Thanks again fellas!

Call just came in for tomorrow morning. Pretty simple set up for this one. Good buck walked out into the food plot at around 100 yards quartering toward the hunter. The hunter shot at the buck with it quartering to him just inside the edge of the field. He really thinks judging from the deer’s reaction that he hit the deer but they cannot find any blood.

I believe he either hit too far back in the guts or clean missed the deer and perceived it to be hit. It’s hard to say for sure. We’ll find out in the morning. To be continued…….

Good stuff cnc. I'd like to have a beer with the man tracker and hear a story or 2

Yeah it was a pretty interesting conversation. One other good thing too is……if life ever takes a turn for the worse and I find myself on the run from tracking hounds…..I know how to lose ‘em!

A second call came in for tomorrow morning about 10 miles down the road from the first one. I didn’t get a whole lot of details on this one. The buck took off after the shot and fell down or crashed. The hunter got popped in the eye by the scope after the shot and was a little dazed so they didn't really see what happened too well. They thought the deer was down but when they went to get it….the deer wasn’t there. They’ve tracked blood for a couple hundred yards and lost it. After searching for a little while longer the flashlight batteries faded out on them and they decided to back out and come in with a dog in the morning.

To be continued.......

Alright, two tracks for tomorrow!

You've got to be surrounded by some of the most unshootinist fellas in the state.

Yeah, for a couple hundred miles in every direction.

1 fer 2 again.....Headed home. Stories and pics to come.

So the first track this morning I feel quite sure was just a clean miss. We searched and searched but Otis was never able to pick up on anything. We spent over 2 hrs gridding any and every place the deer could have gone but just never came across anything that made me feel like the deer was hit. No blood, no hair, no nothing.

The second track was a different story. It turned out to be an extremely low gut shot. Otis took this one like he was following a gut wagon out to around 450 yards. We were in some quail hunting habitat of thin pines and sedge understory. At around 450 yards I see Otis up in front of me standing beside a small ditch giving the ditch a death stare….damn near like a bird dog on point. I eased up to the ditch to peak over in it and when I did this buck came up out of the ditch like one of Santa’s reindeer taking flight. You could see guts hanging out of the deer as it ran off.

Otis took off after it but stopped at around 150 yards and came back to me. When he got back to me, he turned around and he led me back to where the deer had laid back down again. Once again he didn’t run up to the deer to try to “bay” it like I expected. He eased in and pointed it not ever barking a single time. As soon as we saw it, I pointed it out to the hunter to finish off and no sooner than I did the deer broke again. The hunter told me to just go ahead and shoot it with my .45 if that happened again so I drew my pistol and took a 2 handed grip stalking approach. Sure enough, another 100 yards ahead Otis stalks up to it and points it again with him laid down facing away from us. I popped a round in him straight down through the middle of the back into the chest cavity and he appeared as if that “let the air out of him”. We watched him for a moment or two and then started fist bumping thinking we had him. Nope.

About the time we bumped fists…..he picked his head up, looked back at us, and took off again. Otis trailed him up again and pointed him to us. This time I went ahead and double tapped him just to make sure. That was the end of it after that. I ain’t gonna lie……That first shot was steady and controlled but I guess him jumping up must have released a bunch of adrenaline in me or something because when we caught up with him again and I took aim….I was shaking like a dog chittin a peach seed. I hit him every time though so I guess that’s what counts. You can see the original gut hit in the pic. The shots I put on him were all straight down through the back with him facing away from me. They're some tough arse critters, I know that.

Good story glad you got him. That probably would have been a slow miserable death if he was not found.

I don't think folks are spending enough time at the range shooting. You don't have to shoot a magnum to kill deer. Use a caliber that you can comfortably, accurately shoot and practice.

I won’t argue that many folks could probably spend more time practicing and learning to be a more proficient shooter…..but I think the reason people hit deer like your seeing is more due to not remaining under control after the rush of the excitement hits…..which also leads to bad decision making. You have to hold it together mentally even though that rush of excitement makes you go……

I think breathing techniques would probably help a lot of folks as well as forming a systematic approach to shooting a deer that goes Step 1, Step 2, Step 3………Aim small, deep breath, let it out slow, sqeeeeeeeze the trigger…..Every time, each and every shot. All you gotta do is grab ahold of yourself for a few seconds at the end of that deep relaxed breath.

Anyways……Roll Tide!…Let’s go win another national championship.

Thanks for the post CNC. Always great to read with a cup of coffee in the morning.

I agree with BigEd... people need to shoot more and shoot more often.

I’m questioning the power of my .45 after the incident yesterday. This was a little young buck with not much body mass. I was using a 185 gr accubond (+P) hollow point. If you imagine the deer laying on its belly facing straight away….I put the first shot down its back angling toward the front of the chest cavity. The “X” in the pic below is where I hit it. When it jumped back up and took off, I was so surprised that I asked the hunter “Damn, did I miss him?....I could have sworn I seen it hit him!?!?”

They were taking the deer to the processor so I didn’t get to see it being gutted…..I was wanting to bad though so I could see what those bullets did inside of the deer. This was maybe a 15 yard shot or so. I need to go buy some more ammo anyways and I’m thinking about loading up with the 220 gr Critical Duty on the next one to see what it does. I was knocking some pretty damn good holes in it with those 185’s but man I just don’t like the way he toted it off like it wasn’t chit. Anyone have any opinions?

BTW….me carrying a rifle is out of the question. It’s just too cumbersome to carry for the guy working the GPS and dog.

4" revolver in 45 colt or 44 mag loaded with some Hornady XTP or similar.

CNC...Just a suggestion, but what about a 20 GA and keep the chamber empty. Make the hunter tote it until it's time to shoot. That way you don't have to worry about a scope being knocked off or anything like that.

I'll check out that Hornady Ammo when I go to town. My pistol is a Sig Sauer .45 ACP with a 5" barrel I believe. I thought it would be enough gun to put them down at close range.



I've given a lot of thought to a small shotgun with buckshot but I really like the hunter having a rifle with us just in case we need it. I just don't see myself carrying anything more than a pistol. We just get into too much thick stuff that I need to be able to easily move through while still watching the dog and GPS unit in my hand.

Call just came in for tomorrow morning. The hunter was in a climber shooting at a buck which was quartering too him at a pretty hard angle. I didn’t ask but it didn’t sound like the deer was far away because he said he was kinda shooting down at the deer from the climber. He tried to shoot the deer in the chest/front leg area. The deer’s front end dropped to the ground and it took off. He found some gray and white hair as well as some skin but no blood. I feel like this is probably gonna be a grazing shot but we’re gonna go check it out for him just to make sure. I’m afraid the deer may have just dropped in the front end as part of its motion of getting the hell out of dodge. We’ll find out for sure in the morning.

To be continued………..

^^^FINALLY!!

I've been in withdrawals today with no tracking tales.

Looking forward to tomorrow!

I’m hoping that maybe the skin and white hair might be from the exit wound of a gut shot. If he was shooting down on the deer then there’s a possibility that he could have a high entry wound in the back and an exit out the belly….maybe. My gut feeling though says that he just took off some hide from under the brisket or leg.