Oh, one other thing about this last find...... The deer’s body was really small for a rack that size. I really have no idea of how old this deer was….it honestly looked like a 2 year old or something….3 at the most. I’m pretty decent at estimating weight and this deer might have weighed 150 lbs soaking wet. It put me in mind of an escaped high fence deer. I’m not aware of one that was just right there near us but there’s always the possibility that one is in the bigger neighborhood. It’s a heck of a deer though anyway you cut it. That was just something unusual for the body to that small on such a large rack.

It turned out to be a pretty straight forward gut/liver shot. Not a whole lot of story to it. The deer went around 250 yards past where they jumped him and died. We tracked straight to it…….

Headed out now on another leg shot from this morning. Likely about to have to deal with a live deer situation. To be continued……….

Yall be putting bucks in the truck. Good stuff

Thanks man!

Holy chit….stick a fork in me and Otis for this weekend….we’re done. We tracked this from the hit site about 400 yards straight to where the deer had bedded. We emerged out of some thinned pines into a 1-2 year old clear cut. Kinda thick but still visible to see across. Otis was tracking fast ahead of us but he woed up right in the edge of the clear cut in a thick patch. I eased up there to see if he had the deer and found him licking blood out of the bed. I told the hunter that the deer was likely close by and we had just gotten him up. Little did I know that the deer was actually within 10 yards of us still.

After Otis got done sniffing the bed he went back to searching for which way the deer exited. As soon as he chose the right direction the deer broke out of this brushy area nearly right out from under us. I immediately toned Otis to keep him off of it but we couldn’t get a shot before the deer went straight back the way we had come from into the thinned pines. He passed back by the truck within about 150 yards and into a stand of young pines maybe 5 years old or so. We chased him through the pines, into a creek bottom….up the creek bottom….back through the same exact same pine stand and within 20 yards of the trucks again. It actually looked like he saw the trucks and threw on the brakes before hanging a left and looping around them. We kept after him for another 1000 yards or so passing within a couple hundred yards again of where we had originally jumped him before calling it off as he crossed over into the neighbors.

We just couldn’t ever catch up to him. We made a big huge circle and a half for a total distance of 3.6 miles! I got a good look at him when he jumped and I believe they just blew the leg up. He was moving pretty good when he came up out of the thicket although you could obviously tell he was hurt. There was actually part of his leg bone at the hit site.

To add a little more to the story…..I don’t think Otis will ever be able to bay up many deer like this one. He’s just too short legged and doesn’t cover ground fast enough. He also stops and checks back with me. The farthest he ever got out in front of me today was around 230 yards at one point. The vast majority of the track he was in the 60-120 range. All of this is just fine with me though because these are the ones that I don’t want to chance too much. I actually toned him back to me a couple times when me and the hunter couldn’t keep up. I was more hoping to run the buck out in one of their clear-cuts or open pine areas and seeing him out in front of us than I was thinking Otis would catch him or bay him. I also hoped he might tire down on that one front leg if we pushed for a little ways….no luck though.

I called CNC this morning for a little reassurance on a shot and to put he and Otis on semi stand by,....

Turns out a rage in between the hip and rib cage walking away from you does the trick.

Didn't go anywhere, glad I didn't waste otis' time

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I felt pretty sure that was a dead deer when you told me it was buried up to the fletchings. You did the right thing though by sneaking out and giving it plenty of time. Have you got another pic showing the rack better? That thing looks like a neat lookin rack…..

Just an old 7 pt. Mounting him because he has some cool features. (And because my best bow kill) Real long g2 with kicker on R side. Also a curly point off back of base I like.

Thinking hard left turn to show that side off. Not sure what to do with ears to see that curly point. Has great cape, dark dark neck, bleach blonde forehead. He recently broke a browtine off, have pictures with it

Thanks for your advice on waiting
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CNC,

I have really enjoyed this thread this year. I look forward to checking in on it every day to see the latest tales on you and Otis.

Looks like ya'll have been having a great year.

Keep posting the tales...

Thanks Cuz……


I completely forgot to add something to the gut shot story from Saturday…….I actually got to work Shelby on that track as well. It was a pretty quick find so I put Otis in the box and suited Shelby up to re-run it on lead. She did great. She’s actually still pretty timid out in a strange situation like that compared to working practice tracks here at home….. so that in itself slowed her down a lot. She picked right up on the scent though and re-tracked it. I hope I can get her on a bunch more of these before the season is over for the sake of getting in plenty of “reps” for her.

Good deal CNC, You've got some loyal readers so keep posting pics and stories

I'm glad y'all enjoy them. I enjoy writing them. It's kind of like when you get excited after a good hunt and you can't wait to tell your hunting buddy the story. I get pretty amped up about it sometimes....

waiting... waiting... waiting...
withdrawals....

I killed me a big mule headed doe this evening and got Shelby on another good practice run. Now let's see if I can run this road block gauntlet on the way to Shana's to get some burger and smoked sausage made up.

Good job Shelby girl!

She gets so excited when she's finds one that it wouldn't surprise me if she just fell over like one of those fainting goats. She's one of those dogs that doesn't just wag its tail but its more of a whole body wag.

Call just came in for in the morning….gun shot. Hunter says he shot a big buck but the only shot he had was hehind a little tree and he hit it back a little more that he would have like to have. It sounds like he hit it back and high. The hunter said he saw it fall down 4 times as it was leaving. They've blood trailed it around 250 yards and jumped it once in the process. They've found some kind of tissue they believe to be lung tissue. Let’s hope they’re right. To be continued………..

I shoot till they quit moving and if they run off I will shoot three or four times in that direction whether I see him or not... I carry plenty of shells and would have been shooting while he was getting up and falling down...Hope ya'll get him...Tuned in CNC and Good Luck....