Harold you are so correct on the bays...things can real sporty real quick..definite adrenalin rush ..I don't let nobody shoot over my dogs we have that understanding before we ever leave the truck it's still there deer even if I have to finish it

Ruby is progressing really well for a young dog . She’s only 7 months old and already trying to bay them…..She had a buck on bay for a moment during bow season that she winded out ahead of us but I couldn’t get her cleared quick enough to for the hunter to shoot safely and the buck broke bay. We lost that one to Line Creek.

This was another she winded and ran to from about 75-100 yards away that Otis was tracking us to. This was the hunter’s first deer with a bow……It went around 400 yards but just quit bleeding after about 100-150 and they called us to come find it…..

You need to get otis on a good long track and settle him down lol

The weirdest thing just happened earlier.....Ruby quit being receptive to it and was just getting pissy about him messing with her so I let her outside with him to play.....I figured I'd just let him get all of the hunching and everything out of his system before I even take him on a track.....Well, I was keeping an eye on them just to make sure she wasnt gonna actually let him breed and he's just wearing himself out fighting with her.....Next thing I know I look out and SHE is huching the hell out of HIM and he's got his pecker hung ALL THE WAY OUT with a look on his face like he was smiling .....I mean she was hunching the chit out of him too.....That ended it completely......They are both just acting like everything is back to normal now....I dont really know what I just witnessed.

We took a little boat back down to the creek to try and recover that one Ruby had bayed the next day but never did find it. It was a gut hit too that most likely died. I assume he was lost to the creek because we looked it over really well.

2020 strikes again.

Is that what they call make up sex ?

I dont know I'm still confused by what I saw taking place....I feel like I walked in on this scene from Road Trip.....

NSFW

"Stop!!....Ok....keep doing it!!".......

Pay back.....she was probably saying how you like me now otis

We’ve had one little mishap so far this year. I still don’t know what got us but I’ve been stung by yellar jackets before and this was worse. It was right at the start of a track and it got me and the dogs both all of sudden. I took off running and got the hell out of dodge. Maybe we walked by a hornets nest or something. Whatever it was got me on the shoulder and a spot about the size of your fist swelled up and burned all evening…..Otis got stung above the eye and his eye nearly swelled shut….I saw Ruby get hit on her butt it looked like....Whatever it was I'd hate to get lit up by a bunch of 'em

Murder hornets.

All good

Probably the most enjoyable part of tracking for me is all the beautiful properties I get the opportunity to see.........Places way off the paved road.

Bout time you post some stories!! Thanks!! Keep ‘em coming!

Dr. B

Really loving these stories.

I’ve got a couple more basket racks we’ve found but there's really not much to the stories on them....pretty straight forward finds. I’ll have to do a throwback version for a good story to tell........Once upon a time in a land far, far away.............

This was one of my first years of tracking but its still one of my all-time favorite tracks and one I probably wont ever forget. This was one of the first live ones we ever had to finish off. The buck was shot the evening before in a small food plot on top a hill in a cutover….It ran off toward a large creek bottom but wasn’t bleeding enough to follow….It ended up being hit really high.

We got there the next morning and Otis took it like a champ….I mean he was going with it without any issues. The creek we had to cross wasn’t huge but it took a little maneuvering to get across it without going in knee deep. It was taking the older gentleman I was tracking for a minute to get across and while waiting I noticed on my GPS that Otis had gotten a couple hundred yards ahead of us.

Well, I give the hunter a hand and we get across and we’re ready to go again when I look at my GPS and here Otis is coming back to us about 100 yards out….No sooner than I looked up from my GPS here this big buck comes running straight at me at like 40 yards and runs by me and the hunter so close it felt like you could slap him on the butt as he ran by…..He went by and here comes Otis by us yepping like hell.

So immediately toned Otis off of him and the buck stopped at about 60-70 yards. At that time I was still letting the hunter take the gun so I told the hunter “Shooot him!!!.....SHOOOOT!!!”……Looking back on it I probably should have said that a little calmer so as to not excite the hunter even more but I was just a shook up as he was at the time….lol!.... Poor guy was so shook up he missed the buck about 4 times….. It was understandable too because this buck had just come out of nowhere and about run over both us a few seconds before….Finally the deer broke again and disappeared into a cypress swamp.


I turned Otis back loose but he was hesitant about just taking off in behind it. It looked really hurt so I didn’t figure it went far….We were creeping along following Otis when I saw something out of the corner of my eye…..I looked to my right and this big joker is laying on his belly in some cypress knees with his head down letting us walk right by him. I told the hunter in a soft voice as to try not to spook the deer….”There he is at like 15 yards!”…… …BOOOOOOOM!!!.......He was still so shook up he damn near missed again at 15 yards!!!.....



But we got him and it'll always be one of my favorite tracks to look back on….I’m telling y’all it gets exciting when one gets up alive….especially a big one. This was a big ol’ bodied deer too. I see a lot of them and he’s still one of the bigger bodied ones we’ve found…..I suspect he weighed in the 215-220 lb range

Great pics and stories Harold. Keep em coming.

Thanks! ............Just got back from Midway.........no luck though.....I believe it was just a grazed brisket. There was a few spots of blood and a little hair knocked off the deer but that was it. The dogs never really picked up on anything.

Great stories as usual. Keep em coming!!

About to take Ruby Roo up the road a couple miles to see if we can help find a doe.....The hunter says its a hard gut shot with good sign and would be a good one for a young dog so we'll see. It was shot yesterday evening......It should be a really good training track for her but we'll see how it goes.....you never know about these things until you start tracking


I've got my boots on the boot dryer letting them warm up right now though......Left them outside last night