Slipped in stand about 6:00. Wind blowing, misting rain from the start. Looked over right shoulder to see a handful of deer…all does and fawns. They eased off. Had a doe come to corn 15 mins later. She ate for a good while, then eased off. Right before dark, had a doe standing in a ditch next to me to my right looking my direction with a couple of deer behind her that I couldnt tell what they were. I was fixated on identifying those deer when I heard a stick crack to my left. Looked up to see a shooter walking straight to corn. Drew string back, and let arrow fly. Hit him a little high due to buck fever I guess. He crossed the ditch, fell twice, and got up to keep going. Got out of stand, found very good blood trail. Lost blood after 40 yds or so of tracking. Looked for 2 and a half hours before I had to call it quits for the evening.
Got home extremely frustrated, to vent to my wife @ midnight. Called a friend on James Island who has a chocolate lab. We both know that these dogs arent the ideal “go to” dogs to find a wounded animal, but her nose is a hell of a lot better than mine. He came immediately to meet me. She trailed wonderful at first, then lost scent.
My buddy, his dog, and myself are doing the walk of shame back to truck @ 2:00 a.m. His dog runs in the woods to left, and we follow. Buck is laying in a thicket right there with zero blood anywhere.
Love that dog!!! Took him to the processor and weighed him. 185 Lb 11 Pt. Stuck him in the freezer, home to take a shower, and at work this morning @ 7:15. Very happy!!
Beautiful Buck. 23Sailfish how did you do that? Is it the pixels are too many on an I phone and they won’t post directly and turn sideways to fit?
I saved the photo, rotated, resaved, then posted.
I’m a droid guy; I don’t pretend to know how Iphone pictures work, nor do I post from my phone because its difficult to resize the image and you get those very large pictures.
I’ve got a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling retriever. He can find anything if he knows what he’s looking for. Blood trail, no problem. He can track a house fly across 100 acre field. Best nose I’ve ever seen on a dog. And he’s my best friend too
Beautiful!