I’m behind on stories fellas…..I’ve either been tracking or hunting this last week and there just wasn’t a whole lot of a story to tell on most of the tracks. Most of them have been clean misses. One guy took his girlfriend hunting for the first time with plans on her shooting a doe. First deer they see was a giant at probably 100-125 yards. Deer just jumped back in the woods after the shot and they weren't sure if it was a hit or not. No blood, no hair, no indication of anything from the dogs after gridding out the area.
Went on another track that was very similar. Buck turned and walked off the field after the shot but the hunter felt like he was hunched up…..no blood, no hair, no indication from the dogs of a hit after a couple hours of searching. The area was really open too so it made it pretty simple to search and we looked it over really well.
Went on one more where the hunter shot at a good buck from about 275 yards in a powerline and only found a few small spots of blood for 50 yards or so. This one was about 30 hours after the shot which is getting to be a pretty old scent line and was really tough for the dogs to progress….Again though, the area was extremely open on this one too. Just a bunch of open hardwood ridges where you could see probably 200 yards in every direction. We walked our tails off on that one up and down every possible hill and holler but no deer. It was likely just grazed.
Another call was on a giant that the hunter shot from a ground blind in a long lane. He said he didn’t see how the deer reacted after the shot because it got gone out of the lane so quick. He felt like it was a gut shot though and reported finding a little green gut juice near the hit site but no blood or hair. I looked at it when we first started the track but didn’t really get down and inspect it with my nose or anything. After spending over two hours dang near searching out the guys entire property with no indication from the dogs of a scent line…..we went back to hit site and determined that the gut matter was actually diarrhea deer chit and it was very likely a clean miss.
Got another call for tomorrow morning that sounds really similar. A kid shot a good buck this evening. They can’t find any blood or hair but felt like the deer “hunched up” when he shot before exiting the field. I’m really hoping for the best on this one but I just don’t feel too optimistic right now. You never know though…..that’s why we go and track them when folks call on us. I can definitely understand why some trackers choose to screen their calls and only take the ones with a high likelihood of recovery. Searching for these misses is 10 times the work and walking as the ones where we recover a hit deer. I just see it as part of what a tracker does though. Many of these tracks are for the same clubs and landowners that I’ve tracked for in the past and I feel like I’m there to help them no matter what they have or haven’t found when they call. You just take the good with the bad and enjoy the time spent in the woods with the dogs on a lot of really great hunting land.
