Had an interesting hunt the other day. I shot a good sized doe - hit looked good, maybe just a tad back, but a solid passthrough shot in the ribs with a big 160 Snuffer on a 7 yard broadside deer. Gave her a couple hours to be sure then went back with a couple of helpers and our Dachshund pup Oskar that we've been training to blood track. Figured this would be a simple 75-100 yard track in the snow and load her up and bring her home.
We started the track about 3h after the hit and tracking went well with moderate blood for the first 75 yards then got into a CRP field and things became interesting. 2 hours later we had found 6-8 wound beds with decreasing blood and covered around 450 yards of trail in the CRP field before the dog took me across a county road. After the first 150 yards or so in the CRP grass the blood was very spotty, even in the snow. After crossing the road I heard the deer jump and go off - keep in mind I had watched the (shaving sharp) Snuffer tipped arrow go through her ribs several hours before this. Oskar started tracking hot at this point and we took her another 200 yards or so and came upon her bedded down 10 yards away, still alive. We are not allowed to carry a weapon when tracking with a dog so at this point things were at a dead end. After 20-30 min the doe jumped up and ran into the timber. Assessment of the wound bed showed only a couple of spots of blood and no visible blood on the flight path. I decided to back out at that point, and my helpers convinced me that I had a non-fatal hit (shoulder or back) and that the deer would live.
That night I kept thinking about the situation and I was convinced that this deer was mortally wounded - I knew what I saw at the hit. I went back in the morning with Oskar and put him in the deer's last bed. There was an additional 1-1.5 inches of new snow, so there was no visible trail, but he tracked directly to the dead deer approx 75-100 yards further into the timber. The coyotes got one hind quarter, but I salvaged the rest of the deer and got closure for myself (and Oskar) on the track.
This is a virtually unbelievable situation to me - the deer was hit 3-4 inches forward of the diaphragm through the chest and there was a visible Snuffer hole through the back lobe of both lungs. I can only attribute this deer living so long (around 5h) and travelling so far (approx 800 yards) to very bad luck in evidently not striking a major vessel/artery in the back of the lungs.
The deer may have been found the next morning closer to the hit site, but I would not generally give a chest shot deer more than 4 hours before tracking regardless.
This is the strangest thing I've personally ever witnessed on probably 80-100 blood trails, and certainly would have never found this deer without the dog.
This is my first year tracking with a dog, and Oskar (5 months old) is 12 for 12 on mortally hit deer this fall. I'll never be without access to a blood tracking dog from now on if I can help it.
Ryan
The top picture is the entry wound, and the bottom is the exit wound.
Topic: Tracking Education - a lesson from a wiener dog (with pics) (Read 1187 times)
