Know what to look for

After you have waited a sufficient amount of time, move slowly and quietly from your shooting position to the area of your shot. Approach carefully to avoid destroying any important game sign. Look carefully for blood, hair or your arrow if you think it passed through the animal, realising that the arrow can be buried under leaves, grass or dirt. Inspecting your arrow can help you confirm the type of hit.

• Using paper or tape, mark the position of the animal when the arrow was released and also your location when you fired.
• Note the reaction of the animal when hit with the arrow and its direction of flight.
• Look for signs of blood, hair and the arrow itself on the ground.
• Mark the location of blood with the paper or tape to provide a line of travel of the animal in case the blood trail is lost; if you lose the blood trail, go back to the last blood spot and look in widening circles until more blood or sign is located.
• If a good blood trail suddenly ends, look carefully in any thick cover or bushes that the animal may have bedded in.
• In steep or hilly country, animals generally head downhill when shot.
• Tracking should always be done slowly and carefully. It is important to spend as much time looking forward as looking on the ground.
• Using the help of another hunter or a tracking dog will increase the likelihood of finding the animal.