From: keith@clodii.columbiasc.NCR.COM (Keith Boyd)
Newsgroups: rec.hunting
Subject: Re: Tracking and Blood Trailing Sprays
Date: 17 Aug 92 15:07:06 GMT
Organization: NCR E&M Columbia SC
Originator: hunting@osnome.che.wisc.edu

In article <1992Aug13.083947.17145@doug.cae.wisc.edu> shawn@emx.cc.utexas.edu (Shawn Boyd) writes:
>
>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.
> [Stuff deleted]
>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 recall one morning when myself and some friends were out in the
woods at 2:00 am in the morning looking for a blood trail from a small
buck that one of them had gutshot with a bow.  No fun.  He had shot it
just before dark that evening and we finally gave up around 3:00 am.
They went back and found it when it got daylight.


>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.

Thanks for this great tip, Shawn. I plan to pass it on to my bow-
hunting friends and plan to keep a bottle of it myself in my truck
just in case. I generally don't have to trail one far with my .270
but I can recall a couple that went more than 300 yds. 

>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.

A tip I would like to pass on is to use a coleman lantern when look-
for blood at night. Seems the lantern tends to show up bright red 
blood specks a little better than a flashlight does. I personally 
have wondered how a UV or blacklight would work. Has anyone ever    
tried using one to trail blood???
 

Thanks again, Shawn.

>
>Shawn Boyd
>
>

Keith (Not related to Shawn) Boyd

-- 
| Keith M. Boyd  (NCR MCPD Cola.) | Nothing could be finer than huntin' and  |
| 3325 Platt Springs Rd.          |    and fishin' in South Carolina! -Me-   | 
| West Cola., S.C. 29170 |   GO BRAVES!!     | keith.boyd@columbiasc.NCR.COM |
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