Gadgets and Gear for Bloodtrailing Deer

November 08, 2017

There’s nothing worse than feeling the excitement of shooting a big deer turn to desperation when you lose the wounded animal’s track. More often than not, the game is lost because of mistakes made during the excited moments after the shot. It’s important to understand that the hunt doesn’t end successfully when you pull the trigger, but rather when you recover the downed animal.

Nobody likes to admit they’ve lost the game. It feels wasteful, and you bear the responsibility of sending an animal into the woods that is sick and injured because you failed to perform the most basic and fundamental action in all of all hunting — making the killing shot. Those terrible, sleepless hours after you lose a track are not the time to start thinking about the items you wish you’d had during the search. Instead, start planning ahead of time and keep these items in a “recovery bag” and keep it with you while you’re hunting so you have the equipment needed to help you recover lost deer.

Blood Tracking Light: In addition to my hands-free headlamp, I also carry a blood tracking light, the Primos Bloodhunter HD, in my recovery bag. With special lenses that help illuminate blood, this 600 lumens LED light helps the human eye pick up on minute droplets that might go unseen. Filtered lights such as the Bloodhunter HD are particularly helpful in tall grass where you’re looking for very small blood marks on thin stems. The Bloodhunter has two settings, high for tracking and low for travel, and battery life is from two to eight hours.

Hands-Free Light: You’ll need both of your hands to help cross fences, move limbs out of your way and tie reflective tape in places where you’ve found blood. Instead of carrying a heavy flashlight, use a headlamp that allows you to keep your hands free for other things. I prefer the Browning Night Seeker Pro ($22), which clips on the bill of a hat and is angled so that it illuminates the ground in front of me. There are white and green light options, and the durable clip also fastens to a shirt pocket as needed.