What do y'all carry to help track wounded game at night? Is there a thermal device that works? Special flashlight? My son shot a deer last night. There was a lot of blood at the spot where he shot and a decent blood trail for about 10 yards but then it stopped. Any suggestions on a something to carry in my pack to help find game that ran off after being shot?

Toilet paper.
Put a few squares in the branches when you find a track or blood.
Also use Huntstand.
And hunting African Plains game you learn to look for actual hoof prints instead of blood. When you train your brain you can literally track them step by step.

Slmost same thing happened tonight to us. Sons first buck. Deer went down in about 15 yards, thought was dead. Got up in 5 or 10 min and moved out of site in brush. Long story short we traced blood and hoof prints for about 180 yards per HuntStand and it got too dark to see hoof prints and couldn't find anymore blood.

Do UV lights work?

Heading back out in morning to see if we can find it.

How do you find tracking dog services? How much is that typically? Is it worth it?

Frustrating.

We used to host some LEO/Swat units at our ranch for training. They would bring a spray bottle filled with a chemical that they could spray around a crime seen at night that would light up the smallest blood spot like neon when they shined a UV looking light they had.
One of the guys came to hunt with us and he showed us how he could use it to find a blood trail….cant tell you much more about it than that. Maybe some LEO guys on here can give more info.
In trailing, as SGrem says, you gotta get your mind focused on tiny details. The drop of blood may only be the size of a pin head at times. I use survey tape and mark what I can and try to establish a pattern…. that way you can see it better and if it rains or heavy dew you wont lose your markers.
Lots of wounded game will many times circle back from an area they came from…..and you can tell that also if you can establish a traveling pattern. Also I have found really mortally wounded game typically will not travel uphill but rather go downhill.
Giving enough time after a shot before trailing is important. If I can't see visually the animal on the ground from my stand after shooting I wait at least 45 minutes or more till I go look.
Also I try to initially minimize the number of people going to look. That way you don't have folks walking over blood or sign and ruining it.
Hope you find him.

Plenty of tracking dog services. Post which city you are near. We used Matt McWilliams out of Brady several years ago. Cost was 400 and he drove about an hour to Art.
The local game warden should also have a list of recommendations for trackers in your area.

There was a tread on the ob last year with current tracking services, prices, names and contact info.

Mas89 said:

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Plenty of tracking dog services. Post which city you are near. We used Matt McWilliams out of Brady several years ago. Cost was 400 and he drove about an hour to Art.
The local game warden should also have a list of recommendations for trackers in your area.

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We are not far from Brady. Any idea on costs?

I edited to include. Matt's phone is 325-456-0773. Seemed like a good guy and his teenage son helped.
Iirc he's an area rancher and does tracking part time but stays busy during deer season with tracking.
For sure try if it's your son's first deer.

Last 2 tough deer I tracked and found at night both took painstaking hours using a spotlight, headlamp, and crawling on my hands and knees. Blood trail would sometimes be the size of a ball point pen tip as mentioned above. helpful tools would be Flagging tape and using the "track" function in ONX.

This is the best tracking dog list around

https://www.texasbowhunter.com/discussions/forums/forum/topics/around-the-campfire/832770-2024-2025-season-tracking-dog-list

I'm not an LEO but I think what you are talking about is called Luminol.

Looks like you can buy it on Amazon

Thank you! Filing this for reference and sending to guys on our lease.

Called him and seemed really nice. He was actually just down the road from our lease. We ended up looking again this AM and finally found him!

Good going! What was the reaction from your son? Ecstatic I bet!!!

Huge smile! Yes ecstatic! Ended up finding him 560 yards from shot.

Outstanding sir. And big respect for you putting forth the effort to find him.

For you alls reading pleasure

https://texags.com/forums/34/topics/3402185/replies/65677485

Hey Hoyt. Hope you guys have a blessed Thanksgiving. Still looking forward to getting together one day.

I have your number saved. I will reach out tomorrow if I get done early enough from cow elk hunts

Toilet paper/paper towel can be used in another way also. I hit one lung and the liver on a deer once and while he left a good blood trail for about 80 yards, the trail absolutely quit just before the trail he was on ended in a large open area with 5 different trails leading off from that opening. Its well known that wounded deer like to stick to trails, and I looked for blood on each of those trails but with no luck. There was still some light dew left on a few leaves that morning, and I could not tell whether the wet spots were water on those brown leaves or potentially blood. So I took some white paper towel and swabbed a few of the wet leaves on each trail until one of those left a faint red tint on my paper towel instead of the usual wet spot. I then knew that was the trail he took. Sure enough I found the spot where that deer layed down and bled on the trail about 200 yards down the trail. He was then found a short ways from there off the trail. So, without a piece of white paper towel, I would likely have been looking for hours for that deer because there were fresh deer tracks on each of those trails.

RM76 said:

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Toilet paper/paper towel can be used in another way also. I hit one lung and the liver on a deer once and while he left a good blood trail for about 80 yards, the trail absolutely quit just before the trail he was on ended in a large open area with 5 different trails leading off from that opening. Its well known that wounded deer like to stick to trails, and I looked for blood on each of those trails but with no luck. There was still some light dew left on a few leaves that morning, and I could not tell whether the wet spots were water on those brown leaves or potentially blood. So I took some white paper towel and swabbed a few of the wet leaves on each trail until one of those left a faint red tint on my paper towel instead of the usual wet spot. I then knew that was the trail he took. Sure enough I found the spot where that deer layed down and bled on the trail about 200 yards down the trail. He was then found a short ways from there off the trail. So, without a piece of white paper towel, I would likely have been looking for hours for that deer because there were fresh deer tracks on each of those trails.

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That's a handy trick! One more reason to always have TP in the woods