About 3 years ago my two sons and I went across the lake to bow hunt, and since none of us had ever been there before, I took everything I could think of but tracer string. About 5:30 in the evening I got a really good shot on a nice buck, and watched him run down a draw and off into the thick woods.
I waited for my sons to join me, which by now was after dark. I took out my compass, and holding it down in front of me, I took a bearing to our boat, and off we went to trail my deer. We had a good bright red trail to follow and it was pretty steady, so I didn't mark my trail with tissue. After about 30 minutes of walking around with our heads to the ground, we found the deer piled up in a brush pile with only his back foot sticking out. After wrestling him out of the brush, I feild dressed him and we all realized that none of us knew where we were in reference to the boat. By now, as my luck generally goes, it has started to rain pretty hard and my deers blood trail is washing out. I wasn't to worried at the time because I had taken a bearing and new that all we had to do was go east, and we would come out on the lake, and could follow the bank around to the boat.
I once again pulled out my compass and put it down around my waist, holding it up against my body to get a good reading. And off we went.
After about 2 hours of walking east, it dawned on me that I was wearing a steel belt buckle that was pulling my compass to show north behind me every time I read it.
By now the rain is pouring down, and we decided to find some cover and sit it out. After the rain stopped I put the compass down on a rock and got a good bearing and we were out of the woods in less than an hour. When we got back home, my wife and their wives were just short of calling the patrol and turning us in as missing.
I was pretty embarrassed about the whole thing, so from then on, the tracking string has been part of my neccessity gear that stays with me all the time.
Every time my sons and I get together with some other hunters we don't know, I get to re-live that embarrassing night-mare all over again.
