I’ve never really judged the hunters much that I go track for no matter what the situation might be. We get calls about so much of the worst of the worst shots that I typically just don’t even think twice anymore about the shot they chose take or how bad they shanked a chip shot, etc….I just go right to assessing what they tell me and try to track it. I’m at the point right now though where I’m really getting bummed out here lately because of the streak of calls that are coming in. It's crazy how many we've had in a row like this. The last one I guess I never said anything but it was a miss too. A young boy was hunting by himself and I think he probably just assumed he hit it. The deer jumped in reaction to the shot and he saw that and described to his dad as the deer hunched or bowed up a little. I even went to help out a buddy this morning on one that I thought for sure we’d find a dead deer on. It was quartering to him in a food plot at 60 yards or so when he shot. He couldn’t find any sign of hitting it but felt like he should have hit it and I agreed with him.. He’s an experienced hunter and kills the chit out of good deer so I was thinking that he’d probably hit him about right but it angled back toward the guts and didn’t get an exit. Those are calls we get from time to time that most often result in an short easy run to a deer that’s just not putting out any sign to follow . Nope, not his time…..my sure thing was another miss. It happens to even the best of them from time to time and that's what is so crazy about this one. He never misses but did on this one and the streak continues.
I’m not hating on the hunters by saying all of that…Bad shots and misses are just the normal calls for trackers to get…..but damn it just seems like I’m stuck in some kind of rut and can’t catch a break with an easy find or at least something that might actually be dead somewhere. It’s usually a random mixed bag of calls flowing in with different types of hits from one to next…… but I’ve went on so many misses in a row now that it’s actually taken some of the fun away and making me feel pessimistic. It’s never bothered me before because we usually follow up the bad calls with the good one and the periodic finds balance things out. There’s always the silver lining of still getting paid on the bad calls but even that’s not feeling like the same consolation prize right now. I need the bad ju-ju to get off me and somebody call that’s blown the guts smooth out of one. I'm ready to see Shelby get on a promising track and see how she handles it alone.
