Thanks dude!




Yes…..and it reminded of just how big of a pain in the arse it is to hold on to one.

Dang yall bring a drag boat for supplies. I would love to one day see yall work a track. Keep em coming!

Give us a call if you ever need us.

Your tracking stories is deff what I like the most about this forum . No know it all childish drama . Good stuff bud

Call just came in from the morning hunt......

Hunter reported the buck hitting the ground like a sack of taters when he shot. He stared gathering his stuff up to get out of the shooting house and in the process, the deer struggled to his feet and disappeared into the woods.

This is another classic backslap but the hunter wants us to check it out just to be sure. To be continued......

When we say backslap, where exactly are these normally hit. Just above the backbone so it shocks the CNS but doesn't cause any real damage?

I know now everybody that “backslaps” a deer is trying for a high shoulder shot but I bet a lot of them are and it makes no sense to me. Why not just aim right being the shoulder and get your buck after a 50 yard track?

Because I can shoot them in the shoulder and they don't run down the side of a mountain. Good flat land and I'd shoot behind the shoulder

I aimed behind the shoulder for years, seemed like every one of em ran, not far, but still ran. Started center punching shoulders several years ago, 3 out of 4 get anchored where they stand. The others normally bulldoze and fall within sight.

First call was indeed a back slap. Second call was a different story Tales and pics to come. Got him!

The second call was from a dog club. The hunter told me that he had shot one on a drive this morning from about 40 yards with buckshot and thought he hit it hard. He went to look for it and jumped it up within 100 yards...... finding a little blood in the bed and a little more for 60-70 yards after it got up. They had grid searched the pine thickets with a chit load of people and came up empty.

We got on the track and took it for about 400-500 yards really well. Then for some reason Otis acted like he just lost it. He just stopped tracking and started looking at me. I’ve learned at this point that this is his indication to me that he needs help. There’s something about pine thickets with heavy pine straw that gives them trouble sometimes. On top of that, this deer hadn’t bled a drop the we could find since we passed the last spot the hunters had found. I used my GPS to loop around the last point where I knew Otis was on it and sure enough they picked it back up.

Otis took us off into a thick creek bottom/swamp and when we got to the creek crossing he turned and went up stream instead of crossing. He didn’t go another 100 yards before I heard him let out “Yep!!!!”….I told the hunter “Come on! He’s got him up!”…..Sure enough, we found a tree top on the edge of the creek with a trash can lid sized spot of blood in it. It’s crazy how much the deer had bled in the bed with us not finding a single drop on trail leading there.

Well, the chase was on after that…..the buck started to circle back the way he came from but then decided hit the swamp again. This bottom was probably 200 yards wide with water everywhere….some of it waist deep. All I could hear was the dogs out ahead of me “Bloosh! Bloosh! Bloosh!”. We crossed over the whole swamp bottom and then headed back up stream. We didn’t make it 100 yards then I saw the dogs up ahead of me with the deer bayed up in the water. Shelby was swimming around him and Otis was just getting back up on the bank. By the time we got to them….the deer broke out of the hole and headed down the swamp again. You could tell he was hurt.

I called the dogs off for a second so we could regroup and then I sent them back after the deer. I didn’t realize it but we were right on the edge of the dirt road and the deer had actually crossed over to the other side. The dogs were already across when me and the hunter stepped into the road and no sooner than we did than the deer busted out of the woods and about run over us. He turned and headed straight down the center of the dirt road with Otis hot on his arse “Yep! Yep! Yep!”…..

The deer cut back into the swamp again and finally I think he had just had enough. We were up on a hill looking down into the swamp and could see the deer get back down in the water and stop again. The hunter hollered….”Call the dogs off! Call the dogs off!”…..I toned them off the deer and the hunter was able to sneak down into the swamp and finish him off. It was one hell of track. I was soaked from neck to nuts by the time we got him. It was probably the most fun track I’ve been on yet. To really put the icing on the cake…..this was a dog club so a dozen trucks eventually rolled in and celebrated the kill with us.

Congrats on another great find!

Awesome story.

Sounds like fun.

Thanks fellas.....This one had me and the hunter both pretty amped up when it was over. The most fun part about the whole thing might have been hearing the hunter tell the rest of the crowd the story over and over and over as each truck pulled up. It was still just as good the 6th time as it was the 1st.

Good one!

I'm surprised one of them ol boys didn't try to slip Otis in a dog box and claim him as a black and tan. Where was this club located? We were talking about trying to start another dog club the other night, but there isn't any way we could get enough contiguous land to lease.

Good stuff man. You on a roll with them dogs. Keep it up man. Always got your number close by in case we need ya

Thanks!...I appreciate it.



Heck, they’d give Otis back to me after the first drive when he didn’t leave their feet. If there’s not a wounded deer scent then he doesn’t go anywhere. The dog club was in Chambers Co……..