After The Shot
Blood In Motion: A Forensic Guide to Blood Tracking
It takes a lot of work to set up and execute a hunt, but what happens after the shot will
determine if the hunt is truly a success.
You’ve scouted and set up stands. You’ve sighted in your guns and bows; maybe planted
a food plot and hauled bait into the woods. It’s hard work, to say the least, and finally the
animal comes in and the shot is made. How long will the trailing process take you? Will you
find the animal? Understanding how to track and find blood can make the difference
between having meat and a trophy to show for all the hard work that you have put in — or
coming home with nothing at all. You make a plan when you hunt to increase your chance of
success, but if you track without a plan, your chances of success are greatly reduced.
I sell blood-detection products to law enforcement, and my business has giving me a lot of
information on what to look for and what a blood trail can tell you about the hit you’ve made
on an animal. Blood trails can be misleading to the hunter —lots of blood does not
necessarily indicate a mortal wound, nor does a seeming lack of blood necessarily mean the
animal isn’t dead.
The reaction of the animal and the blood pattern will give us a better understanding of how
to go about recovering an animal. Normally, animals do not bleed to death, as an animal that
weighs 160 pounds must lose 45+ ounces to die from blood loss alone. Animals will die
faster from trauma than blood loss, and a combination of both is by far the best.
Most animals can travel very fast when wounded — deer can hit 35 mph, and even if they
die quickly after the shot, they can travel a long distance before collapsing. A wounded
animal will not go far unless it is pushed or sees movement. Sit still for at least a half hour, or
you will make the tracking more difficult. Now that many states offer multiple tags, this will
also give you a chance to get another animal — if you shot a large buck, it is still possible
that there is a larger one close behind him. Most animals travel in loose groups; the animals
in the rear of the group can help by showing you where the wounded animal traveled.
Spooking these animals will remove helpful clues to the whereabouts of your trophy, and
may cause a second opportunity to be wasted.
Pay attention to the reaction of the animal when it is shot, as this is your first clue to
helping you know how to find it. The reaction can be deceiving, but it is still important. I have
shot deer and had them look at me like nothing happened, only to watch them fall over
where they stand. I have had many hunters tell me that they knocked the animal down, only
to watch it suddenly jump up and run off, leaving lots of blood.
This is the one that I hate to hear the most. First of all, body shots that do not impact the
neck or spine, rarely make an animal drop, and if the neck or spine is hit, the animal is
usually disabled and cannot get up. The clues of the “dropped and got up and left lots of
blood” tell me it was most likely a leg or low shoulder hit. The falling down likely means the
leg was broken; lots of blood usually indicates a muscle hit. Muscle damage leave lots of
blood in the first 100 yards, but then the blood trail fades fast. There will be lots of large
spots of blood as the animal stands often and will lean against trees. Even with a broken leg
(or two), an animal can run very fast.
I have had a lot of people tell me, “I thought I hit it, but there was no blood.” Any time there
is a wounded animal, there is blood, even if it cannot be seen. Blood droplets, which are
forced out of the body by gunfire, produce a high-velocity-impact splatter pattern. The
pattern can be smaller than 1 mm in the beginning of the trail. Shots taken with a bow leave
medium-impact blood splatter patterns and will leave droplets around 3 mm in size. Both can
be difficult to see, even in the snow, so trust your instinct and follow the trail the deer took. If
the deer was hit, the blood will appear soon. If it was a lung hit, it can take time for the body
cavity to fill and blood to be forced out. Animals may run in the beginning of the trail; this will
cause blood trails to be harder to see, as the blood is spread over a larger distance. If there
is no visible blood trail, wait and let the animal lay down — it will not go far and should die
quickly.
Another common animal reaction is the hind leg kick. This reaction indicates that the
animal was hit farther back, most likely a gut shot. The blood pattern and the color of the
blood will be very important. Darker blood is from the stomach or liver. A liver shot is always
fatal, but is still a poor shot to take. Green matter or food is from one of the deer’s four
stomachs — a fatal shot, but it will most likely take until the next day or later for the deer to
die from a stomach shot. Give this animal at least three hours and follow up in the daytime.
The double lung shot is the best-percentage shot to take, as it will cause massive internal
bleeding and drowning, causing death within about 150 yards. This pattern will start out with
little blood, but it will increase as the animal starts blowing blood out the mouth and nose.
Quartering-away shots always cause the most damage, as the projectile will travel more
distance through the body. Shots from a raised area (tree stand) generally give a better
blood trail, as the exit hole will be lower and allow blood to leave the body cavity in greater
volume.
Shooting for the tail is the worst shot, leaving only a wounded animal or spoiled meat. If
the shot hits the back of the thigh, it will bleed well but will not die soon, as the muscle will
tighten up and help stop the bleeding. An animal shot in the anus will spread bacteria all
over the insides, and the damage will be even worse if the bladder is also hit. This type of
shot requires the animal to be cleaned immediately and thoroughly washed out in order to
save any of the meat.
So I Have A Wounded Animal, Now What?
Blood trailers spend a lot of time looking on the ground, but little time looking at the brush,
where more than half the blood is usually found. Blood on brush can reveal how high or low
the shot hit, helping in the recovery plans.
No hunter should be without a compass — use it to get a bearing on the trail taken using a
marker like a unique tree to track to. Working in pairs is best; have one tracker circle ahead
75 to 100 yards in case the animal is alive. Then have the second person take the trail.
Repeat this until the animal is recovered. Remember to be safe when tracking, because all
animals are dangerous when wounded. Proper gun handling and line-of-fire rules must be
followed to avoid injury.
Timing is very important. Tracking too soon is the main reason mortally wounded animals
travel a long distance and make recovery difficult or impossible. Tracking too slowly will
cause the meat to spoil. Reading the clues properly will make the difference in how good the
meat tastes, since recovery shortly after death is important. Meat with a gamey taste can be
caused by slow recovery, not cleaning properly or hanging in warm weather.
Adrenaline runs high after the shot, and humans have a hard time controlling it. Relax,
breathe deeply and take a few moments to reflect about what happened. The beginning of
the trail is the most important place to get the facts of what happened and how to proceed.
The first thing we do at a crime scene is cordon off the area to keep people from altering
evidence. Then we use only a few people to process the scene, again, to keep from altering
or destroying the evidence. Walking on a blood trail will transfer the blood pattern from its
original spot to somewhere else, or destroy it completely. Never put more than three people
on a trail unless it is hopeless to recover without extra people. Mark the trail as you progress
to give you a travel pattern to study for clues.
Unless the animal drops within sight, no trail should be taken within 30 minutes. The
animal you just shot will be looking at the spot where it was wounded to see what happened.
It will lie down soon and try to lick or heal the wound, usually with in 40 yards if there is
cover. Do you want to turn a 40-yard trail into a 400-yard trail?
I have been asked to follow a blood trail that had a small amount of blood that suddenly
had twice as much blood, then nothing. This usually means the animal has turned 180
degrees and walked over the same trail twice, then cut off at a 45- or 90-degree angle after
it decided the trail it was following was not safe.
The blood left on the ground or brush is important, as it can tell much about the wound.
Bright red or pink indicates an artery or lung shot. Many animal trails I have followed were
from shots that hit low in the shoulder or leg, leaving large amounts of blood. The blood is
slightly darker with a very narrow trail 4 to 8 inches in width. This animal will likely need a
second shot. Make plans to get a person ahead to dispatch the animal. Trails of blood more
than 2 feet wide are complete pass-through shots and increase the chances of recovery
greatly. Blood trails that have squirts of blood on the side of the trail 2 feet or more indicate
arterial shots in the neck, heart or other major artery. Give the animal time to bleed out
before you start tracking. Brown or greenish blood, or blood with green or brown matter, is
always a gut or liver shot — in both cases, the animal will need extra time to die before you
attempt to recover it. The liver shot will kill faster, but may still take two hours or more. Blood
with green matter is a five- or six-hour wait to track. The tracker should attempt to put a
shooter ahead to dispatch the animal if it is still alive.
Many visual blood trails disappear when the animal’s heart stops and the blood pressure
drops, as the blood is no longer being forced out of the body. Most animals can still travel 30
to 45 seconds and cover 65 yards or more before dropping, and the blood trail will be almost
impossible to see without blood-tracking aids. Bluestar® will come in handy, as the animal
will be close by but may not be seen because of terrain or brush.
Many times I have found animals within 40 to 50 yards of the stand, where they died after
having run 250 to 300 yards in a long arching circle, trying to get back to the spot they were
safe in before the shot. Knowing the bedding areas helps a lot if you cannot find an animal.
There are tools we can use in tracking. Dogs are now legal in many states, and are a
great tool if there is no rain or snow. However, most people do not have dogs or have the
time to train them, nor do they have the money to pay a dog tracker. Dog tracker fees vary
but usually end up around $150. Lights made for finding blood do not work very well, as
blood absorbs light. Regardless of what you see on TV, law enforcement officials do not use
lights to find blood. There are a few luminol-based products (Tink's® and Bluestar®,
notably) that make blood glow in the dark. I prefer Bluestar® because it was first made for
forensic use.
Bluestar®’s inventor, Dr. Loïc J. BLUM, with a Ph.D. in chemiluminescence, has perfected
the mixture, making it the easiest and strongest blood finder in the world. It is used in more
than 70 countries by law enforcement and hunters alike.
Bluestar® picks up hemoglobin, which transports oxygen to the cells. Hemoglobin contains
iron, which is a basic element of earth and is nearly impossible to destroy without fire.
Much time was spent to produce a product that the investigator would need little or no
training to use and that could tell the difference between blood and other items containing
iron.
Sold in tablets that you add to water, this is the best tracking agent on the market today. At
a cost of $19.95 to track four animals, the cost is very affordable. You can usually cover 100
yards in 10 minutes or less, and the time saved will be worth the money spent.
Small and lightweight and sold in packs of four, Bluestar® gives the hunter enough to
cover even the longest trails. Bluestar® also will work well in evergreens and moss, because
the reaction with blood is so much different from “false positives” that any one can tell the
difference. Bluestar® was made for law enforcement to find blood amounts so small the DNA
profile cannot be done. Even in the crime scene, clothing or items that have been cleaned
over and over will still glow bright blue were blood was present.
Many times the hunter cannot find the beginning of the trail. Before you leave the stand,
use a waypoint to know where the animal was standing when the shot was taken. A
compass is perfect for this, using a marker such as a tree to find the spot.
Many times I use Bluestar® only to find the start of the blood trail. To do this, spray while
walking across the trail as soon as you find the blood. See if you can follow it with your
eyes; if not, continue to use the Bluestar®. I often use it to regain a trail when an animal
changes terrain, going from leaf litter to grass fields, for example. Bluestar® will work in the
rain or snow.
You will learn a lot about trailing when using Bluestar®, since you will see the whole trail
every time you use it and can key in on the evidence the blood trail leaves.
Since it glows bright blue in the dark, even people who are colorblind or whose eyes are
“not as good as they used to be” can follow the trail without any help. No glasses or lights
are needed, just water and a spray bottle. Water can be taken from streams, lakes and
ponds along with any tap or bottled water. In extreme cold, you can use window washer
solvent.
Another advantage of Bluestar® is total darkness is not needed, just low light after
shooting hours end.
Mix a set of tablets in a sprayer and spray on the ground where the animal was standing,
and if the animal was hit, there will be a bright blue glow. Blood is easily transferred from
one place to another, so stay off the trail or you will leave footprints of blood all over the
woods. There will be an unbroken trail of blood where the animal went when using
Bluestar®. If you just find blood spots here and there, these are transfer patterns made by
people and animals walking on the blood trail. Blood will be trackable for a very long time.
There has been a forensic study on Civil War sniper holes at the Shriver House museum in
Gettysburg, Pa., and blood was found more 143 years after it was shed. Blood will last in the
woods for months, but there is a big difference in the brightness between old trails and new
ones. Blood on the hands of a hunter after gutting an animal without gloves will remain for
weeks, no matter how well the hunter washes. This is used frequently in murder cases.
Last but not least, use trail markers. This will help if you need to leave the trail for any
reason and will help anyone who is trying to join later on to find the trackers. This also gives
a pattern of travel, which most likely will be an arch traveling back to the bedding area
downwind of the stand. Bedding areas are thick with a good view and take advantage of
wind direction, and they provide a perfect area for a wounded animal to try and recover.
So no matter what happens before or after the shot, there are tools that cost very little and
will save lots of time, and help us remain ethically responsible by recovering game quickly
and efficiently. For more information on Bluestar® go to www.bloodfinderofnh.com . You can
also call Don anytime at 603-529-2498 for more information.
Blood Finder of NH
Don't let another one get away!
Blood Finder of NH is a national distributor for BlueStar® a blood revealing reagent used for hunting purposes.
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