Am I doing something wrong?

[Kon]

Hi sorry if this is a rookie question, but do you have a time limit to track down an animal you have shot? I have run into this situation several times now, I have shot a black tail/moose/bear and follow the blood trail for awhile then, then the trail either just ends with no animal in sight or it's tracks just constantly circle back on themselves. Am I doing something wrong?

[:Radithol]

Probably not. It is a well known, and long unaddressed bug.

[Kon]

Oh ok, sorry I just got this game the other day. Thanks for the reply

[Rookie-31st]

Look for hunting pressure on the map (those dark circles). If it did not appear in the area where you shot an animal within no more than 2 minutes after shot, animal won't die and will live. You can still track it down if you wish but it might take a lot of time.

If animal was in need zone when you shot it, you may want to wait for some more time after shot, about 4-5 minutes, and wounded animal might come back, but if it didn't then tracking would be pointless already

[❄️The Last Frontier 😊]

Yeah there is a variety of possible outcomes here. As far as I know there is no time limit (just note if you log out say good bye to the animal) but while logged in as far as I know no time limit.

[Jdwarfer]

It's so annoying to see tracks going back into first ones lol...
Also sometimes, it seems the animal turn around on himself idk. I see tracks going on a direction, and then suddenly, it's the opposite way around... thankfully, sometimes the animal makes a sound in the distance so I can go to the right direction again, but that's when I'm lucky...

Of course the best would be to one shot the damn thing xD I did shot a black bear in the heart once, I was so proud of myself xD

[Phil Mabole]

One time I took the shot at a Fallow...the deer ran off so I followed the blood trail until I found the deer dead (bled out) quite soon, so I harvested and the diagram that shows you where your bullet hit showed that I had literally just clipped the top of the deers ear...death by ear-piercing lol.

[Mr. Ed]

I recently followed the trail of moose for 5hrs in real life before I found the dead animal. The tracks did not vanish until I picked it up so I don't think there is a time limit.

Fox, lynx, coyotes, roe and musk deer almost always die rather quickly from flesh wounds, even if all you hit was a foot, unless you chase them right away in which case they can go a very long way in a matter of seconds. I'd definately look for those I only "flesh" wounded.

Tracks can go in opposite directions. Ignore the backwards ones and keep headed in the same direction you've been going in. Animals can circle back, but rarely do they make a 180 when doing so.

Tracks (poop and blood spots also seem to count as tracks) can easily and frequently be 30-60 meters apart. Look for that next track or sign accordingly. Stick your waypoint marker down on a track and move out until it reads 30 and then 60meters. It's a lot furhter than most tracks in any kind of calf high vegetation or more are visible from without enhanced track visiblity.

If your wounded animal did not return to the hit zone and you elect to track it do not allow yourself to get confused by a multitude of tracks left in a milling around area. Step outside the area and look for tracks leading away from that area, which may be 30-60m away assuming you don't miss one.

If another animal steps upon your animals blood or track you can easily wind up following the wrong animal. Make sure the blood spots say blood and not track and that the tracks you are following are the right gender or even species of what you shot each time you click on a set of tracks to get a directional fan. You might not see the track of another animal superimposed upon those left by yours. I don't know if the Devs designed things to do this or if it's just a bug.

Our animals can run through boulders, trees, up steep cliffs and across gulliies with no problem. Sometimes they can even fly. Tracking can be problematic in this game.

I have had one trail, and only one in a hundred hours of play, simply end as though something out of Area 51stopped by and snagged my animal. Is it possible for trails to simply end...yes. Is it as likely to happen as often as some think...no. Is it worth the time and effort to follow each and every blood trail..only you can answer that and it's nobody elses business.

[Jdwarfer]

OMG 5 hours... I would have given up in 30 minutes or so, even if I had time...
I already gave up several times.
Yeah, I killed some poor animals for nothing, not proud of that. xD
Sometimes, I'd like to use a machinegun xD

[PicSoul]

Originally posted by Mr. Ed:

I recently followed the trail of moose for 5hrs in real life before I found the dead animal. The tracks did not vanish until I picked it up so I don't think there is a time limit.

Fox, lynx, coyotes, roe and musk deer almost always die rather quickly from flesh wounds, even if all you hit was a foot, unless you chase them right away in which case they can go a very long way in a matter of seconds. I'd definately look for those I only "flesh" wounded.

Tracks can go in opposite directions. Ignore the backwards ones and keep headed in the same direction you've been going in. Animals can circle back, but rarely do they make a 180 when doing so.

Tracks (poop and blood spots also seem to count as tracks) can easily and frequently be 30-60 meters apart. Look for that next track or sign accordingly. Stick your waypoint marker down on a track and move out until it reads 30 and then 60meters. It's a lot furhter than most tracks in any kind of calf high vegetation or more are visible from without enhanced track visiblity.

If your wounded animal did not return to the hit zone and you elect to track it do not allow yourself to get confused by a multitude of tracks left in a milling around area. Step outside the area and look for tracks leading away from that area, which may be 30-60m away assuming you don't miss one.

If another animal steps upon your animals blood or track you can easily wind up following the wrong animal. Make sure the blood spots say blood and not track and that the tracks you are following are the right gender or even species of what you shot each time you click on a set of tracks to get a directional fan. You might not see the track of another animal superimposed upon those left by yours. I don't know if the Devs designed things to do this or if it's just a bug.

Our animals can run through boulders, trees, up steep cliffs and across gulliies with no problem. Sometimes they can even fly. Tracking can be problematic in this game.

I have had one trail, and only one in a hundred hours of play, simply end as though something out of Area 51stopped by and snagged my animal. Is it possible for trails to simply end...yes. Is it as likely to happen as often as some think...no. Is it worth the time and effort to follow each and every blood trail..only you can answer that and it's nobody elses business.

This post pretty much sums it up but I'd like to add to make sure you use the correct weapon for the animal you are hunting. Using an underpowered weapon can cause you to go for long walks in the woods.

To get a better idea of what weapon should be used on what animal you can refer to this chart if you'd like. It also has other info you may find useful.

the Hunter: Call of the Wild Information [docs.google.com]

[:Radithol]

Originally posted by WreckLuse68:

One time I took the shot at a Fallow...the deer ran off so I followed the blood trail until I found the deer dead (bled out) quite soon, so I harvested and the diagram that shows you where your bullet hit showed that I had literally just clipped the top of the deers ear...death by ear-piercing lol.

lol - I had one like that. The bullet path showed as being across the top of the head, between the antlers, and above the skull. I parted it's hair.

[Kortak]

Originally posted by Jdwarfer:

It's so annoying to see tracks going back into first ones lol...
Also sometimes, it seems the animal turn around on himself idk. I see tracks going on a direction, and then suddenly, it's the opposite way around... thankfully, sometimes the animal makes a sound in the distance so I can go to the right direction again, but that's when I'm lucky...

Of course the best would be to one shot the damn thing xD I did shot a black bear in the heart once, I was so proud of myself xD

You earn a Skill later on..around lvl 12 i believe you can buy it. It will connect a previous and a next track in line so you know if the track you follow is a old one or the fresh one.

In the beginning track following is hard.

[Kortak]

Originally posted by Jdwarfer:

OMG 5 hours... I would have given up in 30 minutes or so, even if I had time...
I already gave up several times.
Yeah, I killed some poor animals for nothing, not proud of that. xD
Sometimes, I'd like to use a machinegun xD

Just fire a shotgun from close range at a 16 pieces herd of deer. Then wait for the mass dieing everywhere. You need some nad ass tracking skills to find them all

[Jdwarfer]

I tracked down a female moose, OMG that was a pain in the ass.
I managed to shout it 8 times! But still, had to track it for almost 2 kilometers before it finally died.
For some reason, the first shot that hit the neck wasn't enough. I guess the game doesn't know what an artery is. Only organs and bones. It only got small bleeding...

[Rookie-31st]

There is no time limit, but there is 460 meter drawing distance. In case wounded animal goes this far from you, it will be removed from the map

[Mr. Ed]

Drawing distance? I've had the circle created when you spot an animal vanish from the map before I found the animal, is that what you are talking about? I normally put the way point marker on that circle right away. Doing so helps out a lot when you drop an animal in an open field as well. Until you get the skill that allows you to spot 3 animals at the same time, just locating where instant kills dropped can take some time. It also remains once the animal logo circle goes away. It would be nice to have more than one of those markers to use. My longest tracking job is 3.2 Km to find a flesh wounded moose. I didn't know about the map getting discolored when an animal dies back then, or what it meant when I saw something about my having earned some skill or perk points. I had about 5 of them doing nothing. Sure would have been nice to have the connect the dots tracking skill back then. I spent several hours slowly following the trail expecting to get run over at any time. It exhausted the blazes out of me. I look back at it now and am amazed at how stupid I was about the game.