Been slow but was able to help recover one last week.

This one was shot by my wife's family and he only had a few drops of blood. We arrived to this one pretty quick (2-3 hours after the shot). I really do not like doing them that soon because I think all of the fresh scent can be overwhelming to Scout at times. But the shot felt good and there are lots of coyotes in the area. I told him if we come to a bed and the deer wasn't in it, we would back out. Anyway, we started at shot site and worked a good way and started finding on and off spots of blood. Scout worked ahead about 100 yds and then turned and come back to tell me the deer was still alive. We made our way to that spot and there were several spots of blood but no bed. She took us another 150 yds or so and stopped and kept looking ahead. I finally spotted the buck bedded down looking our way. I was able to finish him off in his first bed (about 550 yds from shot site). Deer had been shot way back about mid height of the body and exited out the belly somehow.

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Ran a gut shot track tonight. Muzz lined it out in a matter of minutes and had the deer bayed. By the time we got to them I watched the deer lay down so I called Muzz off and let the hunter finish him.

Loaded up one more this morning……Deer was shot on a quartered away angle…..the bullet entered the shoulder and exited out the front of the brisket. It sounded at first like it might be a leg shot but we found him dead on arrival roughly 300 yards from the hit site……

Keep up the good work guys 👍👍

Went and checked what was likely just a grazed brisket tonight with no luck.......Headed in the morning to check what sounds like a backwhack but maybe it'll turn out to be something different.......Just three days left now.

Appreciate y’all taking the time to post all these stories. Very entertaining.

Glad you enjoy the stories......

We got lucky this morning and was able to recover the backwhack from yesterday evening’s hunt……The hunter had actually shot him twice nearly in the same spot at the top of the back…..We jumped him about 400 yards from the hit site and played leap frog with him for the next 600 yards…. Every time we would get into position to shoot, he’d break again and run another 75 yards. We did that about 6-7 times before were finally able to get him in some more open woods and get a clean finishing shot.

Little side note to the story…….My patience is a lot thinner at the end of the year than it is going into bow season……I’m like everyone else and I start getting a little burnt out and ready for the season to end. “People” wear on me over time.

So a little background…….I’ve been letting the hunters carry their own rifle this year because its just a lot more convenient not to have to drag a rifle around into all of the thickets we go through….. but you really want to have a rifle with you instead of just a pistol. So the hunter is the rifle toter while I just work the dogs……I tell them not to have one in the chamber until we know we need it and don’t shoot until I say the word “shoot” and everything will go smoothly. Each time someone takes a shot I always ask them right afterwards…..”Is your safety back on??”……They say yes….. I say good deal……etc….Just to make sure we stay safe and someone doesn’t forget in the excitement…..It’s never been an issue……..until today.

This morning everything went smoothly at first…..we bayed the deer up…..got a good clean shot with the dogs cleared and finished the deer off…..Well, when I asked the guy after the shot….. “Is your safety back on??”……He replies….”Nah man, its off… …….”…….I said “What?”…….He replies…..”Nah man I don’t even use a safety… what’s that for?? ……Just obviously being a smart ass……To be honest I really don’t even recall exactly what I said after that……I felt my face start turning red and burning…….I think you could probably see the steam coming off the top of my head because it didn’t take long before ol’ boy was……“Just joking man!”……”I’m a jokester!!......I didn’t mean nothing by it!!”

(Sighhh)……It’s all good…..just people being people and the cost of not carrying the rifle myself. I guess next year I’ll go back to being the shooter again….its just simpler that way…..

I tell you another reason that I’ll likely go back to being the shooter myself next year……iffin we’re just talking chit around the campfire…….

About half of these recoveries we are able to pretty much run right to the deer without a whole lot of “searching” on the part of the dogs……Those seem to go fine for the most part ……The other half of the tracks require more meticulous dog work to locate…..which doesn’t require anything out of me and the hunter but to just stand there in one spot and let the dogs work……sometimes its 5, 10 , 15 minutes ……

Some hunters have no issue with it and we stand there and chat about hunting while the dogs work……For others though its TOUUUUGH on their patience and they start wandering off looking on their own despite you asking them repeatedly to just stick with you……Instead of “staying in my hip pocket with the gun because we could jump the deer at any moment”…..they’re 100 yards behind looking at their phone or something. It's just simpler and more efficient to be the shooter and tote the rifle. Its easier to focus on the task at hand instead of trying to manage the dogs AND the shooter.

I'm kill 99 percent of the deer we track for safety reasons. The last track I went on the guy asked to finish him and we did it in a safe matter.The 2nd main reason I finish most of them is simply because the hunters can't keep up

Went out tonight to look for a possible front leg hit on a quartering to shot......Ended up just being grazed....only found a few drops of blood. Two more days to go.......

Went on a pretty easy one lastnight for a old German guy I've tracked for in the past. 150 yards no blood took about 3 minutes. At 83 years old he has some good stories to tell and a lot of spunk

When he called me lastnight he was so proud to tell me about his new driveway alarm. His exact words were don't call or nothing when you pull up I'll know.I sat around for about 20 minutes in his driveway before I gave up and knocked on his door. Boy was he upset he didn't know I had been outside.He's allergic to deer so when I first tracked for him around 5 years ago he basically suited up to gut the deer. Even wears a mask because of the dander. He brings out a sack full of knives that are so dull he can't do anything with them. I had my knife so I gave it to him to use. He's dead set on only gutting deer on the ground. Waste of time to hang them according to him. We always gut them beside his tractor shed. I get tickled everytime I look over and see a few tractors with front end loaders and us struggling trying to hold the deers legs open, flashlights, dogs in the way etc. Anyways he guts deer the most arsebackwards way I've ever seen. Starts at the chest and works his way back, refuses to cut around the butt. Gotta take a hatchet and hack through the pelvis. Makes the biggest mess you've ever seen. Lastnight I dragged his deer out, gutted it and loaded it in the back of his truck. I did it exactly like he has always done it and he was so proud lol. I really enjoy everything about tracking. Meet alot of great folks I'd of never knew otherwise.

Really enjoyed the stories this year guys! Really appreciate it!

Coming down to the end now……If this ends up being our last one then you couldn’t have ended on a better track……Eight year old buck the hunters have been after for years……only seen him twice in the daylight……Came through this morning and the hunter leg shot him. We tracked right to him and he bayed up right out of the bed but broke and ran as we made our way in to him…..We finally got him wo’ed up and finished off at the creek after several hundred yards.

The 3rd being... "Can't hit the broadside of a barn...." .......

That's why your tracking in the first place 90% of the time.

Went and checked one this morning that was most likely just grazed......Only had a few drops of blood and we never did jump him........Last call for tracking dogs!!!!!!

This is my favorite thread of the season, thanks for sharing the stories and pics! Harold, you probably don’t remember this, but we met at the tracker meeting back before covid. I enjoyed talking with you while scratching Otis ears. I had intentions of getting a German wire hair dachshund and training it, but life happened and I never did.