The shoulder shot (No. 2) should be followed immediately. It is best to shoot again when a deer gets up after the first shot strikes it here. They always drop like dead when shot thus.
(1) Trail of a deer with broken hind leg—the lower the leg is broken the more drag there is. (2) Trail of a deer shot through the ham. (3) This trail usually means shot through intestines, liver and often lungs at the same time; the animal will not go much over a mile, even if not given time to get sick, and death results in less than two hours.
(1) Same as No. 3 on opposite page, but bullet did not penetrate to the lungs. The animal dies slowly, and after a couple of hours is usually shot in its bed. (2) The cross jump; result of a bullet through intestines or liver when the animal was broadside to the hunter—usually the slowest killing shot. (3) The tracks of a wounded deer never register where the animal was walking.
All these curious jumps may be seen on one trail, alternating with jumps as made by a sound deer. They indicate soft shots, and should not be followed within two hours after the animal was shot. Blood, etc., on the trail decides for the tracker where the bullet struck. Usually the less blood the surer the animal will be found dead after a few hours.
A liver shot is, perhaps, the least satisfactory of any. Sometimes the deer on being shot through the liver, kicks, and at other times it humps itself up, but always it leaves the place at a quite lively rate, making a trail like a lung-shot deer, with here and there a cross jump between. (See illustration.) It is hard to advise what one should do in this case. I generally smoke a pipeful of tobacco before taking up the trail, to give the animal time to lie down. After that I follow and try to get another shot. While I have killed deer instantly with shots through the liver, there have been some that I never brought to bag.
Once I killed an elk three days after we had fried parts of its liver which had dropped out through the hole made by a projectile from a heavy-caliber English rifle, used previously for hunting elephants. At another time I killed a deer one year after having shot it through the liver. When killed, this deer was apparently as well and fat as could be, though in place of the soft liver we found a hard mass.
A shot through the intestines causes the animal to kick violently, hump up its back, and go off at a slow rate. It usually lies down within a quarter of a mile, and stays down if not molested too soon. Along the trail may be found a little dark-colored blood, and sometimes matter the animal has eaten. Deer shot thus should not be followed before at least two hours have passed, since if jumped they often go for miles. A deer with a broken leg may be followed at once, though the chase is usually quicker ended if half an hour is given for the animal to settle down.
In my opinion a sportsman who does any considerable hunting for big game should have his dog trained to follow a track as far as his master will follow him. A dog that runs deer is useless, and if he will not stay close to his master he must be kept on a leash. There is no law in any State against such use of a dog, and it would save much hard work to the man whose eye is not trained for tracking when there is no snow.