Tracking dead or wounded animals

[Adebisi_lives]

In the Silver Ridge Peaks map, I probably shot about 10 Rocky Mountain Elk and when I went to the site where I shot them I think I found maybe one dead animal. I couldn't find the blood splatter of any other. I must note, I had the game minimized between the shooting and finding for about 15 minutes in real time. Is this the reason?

[Tenkillsmore]

No, they stay were they drop until you close the game, but you do lose score points after a while. Try looking a bit farther than where you think you shot the animal look in a back and forth advance pattern.

[Adebisi_lives]

Thanks!

[Leadmagnet]

At most I only shoot two at a time. You spot the animal, open your map & zoom all the way in, then put the map marker at the spotted icon. The spotted icon moves when you spot animal #2 but the map marker remains & marks the first animal. You end up using the map marker as a start point for one animal and the spotted icon as a start point for the second.

As far as stuff vanishing when you minimize the game; it shouldn't matter and the tracks & blood remain. You might check your file integrity to make sure everything is there.

[Voodoocola]

Probably you didnt hit him good enough and you need to follow the "trail", sometimes they arent "complete" what means they will run a while without leaving any tracks. I am also wondering if an animal can "teleport" itself sometimes when another animal next to your shot is leaving tracks at the spot but only your "hit" animal dont. I think its for "difficulty" purposes even when its dumb.

[Tenkillsmore]

Originally posted by Voodoocola:

Probably you didnt hit him good enough and you need to follow the "trail", sometimes they arent "complete" what means they will run a while without leaving any tracks. I am also wondering if an animal can "teleport" itself sometimes when another animal next to your shot is leaving tracks at the spot but only your "hit" animal dont. I think its for "difficulty" purposes even when its dumb.

They do not teleport, however the tracks from the animal you shot will show up from where it came from until you shot it as well as where it just went after the shot . I think this causes a lot of confusion when looking for the animal.

[Mr. Ed]

It doesn't take more than being a degree or two off when you travel towards a "hit spot" to miss it entirely or misjudge the direction a wounded animal ran off in. To minimize this happening to me I first tag the animal with the spot and then drop the way point marker on the "spot" icon that appears on my map (all before I take the shot). If the animal doesn't drop dead upon impact then I quickly put the spot on it as it runs off. The "Spot " icon will travel with the animal until it wears off. I then have two reference points to locate the animal when it dies. The first right where it was standing (within 25 meters or so since the "spot" icon and the way point makrers are not always right on the money ) and the second showing me which way the animal ran off in. If I shoot more than one animal I hit the 2nd with the spot before I shoot, travel towards the 1st animals hit spot and as soon as I see blood at the hit spot I move the way point marker to the spot on my map for the second animal. When following a blood trail the foot prints, poo piles and spots of blood all count as tracks and they may be close together or 30-60 meters apart. Having that 3rd level of tracking in the skill tree can really make the task easier. You may encounter tracks with directional fans going in both directions as you follow the trail. This is mostly due to an animals following the exact same path running away as it used to get into the area where you shot it. Animals do not make 180 degree turns in this game. Just keep on going in same direction you were and eventually the two trails will diverge. Don't expect the trail to lead you right up to the dead body. That last track might be 60-70 meters away from it. I really mislike not having a directional fan to follow when I click on poo piles. In my game those I find while following a blood trail usually are where an animal changed direction. Sometimes changing the color of the active tracks or simply taking a couple steps to the R or L of a track will enable me to see the next track. Hope this helps.

[Geronimo]

Very accurate advice from Mr. ED talking horse lol yeah I remember that stall.

Great post ED.

[Rich-UK]

Try to spot the animal as it runs away if you have the perk that shows the health of the animal you can see its hp fall from 100% to 75% to 50% as it runs away on the spotting info.

[Geronimo]

Originally posted by Rich-UK:

Try to spot the animal as it runs away if you have the perk that shows the health of the animal you can see its hp fall from 100% to 75% to 50% as it runs away on the spotting info.

And be aware that an animal can actually stop bleeding at 25% and begin to slowly reveal, where its tracks will sometimes climb back to 50, and/or it can just remain at 25 but not die because there was no vital hit.

With flesh wounds that remain at 100 after a half dozen blood spills, you're probably better off to find a hiding spot and try to lure it back for a better shot.

I've seen 25% cripples on my map days after it was hit.

[dbump]

Great info above! But I'd re-stress the point a few folks have made: don't shoot more than two animals and expect to harvest them. By the time you've shot twice, the other animals will all be running and you will only give them flesh wounds if you even manage to hit them at all. If you don't care about the hunting pressure removing need zones, you can just stay in the same spot and wait for them to come back, and repeat shooting one or two at a time, then wait again. That can be viable to grind to unlock the weapon tree.

[OleGreyGhost]

Originally posted by Mr. Ed:

You may encounter tracks with directional fans going in both directions as you follow the trail. This is mostly due to an animals following the exact same path running away as it used to get into the area where you shot it.

Very sound advice.

But be careful when the herd scatters in the same direction. Especially waiting for them to come back. Shooting another animal, before harvesting the first one, will create a mess of tracks. More than likely they will flee in the same direction, again, being creatures of habit.

Like Mr. Ed said, you can find multiple highlighted tracks. One slight mistake & I wound up
following tracks in a large circle. Took quite a while to find the downed animal.

[WarpLover]

I have tried to fire at animal(s) beyond a tree that had a 10" tree trunk. Half of the body could be seen sticking out from behind the tree. I aimed at a spot on the animal that would take the bullet about 3" from hitting the tree as it flies by to the animal behind, but the animal never gets hit. I suspect I actually am hitting the tree, even though no splinters flew.
Could that be part of your issue?

[Tenkillsmore]

Yes, trees have a big hit box. You have to swing wide when crawling, same for bullets, must be well past the tree,

[Adebisi_lives]

I just got the tripod stand DLC and I'm looking forward to using it!

[Tenkillsmore]

Originally posted by Adebisi_lives:

I just got the tripod stand DLC and I'm looking forward to using it!

When you use the tri pod ,you might get a noise bug where you bring up an optic,[scope/bino's] you hear the tri pod turning , just open your inventory, swap the bino's with the tri pod and back again the noise will stop. you know slot 7 to slot 4 and back where ever you have them placed. This noise if it happens, will occur after you climb down and put the stand back into inventory. There apparently is another noise bug when you have more than 1 tri pod in your inventory, to fix that one swap stands.