I turned a track down last night. I’m going to have to learn to be a little more diplomatic about it. I think it might have pissed them off a little. The optimism of the hunter seems to outweigh the reality of the situation sometimes though. This track was a good ways off and was going to take me over 2 hrs to get there or I might have tried it anyways since we’re still training. It just didn’t sound like a very high probability of recovery and had hints of what experienced trackers have described to me as “bad tracks”. The one positive sounding part of the story was that they were finding decent blood. The bad part about it though was when I asked how far they had tracked the deer….the guys answer was “Aw man whew! We’ve gone a good half mile or so at least. He’s made it up and down two big steep ravines and then crossed the road back up a big ditch bank. The spot where we lost blood was going back off into the next big ravine down by the water.”

I’m afraid they blew a leg off or either clipped the brisket low and the terrain didn’t sound like an area where I wanted to unsuccessfully chase a deer for a mile or two. They had tracked it a long ways and never reported having jumped the deer or came across a bed. If the deer hasn’t tried to bed up and you’ve gone over 800 yards, then I’d have to question how bad its really hurt. Leg hits are bad injuries but not immediate killing hits. The deer might eventually die but it won’t likely be due to the immediate injury. They reported finding drops of blood for a little ways then a small puddle…..drops of blood for a little ways and then another small puddle, etc..etc. The little puddles of blood are where the deer stops for a moment. The areas where there are only drops of blood are where the deer is on the move. I pictured the deer moving forward 50 yards then stopping….moving ahead another 50 yards then stopping.

After listening to the story I just had a gut feeling that this one wouldn’t turn out well so I chose not to make the long drive. When I get to the stage where I feel Otis is fully trained and I start charging a fee for “showing up”…..I may not be quite as picky about it. I’ll still be upfront with the person about what I think happened but if they want me to come anyways then I’ll likely give it a try. I can tell folks don’t like to be told…. “I think I’ll pass on this one.”