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My hope for this season is that I would like to see every deer that is shot make it to the freezer. If you are able to find a deer at the end of every blood trail, you obviously have adequate tracking skills. If you are one of the hunters who recover one out of every two or three deer shot, I hope I can give you some tips to improve your recovery rate.

At the risk of dating myself, I've tracked a lot of deer, not to mention a few bears, in my 30 plus years of hunting. I am, by no means, claiming to be an expert, but I have learned a heck of a lot in that time period. I've not only tracked my own game but a lot of the game harvested by my numerous hunting buddies. To be totally honest, I enjoy it thoroughly.

The first piece of equipment that you will need is toilet paper. I'm serious. Toilet paper is bio-degradable and is highly visible when it is used to mark drops of blood.

If you place a quarter of a sheet, or less, at each blood spot and you have gone a reasonable distance, you can look back at the markings and sometimes project a line of travel that the deer took ahead of you. The toilet paper trail can also be very helpful if you need to back track your way out of the swamp. When you use the toilet paper to mark the last blood, it is easy to spot so that you can return to your last reference point and strike out again to check for blood in different directions. The best way to find new blood after the trail seems to have stopped is to circle the last drop of blood in increasingly larger circles, taking your time to search every square foot of ground.

Remember that patience is the key. Also check trees and brush in the area for blood and also note that the average height of our local whitetail is 30 to 36 inches at the withers, so don't be afraid to get on your hands and knees to search. Quite often a mortally wounded deer will "bleed out" and actually travel another 30 yards or further after they run out of blood. When I find a good blood trail that stops suddenly, I start looking for the downed animal nearby. The key is to not give up when the trail gets cold, slow down and start a more intense search. If an animal is hit high, the body cavity will fill with blood and little or no blood will escape from the entrance or exit wound. Remember, a high body shot is still a killing shot. With persistence, you will find your buck.

In both firearm and bow hunting size does matter. I'm not talking about the size of the deer, but the caliber size and broadhead size. Just remember this simple rule— the larger the entrance and/or exit wound, the more they bleed. Also, the larger the hole, the less chance of the animal's body fat or an organ plugging the hole.

The rules are the same for tracking after dark, except it's much more difficult without proper lighting. Ask anyone who has tried to follow a blood trail with a half-lit penlight flashlight. After a successful evening hunt, I will mark in my mind the surrounding area the deer was in when he was hit and his direction of travel.....before leaving my stand. I will then check the area with my penlight for hair and blood. If the trail gets difficult I return with a Coleman gas lantern. You would be amazed how much the blood stands out under that white light compared to even the brightest flashlight. I have created a shield from a coffee can cut in half to direct the light away from my eyes and protect whatever remaining night vision I have.

Now let's talk technology. There is a company in Michigan that sells a product called Blue Star. You spray it on the blood trail and, even if the blood is rain diluted, it will glow under a flashlight. The company is called Blood Glow and its Web site is www.bloodglow.com.

Another new item in the lighting industry is the Carnivore Blood Tracking Light by Gerber. It utilizes both red and blue LED's that make the blood stand out even against the red and orange colored fall leaf litter. It also allows you to toggle between the LED's and a bright Xenon bulb that is very beneficial, once you have located your downed game. The MSRP on that item is under $60. Ask for it at your local sporting goods store or visit their Web site at www.gerbergear.com. If you feel the need for the "Hummer" version of a tracking light, check out a company well known throughout the law enforcement industry called Surefire. They offer a model called Kroma-K2, which features numerous additional features and will set you back $299 MSRP. Their Web site is www.surefire.com.

If you come to the end of this deer hunting season and realize that you could have made good use of one of these high tech hunting tools, all of these items make great Christmas gifts and will greatly improve the odds of filling your deer tag for years to come.

And remember that the gift is not only under the tree, but at the end of every blood trail that results in a recovered deer.

Send those hunting pictures and comments to outdrguy@avci.net