Blood trailing a bow-shot animal
A hit on the double-lung leaves a heavy blood trail inside 40 yards. A liver hit leaves a slower trail: back out for 4 hours. A gut hit leaves greenish, foul blood and requires 8-12 hours before you push. Reading the arrow and first blood tells you which.
Five steps to a recovered animal
- After the shot, mark the last spot you saw the animal. Wait 30 minutes minimum for a lung shot, 4 hours for liver, 12 hours for gut.
- Find the arrow first. Bright red blood on the shaft and fletching, fine bubbles: lungs. Dark red, no bubbles: liver or muscle. Green or brown streaks, foul smell: paunch or intestine.
- Start blood trail at last known animal position, not point of impact. Mark first blood with orange tape.
- Follow blood one drop at a time. Tape every 10 yards. If you lose blood, circle in 15 ft radius from the last drop before you push forward. Most trails restart within 20 ft of the loss point.
- Listen. A bow-shot deer that runs 80 yards and stops crashing after 20 seconds is dead. If you hear steady crashing after 40 seconds, back out and wait longer.
Reading pin colour on the shaft
Bright pink frothy blood: both lungs, high-percentage recovery, push after 30 min. Dark venous blood, no bubbles: one lung or liver, wait 4 hours. Green or brown blood, corn or grass on shaft: paunch, wait 12 hours and use a tracker.
Common errors
Pushing a marginal hit in the first hour (bumps the animal to the next county). Bringing five friends on the trail (five sets of boots stomp out blood). Failing to sniff the arrow (rumen smell is unmistakable and confirms gut hit).
What bowhunters are saying
The single best blood-trail habit I learned in 20 years: never leave the last speck of blood. Circle first, push forward second. I recovered a buck last October because I doubled back after losing sign, and the trail restarted 12 ft behind me.
Rokslide, Whitetail Bowhunting subforum, 2025