Good job Otis! I've tried keeping up with this thread, but sometimes due to work or kids I might have missed a post. I don't remember you ever posting up a successful "bayed up" story. Was this his first 2? Looks like he's really turning it on now!
Thanks!
Yep…..First two successful bays back to back. We’ve had a few other live deer this year but none we could bay up. This first one of the day had been hit low in the gut as well as being hit low in the back leg. He didn’t have much chance to get away. I saw him jump up in front of Otis and when he did….Otis ran around in front of the deer and cut him off. The deer stopped to turn back around and Otis circled back with it....about like a cuttin horse or something. The deer just locked down and froze. I called Otis back off the deer and the hunter missed from 40-50 yards. The deer bounced off but you could tell it was pretty hurt. I had Otis leashed so I told them lets just ease over the hill where the deer ran and see if its just standing there. Sure enough, it had just went over the rise in some open hardwoods and laid down. The hunter finished it off.
The second one was a low gut shot. It was 4-5 hrs after the shot but the deer was still alive. We tracked it out to around 800 yards when I heard Otis cut loose. The deer was bedded up in a tree top. I’m not sure what happened but from the sounds of Otis’s barking, he got in there too close on bay before we got to him. I think the deer tried to charge him a little cause his yelp went from aggressive to sounding more like something tried to get him. I wasn’t but 60-70 yards away by this time but I immediately toned him to try and get him back off the deer. He was coming back to me as I approached the small thicket where he had the deer bayed. I told the hunter to keep his eyes peeled and lets ease on up. The deer broke before we seen it and went over a little rise again similar to the first deer. You could tell this deer was pretty hurt as well. We slowly stalked for about a hundred yards behind where we saw the deer run. I kept Otis really close this time but watched him so he could guide us to the deer. I spotted it laying down again in those thinned pines you see in the pic about 60 yards ahead of us and the hunter was able to get propped and finish him off.
