Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Al Dogs A Tracking Story……….

Thanks. We give 100% every time anyway, can guarantee that

So far I think it starts off mostly like this.... There I wuz with my .243 I think is sighted in... but I had to just get some shells down at the gas station. I had my 2.5 year old son with me ready to take his first deer.

Probably more like this...There I wuz with my .243, I just put a new scope on it and didnt have time to go to the range, but the old scope was dead on and I could consistently put 3 shots in a pie plate at 25 yards off a sandbagged rest with the old one so I'm sure it is good to go. I found some .243 shells that someone had left at the camp and loaded it up with them and took my 2.5 yr old son with me to shoot his first deer. A monster walked out (will turn out to be a 30" 4 pt). Buck was so big that I knocked my son over and took the gun and shot that monster. I'm sure is was a perfect shoulder shot. The deer hunched up in the middle and walked off the field. Immediately got down and went to the last place we saw him and heard some deer run off. We walked around in there for about 3 hours looking but couldnt find any blood. I'm sure I hit him great and he's dead but me and my 2 yr old, his two older sisters, his mom and his 7 yr old older brother just cannot find him.

If I shoot one that weighs about 60bls in the back knee with a TTSX and get a complete pass through will it kill it?

Asking for a friend.

First one this morning was a low belly/brisket hit that ran about 300 yards before piling up in a cane thicket. The hunter didn’t find a whole lot of sign last night and decided to back out. It was simple run to it for Otis and Lu-lu





Second one was a leg/brisket hit from last night. A large group of searchers had pushed about a mile before finally losing blood. I wanted to run Otis and Ruby on this one but Otis was having a hard time working through the grid searching so I ended up putting Ruby back up so he could focus. Once he finally got it lined out we jumped the buck a couple hundred yards past where they had stopped.



The wound doesn’t look that terrible but it had him pretty debilitated……..to the point he just couldn’t run without his front end coming out from under him. He made it about 300 yards before he just locked down and that was that. This is looking under the armpit of the left leg.


I took this pic when I first walked up to it before seeing the rest of the wound. I thought this might be a good pic to get some folks panties in a wad over if I posted it and said “Bayed this brisket hit!!!”… In all seriousness, it just kinda goes to show that a single pic doesn’t always tell the whole story. We also went and checked a third track today but it was just a hard back whack

Watching dogs track is pretty awesome! Art Power tracked a 3rd deer for us n 3 years. 2 of them were very short tracks - we were being safe. On all 3 times - 5-10 minutes they were done. This last time - there was very little blood. Probably 1 silver dollar amount and few drops where shot happened. I told Art - doubt we ever find dead deer and if we do ever find - it will be very alive. Art said - whenever there is blood right at where deer was hit - you likely hit deer better than you think.

Each track i hav had doubts for diff reasons and each time the dogs do an awesome job getting the deer. The first 2-4 minutes the dog just circle around the shot spot and small circle around shot area but once they hit the track - it pretty dang fast. Really amazing to watch. Always underestimate their incredible ability (this last time was due to i thought i made horrible shot). Really fun and awesome to watch - that would b a cool job. Art said he had been on like 53 tracks so far this year. Said his dogs tired! Thats dang busy! Like Art!!

Went on a track around 10 this morning. Not much blood and it was bright red. Followed it for awhile and Muzz just couldn't do anything else with it. Pretty sure it was a graze across the front of one shoulder. Walking back the hunter told me he had never lost a deer and this made him sick. Anyways I'm watching my dogs on the gps and they tore out went around 200 yards and showed treed. I ask the hunter if he's missed any deer or if anyone else has been hunting. He looks at me kind of confused and said no why are you asking me that. I told him the dogs were treed on a dead deer so let's go look. A bobcat had covered it up and all I could see was a really nice looking rack with alot of mass. Turns out he shot at this deer almost 2 weeks ago and thought he had missed. I couldn't help but say so you haven't ever lost a deer huh.... We had a good laugh about it. Great guy to meet. He said he went to school with you Top cat if you see this. He was just right down the road from you. Went on a brisket shot deer up towards skyline this evening. Went close to a mile before the dogs just couldn't do anything else with it. It was over 24hrs old when we started the track and just never could catch up to him.

I know bad shots happen sometimes but some of these poor shots are ridiculous. Some of these folks need to put in some range time. And then letting a 5 yr try and shoot a deer with a high power rifle, what could go wrong there? But I do enjoy the stories your guys post up!

Gave another one a sled ride this morning……Big 6 pt that had been gut shot at daylight…..He was still alive when we found him but he bayed right up without any fuss and we were able to finish him off.

Routine run right to a really nice 8 pt shot in the point of the shoulder…..Had an entry hole but no exit……With only a few specks of blood in the field and rain moving in they called for the dogs………I’ll take the gimmie putts when we can get ‘em….

We ran the pee outta one slapped across the brisket and finally ran out of property. Called the dogs off and they came and laid down beside me. Steam was boiling off them.

We had another easy run of about 300 yards to a gut hit tonight that a teenager had shot this afternoon……..

Nice job! Got one lined up for in the morning. Honestly doesn't sound to promising but I guess we'll see

Glad I didn't have to clean that one CNC!

Well this morning’s track ended up being a team effort on the recovery……The deer was shot yesterday evening down through the top of the back with a bow and had about half the arrow broke off in him. Otis worked the track over and over trying to progress it but was struggling to follow it due to it just not putting out any blood. We finally split up and started grid searching and one of the hunters came up on him laying on the side of the creek…..Like the saying goes…..”It just be like that sometimes”….If you look you can see the entry hole just at the top of his shoulders. I've come to the conclusion over the years that a bow shot in that area is probably one of the toughest tracks to run for a dog.

Btw……Its tracks like these that make me really question the “interdigital gland” stuff that trackers tell everyone. If all of that were true then we should have been able to track this deer no different than any other deer we track…..Its the wound location though that makes it so tough.

Looks like a hell of a “roman” nose on that joker

Loren had received a call from a hunter yesterday that he had shot a deer, it had dropped, got over into some brush and laid there for a while before getting up and staggering off. Loren called and asked if I would want to help on the track and I reluctantly agreed.

I met up with the hunter, Loren and Rory and we hit the trail. At the shot site we noticed pieces of leg bone (I felt a little better about the track at this point). I turned Scout loose while Loren and Rory worked on lead. It wasn't long before I looked at the GPS and Scout was out 300 yds. She continued on to a point where she was about 600 yds from the shot site. She stopped for a second and I thought she had found the deer DOA. She then turned and come back to me and I told the hunter she had found him but he was still alive. With all the blood they had followed they felt there was no way the deer was still alive. We let Loren and Rory follow the trail and we got to the point the deer was bedded when Scout got up to him.

At this point the buck had crossed a wide open field and we felt he would be bedded not far into the woods. Loren and Rory worked that way as Scout and I stayed off to the side. Once they got to the wood line the buck jumped up and took off. We got after him and after crossing 3 creeks within a 100 yd stretch Scout and I were able to finish him off about 250 yds from where he was jumped.

The buck had traveled about 1100 yds from shot site.

Scout does not run them down alive like she used to before she got horned 3 times but she has taught me there are other ways to go about catching up with some of these leg shot deer, especially the ones that really will not make it.

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