Way back when I started out bowhunting , I had a fear of not finding my deer if I put a arrow through it. I needed to be insured that I would be able to locate blood , the broadhead was not enough. I guess for the most part I was just plain green and my confidence just wasnt there for tracking it. So , I went and tryed the string tracker. I shot a fine doe at 25 yds , the arrow went right through her. She ran approx 75 yds on a heart shot . The string broke early but the heart shot blood trail was every where. After that hunt I removed that tracker string , since then I have been string free. It really made me beleive that the arrow and broadhead did what it was intended to do. Who knowns if it wernt for that string on that day maybe I would not have ventured on in hunting w/ a bow.


Crazy Wolf.

 

no I never did but I remember that thing.

Also, just as heads; up if you're considering using it, please check your regulations. Some states don't allow the use of such a system.

 

I found a string on a trail and wondered what it was. I pulled it up out of the leaves as I went and found an arrow. I went about 50yds the other way and found the other end. About anout 30yds past that was a dead doe mostly eaten by yotes. I recognized the arrow as my father in laws and showed it to him. The arrow was over 100yds from where his stand was.

 

I tried it when I started bowhunting mainly because I am color blind and didnt want to have to call in help to track. It worked for the first deer but on the second the string got tangled in some brush causing the arrow to fall short.

 

Our club requires the use of the Game Tracker, unless we have snow on the ground, and have had a much different results than most listed here. We seldom have a string break, unless the deer went through a wild raspberry patch, and have better than 97% recovery of well over 300 Whitetail Deer.

It will cause very little drop out to 30 yards but then 9-10 inches for every 5 yards (we just limit our shots to 25 yards).

We did find that it is not advisable to practice with the same canister on the bow as you will hunt with. The recoil of the bow breaks down the coiled string and it will come out in a big glob (not good).

It is also important to pull out about 10 yards of string before using it, but this is in the instructions, for those who read them.

No one in our club would go back to not using one and would I defy anyone to beat our recovery ratio.

 

"Bingoflyer", you say that your club archers notice little drop out to thirty yards. Typically, what speed/kenetic energy would be the average set-up? When I tried a string tracker, I noticed about a five yard drop at thirty yards, but my bow had almost round cams and was pretty slow twenty-five years ago. Secondly, what have you all experienced with cross winds? In my thread, I mentioned testing in brush.....it was in very thick mountian willows and high blueberry bush where we were having difficulty tracking, especially if it was raining, We didn't test it in normal forest or woods, so I am not surprised your club has done well using thread trackers under normal situations.

 

Lew,

I don't know the average speed although I'm sure that mine would be the fastest at 276 fps and arrow weight of 435 (calculated not measured). The slowest would be a round cam bow set at 45 lb and he limits his shots to 20 yards.

At 25 yards we have not seen any difference unless the wind is blowing hard and then the string seems to go side ways and has caught on branches that it would normally clear, I have made my shooting lanes a few feet wider.

I would imagine that the blueberry would be similar to the raspberry we have at our camp and that is about the only time we break a string. We have found that a wounded deer tends to avoid the raspberry unless it is very near death and have not loss any in the raspberry that I can remember.

Most of our shots are pass through and they result in a double string going to the deer (from the arrow to the deer and back to the bow canister) so the string is quit strong and I find it hard to believe it would break from bow speed alone but rather improper use, not removing 10 or more yards of string before tyeing it to the arrow as some have reported.

 

personally thought they where the biggest pile of garbage that was put on the market, i tried it a couple of times , with my old bear whitetail-and xi legend magnum the arrows didnt fly true,"""string broke easily."""""....i could not imagine trying to use it with my guardian the kind of speed and ke im getting out of that,,,,,personally i would not waiste my time with one now since all six of my deer this year i watched die,,,,,,

 

i used and practiced with one this year on an ontario bear hunt and noticed no drop or change in arrow flight at least to 25yards and would use them in bad weather (rain,heavy snow fall,or heavy snow melt) or where tracking would be difficult without hesitation!! try it and decide for yourself it is at least worth trying in my opinion.

 

I used one when I first started out hunting. Game Tracker was what it was called then. Still remember my high school teacher missing a nice 11 pointer because he forgot to remove the plunger from the spool!!

I shot a doe with it, fish on!!! when she took off. Great for hunting in the rain.

 

I missed on my first buck because i didn't take the plunger out. I think in theory it's a good idea and in some situations it may be ideal. For me in the heat of the moment i want as few things as possible to go wrong. With the String traker it was just another thing that could fail but i have also heard people that love them. If I remember correctly the string is 17lb test and on a pass through you get a double line. I would consider using it again depending on the terain i was hunting.

 

I shot a couple deer with a string tracker back in the day.....like Lou said it worked great for finding your deer (blood trail) in the rain.

 

String

I used e for my first deer as well. It worked great, But as I followed the string i found myself saying why dont I just follow all this blood next time:exclaim:

 

BingoFlyer
The blueberry and mountian willows mentioned are found at mid elevation along the coast mountians from Oregon to southern British Columbia. Blueberry bushes can grow to 6-8 feet and have many stems, mountian willow have very tough, crooked limbs, and usually grow at angles, or parallel to the ground from heavy snow weight. Blacktail are at home in this stuff.
The main reason I am interested in using thread is heavy rain, which is frequent all along the coastal mountians. Large bucks seem to travel along the edges of this vegetation in the middle of the day during heavy rains. I only spot and stalk, and have been successful in getting quite close during heavy rain periods, but usually won't shoot as the blood trail washes away quickly, and it very difficult to follow footprints through this dense foliage.
The only time the thread broke during my tests was when it snaged on this tough brush, not when shooting the arrow; possibly there would be far less friction on the thread passing through a lubricated body then on my brother's coated arm.

 

I tried them years ago with mixed results...mostly because if the deer ran through any thick brush at all the string would usually break and I wound up blood trailing after all. I only noticed about a 2 to 3 inch drop in impact at 20 yards.

Funny story...one time I shot a buck just before dusk and I got a pass-through with a double line string trail. I sat in my stand until the string stopped feeding out and still gave it about 20 mins or so before I climbed down out of my tree. Just as I went to pull my arrow out of the ground I saw the string start to move again. I figured he had bedded down momentarily and was up and running again.

A few moments later I heard my hunting buddy who was hunting about 75 yards from me coming up through the woods. I told him that I had hit one and that he was still running and he said "I know you did but he isn't still running...when I saw him he was stumbling and making gurgling noises and finally fell over about 10 yards from my stand" Here he was dragging him over to me and in the dark didnt see the string coming out of the deer.We still get a good laugh over that.

I still have the canister and 3 or 4 spools of string in my archery junk box.

 

the only time i use one is on a rainy day and no shots past 25 yrds.won't use it on a doe just a book deer any extra can't hurt.