Bow season this year for me was defined by finding deer after confusing or long tracking jobs. All three ended successfully, and I thought sharing the stories might help others when they are on the search after turning that arrow loose.
The first track happened in early bow season after LuckOfTheDraw made me aware of a large 6 point cull buck frequenting one of our setups. A non-descript morning found me waiting for my target. Somewhat late I saw a young buck meander up out of the draw and start vacuuming up corn, he wasn't who I was looking for, but it was better than watching the quail scurry about. A few minutes later, the young buck looks over his shoulder the way he came, and I see the frame of a 6 point that's way too large bobbing above the brush. A minute later the target cull buck walks out. He's a tad spooky though and refuses to move into a shooting lane. I remind myself its early in the season and no reason to force or rush a shot. Sometime later he works his way into a clear lane and is turned broadside. I draw.... nose to string, string to corner of mouth... center peep.... puuuulllllllll *thump* My first instinct on impact was HIGH AND RIGHT. He peels out, and as he disappears I can see a dark spot on the offside as he dives into the draw ahead of me. The exit looked perfect. Right after he disappeared from sight I started my stopwatch running.
I felt pretty good about the shot, especially after seeing the blood on his side as he exited. I waited 15 minutes, then quietly exited the stand and made the 5 minute walk to the truck. Once there I sent a few texts of "arrow away", and had a sip of coffee. At 30 minutes out from the shot, I slowly drove up to within 100 yards of the blind, exited and went to look for my arrow and blood. No arrow. Blood was sparse at impact but I found a few quarter sized bright red splotches within 10 yards. The only thing I didn't like about the blood was no bubbles. Another 10 yards brought me to the drop off into the draw, and that brought a terrain change. It went from dirt/rock to knee high grass and weeds. Within 10 yards of the drop-off I had lost the blood. I looked for about 10 minutes without finding another drop of blood. My heart began sinking, maybe in the speed of the moment I had seen the exit wrong.... I took a deep breath, and reminded myself that Bowie, my dog, was in camp taking a nap.
Bowie isn't a purpose bred or trained tracking dog. He's a rescue dog from the local shelter, that has probably a majority of pit in him. However, he has always been a dog all about his nose and did help me find a wounded pig last year. So I headed back to camp, refilled my coffee, and loaded Bowie up. We returned to the scene of the crime a little over an hour and a half after the shot.
He wasn't really interested in anything by the feeder, so I led him over to the draw and then it started. He was nose to the ground, sweeping and moving forward. Down the hill we went at a brisk pace, Bowie leaning into the leash and me trying to maintain my footing. Then we hit a split in the trail... 3 possible escape routes... Bowie paused, his head swept side to side sucking in huge amounts of air through his sniffer.... then he stopped, nose went back to the ground and we continued our descent. I had been scanning the trail we had taken and had not seen any blood to this point. I was putting 100% faith in my buddy at this point. As we reached an open area and shelf on our descent we walked up on a 6" diameter pool of blood on the ground, Bowie paused a second on it and surged ahead. 10 seconds later we were standing over the buck. We'd made it probably a little over 100 yards, and in the end the deer was laying in an open area where he could have been found with a grid search fairly easily. However, Bowie had made the track in probably under 5 minutes with complete confidence and the perfect outcome.
The entrance wound had been high and right in the liver area, the exit had been middle of the body and behind the shoulder. In the end both my instincts were right, though it doesn't turn out that way all the time. Fortunately the deer had been quartered just enough away that the angle made it a quickly lethal hit. The arrow was never found despite additional searching. So my first takeawy from a track for 2015 was if in doubt.... get a dog on it. Pictures attached include blood at the start of the trail, entrance wound, exit wound, and then the LDP.
The first track happened in early bow season after LuckOfTheDraw made me aware of a large 6 point cull buck frequenting one of our setups. A non-descript morning found me waiting for my target. Somewhat late I saw a young buck meander up out of the draw and start vacuuming up corn, he wasn't who I was looking for, but it was better than watching the quail scurry about. A few minutes later, the young buck looks over his shoulder the way he came, and I see the frame of a 6 point that's way too large bobbing above the brush. A minute later the target cull buck walks out. He's a tad spooky though and refuses to move into a shooting lane. I remind myself its early in the season and no reason to force or rush a shot. Sometime later he works his way into a clear lane and is turned broadside. I draw.... nose to string, string to corner of mouth... center peep.... puuuulllllllll *thump* My first instinct on impact was HIGH AND RIGHT. He peels out, and as he disappears I can see a dark spot on the offside as he dives into the draw ahead of me. The exit looked perfect. Right after he disappeared from sight I started my stopwatch running.
I felt pretty good about the shot, especially after seeing the blood on his side as he exited. I waited 15 minutes, then quietly exited the stand and made the 5 minute walk to the truck. Once there I sent a few texts of "arrow away", and had a sip of coffee. At 30 minutes out from the shot, I slowly drove up to within 100 yards of the blind, exited and went to look for my arrow and blood. No arrow. Blood was sparse at impact but I found a few quarter sized bright red splotches within 10 yards. The only thing I didn't like about the blood was no bubbles. Another 10 yards brought me to the drop off into the draw, and that brought a terrain change. It went from dirt/rock to knee high grass and weeds. Within 10 yards of the drop-off I had lost the blood. I looked for about 10 minutes without finding another drop of blood. My heart began sinking, maybe in the speed of the moment I had seen the exit wrong.... I took a deep breath, and reminded myself that Bowie, my dog, was in camp taking a nap.
Bowie isn't a purpose bred or trained tracking dog. He's a rescue dog from the local shelter, that has probably a majority of pit in him. However, he has always been a dog all about his nose and did help me find a wounded pig last year. So I headed back to camp, refilled my coffee, and loaded Bowie up. We returned to the scene of the crime a little over an hour and a half after the shot.
He wasn't really interested in anything by the feeder, so I led him over to the draw and then it started. He was nose to the ground, sweeping and moving forward. Down the hill we went at a brisk pace, Bowie leaning into the leash and me trying to maintain my footing. Then we hit a split in the trail... 3 possible escape routes... Bowie paused, his head swept side to side sucking in huge amounts of air through his sniffer.... then he stopped, nose went back to the ground and we continued our descent. I had been scanning the trail we had taken and had not seen any blood to this point. I was putting 100% faith in my buddy at this point. As we reached an open area and shelf on our descent we walked up on a 6" diameter pool of blood on the ground, Bowie paused a second on it and surged ahead. 10 seconds later we were standing over the buck. We'd made it probably a little over 100 yards, and in the end the deer was laying in an open area where he could have been found with a grid search fairly easily. However, Bowie had made the track in probably under 5 minutes with complete confidence and the perfect outcome.
The entrance wound had been high and right in the liver area, the exit had been middle of the body and behind the shoulder. In the end both my instincts were right, though it doesn't turn out that way all the time. Fortunately the deer had been quartered just enough away that the angle made it a quickly lethal hit. The arrow was never found despite additional searching. So my first takeawy from a track for 2015 was if in doubt.... get a dog on it. Pictures attached include blood at the start of the trail, entrance wound, exit wound, and then the LDP.
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