• The SH Membership has gone live. Only SH Members have access to post in the classifieds. All members can view the classifieds. Starting in 2020 only SH Members will be admitted to the annual hunting contest. Current members will need to follow these steps to upgrade: 1. Click on your username 2. Click on Account upgrades 3. Choose SH Member and purchase.
  • We've been working hard the past few weeks to come up with some big changes to our vendor policies to meet the changing needs of our community. Please see the new vendor rules here: Vendor Access Area Rules

Grid Searching

Nutterbuster

Nutterbuster

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
Oct 12, 2017
Messages
10,064
Location
Where the skys are so blue!
So @WHW and @redsquirrel encouraged me to add this to my bag o tricks. I've never really had the opportunity to really grid search until this past season. I found one gut-shot muzzleloader doe and two boars who caught a 22 mag bullet in the shoulder and didn't realize it for a second. I thought I was pretty slick. 3 for 3

But this evening I took an absolute chip shot at a bobcat with a 22 mag at maybe 20 yards. Non expandable bullet and I didn't catch the shoulder so he ran and didn't leave a trail. But I did find a few drops of blood and I know I got him. I searched a little but it was getting dark. Plan on hitting it again tomorrow morning more to practice the skill than anything.

I have drawn off an area to search on huntstand. Roughly a baseball shaped area covering about 300 yards out from the location where I last had eyes on him. I generally just start zig-zaggin through that area, starting from where I lost contact/sign and laying down a breadcrumb trail with my gps. If it's open i make looser back and forth patterns, and if it's thick I go closer. Basically I try to cover the whole area with a little bit of overlap on my line of sight.

Just curious as I lay here pondering if anybody else has a little trick to add or a different way of doing things. I don't recall ever seeing a lot of info out there about grid searching solo.
 
They crawl in a lot, if theres a blow down mess or rock ledge he will be in it, we hunt cats quite a bit and have hounds, wish I lived closer we could find him fast for ya! I bet he is dead if you hit him broadside with a 22 mag. Good luck!
 
If he's headed West and the trace arrow is pointed North then it looks like he's headed down that ridge to the West. My thought would be he's headed for the thickest cover he can find. I'd head West on that ridge and side hill down into that little draw. As he loses steam gravity will take him down the hill. If there's water at the bottom of that draw even better, and if it gets thicker even better. I wouldn't waste any time searching East of the last place you saw him if he's booking it to the West. To answer your question though I search in an ever widening arch in the direction of last travel, I use my binos and look back at the ground I just covered to get the view from a different direction. I identify the thickest areas on that line and pay special attention to those spots by shrinking the pattern. Good luck.
 
What is there to know about grid searching? I'm not trying to be an a_hole but seriously, walk back and forth covering the entire area, laying a track with GPS will show you how hard it is to walk straight lines....
 
This may have no bearing on trailing a bobcat but with deer, if they run out of sight I take a compass bearing on direction of travel from the shot and visually mark the last spot I could see them. I start my search on the line of travel and compass bearing on where I could last hear them. I walk a line out a hundred yards or so and go back to the spot marked where they were last seen and either walk parallel line to the left or right of the first track depending on terrain. Work in a fan fashion from the starting point. If that doesnt yield anything, I return to the end point of the first track a hundred yards or so out and start the process over. Doing this, I think allows you to better cover the gaps between track lines the further out you move from the starting point. I generally will do this 3 times. If you have worked this fan pattern 3 times taking lines out a hundred yards or so and havent found the animal or blood sign to follow there isnt much chance of finding the animal.
 
Did you find him? I shot one years back that I found in a blowdown.
 
Yes they are, I can't believe I found mine. The blood curdling growl/scream when I looked in the deadfall was a dead give away. The following 30.06 shot finished the track.
 
Nutterbuster said:
Nope. Spent another hour this morning looking for him. Lot harder to find a little camo bobcat than the big ole white belly on a doe.
Click to expand...
I shot one with a bow once that ended up dying about 5 feet off the ground... I have no clue how I found that guy!
 
Nutterbuster said:
So @WHW and @redsquirrel encouraged me to add this to my bag o tricks. I've never really had the opportunity to really grid search until this past season. I found one gut-shot muzzleloader doe and two boars who caught a 22 mag bullet in the shoulder and didn't realize it for a second. I thought I was pretty slick. 3 for 3

But this evening I took an absolute chip shot at a bobcat with a 22 mag at maybe 20 yards. Non expandable bullet and I didn't catch the shoulder so he ran and didn't leave a trail. But I did find a few drops of blood and I know I got him. I searched a little but it was getting dark. Plan on hitting it again tomorrow morning more to practice the skill than anything.

I have drawn off an area to search on huntstand. Roughly a baseball shaped area covering about 300 yards out from the location where I last had eyes on him. I generally just start zig-zaggin through that area, starting from where I lost contact/sign and laying down a breadcrumb trail with my gps. If it's open i make looser back and forth patterns, and if it's thick I go closer. Basically I try to cover the whole area with a little bit of overlap on my line of sight.

Just curious as I lay here pondering if anybody else has a little trick to add or a different way of doing things. I don't recall ever seeing a lot of info out there about grid searching solo.
Click to expand...
I have a grid search recovery on my YouTube channel. Look in the nasty stuff, the animal knows the ground and will head from point of impact for the thick nasty trash. Usually that's where you find em. Little advice for cats, they like to die in trees, look up.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top