November 2022 • Nebraskaland 51
arrow entered.
On a perfect shot, 30 minutes is a
good amount of time to wait before
tracking. Generally, a well-hit animal
will die within 15 minutes, but it's good
to add extra time. Liver shots require 2-3
hours of waiting, and anything farther
back, you should wait 6-12 hours. You
are waiting because if left unpressured,
the animal eventually will lie down in
heavy cover.
If you don't wait, at least two
unfortunate things can happen. One,
you can bump the animal from cover and
it can run hundreds, if not thousands,
of yards away on its adrenaline. Two,
if not hit in the heart or lungs, the slow
trickle of blood that formed a meager
trail might be eliminated completely
due to clotting. Both of these can
prevent you from fi nding the animal at
all later, so wait as long as you can.
Tracking
The next step is to go to the location
where you shot the animal and look
for sign. Inspect the ground and search
for blood. If you are bowhunting, look
for the arrow. If blood on the arrow or
ground is gritty and dark purple or black,
you probably hit the liver or intestines.
If there is green material or bile, you
hit too far back on the animal near the
colon or stomach. Solid red blood could
mean a heart or lung shot, and lighter
pinkish blood that sometimes contains
tiny bubbles indicates a lung shot.
Now reassess. Does what you're
seeing confi rm what you thought about
your shot placement? Based on this
sign, decide if you should start tracking
or wait. Remember, you don't want to
bump an injured animal from its bed.
This defi nitely lowers your chance of
success. The farther an animal gets
from the shot site, the harder it will be
to fi nd.
If your shot placement looked good,
you waited 30 minutes and the arrow
or blood at the site of impact is positive,
Reading the landscape after a shot, and moving slowly, are eff ective methods to fi nding downed animals. JEFF KURRUS, NEBRASKALAND
