The other night I arrowed a little buck from my property. He was one of many lopsided racked bucks thar i see on my property. 4 points on one side, and just a little nub on the other side. He passed in front of my blind thats built into the understory of a large cedar tree. He stood in front of me at 4 yards when i released the arrow. The shot looked good and the buck was off to the races, spraying blood the whole way.
Figured this would be a good introduction to blood trailing for my 5 year old daughter, Dylann, so i go home, gather up the wife and kid and come back out and take up the trail.
The trail was easy to follow. Everything was coated in blood. Dylann had no trouble following the blood down the hill anout 60 yards where it met up with a trail and went between 2 cedars and crossed a little gully.
Then it stopped. No tracks, no blood, nothing. What was just spraying all over the leaves and bluestem, had disappeared. The only sign was 2 very large puddles of blood, where the deer had stopped. Then, nothing. For the next 45 minutes me, my wife, and my daughter were fanned out looking for any speck of blood. I was beginning to wonder if my buck had been abducted by aliens.
While i was searching up and down the gully, I heard my Dylanns voice. "Daddy, i found some blood!" I could tell by where her headlamp was, she was back where the deer had come down the hill.
"No, Cam, this is different." My wife said. "This is a tiny drop and its not with the other trail."
So i cross the gully and join up where my daughter and wife was. Sure enough, a SMALL drop on a green blade of grass, a good 5 yards from the original trail.
The buck had backtracked and changed directions.
For about 20 yards my daughter was hunched over in grass twice her height, finding blood that I couldnt see until she pointed it out to me.
So I stepped back. And told my wife to do the same. This was Dylanns tracking job now, and she was on point. The light blood trail continued for another 40 yards, the kid never took her eyes off the ground, except for when we jumped a covey of quail, which made all of us jump.
My daughter followed the trail to a dry creek bed where the blood got easier to find, then up the other side into a meadow with high grass again. Me and my wife stayed about 5 yards behind the whole time.
Suddently, Dylann stops and says in her loudest whisper, "YALL!!! THERES A DEER RIGHT HERE!"
I may have killed it, but this is my daughters deer. I honestly dont know that i wouldve found this deer without her finding where he backtracked.
For those wondering, I shot this buck at 4 yards with my Great Plains B Model recurve, 48#@28in with. A 530gr Beman MFX Classic shaft and an Ace Standard head with 75gr adapter.
Thanks for reading. Cam
Topic: Shes got the knack. (Read 2948 times)
