"The long day buck"
Down to 3 of 8
We had a death in the family and had to drive down to Scioto County and were stopping off in Jackson county to visit family while passing through. On the way, I got a call at about 10:30 AM from a hunter needing a dog up in Darke County. His account of the shot sounded great, he sounded honest and not just saying whatever he needed to say in order to get a dog (happening way to much, dont do this!), and he even had video of the shot! It would be late, but we agreed to take the track the same day.
As I was driving and checking out the footage, it looked like a perfect shot at 50 yards from a tree stand slightly quartering to. We rushed and did what we needed to do, then set the gps to Darke County, which was 150 rainy miles away and past our home. We arrived to the hunter at 7:45pm and immediately went to the hit site. Finley was very energetic and focused when we got started which had my hopes pretty high of a recovery. At last blood about 50 yards later she did a few 15 yard loops to figure out which way the buck went and figured it out on about the 3rd loop. She took us to the edge of the field and wanted to go across, but without sign and a massive field that I could clearly see across, I restarted her at last blood. She came right back to the same exact spot, so I trusted her and off we went.
She checked herself across the field the entire way and I KNEW she was on this deer. When we got to the end, there was another piece of property that was as thick as what I'd imagine the rainforest would be like. We stopped and rested and she insisted on going in. OFF WE WENT, into the pits of overgrowth hell, crawling on hands and knees most of the way, for another half hour and turned up nothing.
Disappointed and gut punched, I told the hunter he'll need some friends to help search the area the next morning because I feel like the deer is there somewhere, and we got a ride back to the trucks. It ate at me the entire way home so when I got back after another hour+ drive, I started examining the footage better. I immediately had a rush of relief when I realized the SHOT WAS HIGH! I couldn't have been happier, now having the confidence that we were on his deer, it's going to live most likely, and we didn't leave one in the woods. The day ended up being 10.5 hours driving with what ended up being a 2.49 mile track. You can see in the picture below, the red dot is where the arrow impacted.
We met some more great people, I'm learning more and more to trust my dog, and we didn't leave one for the coyotes. I call that a success!
On to the next track!
Down to 3 of 8
We had a death in the family and had to drive down to Scioto County and were stopping off in Jackson county to visit family while passing through. On the way, I got a call at about 10:30 AM from a hunter needing a dog up in Darke County. His account of the shot sounded great, he sounded honest and not just saying whatever he needed to say in order to get a dog (happening way to much, dont do this!), and he even had video of the shot! It would be late, but we agreed to take the track the same day.
As I was driving and checking out the footage, it looked like a perfect shot at 50 yards from a tree stand slightly quartering to. We rushed and did what we needed to do, then set the gps to Darke County, which was 150 rainy miles away and past our home. We arrived to the hunter at 7:45pm and immediately went to the hit site. Finley was very energetic and focused when we got started which had my hopes pretty high of a recovery. At last blood about 50 yards later she did a few 15 yard loops to figure out which way the buck went and figured it out on about the 3rd loop. She took us to the edge of the field and wanted to go across, but without sign and a massive field that I could clearly see across, I restarted her at last blood. She came right back to the same exact spot, so I trusted her and off we went.
She checked herself across the field the entire way and I KNEW she was on this deer. When we got to the end, there was another piece of property that was as thick as what I'd imagine the rainforest would be like. We stopped and rested and she insisted on going in. OFF WE WENT, into the pits of overgrowth hell, crawling on hands and knees most of the way, for another half hour and turned up nothing.
Disappointed and gut punched, I told the hunter he'll need some friends to help search the area the next morning because I feel like the deer is there somewhere, and we got a ride back to the trucks. It ate at me the entire way home so when I got back after another hour+ drive, I started examining the footage better. I immediately had a rush of relief when I realized the SHOT WAS HIGH! I couldn't have been happier, now having the confidence that we were on his deer, it's going to live most likely, and we didn't leave one in the woods. The day ended up being 10.5 hours driving with what ended up being a 2.49 mile track. You can see in the picture below, the red dot is where the arrow impacted.
We met some more great people, I'm learning more and more to trust my dog, and we didn't leave one for the coyotes. I call that a success!
On to the next track!
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