To chase or not to chase...

[imBestefar]

Question: WHen is it appropriate to 'run' after a wounded animal, do i run or do i walk/sneak and hope for another kill shot? I'm just curious what is everyone doing as a rule of thumb.

If it's not wounded badly....does it make sense to run after it....or just say F-it.....?

[imBestefar]

i followed a Red Deer for so long today the tracks disappeared as it died....guess i should run after it.....

[djinnxy]

Originally posted by TheHulkSLC:

Question: WHen is it appropriate to 'run' after a wounded animal, do i run or do i walk/sneak and hope for another kill shot? I'm just curious what is everyone doing as a rule of thumb.

If it's not wounded badly....does it make sense to run after it....or just say F-it.....?

The answer in game would be never.... except... Once you realize that difficulty means 2 things:
1: How far away they spook from the same level of sound, sight, or smell and..
2: How large of a circle they make when spooked or wounded

So, once you realize they run in a big circle you can quick run after them and either make an educated guess and take a 90 degree turn left or right and cut them off or sit and wait right where you are for them to come back. The other option is what you said: If you know you can chase them and get an open shot in a hurry.

It isn't like real life where an animal's heart beat mean faster bleeding. The only thing that has a heartbeat is you and that only effects shooting stability.

[sandmanjw]

If you have the call skills use that first if you see it is like a minor wound. Have called wounded animals back to me quite often.

Only run if it is vital wound or over low bleed rate. If call not an option you may get another shot if you are quiet.

Watch for the warning calls as well. If you are tracking an animal that is wounded, you may see a warning call off to the side that is close. Sneak towards it and see if it is the same wounded animal that had done a turn on you.

[Delle(DK)]

in general I would say avoid running after the animal.. Shoot, and wait 3-5 minutes then often some of them come back or you can spot the animal in a 90 degree angle left/right from where you shoot it. You can walk after the animal and maybe get lucky to get a shoot number 2 if iti s out in the open since.
But i think the game have a bug... If you see a limping animal that really struggle to get away, and you shoot it again, then it will stop limping and regain som "fantasy" energy and run like helle like nothing happen.

Sometimes you can also hear the animal making warning calls and just walk in that direction and pickup the blood trail there rather than from where you hit it, it save you some time, maybe you can even try to guess the animals route.. Example do it walk to the right in a "banana" patern.?

Somtimes it can be a long walk/run to track down an animal.. If they have very low blood loss then chances you never find the animal is huge, especially if you run since it can hear you from great distance.
Even with low blood loss you risk the trail surdenly ending and its like the animal have jumped up in a tree or something, not even tracks on the ground.

I would say the most important is to not get to eager to shoot something, but REALLY make that shoot count so you hit the right spot so you avoid having to spend 30minutes finding the body since it ran far away.

[Eekhoorn]

I play the waiting game. I have ran after animals when I just started, but I found out it only stirs up the target as well as the wildlife around it.

After a not so great shot, I slowly go to where I hit the animal and judge from the blood on the ground how bad/good the shot was. Then I follow the tracks for a while, find a vantage point (if possible) and use the appropriate caller. This works well for me.

Yesterday I called in a wounded roe deer. After a minute or so it came limping back in and collapsed 50 meters away from me. That's way more convenient than me playing Livingstone in the shrubs.

[☠djb204☠]

there is a perk/skill that you can unlock, it will tell you how badly injured the animal is when you examine the blood. It will say something like.... 75% - 100....... 50% - 75%.......25% - 50%, things like that.

[imBestefar]

Hey all of you that responded....YOU ALL ROCK. These are all great responses and basically all this is a big 'it depends' kind of question. I needed ideas and felt like i wasn't following decent protocol. The wait for the best shot situation has helped me a lot.... and i kinda gave up using bullets of any kind. Bow hunting brings you to the most primal you against the animal, and requires you get close to take good shots.


I love your ideas all, great help to me.

Good hunting!

HulkSLC

[Bugs Bunny]

Gonna keep it short. If it's a low bleed, let it go, you bullet is as good as if it had passed right over the animal and now the animal is spooked and paranoid. Unless it's a mythical just don't bother you could follow it for hours and not find it.

[per.oqvist]

Never had a very low bleed not die within an hour. Of course most of the time you have found it and got another shot in so tracking wounded animals is almost always worth it. Except it´s ethical. There is also the consecutive bonus to think of. If it´s a very low you can run if you are in very dense forest where he will likely spot you before anyway to save some time. Of course not running all the time but play with the odds a bit when you think he is far enough gone you can save time if you know what you are doing. Or you can prolongue the tracking if you are to aggressive with it but just sneaking it can take hours for sure. Most animals even if not spooked travel at a very fast rate. I have tracked just now tracks forever when the Red deer or whatever it is is really in travel mode... Sometimes when you spot red deer they are essentially running at all times lol

[mad viper]

i never chase anything normaly they run maybe 50 yards when shot and stop , you can call them back if it dosent come back its dead or just wait 5 min and it will have stopped and likely died within 100 yards of you.

[Roosterfish]

I walk after them. It is kind of like a OJ in the Bronco kind of chase.

[leighton]

Originally posted by skipperwilliam:

I walk after them. It is kind of like a OJ in the Bronco kind of chase.

Hah! I'm even slower. I fast crouch after them. There are often other animals nearby that I can pick off on the way. I sometimes walk, but I never run.

[Egg]

Originally posted by mad viper:

i never chase anything normaly they run maybe 50 yards when shot and stop , you can call them back if it dosent come back its dead or just wait 5 min and it will have stopped and likely died within 100 yards of you.

This is the same rule of thumb I follow.

[imBestefar]

Thanks again!

[PaKeTeMaN]

more easy is wait and if no purple mark apears where you shoted the animal is not dead.Another exploit this "superprogramers not thinked about.