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I knew I was in for trouble the moment I saw the arrow hit. The wild boar was slightly quartering toward me at last check, but in that final instant of triggering the release, things fell apart. The burly-looking pig suddenly stepped into a sharper quartering-to profile, then the arrow smacked home. Even though I placed the broadhead close to the shoulder blade, it angled away from the lungs and in line with the liver and paunch. I watched the hog race away with orange fletching protruding from its hide.

When I came upon the hit sight, I found blotches of blood and trailed it for 100 yards or so. Eventually it dried up. I decided it was time to sit down and wait. After years of blood-trailing game, I’ve learned to never immediately follow up a suspected paunch hit for fear of pushing the animal and losing it for good. It’s always best to wait several hours before searching. This gives the animal time to hopefully expire or weaken enough so it stays put for a follow-up shot.

As hard as it was, I stayed on that hillside for most of the day. When 2 p.m. or so rolled around, I was on my feet and ready to begin trailing again.

On my hands and knees now, I began noticing specks of blood, all which were on a well-used game trail cutting across a steep slope. Eventually I lost all sign of blood, but I did see some tracks with dew claws—evidence of a pig running. I followed them for a while, but hog tracks began popping up everywhere. This left me with one last thing to do—hike around and begin grid-searching the hillside

Now on a mission, I began weaving in and out of cover, focusing heavily on using my binocular to scan open spots and look beneath foliage. In those areas too dark to glass, I walked to them for a closer inspection. I did this for 3/4 mile or so, venturing up and over a few small ridgelines in the process.

Just as I was feeling pretty dejected and ready to call it quits, I saw movement downhill. It was a hog laying in its bed, now looking up at me. Within a couple seconds, it came to its feet and bolted.

But there, in the same spot, lay another pig. Only this one looked a bit sick and sore. It was my hog. I guessed the distance at about 35 yards and shot as quickly as I could. The arrow hit the chest solidly, and the pig let out a massive squeal, followed by a quick tumble down the slope. I ran up and shot the tusker one more time to end the ordeal for good.

As the big pig lay there, I felt a sense of reward. During the entire follow-up process, I seriously doubted recovery. The sickness grew with each hour. But I knew any hope of recovering the animal would come from being ultra patient and working the blood trail systematically. Because of that, I was greatly rewarded.

Blood-trailing game is a blend of art and simple technique. As in most bowhunting endeavors, it’s often a sequence of things that eventually leads you to success. With that in mind, here are the secrets I’ve discovered through two-plus decades of bowhunting and blood-trailing dozens and dozens of critters.

Taking a Visual Log

Immediately after the shot, there are three things you should do. First, don’t move an inch from where you shot. Then, note exactly where the animal was standing upon the arrow striking, and exactly how the animal fled the scene. These three factors will prove most vital to recovering your trophy. To help with this, pick out certain bushes, rocks or trees next to the hit spot or the route the animal used to escape. This will make it easier as things always look different from up close and as you begin the trailing process.

Analyzing the Hit

Next, visualize in your mind the animal’s position and where the arrow hit. If you suspect a perfect double-lung hit, then you probably won’t have any trouble finding your trophy. These hits usually result in lots of blood on the ground and a relatively short, easy-to-follow blood trail.

However, this is not always the case. Sometimes animals bleed internally, even lung-shot ones, and when this happens, you’ll have to look for other clues, mainly fresh tracks and perhaps tiny droplets of blood; these will hopefully lead you down the path of recovery. Sometimes a general “zigzag” walk of the area, if you’re hunting in open country, will allow you to spot your animal.

If you find your arrow at the hit site, analyze it for clues as well. The blood on it tells a lot. Bright pinkish frothy blood is a positive indication of a solid lung hit. Darker blood without the telltale froth-like “bubbles” in it usually means a hit to the liver or heart. Greenish matter smeared on the shaft, usually with white fatty tissue, means a paunch hit. Beyond a solid strike to both lungs or the heart, blood trailing doubles in difficulty. Here are several scenarios to consider that involve less-than-perfect hits.

Single-Lung Hits

Shots that are taken quartering-to or at extreme angles often result in single-lung hits. Just so you know, it’s well documented that animals can actually live with just one lung. This is especially true of larger game such as elk.

On quartering-to shots, if deep broadhead penetration is achieved, then sometimes the liver and paunch can also be cut in the process, which is good. The liver is a vital organ and damage to it will eventually cause the animal to expire, usually within a couple hours. However, an animal can travel on a punctured liver, which means, if pushed, it can run into the next canyon, or well off your hunting property.

For this reason, you must wait a good amount of time before following up. Just as with the big hog I successfully trailed at the beginning of this article, it’s best to wait four to six hours on such hits. Sometimes the animal will expire within this timeframe or be sick enough that you can sneak up and shoot it again.

Severe angled shots, such as when shooting from a tree stand, can result in the arrow hitting high. When this is the case, the arrow angles downward, only striking the top of one of the lungs. This usually results in good initial blood, but depending on the damage, the trail can go dry after a couple hundred yards. If not found within this distance, the animal is likely to survive.

Liver Hits

Shots that hit slightly behind the lungs (opposite the shoulder area) will likely strike the liver. This is a vital organ (served by large arteries) that filters the blood supply to the body.

If the broadhead laces the liver, the animal will die. However, liver-hit animals can live for a while, complicating animal recovery. With suspected liver-hit game, I suggest waiting two to four hours before following up. A common trait of a liver hit is dark, somewhat brownish-colored blood.

Paunch Hits

Unfortunately, this hit is quite common, and I would suspect it results in more lost game than all other hit types. Extreme patience is required for these shots. The worst thing you can do is “push” a gut-shot animal, as infection takes time to impair the animal’s ability to travel. Combine this with adrenaline flowing in the body from being chased, and the animal can travel for miles. Once that happens, your chances of recovery are virtually zero. This is even more so because arrows bisecting intestines or paunch rarely leave much blood.

I recommend waiting eight hours or longer before following up. Left un-pushed, gut-shot deer usually bed down within 100 to 200 yards from where the shot occurred and simply expire.

There is one exception to all of this. When hunting open-country, follow-up shots are sometimes advisable when the animal is clearly approachable and hunched up and/or sick looking. In this case, you should sneak in and shoot the animal again. In doing so, it’s crucial that you don’t let the animal see you, which could cause it to run frantically. Dense, noisy terrain could foil any attempts at closing the gap, and waiting is a better plan.

Shoulder Hits

Theoretically, shoulder hits occur just as often as paunch hits do, since this area is “far back” the other way. On smaller big game such as blacktail deer or antelope, shoulder hits usually result in fast kills, given the bow/arrow setup generates adequate energy for bone-crushing power.

However, with larger deer, elk, bear or big wild hogs, shoulder hits are a mistake. The broadhead will often just lodge into heavy bone, causing only a small amount of blood loss and little to no damage to the animal. Sometimes a shoulder-hit animal will bleed for a while (the broadhead cuts the outer tissue repeatedly), giving the impression the animal is hurt worse than it is. But the animal will show little sign of slowing down, usually continuing on with regular behavior and eating habits within a few hours.

Ham Hits

A shot to the butt is fatal, believe it or not, since the heaviest part of the leg is ultra-rich in blood vessels. The femoral artery runs along the lower, inner side of each leg. If your broadhead clips it, blood will squirt out like water flowing from a faucet.

Of course, you should never deliberately aim at the animal’s butt. There’s simply too much margin for error and waiting for a solid lung shot is the way to go. However, if you happen to hit the area by accident, just know that it’s quite lethal, and as long as you’re using a scalpel-sharp broadhead that’s capable of severing every blood vessel in its path, you can expect to find your trophy in short order. Most solid butt hits down the animal within 10 minutes, if not sooner.

Spine and Superficial Wounds

On a broadside or quartering-away shot, a high hit will place the arrow directly in line with the spine or just below it. If you hit the spine, the animal will drop instantly, becoming paralyzed. Always shoot the animal again for a prompt kill if necessary.

If the arrow misses the spine but is still not low enough to catch lung tissue, then it ends up in the area commonly referred to as the muscle band. This area contains no vital tissue. It results in the animal bleeding quite profusely at first, but eventually surviving.

An extreme low hit, on the other hand, puts it below the lung tissue and at the brisket area. This usually results in good, bright blood, but again, it’s not fatal. A common trait of superficial flesh wounds is a plentiful initial blood trail which progresses down to tiny specks that eventually peter out, usually after 200 to 300 yards.

Neck shots usually fall under the superficial wound category as well. The only exception is if you happen to strike the carotid artery or jugular vein, both which are quite small. However, if you do, the animal will die quickly.

When Bad Weather Strikes

What do you do when it begins to rain or snow? My take on it is simple: follow the blood trail immediately, but only if you suspect a solid double-lung hit. Otherwise, always wait. Pushing marginally wounded game is a mistake, no matter the circumstance. I’d rather have the animal bed down and expire within 100 yards, where I can find it later in the day by grid-searching, than to have it run a half-mile because I pushed it.

Successful blood trailing is all about being smart. In nearly all cases, being foolish and/or anxious will end up costing you a trophy because you decided to force the situation. Analyze each shot closely, wait the correct amount of time based on the clues, and follow up, searching for blood and other details like a trained detective on a crime scene. Shots at big game are simply too precious to do it any other way.

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