Wapiti Talk | Elk Hunting Forum | Elk Hunting Tips
 

Tracking Tips...

Moderators: Swede, Tigger, Lefty, Indian Summer, WapitiTalk1

Tracking Tips...

Postby WapitiTalk1 » 01 23, 2018 •  [Post 1]

Let’s forego the mark where you shot from, mark the spot the beast was standing when you hit him, and waiting 30 minutes from the time you shot (unless of course you saw or heard it fall) precursor. Let’s offer a time tested tracking tip once a hunter starts “tracking” the elk they hit......
User avatar
WapitiTalk1
 
Posts: 8732
Joined: 06 10, 2012
Location: WA State
First Name: RJ

Re: Tracking Tips...

Postby Swede » 01 23, 2018 •  [Post 2]

I have noticed that the wounded elk is the one that is turning over the pine needles or duff when it leaves. Follow the blood, but when you have none, but see where duff, needles and other things are turned over, follow that.
Swede
Wapiti Hunting - Tree Stand Tactics
 
Posts: 10215
Joined: 06 16, 2012

Re: Tracking Tips...

Postby Elkhntr08 » 01 24, 2018 •  [Post 3]

Being red/green color blind does not help with blood trailing. Slow down is what I keep telling myself. Mark any blood, scuff or track with one square of TP. Gives me a good idea on direction of travel. Slow down and don’t give up.
Elkhntr08
Rank: Herd Bull
 
Posts: 416
Joined: 12 19, 2015

Re: Tracking Tips...

Postby saddlesore » 01 24, 2018 •  [Post 4]

Try to have two people do the tracking.The one looking for the blood or what ever, stays just off to the side of the actual track while the other looks forward to try to spot the animal. If the animal you are tracking has bedded down or standing looking back, seeing you will only make it try harder to get away.That second persons job is to see the animal before it sees you. If you have your head down looking for blood, chances are very unlikely you will see that animal ahead of you.
User avatar
saddlesore
Wapiti Hunting - Strategy and Tactics
 
Posts: 2162
Joined: 11 07, 2015
Location: Colorado Springs,CO

Re: Tracking Tips...

Postby >>>---WW----> » 01 24, 2018 •  [Post 5]

TP and peroxide! Two of the trackers best friends. Also, measure the animals stride. Cut a stick or what ever the same length as the stride. When you loose the trail just place one end the stick on the last foot print and move it around. The other end will be on the next print that may be hard to see.
User avatar
>>>---WW---->
Wapiti Hunting - Strategy and Tactics
 
Posts: 2351
Joined: 05 27, 2012

Re: Tracking Tips...

Postby Elkduds » 01 24, 2018 •  [Post 6]

>>>---WW----> wrote:TP and peroxide! Two of the trackers best friends. Also, measure the animals stride. Cut a stick or what ever the same length as the stride. When you loose the trail just place one end the stick on the last foot print and move it around. The other end will be on the next print that may be hard to see.


:idea: Brilliant :idea:

Basic: Walk well away from the tracks so your own tracks don't erase the elk's.
User avatar
Elkduds
Rank: An Elk Nut
 
Posts: 1536
Joined: 09 29, 2013
Location: Colorado Springs
First Name: Mark
Last Name: Scott

Re: Tracking Tips...

Postby elkstalker » 01 25, 2018 •  [Post 7]

Don't get tunnel vision, be sure to look ahead frequently so you don't bump a bedded elk that hasn't expired yet
User avatar
elkstalker
Rank: Satellite Bull
 
Posts: 305
Joined: 04 16, 2015
Location: Montana

Re: Tracking Tips...

Postby Indian Summer » 01 25, 2018 •  [Post 8]

Go high! Elk like a birds eye view. Not only can they safely look over more country from above but more often than not the thermals are helping them smell what’s below. Likewise they can hear more when perched on top of the world.

Of course if an elk is wounded to the point where it can’t go uphill it will side hill or go downhill. If it’s in really bad shape my suggestion would be drop down and look in the bottoms. Near water if there’s a spring or stream. But if they can they’ll go up. Bulls are notorious for bedding above the herd to begin with for the same reasons.

One time I was dogging a heard with a big 6 point bull in it. They were side hilling out around a big finger. I decided that if I went over top of the little ridge I could get ahead of them. But as I got to the top a nice 5 point bull jumped up from his bed, ran downhill through the herd and blew them out of there. That was mid September.

In late October I went back for revenge. I got on top of that ridge and sure enough I spotted them sidehilling away from me. They were angling uphill toward a saddle. So I high tailed it up my finger to the main ridge and over to the saddle. I beat them there! It was all burned there but thick. Not many lanes between the tree trunks. Finally the bull came up and..... I missed! Hit a tree while swinging the gun. The herd took off downhill heading the same direction they’d been going. I followed for about 75 yards right in their tracks when it hit me! That 5 point is gonna go high. So I peeled off the tracks and angled up. I could see the tracks for awhile on the bench below me. I got the feeling it was a great place for an elk to watch his back trail. After about half a mile I looked ahead and there he was. I’ll never forget his posture. He was facing downhill which put him broadside to me. The interesting thing was how far he had his neck stretched out. He was at the lip of a small flat reaching his head out as far as he could looking downhill for that dumb guy he busted in September. Not! I couldn’t see the money spot so I hammered him right at the base of the neck up fairly high as to do some spinal damage. He flopped over right where he stood. Never saw it coming. I really felt like I out smarted that bull at his own game which started a month earlier. It wasn’t a random opportunity but one that was thought out and came together. Think about it..... do you ever go low looking for a vantage point to glass from? Sometimes I guess but usually we find a perch where we look sidehill and down to maximize what we can see. Elk do the same thing.
User avatar
Indian Summer
Wapiti Hunting Consultant
 
Posts: 5247
Joined: 06 14, 2012
Location: Pennsylvania
First Name: Joe
Last Name: Ferraro

Re: Tracking Tips...

Postby Swede » 01 25, 2018 •  [Post 9]

Joe is absolutely right about the way bulls will go when wounded. They often go uphill. If you go low, they can spot you first and slip away.
When the thermals are going down, I will go low to catch the scent of a dead bull. That doesn't work well if he is alive and watching. I still remember hearing my bull go down, but lost track of him and could not see him. It was getting close to dark so I went low and caught his scent. I found him piled up between some dead trees. He was nearly impossible to see from any distance even in good light.
Swede
Wapiti Hunting - Tree Stand Tactics
 
Posts: 10215
Joined: 06 16, 2012

Re: Tracking Tips...

Postby WapitiTalk1 » 01 25, 2018 •  [Post 10]

Good stuff folks. But, there are many, many more.... keep em coming in.
User avatar
WapitiTalk1
 
Posts: 8732
Joined: 06 10, 2012
Location: WA State
First Name: RJ

Re: Tracking Tips...

Postby Navesgane » 01 25, 2018 •  [Post 11]

A friend of a friend came up with these recently. Seems like a good idea and good use of unused real estate on an arrow shaft.

https://www.gutcheckindicators.com
Instagram @jeff.reilly1
User avatar
Navesgane
Rank: Satellite Bull
 
Posts: 309
Joined: 08 05, 2013
Location: Telluride CO
First Name: Jeff

Re: Tracking Tips...

Postby Lefty » 01 27, 2018 •  [Post 12]

Elkhntr08 wrote:Being red/green color blind does not help with blood trailing. Slow down is what I keep telling myself. Mark any blood, scuff or track with one square of TP. Gives me a good idea on direction of travel. Slow down and don’t give up.

small pieces of TP ,.. seeing the line of travel is very helpful.

Dont get into a hurry slow down look for the next piece of sign before moving.

Often low angles light , the sun or headlamp can reveal what bright light of overhead light cant.
Even hit animals will often follow "trails"
Not all blood makes it to the ground looks at brush at wound height too
Use your nose,.. some times a dead animal stinks, and a rutted up bull can get ranky. This fall my daughter and I smelled a lot of our elk before seeing them
a herd of animals can be followed by your nose alone at times.


Saddlesore mentioned two people one looking the other tracking Alone? slow down and look ahead before moving,.. And use your binos LOOK!!

flattened blades of grass, or individual blades of grass or leaves the wrong direction.
things: grass, sticks, pebbles laying on top of the ground. dew or no dew. Even after the dew had left vegetation may have a different look

This may seem weird; practice tracking game when not hunting. When scouting or hiking try to follow a single or a herd and learn as you follow.

Listen: often a dying animal will breath loudly... anyone else hear a lung shot animal, the hole can whistle,.. well not whistle but make a different noise coming out of the wound.
Most of use even us that live in elk country can learn a lot following track in the snow
User avatar
Lefty
Wapiti Hunting - Strategy and Tactics
 
Posts: 6926
Joined: 06 25, 2012
Location: Pocatello Idaho
First Name: Dennis
Last Name: H

Re: Tracking Tips...

Postby WapitiTalk1 » 01 27, 2018 •  [Post 13]

Now we’re cooking with crisco. What else?
User avatar
WapitiTalk1
 
Posts: 8732
Joined: 06 10, 2012
Location: WA State
First Name: RJ

Re: Tracking Tips...

Postby Roosiebull » 01 27, 2018 •  [Post 14]

very first thing, don't get too hung up on "where you saw him run" at the shot. your mind can and will lie to you in that moment. it tells the truth enough to be right most times, but I have been fooled. 2 of us were fooled when a buddy shot a bear..... it took awhile to get that ball rolling, even though it would have been easy if we had simply followed the sign rather than what we "knew" we saw.

another... look on the bottom of vegetation along the trail. as blood dries up and the animal walks through vegetation, often times the blood will be on the bottom of leaves and ferns, rather than on top when they are bleeding good.

while tracking, my gps is turned on, good blood I will mark a waypoint every 50yds, when it starts to dry up I mark every blood. after you track awhile, you can lose your bearings as far as the actual general direction the animal is moving, a glance at the GPS shows you, and can give clues to where it's going, by seeing the topography in front of you, and knowing the tendencies of wounded game.

KEEP AN OPEN MIND, blood has dried up, or it starts raining...time to grid. you think hard and your confidence is regained, you know where it's headed! after exhausting that lead, and coming up dry, it's easy to be discouraged. keep pushing on, and exhaust every other possibility, they often don't go the way you think the "had to"
User avatar
Roosiebull
Rank: An Elk Nut
 
Posts: 1125
Joined: 02 27, 2017

Re: Tracking Tips...

Postby Indian Summer » 01 28, 2018 •  [Post 15]

Roosiebull wrote:very first thing, don't get too hung up on "where you saw him run" at the shot.


There’s a goodn’

One of my guide and two clients..... 3 guys mind you, spotted a large herd of about 60 elk on a wide open grassy slope. On the very top was a small patch of timber that also ran down the south side. They came out of the timber peeking over the lip of the hill and spotted antlers. The one hunter got a shot opportunity and made what they all felt was a good hit. The entire herd ran to the left across the huge meadow back from the way they had come. A pretty common direction for elk to flee. They walked down but the bull was nowhere to be seen. There was a little blood confirming a hit. But the elk had been all over that hill through the night so there were tracks just everywhere pointing in every direction. What did they do? The obvious, head in the direction that the herd went. After an all day search they came up empty.

They went back the next day as any ethical hunters would and gave it another try. Nothing. Apparently the bull wasn’t hit that well. It was snowy and there wasn’t a single drop of blood to be found other than where the bull was originally standing. The day after that I decided to head over. It’s funny how different a guy can think when he wasn’t there and didn’t have an image in his mind of an animal heading in a certain direction. Instead I thought.... if I were sn animal and had just been shot I think that regardless of what my buddies did I’d head for the nearest cover. In this case that was the opposite direction that the herd had thundered away in.


Now were also getting into something Lefty mentioned. You guys are GOOD!

I dropped down to about the elevation where I guessed the herd had been feeding. I turned north and rounded the hill on a regularly used game trail. I entered the timber and moved into it about 30 yards. The thermals were coming downhill hard. Then it hit me. The unmistakable smell of a dead elk! Not just the musky bull smell that has helped me locate elk before but the smell when someone accidentally pokes a hole in the stomach! Straight uphill about 80 yards there he was. But yikes! Someone had found him before me! :shock: A bear had opened him up and he was 2/3 covered in dirt and pine needles. Apparently Mr Bear like me didn’t see the herd run the other way so just followed his nose. The meat was unsalvageable since it had been claimed by another hunter. So I detached the head and packed it back to camp. I propped it up by the door of the hunters tent and of course their eyes got wide when they rolled into camp and saw it. “Where did you find him?” They asked. I said “The way he didn’t run” :D
User avatar
Indian Summer
Wapiti Hunting Consultant
 
Posts: 5247
Joined: 06 14, 2012
Location: Pennsylvania
First Name: Joe
Last Name: Ferraro

Re: Tracking Tips...

Postby Lefty » 01 28, 2018 •  [Post 16]

Indian Summer wrote:,,,,,,,,“The way he didn’t run” :D

We got burned pretty bad by a doe whitetail . a buddy shot a doe, ,he walked back to his house to give the deer wait time , the shot was high and back in the end of the lungs.He called me to help look, the blood was easy to follow in tall grass and cattail for 250 yards and it then the blood totally ended.
We started from where he saw the doe last.
The shot wasnt a great kill shot. Tom did find the doe the next morning.But the meat was bad by then.( he cooked it for dog treats.
The yearling doe had run off, turned around while Tom had gone to call me, then and tracked back the trail it had been on and died 60 yards from Toms stand. Our guess the shot spooked the deer, then it went back to the group of deer.

One other thing I believe many times archery shot animals dont know what just happened and are not spooked as hard Years back I sent an arrow way high on a bull. I completely misread what took place at first
The arrow went through the top of the spine bone and hung out the far side. The bull ran 30 yards then walked back towards the herd. The slow walk I thought was a really "sick " bull he wasnt it was just too hot to run.
Blood spurting out in bunches leaving a good trail, hit a vein? or so I thought
As the bull walked away the blood ran down the arrow and bounced as the bull walked looking like spurted blood. That bull just plain old walked back to the herd like nothing happened.

Joe my brother and I were strange kids we spent a lot of time in the woods. We use to track deer for fun. My brother had the reputation he could track a fish through water.
In reality was we just spent time tracking animals when we were young. Following coon tracks back to den trees or den holes in the snow was easy. After fresh rain we did lots of tracking in the river bottoms
One time we were put on a track of a huge buck our dads best friend had shot,.. the guy had shot the bucks nut sack off. We started tracking in the morning. Late afternoon the shooter and his kids wanted to call it quits, they were bored watching my brother and me track the deer for hours. They had stopped, light was fading they had given up. Our dad continued to follow us. Some distance further we motioned to our dad, it appeared the buck left the trail and was circling to bed. A moment later the buck jumped and my dad killed it.
User avatar
Lefty
Wapiti Hunting - Strategy and Tactics
 
Posts: 6926
Joined: 06 25, 2012
Location: Pocatello Idaho
First Name: Dennis
Last Name: H

Re: Tracking Tips...

Postby stringunner » 01 29, 2018 •  [Post 17]

I don’t have anything to add, a ton of great info on here. Appreciate the time taken to post these tips.
stringunner
Rank: An Elk Nut
 
Posts: 627
Joined: 06 18, 2012

Re: Tracking Tips...

Postby Tigger » 01 30, 2018 •  [Post 18]

I like to stop often and lift my head up and look and listen. Get in a hurry and you will miss something. Slow your heart down and be methodical. Tracking isn't a good time to develop Attention Deficit Disorder.
User avatar
Tigger
Rank: An Elk Nut
 
Posts: 2420
Joined: 01 12, 2015
Location: Minnesota

Re: Tracking Tips...

Postby Swede » 01 30, 2018 •  [Post 19]

Elk will try to stay with the herd after being shot, but will turn aside when they can't stay with them. Keep an eye out for where one animal turns and leave the herd. I have looked off to the side and seen my animal bedded above and alone not far away.
If you bump a bedded wounded elk, stop and wait. Do not pursue for awhile. I had this situation this past season. I knew the elk should be dead, but he wasn't. I left the area for several hours and came back to find the bull only went another 50 feet. That is much better than more tracking in a difficult area.
Swede
Wapiti Hunting - Tree Stand Tactics
 
Posts: 10215
Joined: 06 16, 2012

Re: Tracking Tips...

Postby ishy » 01 30, 2018 •  [Post 20]

Blue Star-it is what law enforcement uses on crime scenes. They make a cheap version for hunters. I've mentioned this stuff before and it is a game changer if you loose a trail in the rain. I found it several months after loosing a moose in the rain. It ate me alive and I couldn't sleep for months. I had sworn off hunting in the rain even though some of my favorite days were during rain. I bought some as soon as I heard and about it and I sprayed a pack frame that I had packed elk with several months earlier and had rinsed copiously and it lit right up. All you need to do is try this stuff on any thing you have packed with-even if it has been washed and be amazed! I have used it on a blood trail that we had already found the deer and decided to back trail and see what it would do. We could see particulates glowing that we couldn't see with a 300 lumen light knowing right where we had just seen the particulates glowing. Rain will actually disperse the hemoglobin and even though you can't see blood the hemoglobin will still glow. Not a fix all especially bad shots, but another tool we can use when stuff gets ugly. One of you read green color blind guys should try it and see if it helps.
User avatar
ishy
Rank: An Elk Nut
 
Posts: 1062
Joined: 08 18, 2013
First Name: Bryan
Last Name: L

Re: Tracking Tips...

Postby saddlesore » 01 31, 2018 •  [Post 21]

ishy wrote:Blue Star-it is what law enforcement uses on crime scenes. They make a cheap version for hunters.ugly. One

Could you post more info on this. Brand name of cheaper stuff ,etc.
User avatar
saddlesore
Wapiti Hunting - Strategy and Tactics
 
Posts: 2162
Joined: 11 07, 2015
Location: Colorado Springs,CO