Well, it was what we thought it was……The hunter just grazed this deer and knocked some hair off of it. We tracked it out to around 400 yards where I could tell from Otis’s reaction that one had just got up out in front of us. We tracked it on and pushed it around for several hundred more yards before calling it off. We never saw the deer or even got close up on in but you could see very large running tracks in the mud anytime we went through an area where it would leave them. He knocked a good little wad of hair off the deer but I think it came from the bottom of the brisket. The shot was around 50 yards and he was shooting down at the deer at probably more than a 45 degree angle.

After we called it off, we spent another hour and a half or so sweeping the area around the hit site just to verify it but Otis never acted like he smelled anything else. With him still being a young dog, I like to double check him just to make sure he’s not telling me any lies on tracks like this. So far, I’ve yet to find one that he missed. I think the extra searching makes the hunter feel better about it anyways though. After we’ve circled the area for about 3 hrs it seems like most folks are ready to concede at that point.