I think a lot of times the hunter wants a dog asap and lots of times a tracker will not offer to come right away. The only times I have called one neither offered yo come that night both wanted to wait til morning. If I had called another guy and he said he was on his way I dang sure would not tell him no. In that case had I already spoke to you I would let you know someone else was coming out right then.
Some hunters do want you to come out right then and I suspect that had a lot to do with this one. They wanted to track it right then. That doesn’t mean the tracker should go though. Any tracker that’s been doing this for a while is likely not going to come right out every time. How many heart and lung shots do you think we get called out on?? Yeah, pretty much none. They’re just about always marginal hits that need to be given some time....leg hits being about the only exception.
There’re a couple common themes that play out over and over again……1) Most hunters believe they’ve made a much better shot than what they actually have. It’s very common even with a bow…….and 2) Most hunters have no real concept of how long they actually need to give a marginally hit deer before tracking it.
I hear it all the time….”We gave him an hour or we gave him two hours”……Once in a blue moon you’ll hear someone say they gave it 3 or 4. However, I commonly find deer that are still alive that we’ve given over night…12-15 hrs. Low gut hits are just about guaranteed to take that long to die. The deer from the rant was a definite low gut hit. White hair, blood, and stomach contents at the hit site. Going in and tracking that deer 4 or 5 hours after the shot is just asking to jump it up and run it onto someone else’s property, across a highway, into a river, etc…..The best chance of recovery is to let it bed up and get weak. Getting on one too quickly that you know for sure is a low gut hit is also taking a risk of getting your dog gored. A very active tracker in GA had his lab gored and killed earlier this year on a very similar track as this one.
I'm just saying that there's some very good reasons why trackers may not run right out there and track your deer as soon as you call.
