I am the hunter that CNC was referring to in regards to a "gut shot" 24 hour buck recovery. Anyway....my shot on this buck was a little too far back and the bullet tore thru the bucks stomach. It was a 200 yard shot and when I went to the location of where the buck was at (powerline) when I shot....there was no blood to be found. However...there was a significant amount of stomach contents spilled on the ground....I followed this for about 20 yards (edge of power line)and decided that my best bet would be to call a tracker.

Texted CNC and he stated that we should give the buck some time...so we arranged to meet up the next morning to try to find him.

While waiting on CNC to arrive....I went to the same powerline to look for buzzards and to just pass some time as I was a bit nervous about finding the buck. As I am looking down the powerline...I see a small 8 point cross in almost the exact spot where I shot the other buck. This worried me as I wasn't sure if Otis would track the recently crossed buck or the one that was gut shot.

Anyway....CNC arrived and I told him the details of all that had gone on....CNC was confidant that he could get Otis working the correct track. Otis suited up in his tracking collar and started his work. Things looked promising early but I could tell that CNC was thinking that possibly Otis had taken the more recent track rather than the one we wanted.

We went back to the location where we began and CNC restarted Otis on the track. This time Otis went left rather than right and not very long after that.... we started to find blood and other indications that OTIS was dead on with the correct track. After just a few minutes.....CNC looked at me and stated that OTIS was no longer moving. We went to her location and found OTIS standing over the buck with his tail wagging like crazy. OTIS had worked the track beautifully and we were able to recover this animal after 24 hours. Thankfully....temps were below freezing that night and the coyotes had not found the buck.

Congrats and job well done to OTIS and CNC for this recovery. Very grateful to have been able to recover this buck. Thank you CNC!!!