Hello ladies and gents, welcome to another episode of The Rich Outdoors podcast. I’m your host Cody Rich, and this podcast is all about becoming a better hunter. It’s about developing our skills and our knowledge when we are not in the field to maximize our efforts on our next hunt in the field.

One very under rated skill when it comes to hunting is the ability to track. That can be both in tracking wounded and non-wounded animals. I think there is a lot one can learn from tracking in either situation, but today we are chatting with Ryan Callaghan of First Lite on his methods an thoughts on tracking wounded animals. Growing up hunting and guiding in Montana, Ryan in no stranger to following a blood trail, both good and bad, and has some great advice for tracking wounded game. Ryan was also one of the first employees of First Lite and and we also talk about the the early years and trying to tell people that it was a good idea to wear wool clothing in 90 degree weather–me being one of them.

     

 Show Notes:

Growing up in Montana: Ryan shares his childhood growing up in Montana and the hunting and fishing opportunities that are plentiful. He also shares some of his favorite childhood hunts and those that hooked him on hunting for life. We chat about his start into working for an outfitter and some of the things Ryan learned making hunting his day job.

We cover Ryan’s strategy for blood tracking, from the very moment the shot is made, including before doing anything, visualizing the arrow flight, what the animal did and the last place the animal was before going out of sight. Ryan talks about being sure to stop and listen before rushing over to find an arrow or blood, that there is a lot you can gather from listening to what that animal does before you start blood tracking. We talk about what a blood trail and sign can tell you about the hit and some of the misnomers that get thrown around about know “what an animal does”. We cover blood  tracking in less then ideal conditions and what to do when bad weather is going to ruin a blood trail. Ryan has some good tips on what to do when you lose blood and how to stick with it or start patterning to locate a wounded animal with out a blood trail.

We close out the episode talking about the early years of First Lite and many of the struggles with starting the high performance hunting clothing company. We chat about the decision to have multiple patterns and also what their plans are going forward.

Show Sponsors:

First Lite 

Get Free Shipping on your entire order with coupon code: Rich Outdoors