Dear Santa,
I want a go pro camera for my collar
Thank you
Otis

I’ve been eyeballing a Garmin Virb……One of those and the harness for it looks like the most practical thing I've seen. I’m afraid downloading it to the computer is gonna be a pain though. I don't know...I've never messed with any of the new cameras. It’s gonna be some long videos probably. Tracks can be anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour or more.

Good job on the track. Looks like Shelby is enjoying some left overs.

Good work, once again!!

Thanks fellas!

Awesome work for team Otis and Shelby!

I believe it was about this time last year when I was on the phone talking with another tracker from south Georgia. I asked him where he was headed to and he said that a guy he had tracked for several times in the past had called him to come track a really good buck. I asked him what kind of situation he was dealing with and he tells me he really doesn’t know yet. He said the hunter had just got down after the shot and went back home to call him to bring the dogs. Apparently, it was a truly big deer and they didn’t want to take any chances….they just wanted to make sure the deer was recovered.

Well, there didn’t end up being any grand tale about the track….No 1000 yard trails…….no swimming ponds and rivers…..no baying and finishing him off….Nope….When they got there, the deer had only went 100 yards and crashed up into the bushes. The deer was indeed a true giant. It was probably one of the biggest deer killed in GA last year and it was soon after highlighted in an article in GON magazine.

The reason I tell that story is to make a point that tracking dogs aren’t always used as the last-ditch effort….nor should they be. They’re an invaluable part of hunting that many folks still are unaware of. It leaves me scratching my head when I read story after story of folks who shoot the “biggest deer they’ve ever seen” and then do everything else under the sun first other than letting a dog go find it for them. The vast majority of hunters will probably be able to count on one hand the number of opportunities that they’ll get in their lifetimes on a really big buck. We’ll all be lucky if we get even just one opportunity at a buck like in the story. If you’ve just gotten one of those opportunities and you’re unsure about the situation…..don’t get down and start chasing after him…..and don’t call three or four of your buddies and spend then next day and half grid searching for him…… back and call someone with a good dog. You’ll be glad you did in the end.

I would not have thought that shot would have stopped a buck, sort of a flesh wound looking shot. But it did, and Otis gets another steak dinner.

I didn’t inspect it too hard but I think most of the damage was done on the offside shoulder and to the lower most part of the chest cavity. The entry hole in the pic was probably just enough damage to that front side leg to keep him from really being able to go anywhere. That why they saw him nose plowing…..he was struggling to use both front legs. It was shot with a .308 from around 180 yards.

I found one the next day for trox last year that was still alive and shot pretty much the same way. I jumped him and went back we got shotguns and ended up finishing him off 100 yards or so from where I initially jumped him.

The one from the pic may have very well taken most of the night to die. It’s hard to say. He was probably just barely clipped in the bottom of the chest cavity. There was a defined bed about 10 yards from where we found the carcass where he had laid back down for a while. There was deer hair scattered all over the place around the bed in a really large area....bout the size of a big house. I don’t know if the yotes eventually took him down or if that was just where they were dragging the carcass around.

Call just came in for tomorrow morning......

Not a lot to go on with this one. Hunter shot what he thinks is the big 10 a long ways through some hardwoods. The deer disappeared before he could really see it react. He was able to track the deer for about 150 yards. He said he found 3 small puddles of blood where it looked like the deer stopped and stood. Blood eventually petered out on him after it crossed a creek. That's all I know for now......

To be continued......

The hunter told me when I pulled up that there was coyotes in the same head of woods last night raising hell. He was afraid they had already gotten to him. When we tracked the deer though, the track went on forever. We tracked at least a mile….all within a 200-300 acre head of woods around some cattle pastures. I think the yotes he heard may have gotten after the deer and run him around and eventually out of the head of woods.

The funny thing about the track is that the deer was putting down spots of blood here and there nearly the whole way but never bedded that we saw. He jumped a tight 5 strand barbwire fence about 3 different times along the way. I believe he was being chased or pushed just judging by his route and behavior. He was doing stuff that a hit deer wouldn't want to do if given the choice.

He originally took us all the way through the head of woods to a dirt road……at which point he jumped the fence. For some reason the landowners had the fence set off of the dirt road about 20 yards creating a little strip of woods between the fence and road. Instead of crossing the road, the buck turned an ran down the strip of woods for about 150-200 yards before turning back into the head of woods and jumping back across the fence again.

At this point we’re headed right back the way we came except we’re down the hill a little ways from the original line. The buck went a couple hundred yards before turning and angling back up hill and crossing over the original line. He had done a complete loop…..still putting down blood here and there. He crossed over the original line and kept angling around until he eventually circled us back around headed toward the dirt road again. To make a long story a little shorter….he eventually jumped the fence again and went across the dirt road the second time. That’s where we had to call it….it was just as well at that point anyways it seemed like. He had went a long ways.

There was a little brown and white hair at the hit site. That along with the blood we were finding leads me to believe the deer was hit low somewhere. The hunter was up in a climber shooting down on the deer at around 130 yards or so I’d say. He may have just clipped it in the brisket or behind the leg.

Call just came in for tomorrow morning……

I couldn’t get much info out of the hunter on this one. All I know is that they’ve hit the deer and got “pretty good blood”. The hunter said the deer came off its front legs some. I completely forgot to even ask them how far they had tracked it.

I’ll get us some better info for the follow up story……

This was the first time I’ve ever found teeth at the hit site….

The deer was standing broadside in a food plot at about 60 yards. The hunter was shooting a 300 mag. He said on the first shot the buck took off and ran to the edge of the plot where it started turning its head around toward its body like it was trying to lick its wound. So he fired another shot at him. The second shot was the one the blew his jaw off and where we found the teeth.

We tracked the buck for about 400-500 yards to where he crossed a small drainage ditch. On the other side of the ditch was by far the most blood I’ve seen on any track I’ve been on so far. It looked like something out of a Quentin Tarrantino movie. Apparently the deer had stood there all night long bleeding and bedding. That’s where we got him up still good and alive. I think the hunter had only grazed him on the first shot and he was only wounded on his face.

We got in behind him and went for close to ¾ of a mile in a big circle trying to get him to hold up before the hunter told me to call off the dogs. I think he had all the walking he could take at that point. It was just as well though because the deer wasn’t gonna hold up for us. They had seen this deer before and had been getting lots of pics of him on camera so hopefully he’ll come back out so someone can finish him off. He’s doomed to surely die with his jaw blown off.

After reading these stories about the ones that get away after being shot with a rifle it’s fair to say a whole lot of people can’t shoot straight. 60 yards in a food plot...Geez!