Tracking with no blood

[farmboy]

I shot a raghorn this year and the broadhead sliced both lungs.  However, since it was just slightly quartering toward me, the exit wound was back a little further than usual.  My guess is it must have sliced the stomach (I don't know exactly because we always use the gutless method) on its way out because there was almost no external blood.  I assume it just filled up the stomach and other internal cavities.  It only went about 70 or 80 yds, but wasn't fun to track.  Not a good feeling when you find the arrow covered in blood but nothing on the ground.  Thick cover and only tracks to follow.  Luckily it was alone and didn't get mixed up with other elk but if it had the tracking would've been really tough in that soft dirt.  Funny thing is, the last buck I shot was the same story.  Passed through both lungs and the skin just sealed up over the wound and never bled a drop.  Had to walk circles the next morning after the rain stopped to find him.  As you can see from the pic, the blood on the bull's hide is the equivalent of what we saw spread on the ground out over 80 yds of tracking.  I can't be the only one that has this happen to them, right?

 

[archery288]

That's a tough situation right there... I shot a bull several years back, however he was quartering away.  I hit him a bit high and he took off.  Waited 30 minutes and began tracking as I thought it was still a kill shot.  I realized right away there was no blood.  75 yards from where I shot him, I jumped him out of his bed.  He took off running downhill with hardly any blood coming out. Pretty quick I heard him pile up.  Scary situation, but I guess it's part of hunting. 

I always try and shoot for the heart now to be safe.

 

[N8vanvalin]

I have found that being patient in the no blood situation. We  learned that the hard way with a cow my dad shot several years ago. We pushed her "knowing" he had made a good shot. We had a great tracks to follow and she was alone, but we pushed her too soon and never found her. Now we always live by "when in doubt wait it out."

 

[GoatT]

Years ago I got an elk on a muzzy hunt.  First shot (160 yd) broke his right leg.  He managed to keep heading for the trees.  I got a second shot off at 100 yd and right behind the should but hit him a little higher and only got a partial lung shot.  He walked off into the trees.  I waited a good hour and a half before going after him.  I went up to where I first shot him and never found any blood.  Followed some tracks but then lost em with still no blood.  He ended up going and laying down under some bushes and never found him until about 7 hours later after i searched that whole mountain.  When I got to him I found not a drop of blood, not even on his hide where I shot him.  They are strong willed animals and sometimes you just need to be patient and if no blood is found just keep looking. 

 

[MT_mulies]

This year I shot a bull at 15 yards. He took off running and ran about 300 yards. Luckily I was watching him run through the sagebrush and I could see where he ran into the trees. My buddy and I looked for blood and found it only at about 2 and a half feet off the ground in on the tops of the sagebrush. We figured this is where my arrow was sticking out of the side of him. Because there wasn't much blood we waited 3 1/2 hours. Talk about nerve racking. I replayed the shot over and over and over thinking about were I hit him. After the wait we followed his trail to see if we could find my arrow or anthing. We didn't find my arrow and almost no blood. When we got into the trees we walked in about 15 feet and there he was as dead as a door nail. I had a high lung shot. I have no idea why he didn't bleed more.

 

[DIRK DURHAM]

I miss judged yardage and hit a bull high in the lungs. He ran and piled up in about 200 yards, but the track job was VERY hit and miss finally running out of blood. Persistence lead me to him about 3 hours later. He bleed out internally due to the high position of the entrance hole.

 

[turbo1967]

If you need to track with no blood than take your time .find every track and make sure you dont get on the wrong set.but before it comes to that after the shoot It is important to stay calm and listen close for where he goes and where he falls,when you know the direction than try to get a visual.If he makes it far and you can see him from a distance It will save you a lot of time.

 

[lang]

HAD TWO THAT NEVER FOUND ANY BLOOD, JUST HAVE TO STICK WITH IT AND GIVE IT MORE THAN YOU THINK YOU NEED.  MY FIRST BULL WE HAD ALL BUT GIVEN UP, AND THOUGHT HIS COWS LEFT THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION THAT WE HAD SEEN HIM GO LAST
.  SO I  TURNED 180 DEGREES WALKED 20 YARDS FROM THE LAST SPOT I HAD SEEN HIM AND HE WAS LODGED UNDER A TREE ROOT IN A BOG.  YOU HAD TO BE WITHIN 3 YARDS TO SEE HIM.  SECOND WAS EASIER, BUT I WAS REAL NERVOUS BECAUSE I WAS ON CALL AND IT WAS LABOR DAY AND GETTING REAL WARM FAST.  LUCKILY BOTH ONLY MADE IT 60-70 YARDS. 

 

[WardDawg7]

Patience and a bone sure helps! 

 

[Big Tex]

The bull in my avatar I shot broadside at 10 yards and it went into the near side lung and ricochet off bone and exited just in front of the off side hip.  As he ran off you could see intestines hanging out the off side, so the exit was plugged.  Needless to say there was no blood and the area was just completely torn up with trails and tracks so outside of 50 yards we couldn't even keep a trail.  I shot him around 2PM, we waited an hour to start the search and searched high and low the rest of that day without any sign.  That night we got a call that there had been a death in the family so we knew we had just a short time to search the next AM before having to bug out of the mountains and make the trek back to TX.  Well after several hours of searching the entire basin again we called it and started heading up an avalanche chute that led up to camp and there he was tucked in some deadfall about 250 yards from where I shot him.  Man that would've been a gut wrenching 14 hour drive home had we not found him.

Fast forward to this past season, while out hunting with a new hunting buddy he center shot his bull in the lung but the arrow didn't penetrate all that great, it was almost instinctual the flash of horror in my mind of possibly having a long track or losing his bull, so I immediatly drew my bow and as the bull hesitated before going over the ridge I snuck an arrow up his elks keister.  Although he didn't say it, I'm sure he was wondering, why the heck did you just shoot my bull.  He only made it 40 yards so it was all good  ;D

 

[DIRK DURHAM]

I immediatly drew my bow and as the bull hesitated before going over the ridge I snuck an arrow up his elks keister.  Although he didn't say it, I'm sure he was wondering, why the heck did you just shoot my bull.  He only made it 40 yards so it was all good  ;D

What is it about Texans and their proverbial "Heart Shots"? :  LOL! JK!

 

[elkfever]

i get after them after i shoot but only for a very short distance and i stop where they make there first break. if they stop on a call after a shot i just sit tight. i just try to keep a eye on them so the tracking is not so hard.

 

[KBar70]

I learnt a great deal from watching the local trackers when in South Africa

 

[BrentLaBere]

I helped another hunter out last year who stuck a nice 5 point right at dark and left it over night. Good call not to push it but maybe in this case was the wrong thing to do.....
Started out with four of us looking for blood. Found large amounts close together right from the start. Trail looked promising all the way through. 50 yards down the trail the side of the elk smacked into a larger tree that was able to hit the arrow loose from its body. Great blood on impact but something must of happened to block the entry hole and leaving very little blood the next 50 yards or so. This was in really thick cover so we were taking our time and never walking on the trail itself to step on or ruin any trace we could find. One big thing I actually think is a very crucial detail to help others out as well is walk off to the side of the trial not to disturb any possible sign. The next would be, if trailing with others, one should stay at the last blood found almost eye balling where you have come from and looking down the path of least resistance.  A very good point Corey made in the elk 101 video. But in this case it didn't work for us and resulted in a lost elk.
I can still picture it....the hoof print in the soft ground where we found the last little bit of blood. The trail came to a bottle neck from three other small trails. Which one did it take? We will never know but we marked it off at that point and branched out taking our time turning over leaves and branches it bumped up against. Learning a lesson from this would be patient and keep looking! I am not saying we didn't look long enough but taking more time by slowly each taking a wider radius from the last mark. Maybe even take the same route with each person and they might be able to notice something the others didn't.
Either way this is not easy for any hunter. Just thought I would share a story from the other side.........the not so good ending.

 

[dreamingbig]

A bull my dad shot high in the lungs ran 300 yards on a dead run before hitting the dirt.  We had limited blood for the first 200 yards but it ran out.  It took an hour after last blood to find him.  High lung hits can be tough.