Things are not always what they appear

[Steve O]

Great job, great lesson. Thanks for expanding and enhancing our knowledge thru your experience.

[malcom.f]

Great post a lot to be taken from this. Goes to show you what experience in a situation does.

[habujohn]

Excellent information for all of us to follow.  I will say that  one of the things I do when finding my arrow is smell it even when it visually looks great.

[BowArkie]

So how big was he??

[Jim Brennen]

Great Read, Thank You

[zipper bowss]

Thanks for all the comments guys. Moe is 4 now and really beginning to come into his own on this tracking stuff. He is getting old enough that he is a little slower on the tracks now. He use to try to run them just as fast as possible but he is settling down nicely now.

 

Originally posted by Sam McMichael:
So, how long did it take to find it again?

It took Moe roughly 5 minutes to cover the track.

BowArkie
The buck was a basket racked 8 point. I'd say he was a 2 yr old deer.

[Butch Speer]

Thanks Bill. Great post.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Great story Bill.... gotta love that pooch!

[Izzy]

You the man Bill, or maybe Moe is the man. You're both a ok in my book.

[Mudd]

[Caughtandhobble]

Way to go Moe, I just love a good dog... My friend we could share some stories about good dogs and some funny hunter's stories about after the shot. I learned early to listen to the dog and not the hunter, lol.

[The Night Stalker]

Way to to go from Tim and Ximo

[J. Cook]

I know there are regulations about "hunting"  deert with dogs, but I did not know that recovery dogs were illegal anywhere?  I guess if the animal is wounded and still alive, that really "blurs" the lines of trailing and hunting with a dog.  

Cool story - I grew up with hunting beagles and it truly a joy to watch a dog work when he/she's doing what they were meant to do!  

Good job Moe!

[elkken]

great post ... way to go Moe        

[ron w]

Moe is my HERO.........  

[Ray Hammond]

I was the founder of a pretty large urban deer control group in the 90's.  We were hunting a golf subdivision...and our efforts were always to be "unseen" by any resident or golfer even if it meant not taking a shot at a deer if we felt it would cross in front of a golfer or go into someone's yard.

We had a guy and  his buddy in the group- they were compounders- both passed the shooting proficiency test with flying colors- showed us photos of lots of dead deer. They shot cut on impact heads- as we would not allow expandables

One Saturday I get a call to come help this guy who had shot a forkie and lost the trail.

I asked the typical questions and got what sounded like the right answers....including the shot was right in the goodie box...I said "which side of the deer did you shoot into, and what was his reaction?" Broadside, on the deer's right, tight to the shoulder, and he bucked up and took off like a scalded dog- was the response. How long since the shot? 1 hr 15 minutes.

We went to where he'd marked the impact spot- i found 1 or 2 drops....and every 12 feet another drop or two- in a straight line- headed for a fairway.  I followed onto the fairway, and found one small oak leaf in the middle of the open, neatly mown fairway that had a speck of blood on it- and I went straight across...and picked up the trail.  75 yards later- creeping along, I see the deer bedded on the edge of the fairway with his head up, very alert.  He gets up and walks away from us.  

I just happened to be hunting in that block of timber a lot- and knew the trails.  I sent him and his cohort around in a  big loop and told them exactly where to get on the two track that ran through the middle- that the deer would come across just toward me from them, at about 20 yards and he might be able to finish it.

I pushed it, watching it ahead of me, slowly so it wouldn't run, and saw the wound- it was in the lower RIGHT leg of the deer- not a fatal hit at all...just trickling drops of blood.

It crossed the road, and he pumped two more arrows into it to finish it.  He was so excited about the kill I waited till the next day to fire him so he could enjoy the moment.

In several years, thankfully, we didn't have too many of those situations.

[Matty]

Nice job to Moe!
Pretty nice buck too!!

[zipper bowss]

Here is a pig from a couple of years back. Moe literally saved my bacon on this one. It was a good hit but just a lousy trail.
   
This is the same pig. Moe decided to sneak in a victory kiss without my permission.
   

Over the last 4 years he has found several deer, pigs, and bear for various folks. Yep we are proud of him.    :D

[Wapiti Chaser]

My hat goes off to the people that use dogs to track deer . They give up untold hours of there best hunting time to help others recover deer . It truely takes a sportsman to give there time to make sure as few deer as possible go unrecovered. This is a big Thank you to all of trackers !!!

[CoachBGriff]

Great post!  

I'm an avid shed hunter and people always ask why I don't get a dog to help.  I don't want an animal to take all the fun from me!

HOWEVER, I would LOVE to have a dog that could help me an my friends/family track animals!  Nothing is better than watching a good blood dog do his thing.

Nice post, and thanks for sharing!