I’ve been doing some reading and it looks like you’re on to something there with the Hornady XTP. I think I’m gonna try the 230 grain XTP + P round.

Get them doggies rollin! I too am ready for another story.

That should be a better round. Barnes also makes a XPB that may offer what you need.

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.

Neither Academy nor Gander Mnt had the Hornady 230 gr XTP.....Are y'all having to order it online?

They didn't have the Barnes either btw.....

This weather sucks. The stories are likely gonna be slow for a few days fellas. You know what they say though….”It just be like that sometimes…”

Here’s something to talk about in the meantime...……

Something I’ve really noticed since I’ve started tracking deer is that the idea of it taking buzzards several days to a week to locate your deer is absolutely false. What I’ve observed is that buzzards can very well find them almost immediately or at least be in the area trying to locate your deer. I’ve even found deer that weren’t even completely dead yet that had buzzards circling it. The one we finished off in the last story already had two buzzards flying around it when we got back just in the time it took us to walk back and get the buggy. Don’t just necessarily look for 20 or more buzzards circling. Sit still and just watch those one or two that are flying around and see if they hone in on an area or keep circling around the area your searching. They’re just tracking dogs in the sky.

Nevermind....

Call just came in from the morning hunt. Bone and blood for 100 yards and then nothing. Deer really favoring it’s right side.

This is gonna be a leg hit so it could get very interesting. Hopefully it’s a high leg hit and he got into the body cavity. To be continued…….

Good luck on the track. I have killed several where I hunt while watching road ways where I would shoot one and drag I in the road and keep hunting. More often than not within 30 minutes there will be a dang buzzard sitting on the ground next to my deer trying to eat it. Must be a bunch of starving birds

It turned out to be a low leg hit. There was a bunch of bone at the hit site that we found after the track was over. We trailed the deer for about 400+ yards and off into a really wet creek bottom with little pools of water here and there. I knew when we got down into that stuff that he was gonna be bedded up in the mud somewhere in the bottom packing his wound but he saw us first and bolted on us. The hunter and myself both got a pretty good luck at him when he got up and he still seemed good and lively. Otis ran after him for a ways before coming back to me.

We kept after him and continued pushing for a little ways but eventually came up on the county road and called it. We were already a few hundred yards into the walk back when I was asked how far we had been. We were at 2.7 miles at that point. I imagine where we called it off was around the 2 mile mark. This deer just wasn't slowing up at all. I really think he'll make it unless he dies of some kind of infection, etc over the long term.

Thanks for the help today CNC. Wish we could have found it, but the buck just wasn't hit good. I really don't think the bullet made it into the body at all. I just hope I'm not to sore to get out there after them again in the morning. They sure are rutting up good.

It was good to meet y’all, I enjoyed it. I hate we don’t have pics to show but it was still a fun track. That’s a blast to get down in a creek bottom like that knowing that the deer is about to be laying there somewhere looking at you at any moment. Those low front leg hits seem like some of the toughest hits to recover though.

Y’all get back after ‘em!

My dog just spotted a pretty nice buck limping down the road in front of our house in Opelika. Appeared to have a broken leg or something. He must have been chasing and got hit by a car or maybe he was already hurt before he got in the neighborhood. He made it across the road twice by our house without getting hit again. They just get stupid this time of year.

Midway and Palmetto State show it in stock

Yep, they act crazy this time of year. The buck we were tracking yesterday had gotten with some other deer off in the swamp bottom and was bedded within about 50 yards of a doe group we jumped just ahead of him. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him just come right back into the same area and someone finish him off.

Got 1 ½ calls so far today…………

About 11:00 a buddy of mine calls and says that Buddy Jr. just shot a pretty decent one and he’s pretty sure he gut shot it…..what should he do? I told them just to back out and I would be on that way in a little while. So, I get all my stuff gathered up and head that way.

In route to the first track I get another phone call from a hunter saying they had just stuck a buck with a bow late that morning. The hit was too far back and they had tracked the deer with pretty decent blood for a long ways before jumping it and backing out to call me. After talking it over we decided to give the deer until tomorrow morning before getting back after it. I’m thinking that this may very well be one of those low gut shots with a bow exactly like Audeerhunter just posted about the Cullman Co buck. The deer was putting off decent blood but going and going and going. That one is too be continued……

So I talk to the hunter and get the track lined up for tomorrow morning while I’m still in route to track Buddy Jr’s buck. I’m about halfway there and Buddy Sr. calls to say…..”Nevermind man!...I found it!”

Them damn buddies, I tell you what…….

You should have told him good job but, leave it laying so I can put Shelby on it since I'm halfway there. Ok good buddy

That was the first thing I said but apparently the deer was just laying right there within a really short distance so I just told him we’d get the next one. It was a lot better shot than they thought……. there just wasn’t any blood at the hit site. I think the waiting got the best of them and they had to just look a little bit.

Good luck in the morning, watch out for mr no legs slithering around. With this warm weather I probably wouldn't eat one thats been dead for several hours.