Thanks for doing what you do.

Mike - what are your total numbers for the year and for the state of Alabama alone?

Just walked in the motel room,got in early tonite, 1am,but none the less very tired,just put number 17 in a row on the tail gate,nice 8 pt shot by a woman Hunter,had to bay him up,he was low gut shot,will write up story later,of the 17 recoveries in a row 13 of them were still alive and had to be caught,but all were mortally wounded,some would have taken longer to die than others depending on the servility of their wounds but all would eventually have succumbed, either,coyotes,gangerine, or slowly bleeding to death,

Mike you seem to get tons of bad shot/ live deer tracks which is the nature of the business I suppose. Of the tracks you go on, how many of the deer % wise are mortally wounded and how many do you think would survive the shot? What is the reason behind most tracks you go on? Long distance shots, poor angle shots, new hunters/buck fever, lack of practice shooting or sighting in rifles, just curious. I could see tons of poor bow shots but high powered rifles are so accurate it is hard to imagine thousands of bad shots.

Something I've always wondered about, whats the legality of shooting a wounded animal at night?

Look back in this thread a few pages.

It was a thought that started because of two instances we had on the same property this year.

The beginning of season a buddy was riding his 4 wheeler to go move a stand and was skirting the edge of a peanut field that had some REALLY thick briars. He stopped because he caught movement out of the corner of his eye and he looked and saw large antlers sticking out of the briars. The pic below he took while standing on his 4 wheeler. He had no rifle with him, and when he got back with it the deer was gone, but it never ran while he was right there beside it on a running 4 wheeler. That buck was convinced he was safe and concealed and that by running he was going to give his position away and potentially be in danger.



Fast forward a few weeks. I shot the buck in my sig, and mortally wounded (some may recall the story) we found him and a fight ensued, but he let us walk right up him. Again, he was mortally wounded, and I would say the finishing shot was after legal shooting hours. It was about 5:45ish PM on December 6th.

Which got me to thinking - what if you are tracking a wounded deer at night, and happen upon another buck in thick stuff that believes he is concealed and you shoot that deer to "finish" him off and its not even the same deer? Not saying I want to do that or want it to be legal or anything (of course I wouldn't), I'm just saying it can happen. Just last year I was tracking a wounded buck at night and walked up to within 10 yards of a doe standing in thick stuff that was just watching us. We thought it was the wounded deer until the light obviously showed that it wasn't even a buck.

Just something to think about. Not trying to prove a point either way, the thought had just crossed my mind the other day is all.

Chris, out of around 1000 tracks, I have had the wrong deer shot twice. One at night and one in daylight. Both times it was because the hunter did not give an accurate description of the deer we were after. Both times there was a huge difference in the size of the deer we shot and the deer we eventually found. It is rare but it can happen and no one is proud of it. Especially the warden.

Sounds like those two were bigger than the deer being tracked? Worse mistakes have been made ha.

CNC I sincerely hope by next year your festering jealousy over Idaho Mike is cured. Comments like that really do not cause you to be viewed well sir.

Dang surely all of you trackers got plenty of tracks. Seemed to be plenty to go around.

If I was seriously ill I would try to contact the best doctor in the world. If I lost a wounded deer I would call Idaho Mike.

LMAO...does Mississippi have a forum like this?

Mike , what's the final tally ?

Sir, you are very eloquent and tactful.

I can answer from text I got from Mike yesterday:

Total tracks 218
Deer on tailgate 142 65%
Caught alive 59
Called off because of no trespassing 29

I was an observer (and eventual deer dragger) on his last one on the night of February 10 south of Union Springs. Caught up with low gut shot buck and shot about 10:00 pm. Mike is a gentleman and an expert with an unbelievable passion. A pleasure to watch him and his dogs work. No doubt that there are many other qualified teams out there but I can't imagine any are better than Mike and Lucy.

Thanks, strong numbers!

Mike, when you finish up in Mississippi can you break down the numbers state by state? Kentucky and Tennessee, too?

You, my friend, are "spot on" with your observation.

I finally quit reading any of the posts on the CNC tracking thread because of the same perception I gained from other similar comments.

The gentleman has a great dog in the making, no doubt. I hope he finds that cure...