Learn to avoid tracking deer but if necessary have the right tools with you as well as the skills.

First avoid the need for tracking deer or other wounded animals if possible, become as proficient as possible with your weapon of choice. Gun hunters sight in their scopes or sights just before hunting season then practice, practice, practice. Bow hunters be sure to check your sights preseason and practice, practice, practice. Check your hunting arrows for vane or feather damage and your shafts for straightness. Just prior to hunting sharpen broadheads to razor sharpness or replace broadhead  blades. With this done there is less chance of  creating a non-fatal wound.

When hunting be patient and do not take an unclear shot. Take a deep breath and let out a little air from the lungs and hold there. Squeeze the trigger or trigger the bow string release for your most steady shot.

If you hit the animal instantly freeze, do not move or make any noise. Nine times out of ten the deer does not know what happened and will not be in a hurry to get away.  Hopefully it will start walking and bleed out felling a necessity of getting to a hiding place. In any case wait at least 45 minutes before trying to look for the deer. If the hunter follows too soon and the wound was not great many times the deer will hear him coming and jump up and run. At this point the animal might not bleed as much as before. While waiting watch the direction the deer took, not any landmarks as far as you can see.

If the animal does run off and tracking becomes necessary and if you are a bow hunter and if you could not see the arrow in the deer; first try to find your arrow and ascertain the extent of the wound. If when you find the arrow and there is no wound you probably missed. If the arrow went all the way through there should blood all along the shaft from the broadhead to the fletching and nock.  If the blood on the arrow is bright red you probably have a heart or large artery shot. If the blood is pinks and/or foamy this would indicate a lung shot and if the stuff on the arrow is dark and/or green streaked an abdominal shot should be expected. If your arrow shot went high you might find a greasy fat streak.

If the arrow is bright red or pink most likely there will be a large blood trail. Follow the trail as far as you can and carry a small roll of toilet paper or Kleenex tissue packet and use the paper to mark the last place you see a blood sign from the wounded animal. If tracking gets off a tangent you can always go back to the marked spot.

If you have a CPS receiver set a waypoint and you will be able to get back to the exact point at night. Another use of the GPS is as a compass if you do not want to take both.

While looking for a blood trail don't forget to look for blood on low bushes and leaves, it will dry quicker so look for dark spots. Do not move too fast and run up on the deer with no warning. He can be dangerous if not dead and also if not dead he can get up and run off. By this time the bleeding has most likely stopped and if he runs off before you can get a new kill shot into him he will be much harder to find.

If you can get help do so and search in parallel starting in the direction the deer was last known to be heading.

Ideally do not shoot an animal at dusk but if you do and the blood trail disappears make sure you have built yourself a TrailEyes Hunting Radar Deer Tracking Game Finder. It works day or night, sees through brush and bushes. By slowly sweeping the TrailEyes^TM back and forth directing it toward the brush and bushes as he walks toward the last direction the deer was headed, the led on the TrailEyes^TM should light up when it gets within 30 to 50 yards of the downed deer.  If you make more than one TrailEyes^TM  detector give one to each searcher. When a downed deer's heat is detected with one of the other TrailEyes^TM units your GamePager^TM will go off just as it will if one walks by on the trail.

Never carry a gun while tracking at night. Gas lanterns with mirror lenses or portable 2,000 candle power lamps will be better than flashlights.   

If you do not find the deer before going home for the night start tracking early the next morning. The TrailEyes Hunting Radar^TM game finder will not do much good the next day as the animal will have cooled and TrailEyes^TM only sees body heat. Finding a cold animal will be a tedious search process try to find some others to help.

Remember what causes bleeding; well placed shots and smooth razor sharp broadheads.