Yes, you're right.

Tell me your thoughts here, Harold: when this deer ran back on the same blood trail ("doubled back"), he basically made a figure 8 shape through this thicket. Do you think the dog would've had any trouble figuring this out? Or would the dog have just trailed in a figure 8? I think I know your answer here, but I'm just curious

Great buck. Glad your buddy found him.

My favorite part about these pics is he's not long arming him to make him look huge and it really is HUGE!

A young dog would have likely struggled with it. Dogs eventually learn to work a circular pattern around areas like that if something throws them off. He may work the figure 8 area for a moment or two and then when he can�t figure out how the line continues�.he�ll begin casting circles around the area until he picks up on it again. If it gets too bad and he can�t work through it�like maybe where 3-4 searchers have really messed up the area��then I�ll mark the spot on the GPS and lead the dog on even bigger circles until we hit the line again.

Those deer like that one can go forever and take 18-24+ hrs to die. I went on a track last year with a very similar shot but with a gun. This was a 1 � old buck and they had pushed it out to nearly 1 � miles. He had swam across part of the Coosa River too with its guts hanging out of it�s belly. Very lucky to have not lost that deer to the river. We eventually found it laying just feet from the water�s edge.