I really appreciate all the comments. I’m glad everyone is enjoying the stories. I hope they not only entertain everyone but I also hope that they’re able to serve as learning experiences for everyone to draw from. So often times after the shot the stories end with 50 yards of sign to track and then nothing more after that then wondering what happened. These stories will hopefully shed a little more light on how deer react to different shots and what we can do to be more successful in recovering them. Below is a closer look at where this deer was shot. A couple of things could have been done differently that would have made this deer easier to recover.

The main one would have been if the deer had not been pushed so far within an hour or two of the shot. If you start tracking a deer within an hour of the shot and you’ve followed it more than 200 yards without finding it……real consideration should start being given to backing out and waiting. Its likely a marginal hit and the deer will need to be given some time. We were really lucky yesterday that the deer wasn’t off in the river. There was really no need to have tracked the deer 800 yards the night before continuing to push the deer. After a few hundred yards of tracking, you know the deer isn’t hit in the major vitals and will need time.

The other thing that will help you find the deer if you decide to bring in a dog, is to try and leave a reasonably clean scent line for the dog to follow. Don’t take 3 or 4 or your buddies out there with you to blood trail the deer and stomp all through the woods. Track it alone or with one other person and be deliberate about where all you walk. If the blood trail peters out, mark it and be conservative about how you proceed ahead. Just keep in mind that the more loops you make and the farther ahead you go “blindly”….then the more the dog will have to work through to locate the real line. If 3 or 4 folks have grid searched for 200-300 yards ahead of last blood then it I will nearly leave me with no other choice than trying to make a big arc around the search area and hope we run across the clean scent line. On the other hand, if it were only one person tracking and they had just backed out after losing blood….then the dog would probably never miss a beat as it passed where you stopped. Just some things to keep in mind if you yank the shot on that big one and you really want to find him.




Last edited by CNC; 12/11/15 06:46 AM.
Folks that know don't shoot old does........ wink