Things are not always what they appear

[zipper bowss]

Things are not always what they appear. It seems this point gets reinforced every year around this time.
As some of you know I have a buddy that is a pretty fair tracker. His name is Moe.
 Tuesday evening at about 9:45 pm. I got a call.The call came from a good friend who wanted to know if Moe could come track a deer for a friend of his. I said no problem have your friend give me a call. Sure enough the phone rang just a minute or so after I hung up with said friend of mine. Often enough these calls all start out very similar.The voice on the other end started with "sorry to bother you but I shot a deer deer and I'm having problems".I said "no problem what is going on". The story was told. I'll give you the brief version. The hunter hunts with a recurve and had taken a ethical shot at a young buck resulting in what the hunter thought was a perfect hit.I was told the arrow looked great with lots of blood and no bad smell about it. After the shot calls were made for back up to drag the deer out and assist with the tracking job.This all took about 2 hours before they started tracking. Blood was very sparse at the shot and along the trail. The track had only gone about 50 yards when the deer suddenly got up and took off. That is when they backed out and called me.

[TradBrewSC]

I'm in..

[Onehair]

I had a yellow Lab that found over 60 deer for me. I got all kind of calls from hunters that just shot a booner. I would gather my grip, get the dog and go find their 4 point.

[zipper bowss]

I asked the caller to tell me just exactly how the deer acted after the shot. I was told the deer took a few bounds and walked/trotted off just out of sight. My next question was what was the deer's body language like. The caller said the buck would hump up in his middle. AHHH an important bit of information right there. The buck was humped up I said? Yes the caller replied. Well that means he was gut shot. COULDN'T BE the caller replied the arrow smelled fine and I saw it strike the deer perfectly.Things are not always what they seem was my response.What I was thinking was. Then why are you calling me at 10 pm for help tracking your deer. Tracy has taught me to be more tactful these days so I bit my tongue. A bit of discussion followed but I'll keep this the short version. I convinced the caller that we needed to leave the deer until morning and that the time between the shot and sunrise would not mean a thing to Moe but would be the difference between a dead deer that will not go terribly far and a deer that will run until it drops if it is pushed.

[Sam McMichael]

So, how long did it take to find it again?

[Whip]

Moe to be rescue!
Three good things happened so far.
They waited two hours rather than rushing after it.
They backed out immediately when the deer was bumped.
They knew a friend who has a friend with a tracking dog.
Get'em Moe!

[zipper bowss]

Moe and I arrived at the designated are well before daylight as agreed. The hunter was there waiting patiently. We then drove to the farm where  the track was waiting. It was still not daylight enough so we waited for the sun to come up a bit more. While waiting we examined the arrow by the truck lights and discussed the whole scenario again.I was pleased that the story I got that morning was exactly the same as the one I had gotten the night before. The arrow did indeed look good. There was good blood on it and no sign of a paunch hit. Until you smelled the arrow. Then the smell of gut was very faint.
Once the sun came up enough that I could easily see Moe's reaction to the track I harnessed him and let him smell the arrow. I swear he gave me a sly wink of his left eye as to say don't worry boss I got this.    :D   Ok maybe that part was all in my head but I was confident Moe would do his job well.

[zipper bowss]

Once we got to the point of the shot. (Which was well marked by the hunter with a glove). Good job hunter on marking the shot well. I asked him to point out where the deer went. Meanwhile Moe is under my arm whining to be sat down. He already knows where the deer went. After a short discussion on the deer escape path I sat Moe down and we were off. We had only went about 20 yards on the track when we came to intersecting deer trails. Moe checked each of them. Then set off the direction the deer had ran. I had not seen any blood yet. In another 30 yards or so we came to the first bed. There was only a small amount of blood in it. Moe showed a little interest and then we were off at a walk again. The hunter pointed out the bed as I walked through it.
Over the next 100-150 yards the trail turned left then right several times. Finally we ended up at an old over grown logging road. Moe looked right then looked left and we were off again. The dead deer laid ahead of us on the old 2 track not more than 50 yards.

[zipper bowss]

Once at the deer Moe got his usual praise and a little time to take out some frustration on the deer before the hunter began gutting and tagging the deer so we could drag it out.
While the gutting chore was going on we had a discussion about what went right and what went wrong.
What went right.
1) hunter marked the shot site well as well as the direction of travel after the shot and the last place they saw the deer.
2) hunter gave the deer time to move off and expire before taking up the track.
3) Once the "dead" deer was jumped from his first bed they backed out and looked for other options
4) hunter wanted to go back in that night after more time but after our talk agreed to leave the deer over night and come back in the morning.
5) Moe did a great job tracking for us.

What went wrong.
The shot was taken at a broadside deer. The shot looked perfect to the hunter but actually entered the deer just in front of the hip on the left side of the deer and exited up towards the off shoulder. It went through gut liver and maybe the back of one lung.
The only explanation is that the deer wheeled to run at the shot resulting in the bad hit.
So after all of that gut the arrow went through why was there no gut material and very little gut smell about the arrow. The only explanation is that as the arrow passed through the liver, lung rib cage, and hide most of the gut material was replaced by actual blood. The smell on the arrow was so faint if you were not looking for it you would have very likely missed it.

Lots of lessons in this tracking job and no things are not always as they appear. Even with the bad hit we still collected this deer because of the things the hunter did that we should all do on every shot. Perfect or not. Also because Moe and his beautiful nose. The whole track from start to finish took about 5 minutes.

[KentuckyTJ]

Great post Brother. Moe is the real deal there is no doubt. Watching a well trained dog do a professional job is one of life's greatest moments in my book. Moe made short work on one for me last year that I hit behind the ribs.

 

[zipper bowss]

Originally posted by KentuckyTJ:
Great post Brother. Moe is the real deal there is no doubt. Watching a well trained dog do a professional job is one of life's greatest moments in my book.

Spoken like a true houndsman.  

[wingnut]

Yep there have been many times I'd wished for a good dog on the trail of a "perfect" shot. It's funny how our mind plays tricks on us.  Many times the shot we "saw" is not the shot that occurred.  Also how many times have we made a perfect shot and over the next 30 minutes talked ourselves into a marginal hit?

Good tracking skills whether human or canine are a great asset.

Mike

[Pierre Lucas]

Great read.... Well done

God Bless,

[Jayrod]

Well said bill....thxs for sharing!!

[fnshtr]

I sure wish deer trailing dogs were legal here in WV!!

Great post with information we all need to hear.

Thanks!                

[meatCKR]

Awesome post Bill.  Good lessons here that we all need reminding of every now and then.  Thank you for sharing.

Steve

[achigan]

Excellent tutorial without sounding like a teacher. Read every word THANKS!!!

[TradBrewSC]

great stuff!

[23feetupandhappy]

[Jwilliam]

Great stuff right there !!!    


Bill