Two things are a must have when having to recover an arrow shot deer that does not drop within eyesight.  They are patience that comes naturally, and the skill to blood trail a deer that only comes with practice.  In a nutshell, the more patient that you are, the longer you will wait before beginning to follow the trail which translates to doing whatever is necessary to find your deer even if it means crawling on your hands and knees.  All this means the more success you have at recovering the deer.

It doesn’t matter how much time you spend at the practice range or how good the shot looked, there are going to be times that it becomes tough to recover a deer.  I am willing to bet that almost any bowhunter you talk to has lost a deer or two if that person has hunted for any amount of time.  One of the biggest reasons that hunters fail to recover their arrow hit deer is because they take up the trail too soon, and they do not have the knowledge to properly trail a deer.

Blood trails are not created equal.  Some will be so obvious that they are impossible not to follow.  Others will be a little tougher to navigate but the same basic techniques to follow a trail can be used for all circumstances.  

You were born with five senses.  It is important to employ all of them, except for tasting, when blood trailing a deer.  Do not walk throughout the woods hoping to luck into finding your animal.  Keep your search area to where the blood trail is.  By noticing which direction the pointed edges of the blood drops point will indicate the deer’s direction of travel.

Do not focus only on blood and miss other good sign that is left behind.  Disturbed leaves and soil, broken limbs and tracks also help in the recovery process.  Study the track of the deer you are following and memorize it.  It should be second nature to be able to distinguish that track from others.in the recovery process.  Another good tool to have is to be able to notice ants, flies and other insects that have gathered.  These critters often accumulate on blood along the trail that is so small that hunters often overlook it.

Unfortunately, hunters shoot a deer in the paunch, and this requires waiting several hours before picking up the blood trail.  This is when the hunter should look and listen for buzzards, crows and jays that might have recovered your animal before you.  I have had coyotes find my deer first, so I always keep an ear open for them as well.  It does not take long for a coyote to find a deer either.  I have had coyotes on a deer within twenty minutes of being shot.  Listen for a deer bounding off that you might have jumped, and for a deer gasping for a breath or struggled movements.

Smelling your arrow will help you recognize where the deer was hit.  A gut shot deer will leave an arrow that smells as if it passed through the intestines.  

The main thing that must be done when tracking a deer is to stay diligent in the task at hand.  This is the most valuable tool to be successful in finding an arrow shot deer.

Wherever you might shoot a deer, there are telltale signs that will help you find the animal.  These signs are the sound of the hit, how the deer reacts, what the arrow looks like and the appearance of the blood trail.

A deer hit in the lungs will sound as if it was just hit with a wooden bat hitting a green tree when the arrow impacts.  Expect the deer to take off on a run with it tail tucked between its legs and its body low to the ground, not caring what it crashes through.  At times, the deer will kick up its back legs when the arrow hits.  The arrow will have bright pink/red blood with small bubbles the entire length of the arrow.  Any hair from the deer will be brown with black tips.  Do not expect to see a lot of blood for the first 30 yards or so.  When you start to see blood, it will look just as it did on the arrow.  Keep in mind though that sometimes the deer may only bleed internally and leave little blood.  The deer should not go more than 150 yards after you wait one hour before picking up the trail.

A heart shot will sound the same as a lung shot deer and the run will appear the same, often called the “death run”.  Hair left on the arrow will be brown to gray in color.  The blood trail will appear the same minus the bubbles.  Again, wait one hour and go find your deer.

The sound of a deer shot in the liver will sound the same as a lung and heart shot deer, but the animal will trot a short distance then begin to slowly walk away, stopping from time to time.  At times, the deer’s back will be hunched, and its tail will twitch.  Look for thick, dark red blood on the arrow with medium length brown/gray hair.  There will not be much dark red blood on the ground.  The deer is not likely to go more than 200 yards if not pushed and might even head towards water.  After 4 hours of being patient, take up the trail.

A gut shot deer is a hunter’s worst nightmare and it can prove difficult to recover the animal, but it can and often is done when pursued correctly.  An arrow striking a deer in the paunch will sound as a hollow thump like a wooden bat hitting a dry, hollow log.  The deer will trot off with hunched back and will slow to a steady, slow pace.  Sometimes the tail twitches.  The arrow will have small amounts of watery blood with brown stomach contents.  The arrow will smell of stomach contents.  A high hit will leave medium-length, brownish gray hair on the arrow.  With a mid-level hit, lighter brown hair and a low hit will leave white hair on the arrow.

After twelve hours of waiting, you will find small amounts of watery blood with brown stomach contents on the trail with a distinctive smell.  A deer can travel a few hundred yards before bedding.  If the deer is not bumped it will die where it first bedded.  This is why important to wait twelve hours.  A jumped deer that has been shot in the paunch might never be found.

I highly recommend using a lighted nock.  This will allow you to better see the flight of the arrow, the impact and to find the arrow itself after it passed through the animal or eventually falls out.  

A lot of guess work is taking out of the equation when you can see the arrow hit the deer or be able to examine the arrow for signs of where the animal was hit.  I have been using Nockturnal Lighted Nocks the last few years and they have performed flawlessly for me and have helped me in deciding how to move forward with the tracking.

Another tool I highly recommend is a good light.  Not all recovery jobs will happen during the daylight hours.  A good percentage of deer are shot within minutes of legal shooting light ending.  Rather than waiting until morning and run the chance of a deer spoiling or a predator getting to it first.  The last couple of years, I have been using the Super Bright Headlamp from Bossman Outdoors.  With 6,000 lumens, it is more than enough to follow a blood trail on the darkest of nights.

If you follow this advice almost any deer is likely to be recovered.  Just remember to be patient and persistent on your next blood trailing job.

Captions

1. The author with a nice management buck he shot in Texas last year.
2. Unfortunately, not all blood trails are like this one and a little effort needs to be put into the recovery.
3. Nockturnal Lighted Nocks will take a lot of guess work out of where the arrow impacted.
4. Not all blood trails will be on the ground.  As was the case when this deer left blood a couple feet off the ground on standing corn.
5. It does not matter how much time you spend on the practice range, there is going to come a time that trailing a wounded deer is difficult.
6. A good headlamp is a must when tracking after dark.  This Super Bright Headlamp from Bossman Outdoors is more than adequate to light up the dark.

Last month, the first case of chronic wasting disease (CWD) was discovered in Yellowstone National Park, sparking concerns among some scientists about the potential transmission of this fatal brain ailment to humans.

A deer carcass in the Wyoming region of the park tested positive for this highly contagious prion disease, known to induce weight loss, stumbling, listlessness, and neurological symptoms, as per the CDC. Chronic wasting disease has been identified in deer, elk, reindeer, and moose across North America, Canada, Norway, and South Korea.

The disease’s symptoms might take up to a year to manifest, leading some to nickname it “zombie deer disease” due to its impact on the hosts’ brains and nervous systems, resulting in drooling, lethargy, emaciation, stumbling, and a distinct “blank stare,” as reported by The Guardian. It’s fatal, with no known treatments or vaccines available.

Presently, scientists are cautioning about the potential transmission to humans, despite no documented cases thus far.

Epidemiologists emphasize that the absence of a “spillover” case doesn’t guarantee it won’t happen. CWD is part of a group of fatal neurological disorders, including Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as “mad cow disease.”

Dr. Cory Anderson, from the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), drew parallels to the BSE outbreak in Britain, highlighting the unpredictable nature of spillover events from animals to humans. While there’s no certainty, preparedness is crucial, he emphasized.

Anderson also expressed concerns about the lack of effective eradication methods, both from infected animals and the contaminated environment. The pathogen’s resilience, persisting for years in soil or on surfaces, and its resistance to various disinfectants and extreme conditions like high temperatures and radiation, pose significant challenges.

Animal studies suggest a potential risk of CWD transmission to specific non-human primates, like monkeys, consuming infected animal meat or contacting brain or bodily fluids from affected deer or elk, according to the CDC. These findings raise concerns about a possible risk to humans, prompting global health recommendations to prevent prion diseases from entering the human food chain since 1997.

Reports indicate the disease’s spread in Wyoming since the mid-1980s, affecting a considerable portion of the mule deer population near Cody that migrates to Yellowstone’s southeastern area in summer. The long-term impact of the disease on the park’s deer, elk, and moose remains uncertain.

According to The Guardian, the Alliance for Public Wildlife estimated in 2017 that thousands of CWD-infected animals were consumed unwittingly by humans annually, with expectations of a 20% yearly increase in these numbers.

The weather we were wanting back in December has finally arrived in now we are complaining that it is too hot. Temperatures and humidity are reaching highs that make you want to just sit in front of the air conditioner with a glass of lemonade. Resist the temptation though. These are still good days to be fishing for crappie.

Many anglers believe that crappie fishing is a springtime activity that includes shallow water and brush piles or other debris that crappie like to hide in or near. But, once crappies are done spawning, they move back out to deeper water, and seem to drop off the minds of most anglers. Do not fall into that category. 

For those anglers that still pursue pie plate size slabs in the heat they know two things that many anglers do not. Fish, crappie included, still must eat no matter what the thermometer says. Secondly, a lot like whitetail deer, crappies have a summer pattern that they rarely make any changes to. Knowing their habits and hangouts and knowing the right methods to fish for them you will be able to catch your limit.

Finding deeper, cooler holes in the lake will hold many crappies after spawn. The depths of these holes vary from lake to lake. These holes could be as deep as 20 to 30 feet deep surrounded by flats that are only two or three feet deep. It is not always necessary to fish the deepest parts of these holes. Crappies are likely to be found on the sides of these holes in the ten-to-fifteen-foot range. It will take some time to find the depth of these schooling fish, but once you do, drop the anchor, and lines and bait and start catching fish.

Crappies are going to be holding tight to certain attractions on the holes, like points or several stumps in a group. Finding these features often means finding fish as well. 

Finding these fish will require studying a good topo map of the lake that are available online or most local bait shops will have them. When studying the map look for bars and creeks along a main river channel. After discovering what are good spots on the map you need to get in the boat and use your electronics. When you locate a drop-off mark it with floating markers for about a 75-yard distance. With the markers in place come back and slowly take your boat over the area looking for crappie holding features with your LCD depth finder. Like most fish species of fish, crappies are likely to be found where baitfish are, so keep an eye open for baitfish on your depth finder too.

Other good locations to search out summer crappie are boat docks. Many private boat docks have had brush piles sunk near them by their owners.

As with all summer crappie fishing this tactic will also require a good depth finder. Search out brush piles near the end of docks that are also near the old river channels in about twenty feet of water. A good topo map will show you where these channels are. I have found the best way to find these are to simply drive slowly with one eye on the screen of your LCD.

It is also easy to spot which docks might have brush piles. Look for docks that have rod holders, lights, and other fishing related equipment on it. This is a sign that the owner of the dock is fishing the water and might be worth you exploring.

When I find a brush pile, I put my boat right on top of it. I do not use heavy equipment. I stick with 4-pound test line, a number 8 hook, and a BB split shot about six inches above the hook, on the hook is a live minnow hooked through the lips fished vertically above the brush. Sometimes I also use a ¼ ounce leadhead and a tube jig body and even at times a 2-hook crappie rig baited with live minnows. Feeling for cover with the jig or sinker lets me know I am fishing in the right area.

Summer crappie fishing is not like spring crappie fishing. Change tactics by moving to deeper water and using your LCD like your fishing success depends on it. Actually, it does depend on it.

Captions

1. Summer is the perfect time for some big crappie.
2. Trust what your electronics are telling you. They rarely lie.