I had one more call come in today from a bowhunter that I tracked for way back at the beginning of the season. He was still out there with his stick and string and finally got another whack at one this morning.

He said it was a long shot out around 45 yards and at first he thought he had missed low just under the deer. When he went and recovered the arrow though, he said it looked like a low gut hit with some white hair on the arrow as well as some gut matter. He’s using Rage expandables so maybe this time it will pay off for us. He asked how long he should wait and I told him at least 12 hours. He agreed so we just decided to give it until tomorrow morning to track it. Hell, it may not even be dead then. He didn’t track it so hopefully the buck stayed close and bedded up. We’ll find out in the morning. To be continued………..

Thanks BigEd.....Yep, I believe he had some age on him.

This one turned out to be a pretty routine recovery at 350 yards from the hit site. The deer was hit just in front of the hindquarter. I think a possum or something got on him before we got there and is why you see gut hanging out. One thing to note about this track is that the first bed we found where the deer laid down was at the 100 yard mark. You could tell it had spent a lot of time in that bed too because the grass was really pressed down to the point of forming a very distinct bed.

Had the hunter started searching for this deer any at all then he would have surely jumped him out of that bed and pushed him a lot farther. As it was though, the deer likely laid there for hours before getting up and moving another couple hundred yards down into the creek bottom where we found him bedded up on the side of the creek branch. Give bad shots plenty of time before tracking them.

was the buck from yesterday morning killed in Montgomery county?

Way to go Otis!

Is the right side of the rack broke off or just grew that way?


I'm no tacker but would that have been a good one to let Shelby track again after the initial find?

No...that one was Bullock Co.

Yeah, I probably should have tried here on it. It was 24 hrs old with zero blood but it would have been interesting to see how she tracked it. It was thicker than dog snot in the cutover.

I haven't posted about it but I've still been running her on training tracks. We just ran one two days ago and I was really pleased with her progress. It was one of the first times that we've tracked with a limp lead instead of her trying to drag me. She's finally slowing down a gear. She was still amped up and erratic but able to control her excitement enough to work the line much cleaner. She'll be ready for some real tracks next year. I'll still hand pick which ones I put her on so as hopefully not to get her on any live ones. They say one negative experience when they're young can stay with them for life.

I take that back. I said zero blood but there actually was a little bit of blood that we found along the way and I have to give the hunter all the credit on this one. Otis was working a short check when I saw the bed. He looped back around and sniffed of it before proceeding but I didn’t see anything in it from the standpoint of blood. I gave it a quick check and then started watching Otis again. The hunter got down and started meticulously picking through the bed until he found the most minute amount of blood down in the straw. It wasn’t much more than the size of your fingernail but there was no mistaken that it was definitely blood. One more thing to add to the track....there was also a small wad a stomach content at the hit site.

It just grew that way. I figure it likely had some kind of injury that caused it.

Could have been really difficult if he had pushed the deer last night. Good for him on calling in the dog. I'm sure the hunter was happy.

This hunter did exactly what you need to do in a situation like this and it paid off. When he saw the stomach content (big red flag) at the hit site….he quietly slipped out and left it alone. Had he even started tracking and looking for blood, then the deer would have definitely been pushed out of that first bed at 100 yards where he probably spent hours weakening down.

CNC, thanks again for sharing all of this. Definitely a top-five thread for this hunting season!

Thanks Claims!....I feel like if I could just somehow incorporate some hot moms and jaguarondi into the story then it would push the thread right over the top.

CNC, if you posted up a thread about jumping a mountain lion while Otis was tracking a buck, you might melt the servers

Yeah, accompanied by some real grainy video footage of it.

I was driving into a track the other day and as we rounded the curve all I could say is “Hooooly chit man! ”…..This has got to be the tallest tree house I’ve ever seen. I just snapped the pic as we were riding by and this is cropped from that….so it’s not the best pic but you can still tell that it’s for sure up there. I’m guessing 50 ft or there abouts. Look at the oak tree its built in and consider its built in the crown of that tree. When I was younger I would have went up there just to check out the view…..but the older I get the less desire I have to climb trees. Y’all can have this one….not me, no sir.

I had someone call a minute ago asking if I could come out, etc…I asked them what happened and they said the deer hit the ground and laid there for at least 15 minutes. When the hunter started getting down…the deer got up and staggered off. The hunter says “Man, I’m sure he’s hit good but we just can’t find him.” I’m thinking to myself…”Yeah, aren’t they all.... ” I explained to them that its very likely a high back shot and they said they were gonna talk it over and call me back after looking some more.

This is one of the most common calls. I had one do this to me years ago and its got to be the suckiest feeling in hunting to drop a good one in its tracks and think he’s down for the count…..only to watch him get up and ride off into the sunset. Everyone believes he’s just right there somewhere but they never are……..

Glad I've been watching this thread. Jumped up a good one thus morning I was late walking in. Back slapped him first shot and put two more in him when he was getting back on his feet

Good deal!....Yep, if you knock one down and he starts struggling to his feet, you better be slinging more lead. Glad to hear you were able to put some follow up shots in him.

It’s been a really slow weekend so far fellas. I can’t believe I didn’t get a call yesterday with it being a Saturday. That’s pretty unusual compared to how things have been going. Last weekend was nearly non stop. Oh well, we’ve only got a few days to go anyways. I figure we probably got one or two more tracks to run and it’ll be over. I’m ready to get on my tractor and do some bushhoggin.