Rather than the 45ACP how about carrying either a .357MAG or a 44MAG with a 4” Barrel? Either of those would certainly knock down a deer, provided you had the correct loads in them. Just a thought.

Great buck, and congrats on getting the job done yet again!

That may be a good option too…..



Yes…..I go over how a bay situation will unfold with each hunter as I’m getting the dogs ready. I’ve tried letting the hunter be the shooter in the past but it just doesn’t work out well most times. The biggest problem is that most people can’t keep up. Then when we do get in position, they can’t hit the deer. It’s really understandable though because it’s a high pressure situation with the dog barking that many folks aren't ready for….I'm really just getting comfortable with it myself now...... On top of that, most of the time we’ve been walking fast or running to get into position too so that adds to the difficulties with shooting when your breathing hard.



Thanks!

Yep….If I continue to carry a pistol then I think that’s gonna have to be my options. I think its either the youth 30-30 or a .357 or a .44 pistol

Here's one more pic of the buck from yesterday showing his rack a little better. He was a pretty good one. Those bloody spots on the deer's belly and back end are some of the shots where I was hitting him with the .45....Most of the shots were taken at odd angles going away from me.

Congrats

I think I might have finally found what I want…….Another tracker called me this morning to recommend the gun he uses for tracking. He has a high point carbine in .45 but said that they are about to come out with a 10mm version. I think this may be just the ticket…….It’s 32 inches long. That’s even an inch shorter than the youth 30-30……and a hot 10 mm round out of a carbine should pack a punch and give me much better range than a pistol. I’m gonna have to wait for it though because its gonna be another few weeks before they get shipped to the stores.

https://www.tactical-life.com/firearms/rifles/hi-point-1095ts-10mm-carbine/

Call just came in......

Buck was shot about 8:00 this morning. Hunter thinks he may have hit him low. He's tracked pretty good blood for a couple hundred yards and then lost the blood trail. We're gonna give him another hour or two and go in after him about lunch. I hope this one is dead or at least really weak.

To be continued.......

Good job on yesterdays track.



Waiting on todays story.

It ended up being a leg hit. Hunter had found bone while tracking. We got the deer up and chased him in a circle for 2 miles. We even chased him off into a pond but he swam across it and just kept going. He wouldn’t even attempt to bay up. Otis was pushing him pretty hard but he apparently wasn’t hurt bad enough to give up. We called it off after he didn’t hold up in the pond.

Got two more calls lined up for tomorrow………The first one was a straight on shot in the chest. That's usually all or nothing so I'm not too optimistic about it. The hunter has found good blood for 100 yards though so there may be a little hope on this one. The deer was shot this morning.

The second call is a definite gut shot from a late morning hunt. They’ve tracked him a couple hundred yards and found green gut matter in a bed but nothing after that. We’re gonna try to find that one tomorrow around lunch. That’ll probably be all I can handle for tomorrow. Hope nobody wounds one this evening.

Heck of a story. You need to keep notes and in a few years write a book.

Keep up the good work CNC

What a bummer..... I left about 5:30 this morning and we literally tracked all day…….but didn’t recover a single deer…….

The first track where the guy tried to shoot the deer in the chest ended up just being grazed hard or possibly leg shot. We made a 1000 yard loop and took him back to his bedding area before Otis acted like the track had went hot. We were right on the edge of a busy road and weren’t in a situation where we could do any chasing so we called it off there. I doubt the deer was hurt too bad.

The second track….the gut shot….looked like it was gonna be a sure find. White hair and a little green gut matter at the hit site as well as the deer bedding up within a few hundred yards. All I can figure is that coyotes got in behind him and run him out of the country. We were on a big hunting club with plenty of room to track…..but after we had gone over a mile and a half we eventually ran into property lines and had to call it off. This one was very disappointing.

The third track came in a little after lunch and was a leg shot. The hunter reported findng bone and decent blood. We got the deer up about 500 yards from the hit site and ran him for several hundred more yards across a creek bottom and into a pine thicket where Otis bayed him up. We were a couple hundred yards behind Otis so it took us a minute to catch up. The buck was holding on bay though until he seen us trying to sneak in and then he broke and ran. It was just a bad spot to try to sneak in on him. He never checked up and let us bay him again after that. We pushed him for another mile trying to get him to bay up and eventually just started running out of light. Otis and Shelby were about spent at that point anyways.

Me and the dogs are both wore out. I’m not for sure how many miles total we walked today but it was quite a few.

Great effort CNC and Otis and Shelby! Not your fault these hunters can’t shoot!

Yep! Thanks for going after them and keeping us posted!

Sounds like a tough day. Stay after em!

It seems there are a LOT of hunters, especially the young ones, that should spend a lot more time at the range before they try a shot at a deer. A good many of the older ones fall in the same category.

Thanks fellas!......It was a little bit of a bummer to do all of that tracking and not end up with a deer to show for it. On a positive note though, I’m really pleased with how Otis is handling these bay situations now. He’s not being aggressive with them at all and he’s keeping his distance. That allows me to take my time easing in on a bay knowing that he has it handled until I get there.