Often your hunt actually begins after you’ve shot or arrowed a deer. It can’t be considered a complete success until you’ve recovered and tagged your deer.

Recently I came across an article that explains it very succinctly. Though you may know all 10 items on the list, I think they bear repeating, especially for new deer hunters. Here’s my version of those 10 points.

1. As soon as you release your arrow or squeeze the trigger watch the reaction of the deer, especially its tail. A raised tail often means you’ve missed, but if the deer’s tail points straight out you’ve probably hit your quarry. If the deer’s tail is tucked down you’ve probably scored a good hit.

2. If you don’t see the deer go down, listen to determine if you can hear it stumble and fall. If so, at least get a general idea where the sound originated so you’ll know where to begin looking.

3. If the deer has fallen, it likely will not go anywhere. Wait a while to give the critter an opportunity to succumb before leaving your stand to commence looking for it. Don’t be impatient. Doing so too soon can startle a wounded deer, causing it to jump up and run off. Often, the longer you wait before beginning your search, the better your odds for recovering the animal.

4. Before leaving your blind or tree stand, use your compass, GPS or a prominent landmark to get a bearing on where you last saw or heard the animal. Doing so will help you stay on- course as you travel from your stand to that location.

5. As you’re traveling to that point, see if you can determine the point where the arrow or bullet struck the deer. Deer hair can often be a good indicator of where you struck the critter. The deer’s shortest and darkest hair covers the top of its back. Its stomach will have the lightest-colored but longest hair and short, white hair will come from under its chin. Try to obtain all the information you can from the place where you hit the deer.

6. If there’s no blood trail you may have to rely on tracks alone. Try to distinguish your quarry’s tracks from those of others you may come across.

7. Use fluorescent or red flagging tape occasionally as you pursue the animal. It can also help you get back to your stand or blind. Be sure to remove the flagging tapes as you progress backward to your point of origin, hopefully with the deer in tow.

8. Go slow. Many hunters fail to find their deer because they hurry and lose the trail.

9. Often you’ll find no blood trail on the ground but you may see spots waist-high on trees, bushes or other foliage.

10. When the blood trail ends, start a methodical search by flagging the spot you stopped and then begin walking, making a series of ever-widening circles as you progress. Often the deer will be found within 100 yards or so of where its trail ended. A wounded deer often beds down, hides or seeks cover in thick vegetation, brush piles, etc.

These may seem like basic hints to most experienced hunters, but how often have you found a deer after beginning a methodical search for it? Don’t hurry.

If you do find tracks, hair or blood, remember what a Canadian guide once told me: “Don’t try to second guess where the animal might have gone. It’s at the end of those tracks. Follow them.”

As good as those hints are, all bets are generally off when the quarry is a black bear. In my hunting career I’ve killed eight bruins and I’m proud to say I never lost one I hit.

Five of the eight dropped within yards of where I hit them but three required tracking, and that’s difficult with a bear because they don’t exhibit the same behavior as a deer when hit. Nonetheless, I did recover two of them within 100 yards, despite hits in the vitals.

The next-to-last bear is the one I’ll remember the most. I was in Quebec and using a crossbow (legal there). I hit the bruin a bit higher than I wanted to but knew the bolt (arrow) had hit a vital area. I heard the bear growl and squawl but it stopped after perhaps 50 yards.

I gave it about half an hour before I come down from my tree stand and proceeded to follow the trail it had made while plowing through brush and small pines. At one point I got down on my hands and knees to check for sign, and then realized what I was doing.

I was crawling on my hands and knees, following a wounded bear while I was carrying a crossbow that was essentially useless as a weapon at that point. That bruin could have been just a few yards from me and madder than hell. I had no business being there since there was only about 15 minutes of good light left.

I slowly but deliberately backed out, went to where I had my boat tied and then motored about 10 miles back to where our outpost cabin was located. I told my hunting companion about my experience and he said, “Forget it. We’ll go back in the morning and look for it.

“If it’s hit as solidly as you say it is, it’ll stiffen up by then.” He was right and the following morning we found it dead, curled up between two small pines scarcely 15 yards from where I had stopped crawling after deciding discretion was the better part of valor.