From: shawn@emx.cc.utexas.edu (Shawn Boyd)
Subject: Tracking and Blood Trailing Sprays
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin; Austin, Texas
Date: 13 Aug 92 08:39:46 CDT
Originator: hunting@osnome.che.wisc.edu


Hi folks;

Recently I was asked by one of our fellow posters here what I meant
when I said that I needed no peroxide to follow a particularly good
blood trail, and thought I might go ahead and post a general response
to the group as a whole.  Natuarally, such a post implicitly solicits
responses regarding related experience or further information, and yes
(sigh!) sometimes even flames.  As an archer and bowhunter, I have
found blood trailing sprays useful enough in the field to look into
the matter somewhat, and have been very impressed with their
usefullness in recovering animals that for whatever reason are leaving
a sparse blood trail.  Just about any hunter will want to recover a
wounded animal, no matter how marginal the hit, and having a track-
ing aid along can often mean the difference between finding your kill
or taking a complete loss.

Bowhunters are notorious for trying just about anything to help out in
this area, and while nothing (in my opinion) can beat a good dog at
finding downed game, sometimes we aren't always lucky enough to have
such a good friend along on the hunt.  I've seen string trackers and
little bitty radio transmitters, and have always shied away from these
devices, without having any sound reasons for not using them -- they
just didn't appeal to me.  Last year, I was perusing the normal flurry
of articles and magazines that typically come out about this time of
year, and found a solution which is inexpensive and effective without
being high tech to the point where you feel like an astronaut hunting
game on some remote planet with strings and beepers and radio antennae
sprouting from your bow and other tackle.  Many of the bowhunters I
know have heard of this, and to those of you who have, excellent; but
for those who've haven't heard about this simple tracking aid, let me
just say one word.

Peroxide.  Well, two words actually... hydrogen peroxide.

Anyone who has been on their hands and knees crawling through brush
and thorns at dusk wishing to heaven and earth that just one new
little splotch of blood would appear on what you hope is your animal's
flight trail will know just how frustrating the experience can be.
I've squinted, stared, rubbed, smelled and even in desperation tried
tasting the rocks, twigs, fence posts, barbed wire and other surfaces
which I suspected of showing those tiny tell tale flecks of what I
fervently hoped was blood.  For those of you who have had similar
kinds of wonderful wilderness experiences, I have good news.  Carry a
spray bottle of plain old grocery-store/drugstore variety of 3%
solution hydrogen peroxide.  A quick spritz of peroxide on a suspected
spot, even a tiny spot, of blood will result immediately in the
characteristic fizzing up and foaming behaviour we've all seen when
dousing a cut with peroxide.

This works on diluted blood (under rainey conditions) on dried blood
or blood soaked up by dry vegetation... new blood, old blood -- any
kind of blood -- the peroxide will fizz when the two substances touch.
This can be problematic if you have two blood trails crossing each
other, and I was once even led off on a false track for about 1/2
mile, but let's face it gang, how often is that going to happen?  Not
too often, unless you have wounded animals running all over the
terrain where you happen to be hunting.  As far as I know, peroxide
does not react with other body fluids, unless they contain blood.

At less than a nickel an ounce, peroxide is much cheaper than the
commercially produced products prepared specifically for bowhunters,
and works just as well if not better --and peroxide also works on
those pesky little nicks and cuts you can end up with if you're not
careful sharpening your broadheads.  Any ole spritzing type spray
bottle will do.  Personally, I find that an old nasal spray bottle
works well for applying the peroxide and these are flat (not round and
clumsy to carry) and fit well in packs, bow kits and especially
pockets.  Pouring the peroxide onto the suspected stain will work, but
not as well as spraying it on, and it shoots hell out of wondering
whether or not that tiny little brown fleck on that flat rock rock is
blood or just something put there to make you look silly chasing
phantom game across a darkening landscape.

For further information, see 

Bowhunter magazine (1991) Vol. 20, No. 7, pps. 62-64. "Do Blood
Trailing Sprays Really Work ???" by Lois Phillippe.

Shawn Boyd