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How far?

select-fireselect-fire Member Posts: 69,453 ✭✭✭✭
edited December 2015 in General Discussion
Have you tracked an animal to find it after it was shot ?

Comments

  • select-fireselect-fire Member Posts: 69,453 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Dad and I might have the record. Blood everywhere. Grandma shot an intruder, neighbor boy.. who tried to scare her. He was in the house. We tracked the blood outside and up the lane she lived. Deputy sheriff and us found him at the hospital. 9 mile away. He lived .
  • OakieOakie Member Posts: 40,519 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    over a mile, with a bad shot. Everyone pulls a shot now and then. I hit a doe and she went about a mile and a half from where I shot her. Missed all the vitals and she bled out. No blood, just a faint spot every now and then. This was with an arrow. Arrow went in about a few inches, hit a rib and fell out. I nicked a lung.
  • Dads3040Dads3040 Member Posts: 13,552 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    The better part of 4 miles in the Chesnimus Unit of NE Oregon. Right into the Imnaha River Canyon. Those who live here will know what that means.

    An old guy in the camp next to us had unknowingly gotten his scope knocked goofy, and when he fired his .308, it hit the bull elk in the paunch. Not a lot of bleeding, but enough to follow with the tracks in the snow. The old boy had been camping for many years next to the guys I was hunting with, and asked us if we would help find it, as there was no way he could manage it.

    It was one of the nastiest slogs I have ever gone on. That bull wanted to be left alone, and went through every scrub brush, bog, and pole thicket he could get to.

    That 4 miles took 6 hours, and then a single shot from Elk Slayer put it down for the count. Gutted, skinned, and quartered it to hang. Packing out the quarters took all of the next day. Not something I would care to do again, nor could I at my age. Oh, to be young and dumb again....
  • DONDALINGERDONDALINGER Member Posts: 1,541 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I shot a buck 3 years ago and he ran over 1000 yards, swam a pond and expired on the far side. I put a solid hit on him and took out 1 lung. A deer can run a long way with one functioning lung!! He was a big body 6 point with a decent rack. Most impressive deer I have ever taken. The blood trail was heavy for about 100 yards and then got real spotty. I had 4 guys looking for him after dark for about an hour and then I sent everyone home. It got down in the mid 20's that night, so I knew the meat would not spoil. The next morning I got back to the farm at daybreak and 3 hours later, I found him. I consider myself a excellent tracker and have found many deer others have given up on. Most hunters give up looking too easy. Here is a picture. He is truly a trophy buck in my book just because of his sheer endurance and will to live.
    big61_zpsafa8005a.jpg
  • NeoBlackdogNeoBlackdog Member Posts: 16,566 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by Dads3040
    The better part of 4 miles in the Chesnimus Unit of NE Oregon. Right into the Imnaha River Canyon. An old guy in the camp next to us had unknowingly gotten his scope knocked goofy, and when he fired his .308, it hit the bull elk in the paunch. Not a lot of bleeding, but enough to follow with the tracks in the snow. The old boy had been camping for many years next Those who live here will know what that means.

    to the guys I was hunting with, and asked us if we would help find it, as there was no way he could manage it.

    It was one of the nastiest slogs I have ever gone on. That bull wanted to be left alone, and went through every scrub brush, bog, and pole thicket he could get to.

    That 4 miles took 6 hours, and then a single shot from Elk Slayer put it down for the count. Gutted, skinned, and quartered it to hang. Packing out the quarters took all of the next day. Not something I would care to do again, nor could I at my age. Oh, to be young and dumb again....

    Me being one that lives there, I'll translate...
    That is one dirty steep mother humpin' rock infested no good dirty rotten hole in the ground! Did I mention it's steep?
    Good on ya, Chris, for helpin' the old boy out.

    My farthest track was only about 40 yards.
    Shot placement, boys, shot placement.
  • guntech59guntech59 Member Posts: 23,187 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I had one go about 300 yards one time before a second shot made it DRT. The rifle slipped, on the tree I was using as a rest, just as I pulled the trigger.....all I got was meat on the front of the shoulder.

    I chased it through 2-3 feet of drifted snow until it collapsed and. I was able to get a kill shot from ~ 10 yards....then I collapsed.

    Thankfully, one of my wife's younger cousins was near, so he dragged it back to the truck for me. IIRC, that earned him half the deer. Well worth it in my book.

    I was kind of surprised that the meat was not affected by the chase.

    All the rest of the deer I have killed have dropped inside 40 yards.
  • notnownotnow Member Posts: 1,802 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Ten yards once. But it took 45 minutes. I swore right then and there to never shoot as the sun was setting. I shot during legal hunting hours but I always wait 20 minutes after shooting to approach my deer. Well I waited and it was fairly dark when I got up to go look. I shot it at 75 yds and it only went ten yards or so. But it was in unmowed hay that was in rounded clumps. The shadows cast from flashlights really made it hard to see besides the color blending in. My BIL was starting to doubt me and he was the one with the truck keys. But there it was. I probably nearly stepped on it a dozen times.
  • pwilliepwillie Member Posts: 20,253 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    ...about three miles, shot through the lungs...never did it anymore,only neck shots and head shots...
  • 35 Whelen35 Whelen Member Posts: 14,310 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    20, maybe 25 yards. My penchant for the .35 caliber hasn't let me down.[^]
    An unarmed man can only flee from evil, and evil is not overcome by fleeing from it.
  • CaptFunCaptFun Member Posts: 16,678 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Shot placement is all nice and convenient to preach to folks when you are inside 100yds. With a 7mm-08 at 200yds there is a .22 second eta on the target. At 400 yds it is almost a half second. We have had a hog take a step right as the shooter was firing. That went from a boiler room shot to blowing his hind leg clean off at the ham. We chased him for several miles, no idea how far, not sure the swamp buggy we were in had an odometer and I did not have my GPS with me. Never knew a 3 legged pig could run that damn fast. Finally caught up with it in a draw and dispatched it with sidearms.

    We take hogs at 800 yds pretty regularly. Generally they drop like a rock. Only ever had to chase that one. ( and one that bum rushed me out of a thicket and I didnt get good shot on.... Head on was the only presentation available. ) Did I say hog hunting can get a little exciting at times?

    Now if we are hunting them with dogs, I never tracked how far the dogs chased them, but we typically don't kill those unless they are sows, the boars get neutered and sent back.... then called a Barr or Barrow hog they will be fit to eat in a year or two and won't reproduce any more....
  • gearheaddadgearheaddad Member Posts: 15,096 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by us55840
    Not necessary with proper shot placement!
    [;)][:o)]

    Maybe about 100 yards for white tail deer.

    Spoken like a man that has shot 2-3 whitetails. Or perhaps the best shot ever to hunt.[;)]
    Just sayin.......
  • montanajoemontanajoe Forums Admins, Member, Moderator Posts: 57,892 ******
    edited November -1
    Denise and I have shot deer anywhere from 25-140yds with shotguns,and 60-420yds with a rifle. We have been very fortunate that our animals have all dropped within 15-20 yds of where they were shot.
  • Dads3040Dads3040 Member Posts: 13,552 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by NeoBlackdog
    quote:Originally posted by Dads3040
    The better part of 4 miles in the Chesnimus Unit of NE Oregon. Right into the Imnaha River Canyon. An old guy in the camp next to us had unknowingly gotten his scope knocked goofy, and when he fired his .308, it hit the bull elk in the paunch. Not a lot of bleeding, but enough to follow with the tracks in the snow. The old boy had been camping for many years next Those who live here will know what that means.

    to the guys I was hunting with, and asked us if we would help find it, as there was no way he could manage it.

    It was one of the nastiest slogs I have ever gone on. That bull wanted to be left alone, and went through every scrub brush, bog, and pole thicket he could get to.

    That 4 miles took 6 hours, and then a single shot from Elk Slayer put it down for the count. Gutted, skinned, and quartered it to hang. Packing out the quarters took all of the next day. Not something I would care to do again, nor could I at my age. Oh, to be young and dumb again....

    Me being one that lives there, I'll translate...
    That is one dirty steep mother humpin' rock infested no good dirty rotten hole in the ground! Did I mention it's steep?
    Good on ya, Chris, for helpin' the old boy out.

    My farthest track was only about 40 yards.
    Shot placement, boys, shot placement.

    It is a bit on the steep side, isn't it? [;)]

    It's been a long time since I thought of that adventure. The old guy didn't really want to ask. He was getting his pack ready to start out after that elk, and his wife was about hysterical that she would never see him again.

    For all the effort, he wanted to give us part of the elk, but later in the week we all filled our tags, and I am pretty sure we ate half that animal of his over that time as his wife decided she had to feed us morning, noon, and night. That woman could bake with a Dutch Oven like nothing I have ever seen. [^]

    I look back and realize that now I couldn't properly roll my fat * to the bottom of that canyon, let alone get back out.

    To answer the original question for me: about 100 yards. Shot a deer running downhill and he made a few more leaps until he figured out he was dead, what with having a heart blown to little bits.

    Great question, SF. The stories are great. Thanks.
  • bpostbpost Member Posts: 32,664 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    About a mile, my brother shot a nice buck with a bow, the shot was high and back too far. That buck went over every hill and dale on my land, crossed the road and kept going forever it seemed. Five guys were looking, we lost the trail a few times only to pick it back up by some fluke. It was shot at first light in Sept. took until dark to find it. My brother is a PIA.
  • rambo rebelrambo rebel Member Posts: 4,028
    edited November -1
    that's nothing - I'm still tracking one I shot back in 78. communicating by phone I picked up going through a village that had a walmart and I keep it charged with a solar charger.
    [:D][:D][:D][:D][:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]

    top that one uppers.
  • fishkiller41fishkiller41 Member Posts: 50,608
    edited November -1
    If anyone claims that they have dropped EVERY big game animal they ever shot at,dead in it's tracks.
    I would have to instantly hoist the Bullshyzen flag!!!
    NONE OF US ARE PERFECT!
  • gearheaddadgearheaddad Member Posts: 15,096 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by fishkiller41
    If anyone claims that they have dropped EVERY big game animal they ever shot at,dead in it's tracks.
    I would have to instantly hoist the Bullshyzen flag!!!
    NONE OF US ARE PERFECT!

    Or only shot one or two.[;)]
    First deer I shot didn't take a step. Both his front legs were stuck in his small antlers and he was stone dead when I walked up to him. 30 yards, head behind a tree, 20ga Ithaca deerslayer, 1979.
    I can remember the exact details of maybe 10-12 of the deer I shot, but the other hundred or more are a little sketchy.
  • s.guns.gun Member Posts: 3,245
    edited November -1
    Quote of pwillie.....
    ...about three miles, shot through the lungs...never did it anymore,only neck shots and head shots.............l have shot 6 or more through both lungs with arrow....They did not go more than 70 yards....
  • fugawefugawe Member Posts: 1,540 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Not so much tracking but retrieving. When I was 14 I was standing by the river when a wood duck landed in a tree across from me, about 100yds away. I pulled up my open sighted Marlin 25 and and let one go. To my complete amazement the duck fell, stone dead. Like most of you, I was taught never to waste game. I ended up hiking over a mile downriver to a bridge, hiked up the other side, got my duck and hiked back. Nearly five miles for one duck. I'm sure I expended much more energy retrieving that duck than I got from eating it.
  • swearengineswearengine Member Posts: 1,329 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by pwillie
    ...about three miles, shot through the lungs...never did it anymore,only neck shots and head shots...


    Obviously wasn't through the lungs.
  • themountainmanthemountainman Member Posts: 1,207 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    about 1 mile. That's why I gave up archery.
    There are 3 kinds of people in the world. Those who can do math and those who can't. :?
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