode indicar a direçao em que o animal esta indo.


5 - Continue escaneando a area e pense nos locais que um animal ferido iria. Procure por sinais da trilha em que o animal seguiu mas nao se esqueça de olhar pra frente de tempos em tempos usando binoculos para observar sinais de movimento ou detalhes mais distantes que poderiam ser o animal deitado ou escondido. Tente imaginar tambem pra onde ele poderia ir (um riacho perto, uma toca ou mato mais fechado), alguns animais podem rastejar para um lugar mais protegido pra fugir ou tentar buscar abrigo por estarem feridos. Se as pegadas mudarem de padrao, de uma corrida para uma caminhada, quer dizer que o animal pode estar procurando um lugar para se deitar e o fim deve estar proximo.


Nao desista!

Videos de trilhas de sangue:

Mais um texto com dicas sobre o q fazer em caso de se errar o tiro e acabar acertando o animal no estomago/intestino, depois eu traduzo pro pessoal:


How to Handle a Gut Shot
By Dr. Dave Samuel

After all these years of bowhunting I tend to take it for granted that bowhunters understand what to do when they Gut Shoot an animal. And most do know what to do. But on a recent elk hunt I met a guy who had hit a cow elk a little far back. He showed me the sign, the arrow, and it was obvious where the animal was hit. He needed to leave the woods quietly, and return in six hours to recover the elk. However, he was intent on chasing after it right away. He was reluctant to listen to advice, but in the end his friends talked him out of an immediate trail, and the result was good.

Years ago my good friend Len Cardinale told me a story of a buck he shot around mid morning in New York, in the late season. He hit it back, and immediately a huge snowstorm moved in, bringing 6-8 inches of snow in a short time. Some bowhunters, after making a paunch shot, feel that they must track the deer right away if there is impending snow or rain. This is not what you should do, and Len did not do so either. From his story I learned a lot. First, you must recognize a paunch shot. Behavior of the animal upon the hit is one good sign. Often such animals hunch up at the shot. Then they walk away slowly with their head down. They often stop and stand for several minutes. Liver hit animals behave this way as well. Your job is to remain totally quiet, not revealing yourself to the animal. If darkness comes and the animal is still within range and standing, or bedded, you need to sneak out of there without making a sound.


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A Gut hit deer will often hunch his back and walk away slowly. Another clue is a flickering tail. Watch this video of a classic Gut-hit doe walking away moments after the shot: [Tens de ter uma conta e sessão iniciada para poderes visualizar este link]

But sometimes the animal will not hunch up. What then? Waiting a short period of time and finding the arrow is imperitive. The Arrow will provide tell-tale clues, not only about whether the animal was gut hit, but also where in the guts the trauma occurred. Generally the larger the matter, the worse the trail. For instance, big chunks of vegetation or crushed nuts would indicate a stomach hit animal. As far as gut hits go, that would be the worst-case scenario.

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Digestive matter on the arrow indicates the involvement of guts, but in this case, the liver was also involved.


If the arrow is coated with green slime with tiny matter, that would likely indicate intestines - a better scenario. The reason intestines are better is because you actually cut more surface area when hits occur there. Veins run alongside the intestines and these will get severed several times as the broadhead passes through the clump of twisting digestive system. If you mistakingly think you hit the animal well and you start trailing and begin to find many beds - this can also be an indication of a gut-shot. Back off, and come back later.

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A Gut hit deer will bed often and this sign will be evident along the blood trail. A deer will likely bed close to where it was shot - so carefully sneak out of your stand - or stay put for 6 hours.

If it is raining, or if such weather is coming, you still need to get out of there quietly. To the inexperienced, such advice seems foolhardy. Rain will wash away the blood trail, so we must follow the trail right away before we lose it. Right? Not really. The problem with this logic is that there is no blood trail to follow. Paunch shot animals don't leave much of a blood trail. Thus, there is little for the rain to wash away. However, paunch shot animals, unless disturbed (usually by the bowhunter), will lay down relatively soon after the shot. In my example above, Len left this poorly shot buck and drove home, even though snow was covering the deers tracks. Had he followed right away, he'd have jumped the buck from it's bed, one hundred yards from the tree stand, and that buck would have run a half mile before stopping. With fresh snow he may have been able to follow. But when it rains and this happens, it's over. You hear such stories all the time. "I hit him back, and when I followed an hour later, I jumped him from his bed, and we never found him." What a waste. Go home, wait 6 hours, and come back as Len did. Len found that buck 100 yards from his stand, dead. Pope and Younger too.

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Another factor is critical to recovering wounded animals ... knowing where the animal was hit. I've used yellow and/or white feathers for 50 years and the reason is a simple one. They allow me to better follow the flight of the arrow and determine where I hit. On my most recent elk hunt, a big coyote came to water right at dark. The shot was 29 yards or so, and even in the dim light, I knew right where my arrow struck that coyote. In that case it didn't affect the quick recovery. But for deer, elk, moose, etc., knowing exactly where you hit might determine how and when you follow the animal.

All the above seems fairly basic. Then again, bowhunting is about basics. I've paunch shot several deer over the years, and I thank Len Cardinale from New Jersey for his lesson taught those many years ago. Up till then I figured you had to follow paunched animals right away if there was rain. Not so. Up till then I figured you need only wait two hours on a paunched animal. Not so. Six hours is better (of course if it is very, very hot, and there is a lot of open country allowing little shade, then you might go a bit earlier to prevent spoilage ... but usually 6 hours is it). True, the animals don't always go by the book. But follow these basic principles and your recovery rate on paunch animals will rise dramatically. The deer are doing it out there right now, so it's time to hit the woods.

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Fishingwithabow, da uma olhada nesse texto com dicas para caçadores daltonicos sobre trilhas de sangue, basicamente sao as mesmas dicas de acessorios dos textos acima, mas o autor desse eh daltonico tambem e garante q da pra se adaptar normalmente:



What Color Is That Blood?
Colorblind hunters need to get creative to stay on tough blood trails.
By Mark Kayser

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If you’re colorblind, spray a mixture of two parts water with one part hydrogen peroxide onto the trail. The hydrogen peroxide makes blood foam, which enables you to see the blood.

For each 100 men reading this, some 12 of you are colorblind. Women are more fortunate, with only about 1 in 200 suffering the condition. Symptoms of colorblindness vary. Most common is the inability to distinguish between red and green, second the inability to distinguish blue and yellow. The red and green affliction almost always accompanies the blue and yellow. And then comes achromatopsia — the inability to see any colors. Remember black-and-white TV? That’s how these folks see the world.

What does this have to do with bowhunting? Well, when you can’t distinguish red, you have a hard time following a blood trail, a big part of successful bowhunting. As a member of the red-and-green club, I have experienced that firsthand.

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The most common affliction of colorblindness is the inability to distinguish red and green, an obvious handicap in blood-trailing. Various products can help anyone overcome this handicap.

“I know I hit him solid,” I told my partner. Thirty minutes earlier, I had shot a beautiful 4×4 whitetail. I knew the arrow had blown through both lungs. Still, I could not follow the blood trail and had to call in my buddy to help scour the ground for sign. An hour later, we — actually, he — found the buck stone dead. Instead of taking the obvious trail, the buck had circled wide, and I had missed the blood.

How do you know if you are colorblind? Get an eye exam. I was just a few hours shy of earning my pilot’s license when I went in for an eye exam to complete the procedure. The eye doctor laid it on me. “You can fly, but not at night. You’re colorblind”. Really weird taste in clothing could be an indicator, too. My wife still laughs at my purchase of a “bright blue” King Rope baseball cap that actually turned out to be a somewhat feminine shade of purple.

Recognizing that you are colorblind is the first step in overcoming the deficiency as you try to follow a blood trail.

Here are five ways to find your buck despite your handicap:
1. Mix two parts water and one part hydrogen peroxide in a spray bottle. Anywhere a blood trail runs thin, “spritz” the ground with the solution. The hydrogen peroxide will make any blood it contacts foam up. This brew even works on old blood, and it shows up well under the light of a lantern or flashlight.
2. Buy a commercial spray. Tink’s Starlight Bloodhound ([Tens de ter uma conta e sessão iniciada para poderes visualizar este link] highlights blood trails in the dark. Locate the point of impact or the blood trail and spray the area with the product. Chemicals in the spray make blood glow in the dark for an easy-to-follow trail. Another product that enhances blood trails is Bluestar Blood Tracking Reagent ([Tens de ter uma conta e sessão iniciada para poderes visualizar este link]
3. Try the Game Finder Pro Illuminator ([Tens de ter uma conta e sessão iniciada para poderes visualizar este link] This flashlight-sized unit scans for body heat and includes blood-tracking technology. Distinct tones notify you if you’re getting hot or cold. Also, check out the Primos line of Bloodhunter Lights (https://shop.primos.com/c-110-blood-trailing-lights.aspx).
4. Consider using a string tracker like Eastman’s String Tracker 2500 ([Tens de ter uma conta e sessão iniciada para poderes visualizar este link] String trackers are not new, but the concept remains valid. They augment any blood trail by laying down an easy-to-follow string trail.
5. Use man’s best friend. Mistakenly called blood-tracking dogs, well-trained dogs can differentiate the smell of wounded deer from healthy animals. Check state laws regarding the use of tracking dogs. For more information on this subject, contact [Tens de ter uma conta e sessão iniciada para poderes visualizar este link]

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Roughly 12 percent of men suffer some form of colorblindness. Only about one in 200 women are colorblind. Colorblind persons can adapt to hunt normally.

As for me, I’ll probably just stick with my best friend to help me track deer. I feed him occasionally for helping me, but at least I don’t have to clean out his kennel.

The author is an outdoor writer from Sheridan, Wyoming.


Read more: [Tens de ter uma conta e sessão iniciada para poderes visualizar este link]

Um dos sprays q ele recomenda no texto:

Bacana demais o seu topico sasha. Dia desses eu tive que seguir um rastro de sangue e nao tinha muita noçao do que fazer. Por sorte estava com um amigo experiente e fomos juntos.

Assim que puder faça a traduçao do restante que facilita muito pra gente
abs
Edson