Art Eatman
Staff in Memoriam
Some of this is from listening to the Old Guys; some from observation.
Deer tend to follow patterns when wounded, particularly with a leg wound--which I'll focus on. "Tend to", I sez; not all deer know what I think they oughta do.
If a foreleg is broken, a deer is more likely to go uphill than downhill--if there is a choice. Further, they'll tend to go into the wind, if possible; this may mean quartering up a hill.
If a hind leg is broken, they'll generally go downhill. And, usually, if the day is calm, they're more likely to catch warm air rising and thus be going into what little wind there is.
In either event, at some point they'll figure it's time to lay down in the thickest cover to be found. Now, if you know it's fairly high on a hind leg, there's a fair chance that he'll bleed out--femoral artery, for instance. So, wait a bit before trailing.
On a front leg? All bets are off. You trail, but don't just follow what blood trail there is, or directly along the tracks. Try to have another person follow the trail, and try to work off to the side, scanning ahead for likely hidey-holes where the deer may lay up. But don't shoot your buddy!
In the FWIW department, one of my buddies took a neck shot in late afternoon, at a deer facing him. He flinched (we discovered on another hunt) and the bullet hit the deer in the right front leg, went along the inside of the ribs and into the right ham. (Again, discovered later.) We trailed the deer, with the hunter unendingly swearing he had hit the neck. Bucky followed a contour, going neither up nor down hill. Went about 250 yards or so before laying down.
Hope this BS is useful, Art
Deer tend to follow patterns when wounded, particularly with a leg wound--which I'll focus on. "Tend to", I sez; not all deer know what I think they oughta do.
If a foreleg is broken, a deer is more likely to go uphill than downhill--if there is a choice. Further, they'll tend to go into the wind, if possible; this may mean quartering up a hill.
If a hind leg is broken, they'll generally go downhill. And, usually, if the day is calm, they're more likely to catch warm air rising and thus be going into what little wind there is.
In either event, at some point they'll figure it's time to lay down in the thickest cover to be found. Now, if you know it's fairly high on a hind leg, there's a fair chance that he'll bleed out--femoral artery, for instance. So, wait a bit before trailing.
On a front leg? All bets are off. You trail, but don't just follow what blood trail there is, or directly along the tracks. Try to have another person follow the trail, and try to work off to the side, scanning ahead for likely hidey-holes where the deer may lay up. But don't shoot your buddy!
In the FWIW department, one of my buddies took a neck shot in late afternoon, at a deer facing him. He flinched (we discovered on another hunt) and the bullet hit the deer in the right front leg, went along the inside of the ribs and into the right ham. (Again, discovered later.) We trailed the deer, with the hunter unendingly swearing he had hit the neck. Bucky followed a contour, going neither up nor down hill. Went about 250 yards or so before laying down.
Hope this BS is useful, Art