I was hunting a big 12 point on some public ground late season. Deer were on a heavy feed pattern after It snowed and on Day 3 of hunting that spot I finally put an arrow into him

I tracked him in the snow, blood on both sides for about 150 yards until the blood trail just hit a wall. It went from cups to specks in the span of a yard. I gave up the hunt and cams back the next morning at daylight. Well with the snow I was able to get back on the blood trail. I followed that thing for 5 hours and about 2 miles before the blood just started showing up in the hoof print.

As I followed that bloody hoof print in the snow I got to thinking..”man that’s a small track for a buck”.........”man, the buck I shot HAD to have a bigger hoof print than that”.


I still remember stopping in my tracks after figuring it out....somebody else had shot a deer and I got off on a SECOND blood trail in the snow. I doubled back and sure enough my buck had made a directional change right where he crossed the track of the other deer. It’s like they met at T intersection and both made a turn. I just kept walking straight onto the new deer’s line of travel! I ended up finding it at 1:00 pm after 220 lbs of whitetail had been reduced to bone by the local coyotes.

The other twist was that my shot had not killed the buck quickly; I got to follow the track and watch it play out from beds, to chase, to final show down with the coyotes. Gruesome.