>>2638097Other sign of them going through that place like broken branches or leaves pushed up where their feet dug in. Tracking is honestly probably the hardest part. After you shoot an animal you are expected to gut it. Typically you start where the sternum ends or where the white or the deer starts on it's belly and very carefully (so you don't nick the stomach or intenstines as it is nasty) cut down until you get near it's genitals. For deer I would suggest buying a butt plug on amazon. You put it in the deer's ass and twist and then pull so you get the rectum out, then you're gunna want a knife (I don't like using gutting knives or rambo knives, more like a pearing knife you use for fruit) and you reach way up to it's neck and cut out the esophogus. You basically then have detached the top and bottom and pour out the gut pile. You can save the heart and liver if you can identify them. I process my own deer but most people take the deer with it's guts out to a butcher.
I can give you advice on butchering deer as well if you want it but not gunna type it out unless you're gunna try to proccess it yourself. For me, its worth saving the 200$.
Anyway for smaller game typically they go to the same trails deer do, its not that hard, just if they walk by, you shoot it if its a rabbit, squirrell, coyote, etc. Pheasant hunting and turkey hunting a little different. Waterfowl completely different. You probably won't see a bear depending on when you go they hibernate starting at the end of September-ish.
If you're hunting near cornfields deer love the corn and stay in there so I would go right on the outskirts in the woods.
If you're using a bow like you said, don't wait to put an arrow in, as soon as you're safe in the stand or blind rack one you never know when something is gunna walk by and be pateint. A few years ago on opening day I sat out there all day and ate only a granola bar and didn't see a deer all day, then 5 minutes before dark I shot a big 8 point.
