Went on one track this morning. The hunter had called yesterday about meeting but I never heard back from them and thought maybe they had decided not to search more for the deer. They called back just after daylight this morning and wanted to know if I could meet them.
The deer was shot yesterday morning crossing a small powerline so this was about 22-24 hrs later. It was roughly a 200 yard shot with the deer walking across the powerline angling toward the hunter. The hunter said the deer was just walking but wouldn’t check up even when he whooped. He shot at it walking just before it entered the woodline. He said it just flinched and disappeared. They had found small drops of really dark red blood for about 100-150 yards until it crossed an interior property road and that’s where they lost it.
I figured the deer had just turned and went up the road instead of crossing over and that’s exactly what we found to have happened when we started searching this morning. I’m finding that to be a very common thing for them to do so don’t always just assume that the deer crossed straight over the road. They often turn and run down the road before entering back into the thicket on a different trail….sometimes as much as 100-200 yards down the road.
So we tracked up the road for just a short distance before the deer looped back headed in the direction it had originally come from. It went through this thick arse patch of young natural pine regen that was no more than a few acres I’d say. Otis was only about 15-20 yards ahead of us in the thicket when all hell broke loose. “Reeee!!!! Reeeee!!!....(snort, snort, snort).
A big group of pigs got up and sounded like they were all in the thicket around us. Otis is going ape chit up in front of me and I’m trying to get my pistol drawn before one comes running in on us…..about that time it sounded like he cut a piglet out of the group and took it down through the woods squealin like hell! In the meantime the other pigs are still around us snortin and making pig noises. I toned Otis off of the little pig and called him back to me…..but when I did I called him right back into the group of pigs again and he cut another one out of the group and took off again. The pigs around us are still hollerin and squealing this whole time but not running ....just staying in this few acre thicket with us. This time I popped Otis with the shock collar and we got the hell up out the thicket to regroup…………
