Gonna start posting up a few stories again….I can’t promise I won’t bail out on them again when the season really gets going but for now I’m amped up and excited like everyone else.

First track of the year this morning was a success. It was the first velvet buck I’ve ever been a part of recovering. It was also a dang tough one to start the year on as well. The deer was shot yesterday evening way back in the guts just in front of the hind quarter. The hunters had trailed blood for about 100 yards and lost it. They backed out and came back in this morning without having any more luck. We got on the track around 10 am which put us roughly 15-16 hrs after the shot. I could tell right off that it was gonna be a challenge and that the deer had likely either clotted or gut matter had clogged the hole. There just wasn’t a lot of scent on the ground to follow. I pushed Otis on ahead and down the bottom past where they had lost blood. The deer was traveling along the edge of where a creek bottom and pine stand met so we just made the assumption that he had kept traveling along that edge. Finally, at around the 400 yard mark I saw Otis really starting to act birdy and look like he had picked it back up. He took the trail to a thick area of palmettos where I became even more assured that he was on to something. I told the hunter and his buddy to look over that area of palmettos really well while I followed Otis. They immediately whistled back at me and said “It’s full of blood!!”…..

Otis tracked on for another 50-100 yards to freshly downed oak top where it looked like the deer had bedded but there wasn’t any blood that we could see in the bed. After that he tracked on for another 50-100 yards before running into another dead area with no scent. I didn’t figure the deer would be far after stopping and then bedding down the way he did. I told the hunters we would push on down the bottom and see if we could pick back up on it and then circle back to check the creek and the pine thicket. The hunter and I had pushed on down the creek bottom a couple hundred yards when we heard his buddy holler out behind us “Woooo! Hoooo!”…..The buck had turned out of the creek bottom where we lost it and just eased up another 100 yards in the edge of the pines where he bedded down again and eventually died. I think the hunter said we were around 770 yards from the hit site when we found him. An awesome buck and a great way to get the season started……If you look close in the pic you can see the hair ruffed up just in front of the hind quarter....that was the entry hole. It exited out low about middle of the deer on the opposite side.

We’ve got another one lined up for in the morning. It’s probably gonna be a tough one again but if what the hunter said is true there’s a good chance of a dead deer being out there somewhere. He said it's a big 11 point still in velvet and he stuck it straight down through the back. It looked like he buried the arrow up pretty deep but has only found one speck of blood. We’ll just have to see how things go when we get there. I’ve learned there’s more than one way to skin a cat when looking for these deer so maybe we’ll be able to locate him. Gonna run both dogs in the morning. It would be awesome to find two big velvet bucks in a row.

To be continued…….

I’m ready for some good tracking stories!

Looks like y'all off to a good start

No recovery on the one this morning but the fat lady hasn’t sung just yet……

As it commonly does…..the story changed a little when we arrived this morning. I may have misunderstood the hunter last night but I thought he saw arrow buried up to the fletchings. It turns out though that he didn’t actually know where the deer was hit so I’m taking it that he was just assuming it had to be buried up as close of a shot as he took straight down on the deer. The buck was probably 10 yards or less from the base of the tree but the hunter was in a tree on the side of a ridge and the there was a little ledge that dropped off right under his tree that probably put him 35 ft or so above the deer. It was walking broadside to him but spooked right before it walked through his shooting lane and it started turning back the other way. He took the shot nearly straight down onto it through a gap in the limbs with it basically facing away from him.

There was only one small spot of blood that was barely visible this morning. The dogs weren’t able to pick up on much as I expected with this one. Fortunately though, there wasn’t a whole lot of options on where the deer might have ran to so we were able to use satellite imaging on my phone along with the GPS to work the area over really well. There was a small pond about 300 yards from the hit site in the direction the buck had ran. It was only about ¾ of an acre in size but it looked deep. When we got close to the pond both dogs really lit up like they picked up on something…especially Shelby. She tracked the scent to the waters edge and then on out into the water where she swam around in circles for a minute before coming back. Again she looked like there was something there and went back in. I feel like there’s a good chance the deer may have gotten into the pond and sank. The hunter is gonna go back in a few days and look to see if it floats up. I just sent him a message with the idea of possibly dragging the pond with a grapple as small as it is….We’ll see what happens. Hopefully we’ll get a message in day or two saying he found it.

it should float today....

Good read

Glad to see this thread!

Helluva good buck! I know he was pumped to find him! Good job!

Dr. B

I appreciate it y'all…..

I’ve got some good stories and pics to post up. I’ll sit down and write it up tomorrow. The rain should put a damper on the calls for this evening. It’s been a fast start to the season though. I guess the drought combined with the cooler weather really had the deer on their feet. We went on another track yesterday right after I posted my story and three different tracks today. I left about 6:30 this morning and didn’t make it back home until right at dark this evening. Shelby Lou was on fire running by herself today. She’s ready to make a name for herself.

Well I guess the rain didnt deter everybody.....Got another one to look for in the morning. The hunter says it's a giant. Thie area is known for Biggins so it very well may be. Hopefully were gonna find out. I'll get us caught up on stories as soon as I get a lull in action.

Took our first call Tonite from the neighbor we recovered it after a short track...like you I thought the rain would keep folks in the house

What county was the first deer in the picture from that is a really light colored deer?

Touchdown!!....It was indeed a good un!!.....Another one in velvet.


Outdoor.....I don't tell anything about the locations just out of respect for the hunters. I know county is vague but I'd rather just not even go down that road.

That is a good policy you have there and I commend you for sticking to it.

Enjoy the tracking stories.

I appreciate it.....I know how peculiar some folks can be about it and probably rightfully so. I just don't want to tell the county and then the next thing you know someone chimes in with "Hey!...Didn't so-and-so kill that deer?....I know exactly where it came from!".....or something to that effect.

I'm about to start writing up some of the tales from the last few days now...…I'll post part 1 up in the next little bit.

Waiting patiently

Alright, so part 1……

After I got home the other day I had no more gotten my tracking clothes off and posted up the story than the phone rang again. Long story short……we came to the conclusion that the buck the hunter had shot was likely a one lung hit or one of those hits right under the spine that only catch the top of the lungs. He said it looked like a high shot. He shot it at daybreak and they had jumped him an hour and a half later with him just standing in some thick stuff about 100-120 yards away. We tracked it late that afternoon through some crazy thick undergrowth for a good little ways until we found where he had bedded. There was only 4 or 5 drops of blood in the bed so I believe he was probably clotted up when he got up. There wasn’t much of a scent trail past the bed but we searched the immediate area really well and he wasn’t anywhere to be found. I think there's a good chance he lived just going off of past experiences with that kind of shot.

Well, while we were tracking that deer…..the hunter’s phone rang and he tells me…..”Another hunters wife has just shot a big buck and hit it too far back. They said for you not to leave!”…..So we called off the search for his deer and rode back to camp to meet up with the other hunters. After listening to her story and analyzing what had happened….I told them that I thought the best thing we could do would be to just back out and look for him at daylight the next morning. She thought she had hit him about the middle of the body with him slightly quartered to her. I could tell it was a struggle for them to agree to not go look for it that night but I commend them on backing out and waiting. What I told her was that if we went out there now he may or may not be dead. If we wait until tomorrow morning he’ll likely be dead within a few hundred yards and you’ll have him on your wall to look at for the rest of your life. If we go out there now and he’s not dead….You may just end up with a story to tell.

The next morning I woke up expecting it to be raining but it was barely drizzling outside about 5:30. I looked at the radar and it only showed a little faint green that had just about moved out the area. I don’t know what happened after I left the house because by the time we made it to the woods it was freaking coming down. We tracked this one in a down pour. Shelby hit on the scent trail right off and started taking it the way the buck had gone. For some reason, even though she’s fixed I think she still puts off a heat odor every so often because Otis loses his mind and starts trying to breed her every couple months or so. It just so happened that this was one of those days and he was bad distracted and just harassing her. Like a dummy I pulled Shelby off the track and had my cousin hold her on lead just having more confidence in Otis under the extreme conditions we were tracking under.

It took me a while to get his focus on the track but we finally got back searching and working to pick up on the scent line again. The lady’s husband and son was with me looking and we had gotten separated about 100 yards when I hear her husband holler out “Wooooo!!! There he is right there!!!....The brown dog was running right to it!!” She was too….If I’d just let her go and put Otis on the leash she would have took us right to it. It was only another 75 yards past where I pulled her off. He had only ran about 200 yards from the hit site before bedding up. The shot turned out to be a lot farther back than the hunter thought and it was actually hit right in front of the hind quarter. They did the right thing by backing out and as a result she has one heck of a bow kill to put on her wall.

Just a side note….this deer still had some velvet on it. Its on the end of the main beam that's laying on the ground. Sorry for the blurry pic….Like I said, we were tracking in a down pour….Parts 2 & 3 of this week’s tales still to come……

Good job on a less than stellar tracking day, y'all are got afterem

Thanks man!

Part 2……..

So needless to say….Otis got to stay his ass in the dogbox on the 2nd track and Shelby ran it alone. The hunter had shot a good buck the evening before and center punched it through the guts. When he got down and checked his arrow it confirmed what he had thought so he just immediately backed out and called us to come out the next morning. It was another area of crazy thick undergrowth and he didn’t want to take a chance on just stomping around trying to find it knowing that it was gut shot and about to rain on any blood he might be able to see.

I think Shelby smelled this deer on the wind from the hit site. She was lit up like a firecracker from the get-go and quickly took us about 125-150 yards to where the deer had bedded. The buck had actually done a semi-circle around the hunters stand and was even closer than that to him when it bedded up. He absolutely did the right thing by sneaking out because it was a straight up gut hit with intestines hanging out the exit hole. There was likely no blood coming out and had he got in behind it the night before it would have probably turned a 125-150 yard track into a 500-1000 yard adventure that may or may not have ended with a find. Lots of things can happen in 1000 yards. Way to go Shelby Lou!!....I’m super excited about how she’s progressed and how much more under control she’s tracking now. Again sorry for the blurry pic…It was still raining!!

Part 3 and the story of the giant velvet buck still to come in the morning……….

Enjoy reading your track stories. Keep up the good work!

Thanks fellas.....


Part 3……….

So after finding the 2nd buck we loaded up and headed to the third track of the day with it still raining. The hunter had reported hitting a good buck the evening before but wasn’t sure exactly where he’d hit it. They had not found the arrow and were pretty sure it stayed in the deer. They had tracked it about 200-250 yards the night before and jumped him up out of his bed. This was roughly 2 hrs after the shot. The guy who jumped him said that he ran off looking gimpy.

Again, I left Otis in the box for this one and ran Shelby by herself. She picked it up immediately at the hit site and bee lined right to where they had jumped the buck. I was really pleased to see the way she was still able to pick up on the track because by this time we were tracking around 20-22 hrs after the shot. She got to the bed and sniffed around for a minute before taking off the way the deer had ran after being jumped. After 75 yards or so though it was like she hit a brick wall and then there was nothing. That’s when I had to start pulling my weight as her teammate and try to help her out. We started arcing out from the last known spot trying to pick back up on the scent line but with no luck. We searched out to around 300 yards in each direction before deciding to back up and punt.

There were three other guys back at the trucks so we decided that as open as the area was we may be best to all spread out in a line and do an intensive grid search. The area was some mature thinned out pines with very little in the understory so you could see a long ways and if the deer was laying dead somewhere in it….he shouldn’t have been too hard to see. We grid searched the whole area with five guys out to probably 600-800 yards past the jump bed but never found the deer. As one last ditch effort, I went and got Otis out of the box to see if maybe he could take the scent line a different direction from the jump bed. He did the same thing as Shelby though and it pretty much confirmed to me that the deer had likely clotted up while bedded and just never left any scent on the ground after the jump. This is why its so important to back out and let that deer die in his first bed. Once you jump him then there’s not telling how far he might run or if he’ll leave a good scent line along the way.

During the grid search…..Shelby and I ran across and nice sized rattlesnake. Luckily it was very lethargic and never even moved or she might have gotten bit. The guy in the pic was about my height so he's around 6 ft tall for reference on the size of the snake.

The conclusion of part 3 and the giant velvet buck still to come………..Pics will eventually improve I promise.

Are mainly working off lead or on?

All of it is off lead using a Garmin Alpha system. I've worked with them on staying close to the handler and they're very obedient when I tone them to come back.

I was wondering how you managed 2 dogs if you were on lead.i mainly stay on lead with mine use the Garmin alpha also but I will cut him lose on one if I need to

If you work with them on staying close to the handler then you can track with them off lead just about like they were attached to a lead. They just learn that you're working as a team and they're not allowed to tear out on their own. There's pros and cons to doing it this way. My dogs aren't gonna take a wounded deer and run him the same as some dogs will but the upside to that is that I'm able to track in areas around roads and subdivisions, etc with the confidence that I can let them search off lead.

The conclusion……..

So after a long day of tracking I finally made it back home right about dark. I got settled in and was enoying a few cold Dos Equis when the phone rang again. The hunter said that he had 5 racked bucks come in on him that evening and he had shot the biggest one in the group….it was a stud. He thought his shot was a little off though and that he had hit high and a little back maybe catching liver. Like with most of these stories it was super thick where the buck had ran after the shot and the blood trail was very sparse. Him and a couple of other guys had searched around but only found a fist sized area with spotty blood in it where the deer had crossed a small creek branch. This was in a creek bottom and they had tromped it out pretty well looking for the buck but with no luck.

We got there the next morning just after daylight and I took Shelby down to the hit site and left Otis back at the truck with my younger cousin. She picked up on it at the hit site but just got muddled down in the area where the searchers had been walking around so much. I called my cousin and told him to bring Otis down and lets see if he could pick his way through it. In the meantime I crossed the creek with Shelby and walked it out for about 300-400 yards to make sure he just wasn’t laid up on the side of the creek branch. One side was super thick but the side we walked on was really open. That kinda led me to believe that the buck would likely be on the thick side of the creek and that what we needed to really work it over well with the dogs.

So after not finding anything Shelby and I went back to the hit site to get Otis and restart. By now Otis was so jealous and upset at having to stay in the box….he was ready to hunt and prove himself. He didn’t even pay Shelby any attention. I started working him on down the bottom through the thick side of the creek…. trying to work out ahead of the muddled up search area where we could pick up on a clean scent line. The hunters had tromped it for a good ways so it was tough to tell if he was on a scent or not. I felt pretty confident though that the creek bottom was the most likely place we’d find the deer. Well, after we’d searched about 500 yards down the creek I told the hunter and my cousin we needed to back up to last blood and see if he didn’t go a different direction. I just didn’t see anything from the dogs that looked as if he had gone this way.

There was a 1-2 year old clear cut that ran along the side of the creek bottom we were searching in. It wasn’t crazy thick but it had grown up in some summer vegetation like they typically do. I told my cousin that as we looped back to last blood….walk up there in that clear cut and check the edge of it to see if you see anything. Well, we had almost made it back to last blood when I hear my cousin holler out….”Got him!!!!!!....Wooooo! Hooooo!”…Sure enough….instead of continuing on down the creek bottom like he was headed…the buck had taken a hard right and shot straight out in the clear cut where he crashed and died. He was probably 200-225 yards from the hit site. The hunter was pretty accurate about where he had hit him….it was a little far back and high. This was one heck of buck here with a spread I’m guessing was around 20” or so……and another one in velvet. I gotta believe the drought is causing them to shed late this year.

Did your cousin get a special treat and pat on the head for finding that deer


Enjoy the stories, keep up the good work.

Yeah, he said I should just put the collar on him the next time we go.....

Oh please please do and if he don't come when you beep him shock the piss out of him and he'll come next time

Just got caught up. Looks like you are on a roll.

Just got caught up on this years tracks. Looks like you're on a roll!! Nice work Harold

Don't think I've ever seen so many velvet bucks hit the ground this time of year. 👍🏻

Thanks fellas.....Its been a good start to the season. Its been some tough tracks and teamwork has been a big part of finding most of them thus far. Something that I've had to learn over the years is that its not always gonna be just turning the dogs loose and following them. Sometimes it is but many times you have to work as a team and use all the tools at your disposal to locate the deer....GPS, aerial photos, dogs, humans searchers, experience, and sometimes just a little luck don't hurt either. The goal is to find the deer or determine that he probably lived and that's all that matters in the end.

Been looking forward to this, CNC! Congrats to y'all on a great start!!!!

Thanks!

I look forward to this thread every year! Great job CNC! Keep up the good work and please keep us updated

Thanks! Glad y’all are enjoying the stories so far….I posted another track we went on a couple days ago on a tracking thread that got started in the general forum. I’ll repost it here in case anyone missed it. There wasn’t a whole lot too this track. The hunter shot the buck at daylight and knew he had put a marginal hit on it. He backed out immediately and called us to see if we could help late that afternoon. We gave the deer about 8-9 hrs before getting on it.

I put Shelby on this one again by herself but she struggled for some reason on what I thought would have been an easy one for her. That’s just the way it goes sometimes though. She started out good but then just acted as if she lost it and didn’t know what to do. The deer was running along side of a deep creek bank and he was trying to find a place to go down. He kept dipping in toward the creek acting like he was gonna go off in it and then he would back track himself a little and keep on going. Maybe that’s what was throwing her off. I went back and got Otis and eventually found the buck in the creek about 300 yards from the hit site. It’s very possible that the deer scent was flowing up the creek back toward us and Shelby was picking up on it. She wanted to go off in the creek bed when she needed to keep on going down the bank. It’s all good though…..her teammates came through for her and another deer was recovered.

Shelby is licking the entry hole....the exit was about the same front to back on the opposite side but lower on the body.

Good stuff.

Call just came in a little bit ago.....I don't know a whole lot of detail on this one other than the grandson shot one this morning and they feel like its a gut hit. They backed out and want me to bring in the dogs this afternoon to help find it. I'll find out more when I get there.

To be continued...…...

Patiently waiting

No luck so far…..I’m going back in the morning to continue the search though. Very, very little blood on the ground for 50 yards and then nothing. We’ve grid searched out to about 500 yards but I ran out of daylight before I could check a swamp close by that should be holding some water. I’d like to check it and a couple more places before giving up. The air was dry as a bone this evening too and I’ll have better humidity for the dog’s noses to work with at daylight in the morning. I'm afraid the deer may just be clipped low. We had a run in with a pissed off mama pig about dark too so I decided that was enough until tomorrow morning. The deer are thick as fleas on a dog’s back at this place and it makes for tough tracking with deer scent EVERYWHERE and no blood to pick up on.

As I was headed home, I’d just made it up the road a few miles when I saw a couple trucks on the side of the road and some flashlights shining close by to them. I don’t do it as much as I used to since I’m pretty established now but if I run across someone close to home I’ve never tracked for I’ll stop and introduce myself. Well, I stopped about 30 yards from the flashlights and said

“Hey, how’s it going?”…..A deep, angry sounding voice responds….”Can I help you??”……

“Oh chit” I thought …..”I stopped at the wrong place”……

I responded with “My name’s Harold and I track deer for folks around here with my dogs….I just wanted introduce myself.”

By this time the guy is coming my way with a flashlight shined at me and as he gets closer to the truck I can see that it’s old Mr. Green Jeans…..He said “Oh, hey Harold….It’s Keith Mann….We’ve met a few times”… ..He shook my hand and said “We’ve got one in cuffs, let me get back over here and get this taken care of.”...and he walked off...….. I was like "Damn!!...What did I just roll up on?"

I sure hope it was some of them damn road hunters that hit this area pretty hard. There ain’t too many things Ol’ GW is gonna put the cuffs on you for is there? Maybe some drugs were involved or something I suppose….Would you get cuffed for hunting with a gun out of season?

I’ll update y’all in the morning and let you know if we end up finding the deer…..To be continued.

No recovery on the one I went back to this morning. Just judging by the way the dogs tracked it and all I would guess that this one is marginally hit…It’s just part of it with these tracks. We’re gonna probably have a good many like that as the season goes on because I don’t really screen my calls. I listen to what happened but if their in my area and willing to pay the fee then I typically go out and see what we can do with it. The approach I’m taking with tracking is that I’m trying to travel the least amount possible. I want to stay close to home and service the people in my backyard. I’m not really interested in driving 1 ½ - 2 hrs for a sure find over helping someone 15 minutes down the road that may or may not even have a dead deer to recover. It’s just different strokes for different folks. Now I may have to back peddle on this policy later in the year as the rut approaches just due to the number of wild goose chases that we get called on….but I really hate to have to start screening the calls like that.

Another call came in from a hunter that said he shot a really nice one yesterday evening about dark. They followed blood for about 100 yards last night before losing it and backing out. He thought he'd hit the deer well but was questioning the amount of penetration he got. They came back in this morning and found a little more blood as well as a bed where the buck had broken off half the arrow. They couldn’t find anything else after the bed though and they were searching in small pines that were grown up super thick in briars and other vegetation. That's when they decided to just back out and see if a dog could help.

I wish all tracks were like this one. We turned the dogs loose and they burnt this track up like a greyhound chasing the rabbit at the dog track. It took maybe 1-2 minutes for them to track 200 yards to where the deer had laid back down and died. When he got up out of the bed he had simply took a hard left instead of going the original direction he was running. He was just hit a little far back about liver/gut area. This is one our coolest finds to date. A main frame 8 point with split brows….a drop tine…and a sticker off the G2……..Yes, free range.

I bet that was one happy hunter right there and certainly glad he made that phone call. Glad to see you back posting on it CNC. Hope the pups stay healthy and have a good year.

Great buck

Thanks fellas.....Yep, that made for an extremely happy hunter right there. I was happy to finally get on an easy track too.

We've got one lined up for tomorrow morning that's probably gonna prove to be another tough one. I couldn't make it out there today after the other tracks due to having to pick up the kids from school and the hunter wasn't able to find another tracker. So were gonna run a 24 hr old track and try to find it in the morning. I'm really not so concerned about the track being old as I am where the hunter reported hitting the deer. The buck was only 8 yards from his tree and he feels like he hit too far forward. That's never good with a bow because usually it just results in an arrow buried up in the shoulder. They haven't found a whole lot of blood and the arrow stayed in the deer. The hunter thinks he got 1/2 his arrow down in the deer but I always take that kind of info they tell me with a grain of salt. I'm hoping for the best on this one but I'm not overly optimistic about a recovery. You can't ever tell though and that's why we run them.....

To be continued...…..

That's a cool buck! Good work Harold.

Thanks man!

Wowzers!! Ol Otis and Shelby would look good standing next to that toad. Hope they got some pics with him. I believe I'd have to give them both a kiss on the lips for finding that one for me. Keep up the good work!!

Good read right there.

Y'all doing real well so far this year.

Keep stories flowing...

Glad we have more great stories to read! Thanks Harold.

No luck on the track this morning. It was what we thought it was.....a pretty routine shoulder hit with an expandable. Of course you would have much rather had pics of a deer at the end of it but the hunter was happy and satisfied knowing that the deer was most likely gonna live and be right back in there for him or another club member to get another crack at later in the season. That's what a lot of these tracks are about too. We hope to recover a deer on all of them but some are just about verifying that the deer is still alive and giving the hunter some peace of mind.

A Conversation with My Wife………….


Wife: Where are you going tracking at in the morning?
Me: Smuteye
Wife: Where?!?!?
Me: Smuteye
Wife: Where in the heck is that!!!
Me: It’s near Perote
Wife: What??
Me: It’s near Perote
Wife: Yeah, like I know where Perote is at!!
Me: It’s just south of Blue’s Old Stand
Wife: Fugg it!....Just nevermind

Wife starts to walk off and then turns around to say

Wife: Well I’m going to the eye doctor………..IN MONTGOMERY!!!

You need to take her on a tour of south Bullock and Barbour county and let her dine at some of the local establishments. She might be amazed with just a stop at the Clayton Ten Cent Store for lunch, but probably not..........

You should get that woman out and culture her a lil bit....lol

Now don’t get me wrong my wife sure ain’t no city slicker. She’s about as country as you’ll find ‘em and still have good teeth. She’s from Douglas, Alabama…..She just hasn’t ever been around to some of the finer areas of south Alabama. She’s killed her fair share of deer over the years though....a hell of a shooter.

I’ve actually eaten at the dime store in Clayton quite a few times. I have a good friend that lives in Comer that took me there for the first time probably 15 years ago. I try to stop in if I’m ever down that way but that’s about as far away as I travel these days. I can’t think of the name of it but there’s a little place on hwy 29 just across the Bullock/Pike Co line that a hunter bought me lunch at last year. That was a nice little place to eat as well with some good country food.

No sooner than I got some dry clothes on and got settled in earlier…..the phone rang again. It was from a hunter just 10-15 minutes up the road that said he’d shot a doe a couple of hours ago and was having a hard time finding her. He thought he’d put a good shot on her and was finding good blood….. but she’d ran into a dense thicket and they’d lost the track in there.

I put Shelby on this one by herself figuring it would be a great one for her. I was expecting the deer to be dead but you can’t ever take for granite that what the hunter perceived happening was what actually occurred. With it only being 3-4 hrs after the shot there was still the off chance that we could have a live deer and a doe would be ideal practice for her to work one by herself. As it turned out though the deer was dead and the hunter was pretty accurate about where he’d hit her. What threw them off on the track was the fact that the doe had made a 90 degree turn to the right and ran out of the thicket into some wide open mature pines and then back into the edge of the next thicket over. They were beating down the original thicket trying to pick back up on the track and just didn’t realize she’d gone a different way. Shelby burnt up this track with no issues….taking us right to it. I was proud of how patient and efficiently she worked this one. She’ll be on point by the time we finish up this season.

Here you go….since I’m giving my wife such a hard time and to change things up a little from just tracking stories. Here’s a few pics from back in the day. She just hasn’t had the same interest in going every since the kids came along. Some of these pics have seen their better days.

The “doe” she shot one evening when she started sitting by herself……



Her and I doubling up….



Another double…..Hush up, them lil ‘uns are the best eatin….



The morning she shot the turkey decoy while trying to push the safety off on my 12 ga with gobblers running to us…..



Her first buck…….

You sure either one of ya'll have teeth? That spike picture is the only hint of a smile. The deer had ya'll real mad back in the day!!!
Keep up the great stories!!! Always fun to read how things are going.

My first thought was that ol CNC robbed the cradle when he married her.

Oh, yeah….we were sho nuff mad at ‘em back then. We were just locked into kill mode in those pics.

Here you go, see I told you she had good teeth.

I wouldn't be worried about her teeth. They look fine.

Has she EVER she had a good eye exam?

You must be referring to her shooting the spike and thinking it was a doe...…


…….cause I know you're not hacking on my stellar good looks.

I'll be glad when this rain gets moved out of here and this cold air hits....cause I'm bored and ready to go again. This weekend should be wide open with calls. C'mon cold front!!!!!

Bring on the cold! Love me some Otis, and Shelby to!!

Patiently waiting (Sighhhhh…….)

That deer been eating Clorox stumps or popping tide pops

I hear that!.....That big one grew up on good soil and was believed to be at least 6 1/2 years old.

WTH deer hunters!...…I haven't received a single call yet. I know folks ain't just become better shots this weekend. It's very odd with the good hunting weather we're having. I'd have bet the farm on us getting some calls this weekend. It ain't over yet though.

Everybody scared to call you after reading BHG's thread about folks inability to track & find their deer.

Maybe you needed a rest.

Heck, I was just getting warmed up.

Headed to check a shoulder shot on "a big cull buck" from yesterday afternoon. Don't hold your breath waiting for pics on this one but you never know

The first one was just a classic shoulder shot….We tracked it a good ways before it finally petered out. I feel pretty positive the deer will live with a gimped up leg.

We got another call from a hunter just after we left the first track that said he’d shot a little buck this morning and had trailed blood for a couple hundred yards before finally losing it. He thought maybe he’d just hit low but felt like it was a killing hit. He hadn’t recovered his arrow so he didn’t know if it was still in the deer or he had just over looked it while tracking. It turned out to be a pretty straight forward to the deer where we found him at around 700 yards from the hit site. The dogs burnt this one up and tracked it about as fast as we could walk to keep up with them. The hunter was pretty dang accurate too about where he’d hit on this one. It was low about middle of the body. When he gutted it you could see where the broadhead had just caught part of the liver. I believe he likely pushed this deer a little. There were a few good spots of blood where the deer stood for several minutes at each spot. I figure he was just out ahead of the hunter tracking him.

Call just came in for tomorrow morning. The hunter shot what he said was a very mature buck at 17 yards from a 12 foot ladder stand. He feels like he hit low behind the shoulder. The deer was favoring his off side leg as it ran off. They trailed decent to good blood for 400-500 yards and then jumped the buck....(also reported finding some brown junk too). Instead of backing out they kept on tracking. By this time the deer had ran onto the neighbors property and they had called him to get permission to track. The neighbor is who I talked to and who finally called them off and talked them into backing out.

I think there’s a good chance of recovery on this one just depending on where the deer ran after they jumped him. He probably hit a little farther back than he thought on a quartering away shot and likely pretty low....it could be a brisket shot as well. As long as there aren’t any ponds or deep creeks for him to sink in then he should just be 200-500 yards past where they backed out….hopefully. The bad thing about what has happened is that they’ve caused the buck to leave a strong wounded scent line for probably a dang ½ mile or more through the woods. There’s a good chance of yotes coming through and picking up on it. If we’re lucky he’ll be dead by the time they find him…if not they may get him up and run him for who knows how far. We’ll just have to see how it plays out.

To be continued.....

Go get him!!!!!
I took one the other day for a guy on a good buck we decided to let lay over night and the coyotes beat us to him

Got him!!....very lucky to....but got him none the less....story later

This track was another prime example of why it’s a good idea to play things conservatively even if you think you’ve made a good shot. I’ll post a picture at the end showing the entry hole and you’ll see that it was actually a pretty dang good hit….however….because the hunter got in behind the deer tracking him too soon…..we ended up finding him around 1200-1400 yards from the hit site. That’s roughly ¾’s of a mile.

The dogs did great on this one. The buck was about 600-700 yards past where the hunter backed out. They took us straight to a big creek that the deer had actually already crossed one time last night while the hunter was pushing him. We got to the edge of the creek and Shelby went off in it then came back while Otis started working down the bank. After a minute though Otis came back and he too started wanting to go in the creek. Both dogs were working back and forth and into the water indicating that the deer had gone in. One of the hunters spotted blood on the bank verifying it but there wasn’t any deer to be seen. I told them that I’d be really surprised if the deer went into the creek and kept going with a wound like we expected to have.

We had a small group with us so I started working down creek to see if I could spot him in the water while some other guys kept looking up creek and at the spot where he went in. No sooner than I had gotten about 50 yards down creek one of the guys said “There he is!!”……He had sank to the bottom and you could just make out part of the rack and belly down submerged in the creek. We were very fortunate that he sank in a relatively shallow part of the creek because it wasn’t 20 yards down creek to where it got deep and we’d have never seen him in there.



Here’s the entry wound…..exit is just about the exact same place on the other side…..and he went ¾ of a mile……Had he not been pushed it would have likely been 200-250 ish range.

Looks like a good shot

Yeah, I agree….I continue to become more and more impressed by just how tough these animals are and how far they can tote a shot when their flight instinct kicks in. I’d about bet you that the hunter dang near beat the arrow to the deer and was down tracking within 5-10 minutes of shooting…..if not immediately. What should have been a red flag to him though was when he passed 200 yards and then 300 yards and didn’t find the deer. What that tells you is that you haven’t smoked him like you thought you did so you better back out and give it some time. A smoked deer isn’t usually even gonna make it that far.

What a lot of folks don’t take into consideration is how the big adrenaline rush clouds our judgment and decision making no different than if you’d just snorted a big line of cocaine or something. The hunter is on an upper high and can’t control themselves the way they normally would. They often times make hasty, rash decisions. This is why its not a bad idea to have another hunting buddy track the deer for you. They’re not on that same high and having to deal with being amped up like the shooter. They can track more patiently and make more sound decisions. This track was for an experienced hunter that knew better than to keep pushing it….it was the adrenaline high that clouded his judgement and had him on his hands and knees still tracking at 700-800 yards even after jumping the deer.

Just something for everyone to think about………

Congrats on the recovery!

Good shot and good job atleast maybe that water wasn't to bad cold for a lil swim

I'm not for sure. You'll have to ask the guy in the picture.

I would have liked to have watched the skinning of the deer to see what damage to the innards there was. That looks like it should have been a dirt nap shot to me, but it is just another reason I don't bow hunt or like to have bow hunters on the same property.

Just looking at this diagram and comparing it to the pics it looks like he might have hit right in behind the lungs and got liver maybe. Hard to believe it double lunged him. Maybe it only caught one lung…. I don’t know. I guess its possible that it just caught the top of the lungs and still left the deer with some temporary lung function. One of the craziest ones I’ve seen being hit like that and making it that distance even with being pushed. It’s why I say that if you don’t see him go down or hear him crash then don’t just assume it was a good hit….Chit happens.

You know actually gun hunters are far worse on the deer than bow hunters. I’d love to just track for bow hunters all year. The reason why is because when I get a call during bow season….there’s a really good chance that I have a dead deer to go find….with the exception of a few things like shoulder hits. Its usually an all or nothing type situation and the hunter is able to recognize which one it is. With gun hunters though….they blow the legs off of deer, back whack ‘em, shoot them in arse, blow their jaws off, hit low across the belly where it takes 2-3 days for the deer to die……and any and everything in between. I was just sitting here thinking about how much the calls are getting ready to change here soon.

I’m guessing the little buck was the one from Tuskegee I suggested you for on Facebook the other day.

Yep, that was it….I appreciate that. I don't really like going out there but I will during bow season since its close to home. Once gun season gets here I'll turn down any public land tracks. I just don't like going out to places with my dogs where you don't know what kind of idot with a gun may be over the next hill.

Funny story at the end of that track. The hunter was from Arkansas and had just moved here to go to graduate school at Auburn so he didn’t know anything about the area. I had already given him the run down about not leaving anything valuable in his truck and to just make sure he watched his back out there. Well, after finding the deer we dragged it out to the side of the road and started to walk back. I thought about it and said “Hey you wanna drag the deer back over in the bushes and maybe flag it until we get back….just so nobody comes along and gets your deer?”……He says…”Na, it’ll be alright…..the trucks are just a couple hundred yards around the corner."

Well, a couple hundred yards turned into more like 300-400 and it took us a minute to get back. In the meantime, a couple of different trucks go rolling by. When the second one passed I said “Damn, I sure hope they didn’t get your deer! ”….You should have seen the panic set in. He jumped in his truck like the Dukes of Hazzard and was literally slinging gravel and fish tailing the back end of his truck when he tore out. I couldn’t help but laugh. Sure enough though….when I pulled up behind him there was another vehicle there full of folks who were just about to load it up.

Lol

If anyone from Garmin would like to sponsor us.....I'd sure like to try out those new cameras you strap on the dog.....


How do you go about getting these sponsors anyway? I may rail against some of them in the T&M thread but I'm actually not totally against the idea. I just think it should be a quality product that's advertised to the right audience with a completely honest opinion and assessment.

Thats funny. But not at the same time.

Ooops I actually forgot to write up a little story from yesterday….There wasn’t really much to tell though. It was another run of the mill shoulder shot that someone wanted checked. We took it a good ways until everyone was satisfied that the deer was likely ok. It was one of those situations where they just wanted to make sure.

Another call just came in for tomorrow morning. Hunter got a pass through and thought he had made a good hit except for thinking that the deer might have ducked a little and caused him to hit high. Arrow passed through but didn’t have a ton of blood on it. They tracked it for 170 yards before the blood petered out. We’ll have to wait and get more details on this one in the morning. I’ve seen them hit high and live so its 50/50 on whether we have a dead deer. It’s supposed to be a pretty good one they said.

To be continued……..

Deer recovered...…nice 10 point.......Pics and story to come......

Looking forward to it CNC!

Well, there’s not really a whole lot of story to this one….It turned out to be one of the easy ones….I take the good with the bad so I won’t complain when we get a “gimme putt”. The buck had only made it 75 yards past where they lost blood. Might have taken 5 minutes to find it….Deer went approx. 230 yards. There wasn’t a whole lot of blood but plenty enough for the dogs to pick up on. It was funny because the dogs covered the first 150 yards in a matter of like 1-2 minutes and the hunter said….”Dang, it took us an hour to get to this point!”

Gonna start changing up some of my pics to be something other than just a dead deer laying there in the same old pose…..Gonna start off by posing this one on a cart…..

Man that’s a nice deer!!

WHOA!!! That's a goodun... I bet you got a big tip for that one....

Heck of a deer, great job!

Great buck

I just love to watch my dogs work man...…..




Tell the truth now....How many of you tried to turn your head upside down looking at that last buck?

Thats a toad right there.

Those dogs are on fire!

Thanks!

I’m noticing Shelby more and more with every track taking the lead away from Otis and pushing ahead. It’s exciting and rewarding to get to watch her develop into what I believe is gonna be one hell of tracking dog. I love Otis to death and he’s a heck of a tracker himself…..but Shelby just has a different gear than he does. Plus she’s working the air and ground all at the same time. I watch her check them both constantly…..Ground scent a little ways….check the air…..go back and progress the ground scent….check the air….she’s working it over from two angles the whole time.

I always enjoy watching your dogs work. They did a great job! Thanks for your help.

CNC, just want to say I am thoroughly enjoying this thread. Great pictures, details and just good stuff. Thanks for sharing with us all.

Thank you....I appreciate that.

What, no updates for almost 10 days? Come on man, my Friday at work needs some entertainment!