Call comes in around 8:00 am….actually a text. The hunter wants to know if I will come out and look for a buck he shot the evening before around 3:30. He said it was a really nice 8 pt that he didn't even really think he had hit at first. He said the deer didn’t really show any typical reaction to being shot other than bolting. No blood at the hit site and no blood for the first 50 yards or so. The first spot of blood came where the deer made a hard turn into the bushes. The hunters tracked very spotty blood for about 100 yards and then lost it.
After texting back and forth for a while about the situation I tell him that I’m on my way. I get my tracking stuff on, the dogs loaded up, the house locked up, and I’m literally putting the truck in drive to leave when I get another text from him saying “Don’t come……another hunter just saw my buck and he’s not hurt.” So, I get back out and go on about my business.
A couple hours go by and then the hunter sends me another text of one of the blood spots they found. In the pic I can see this big glob of blood about the size of a nickel that looked similar to big blood clot. It reminded me of the little chunks of blown up stuff that’s usually down in the chest cavity when you’re field dressing one. He said they had found several of those in the first hundred yards. I told him that didn’t really look like just a grazing shot and asked him if he was for sure the other deer was his. After talking more to the other hunter he calls me back and decides it wasn’t his deer and he wants to come on. So I load everything up again and actually leave this time.
There wasn’t much to tell about the track. We arrived around noon and Otis went 470 yards right to it without even really working any checks on this one. The tiny wound holes had just clogged up and it wasn't leaving anything for them to track. We only saw a couple specks right before we found the deer. I forgot to ask the guy what he was shooting in all the excitement but there was barely any entry or exit hole. The exit hole was about as big around as your finger. He had hit the deer low behind the front leg and it came out low in the brisket in front of the off side leg. The exit hole is actually covered up by the deer's nose in the pic....there wasn't much to it. It was amazing the deer went as far as it did. A really nice deer though and a really happy hunter.
