What Should You Do If You Are Following A Wounded Animal And You Lose All Tracking Sign?

Tracking is a skill we will all need at some point in our hunting lives; Mark Ripley provides tracking tips and advice to ensure y'all can follow upwards a wounded animal, should the unfortunate situation arise

A night vision scope shot of a fox with cross hairs resting on its chest

Our vixen nether the crosshairs; after the shot, even a solid one, they can still brand some altitude - Credit: Archant

I watched as the final of the sun's glow disappeared behind the wood, feeling the temperature quickly drop as the fields turned into dark shadows. Two roe in the distance peacefully fed along the hedgerow, no longer visible to the middle simply equally articulate equally day through the thermal. However, although I was swell to meet what sort of deer numbers were in the area, I was after foxes.

From my vantage bespeak I had a good view over several fields and before long I spotted a fox around 400 yards backside me working back and forth across the freshly cut maize field. I decided it was worth a walk out to information technology to see if I could become a shot, so I began to take the rifle out of the tripod and fold the legs up.

As I did I glanced around with the thermal and spotted fox running off across the field and into the hedge. I'd obviously spooked it when I moved, probably just as it had come out no more than than 100 yards from me! Never mind, i for another nighttime, and the other was withal out in the field.

After a repose walk I managed to work my way effectually the border of the aforementioned field and make my way down the slope to where the flim-flam was currently out of sight in a slight dip. As I airtight in on it I saw it appear from my right, working its mode along the edge of the woods heading left.

I lined up on it, hit record on the nightscope, and at around 120 yards abroad gave it a little squeak to stop it. It slowed to a stop to stare at me and I squeezed the trigger. There was the solid thump of a decent hit and the fox displayed the characteristic hunched dash forrad with its tail held upward in the air – a sure sign of a hit. It dashed left and out of sight below the dip in the field and I was confident I'd observe information technology within yards of where I'd shot it.

Through habit I left the tripod standing where I took the shot and fabricated a mental note of which tree the trick had been standing in front of when I shot it. I besides was able to play back the video on the Wraith telescopic and could encounter the fox was indeed clearly hit and had run left, simply on walking downwardly the field I could find nothing anywhere around that corner of the field.

I reasoned it must have made information technology the l yards or then to the nearby hedge, but a walk along it with the thermal revealed nothing. Later on a long search I had to give upward looking to go and collect my daughter from piece of work and decided to come dorsum and look the following morning.

A splash of blood on a stubble crop, used to track a wounded fox

Larger amounts of claret non only confirm a solid hit but may also indicate an leave wound, which can also aid determine a direction for the animal - Credit: Archant

Tracking using blood trails
No matter how hard nosotros try to make the perfect shot, every one time and in a while y'all will discover yourself in this position, be it a fox or a deer. Obviously we want to ensure the animal doesn't suffer but we also desire, in the case of a deer, to find it for the meat.

Equally far as foxes go, I notwithstanding similar to discover them to exist sure they are not laid out in the field suffering or for a fellow member of the public to discover, which does nothing to help the image of shooting. So returning the side by side forenoon I went straight to the area where I knew I'd shot the play tricks and began to search for signs of blood.

I had stuck a stick in the ground where I'd taken the shot from, so from the tree close to where the fob had been standing I worked my way back towards the firing indicate searching for blood. I'd thought the fox had been on the edge of the field but in fact it had been most 10 yards into the field, where I found some blood spatters, as well equally flecks of flim-flam fur.

The blood was bright cerise, indicating a heart or shut to the heart shot, along with some small bone fragments. Had the blood been pinker and frothy or bubbly it would signal a lung shot, whereas thick, dark claret would point towards a liver or kidney shot. In the case of a deer these signs would be the aforementioned, and any green particles in the blood and a pungent olfactory property would confirm a gut shot.

It's important to try and ascertain where the shot struck the fauna to go an thought of how far it might accept travelled. Post-obit merely fairly small signs of blood on the maize stubble (some of which may have faded in the light rain the previous evening) I found the fox had in fact circled to the right out of sight in the slight dip in the field.

A tiny drop of blood on a stubble crop, used to track a wounded fox

Even the tiniest spatter of blood can give you a management of travel - Credit: Archant

Track in outward circles and mark your finds
Every few yards I'd lose the trail, despite being practically on my hands and knees. Each fourth dimension I did I would go back to the final sign of blood, then work in increasing circles around information technology until I found another trace. Another tip is to place markers where y'all find signs and so that yous tin conspicuously run across the direction of travel and easily retrace your steps to pick up the trail once again.

Often shot game will become dorsum in the direction they came from, or make for the closest cover in a blind panic. They will besides mostly accept the easiest road through cover, which may aid you find signs.

From the scuff marks in the mud and claret spatters on the stubble on one side, I could see the bullet had gone in and out of the animal and it was losing blood on both sides. On 1 side – the leave side – the blood was in lots of spatters about half dozen" off the ground, which indicated an arterial drain, but on the other side there was just the occasional drop.

It'due south likewise worth noting that when a drib of blood hits the basis from a running creature, the leg of the splash points in the direction of travel. Should you see steady round blood droplets on the footing information technology would unremarkably imply the animate being was walking or, if information technology'due south a bloodied pes print, it'southward likely to exist a brisket or leg strike and the blood is running downwardly the leg.

Following the blood trail beyond the field, I soon found the trick around forty yards on, obscured past a patch of stubble. Surprisingly, the pocket-sized vixen had virtually a iv" exit wound through the chest, so I was amazed that information technology had gone anywhere. Information technology just goes to bear witness what tough animals they can exist. Sometimes you won't initially pick upwardly a blood trail from the touch on sight, as it can take a moment for the chest cavity of an animal to fill with blood before it begins to leak out, so if you're confident of a hit be sure to cover a practiced radius from where the beast was stood to find the first sign of a blood trail.

With a large amount of claret on a trail you tin exist sure your quarry won't be far abroad, but don't rule that out fifty-fifty with a low-cal claret trail as sometimes a hunk of fat or bone can chop-chop plug a bullet pigsty. Although the beast perchance expressionless on its feet information technology might not leave much of a trail.

Information technology's good practice when yous shoot an animal and it runs – even when you encounter it drop and you lot know it'south dead – to notice the shot site and follow the signs to the animate being so that yous get some exercise reading the trail, which will help yous recognise the signs when you need to really track an animal.

Tufts of hair in a field indicating where a fox was shot

A few tufts of hair at the impact bespeak indicating a solid hit - Credit: Archant

Tips and tricks for tracking wounded animals
There are a few tricks to finding shot quarry that might help when the need arises. Ever carry some ribbon or a fleck of toilet whorl with you that you can utilise to mark a blood trail or other relevant points.

Effort to make a habit of picking out a landmark of where the animal was continuing when y'all shot it and leave a marker of where y'all were standing as a reference. Try to retrieve like your quarry and imagine which way it might have run, every bit well every bit remembering what you saw at the fourth dimension of the shot and the sound of the touch on.

Search for blood, fragments or fur to found a trail from where the brute was shot. Try to ascertain where the animal has been struck from signs on the ground and its reaction to the shot. When you lot notice a sign, work in increasing circles to detect the adjacent sign, leaving markers as you become. Try to become low to the ground to see the signs better. If you lot lose the trail, get back to your terminal mark and piece of work in increasing circles again until you pick up the trail and be careful non to bruise on any small signs when searching.

You can come across from this feel with a flim-flam how easy it can exist to lose a shot animal – even on a stubble field. Yet with a petty tracking skill and awareness of where both you lot and the animal were positioned, it's possible to find it quickly – in this case in the verbal reverse direction to which I thought it had gone!