Just taking a guess here...but I doubt we're going to see very many "right behind the shoulder" shot pics in a thread about tracking deer with a dog.

Anyone that's hunted much at all has made a less than desirable shot at some point or another.

I agree. Chit happens and it happens to all of us. Quit harassing my customers Troy.

Bluewater, I most certainly was not talking about anyone in particular, not you. Just an observation that a LOT of folks make bad shots/hits on deer. It's been my experience over the last 50 years that a lot of folks couldn't hit the proverbial barn wall from INSIDE the barn. Only shooting they ever do is off a bench at 100 yards on paper. Never sitting or offhand shooting practice.

anyone, including myself, can, and has made bad hits on deer. It happens. Glad we have folks like CNC and others that make themselves available to those that need em, or just think they need em.

After leaving the track in the last picture, I distributed my 750th business card of the season yesterday. I stuck it underneath the windshield wiper of a hunter’s truck who was hunting on the same dirt road as the folks I had tracked for that morning. It just so happened that the hunter had actually shot a deer that morning that he couldn’t find, so when he got back to his truck and found my card, he called me up. I hadn’t been back home 30 minutes when he called. After talking to the hunter it sounded very likely that it was a low gut shot and that he was pushing the deer. I’m going to skip the story about Otis on this one because I want to get up on my soapbox again. Long story short though, we tracked the buck later that afternoon without missing a beat. But because it had been pushed….it went over onto the neighbor’s land and I had to call Otis off a track he was working great. It was sad for both of us but even worse for the hunter to have to walk away from. Neither of us wanted to but didn’t have any other choice since he didn’t know the neighbors. We both just stood there for a few moments looking over the property line like Tom Hanks watching Wilson float away.

Here’s what I want to get up on my soapbox about again. This is not meant toward the hunter in this story or any one hunter in particular…..it’s a general observation that I see playing out over and over again. After the shot, the majority of hunters are giving it anywhere between 5 minutes to 30 minutes before getting down to begin looking for the deer no matter the situation. If the deer runs off after the shot….unless you see the deer nose plowing as he goes out of sight, don’t assume that you’ve smoked him. Many of these deer will run a very short distance and just stop after being marginally hit. As hard as it may be to do….if the deer runs out of your site after the shot without you being 100% sure it went down….I’d give it a minimum of 30 minutes before moving. If it’s a really good buck that you truly don’t want to lose, then it sure won’t hurt to sit 45 minutes to an hour.

After giving the deer plenty of time to either bed down or move on slowly out of the area……get out of your stand and quietly slip to the hit site. Use the hit site and the first 20-40 yards of the track to make an initial assessment of your hit. Use the sign you find to decide whether to proceed further or back out to give the deer more time. On the track yesterday the initial assessment showed a very large amount of white hair with no blood to be found at the hit site nor on the trail the deer left out on. The initial assessment should have been a red flag to the hunter that the shot was likely a low gut shot. This means immediately backing out and giving the deer another 5-6 hrs minimum. The hunter proceeded to start tracking the deer farther though and caused a deer that would have likely been bedded up dead within 300 yards….to die on the neighbor’s land. This situation is very common and not just isolated events.

If the initial assessment looks bad, then back out fellas. If you track the deer for over 150-200 yards and haven’t found it….also back out. What I hear and see commonly happening though is that folks get down and just start tracking regardless of what the sign says or how far the track leads them. If you smoked the deer then he won’t go far. If you didn’t smoke him though then he ain’t gonna likely die in 30 minutes or maybe not even in 3 or 4 hrs. Don’t just keep going and going behind the track thinking that he’s just going to be dead somewhere up in front of you. These critters are tough and can tote a marginal shot off into the sunset if you keep after them. If you don’t push them though, they will very likely bed up close by. Take time to calm yourself down after the shot and make wise decisions on how you proceed. Good luck out there!

Good advice

Very good info CNC

Got called out on a bow shot buck yesterday. The shooter described it as a sho nuff good un. The hit was a little low and back but the hunter felt like he had made a killing hit. The buck walked off panting from the mouth and stopping every 10 yards or so. The hunter waited 30 minutes and backed out to give the buck time. It was shot at 8:30 and we gave it until around 2:30 before we started tracking it. The hunter felt like it would surely be bedded up dead not far away.

Tracking conditions were tough yesterday afternoon with the humidity being very low and the wind whipping around. Otis could definitely smell the track but each time he would get his nose down on it, he would get overly excited and get too fast to track under those conditions. He would run the line 20-30 yards then over shoot the track and have to loop back around to pick it up again. This happened about 4-5 times in the beginning of the track before he finally figured out that he was going to have to slow down to follow this one. After he calmed down a little he put his nose to the ground and tracked it right up. Unfortunately at around 200 yards, the track went hot. I figure the deer got up out ahead of us cause I never saw it. I did see a big change in Otis’s behavior though when he ran across where the deer had been bedded up. I gave him the green light to go after it and we ran it for about ½ mile before pulling off of it after no attempts to bay. We marked the spot where we pulled off and decided to give the deer overnight before continuing. We also went back to where the line went hot just to double check Otis. After circling the area for about 30-45 minutes we didn’t find any sign that pointed toward Otis being wrong. He didn’t attempt to take anything else off in another direction and when I put him back on the original line he went with it again.

I’m really not sure how bad this deer is hurt. We’re going to go back in later this morning and see if he bedded down and died overnight. Hopefully we’ll have a happy ending to the story. Suppose to be a 140-150 inch buck.

Good luck to you and Otis this morning!

Best of luck

Thanks guys......Update:

Deer was still alive again. We even brought in AJ’s dogs just to verify that Otis wasn’t telling us any lies yesterday but his couldn't bay it up either. I really think this deer will eventually die but it may take a while. I think the hit wasn't nearly as good as the hunter had thought. When we initially tracked the deer the sign was really, really weak. Only very spotty blood for a short distance and it was very dark looking. I think it’s really low hit in the paunch but if it tore a hole in it’s stomach in any kind of way then I would think it’s only a matter of time before it dies. The deer was heading back toward what they felt like was his core area so there’s still some possibility he may be recovered. The hunter was pretty sick over this one.

Call Mike.

You can’t really tell it in the pic but I watched this deer being put on the scales and it was dang near 180 lbs. Three on one side and a spike on the other. I ain’t one to sling the “C” word around too much but I’d have to call this one a cull too. I noticed when he was hung up that his pecker didn’t really look normal and it kind of looked like he only had one nut to drop. There was at least part of second nut there but it was like it was still up in his belly. Something wasn’t normal for sure. Gotta feel like that is possibly related to his rack size.

Me's think you need to stop pecker checking.

Congrats on recovering the kid's deer.

Normally that type of problem causes a cactus buck doesn't it (stays in velvet)

X2, let's hear the story!

Thanks!.....There’s not a whole lot to this story. The young kid in the picture is my second cousin. His dad called me this morning and told me that they had shot a cull buck running a doe and he knew my little cousin had hit him too far back. The buck ran off into one of the thicker areas of the property and after only finding some spotty blood he just asked me to bring Otis in to make sure they didn’t lose this one. We arrived about 2 hrs after the shot so the track was fresh and undisturbed. The buck went about 200-250 yards through the young pines leaving a really spotty blood trail. You can barely see the hit in the pic….but it was high and back and didn’t leave much sign. Otis made quick work of it and led us right to it. Tracks like that one are pretty easy runs for him now. I even made it back home in time for an afternoon hunt.

Not sure. It may have had nothing to do with it but something for sure wasn't normal. The deer also seemed to be a brawler even though he didn't have much of a rack. He had all kinds of skint up places on his head and neck.

Good practice for Otis. That will make up for some of those crazy hard tracks.

Like one that's been shot straight down into the back with a bow and left zero blood? I'm not real optimistic about this one but we're about to give it our best shot this morning when the frost burns off.