Let me clarify something I said…..I didn't word it well.

I meant to say that most of the deer we are able to bay up are injured pretty badly and will probably die from their injuries or yotes……not that most of the deer we track will die. I imagine there’s a good percentage of deer that we track that live and are fine. You’re not likely to bay those up though. You never even see them. If I can bay it up with an overgrown beagle though, then I would think a pack of yotes would surely take it down. It's just a matter of time.

Call just came in from the morning hunt…….

The hunter on this one is a young kid. They’ve found blood and bone for 100 yards and then nothing. This is gonna be another leg hit. We’ll just see how it plays out this time. Hopefully it’ll be a high leg hit on this one and he’ll be dead.

To be continued……..

Well I hate to disappoint……but there just wasn’t much of a story to tell on this one. We tracked to him but he didn’t even attempt to bay up out of the bed this time. He just got up and took off. Otis went after him but we were only on 600 acres so it didn’t take us very long to hit the property line and that’s where we had to call it off.

On a side note to this track. I have to believe that these leg shots are just sitting ducks for the yotes. A wound that severe is like blood in the water. If you just take my thread as a small sample size of what happens across the state, then there are lots of leg shots occurring. However, how many of you have a three legged deer on your property that you've been getting pics of all summer and fall??? Maybe one or two but probably not many….Why?....Because they eventually get taken out after being wounded. JMO

I had one make it two years but finally disappeared.

I had one missing a back leg make it several years here at my home property. It always amazed me that he was able to survive and not get caught because he was seriously immobilized with only one back leg. He had a really funny walk that looked like a struggle. There’s no way he could run fast enough to get away from dogs. He eventually never showed back up.

I think it we were able to look at the true numbers then the long term survivors would be a very small percentage of leg hits. There’s gotta be chit loads of leg shot deer across the state, probably something in the thousands….. but three-legged deer are pretty rare. Most of us are probably lucky if we ever see one. That would mean that most of them don’t make it. I bet a couple yotes would push a three-legged deer pretty hard if they got in behind it.

We have one. It’s a spike and most likely hit by car. It’s his rear leg and he gets along without it . I’ve actually seen him twice and seems like he gonna make it but you never know. When I first started getting pics of him I never thought he would with the yotes we have.

We had a doe get hit the same this year in late bow season. I never saw her again after the one afternoon I jumped her below the house.

We had one get shot 2 years ago basically at the knee joint on the back leg. Next pics we got the leg was gone. He made it to the next fall and seemed to be pretty healthy. Somebody shot him in December the next year. His rack was messed up from the injury though

I’ve heard 7 rifle blasts before 7:30 this morning

You should be busy today

Edit: 6 more 7:30-8:00

13 total now

Damn! Maybe they’ll start calling in a little while. I figured I would have gotten more calls yesterday evening as pretty an afternoon as we had. One call came in from a guy who had shot one just after daylight and had spent all day looking for it. I don’t turn too many tracks down but I referred that one to another tracker to see if they could go ahead and track it last night. I just didn’t like my chances on that one after 25-26 hrs.

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

Don't know a whole lot of details on this one. I've tracked for these folks before and they just pretty told me to come on they had a big one they needed me to find. Sounded like the shot was close and the hunter feels good about it. We'll see......


To be continued....

At our club based in Troy, the rut has not kicked in yet. I sat yesterday afternoon and saw 7 does, 9 fawns and 8 or 9 bucks and they did not mess with the does at all. Still a week or so away I think.

The hunter must have just grazed this one or something. There was hardly any blood at all…..just a few specks at the hit site and that was it. Otis seemed to track it well though. We went about 400 yards and got the deer up. It never attempted to bay up though. We pushed it hard for about a mile but it was moving on. You could see its running tracks ahead of us every time it crossed an interior road or went through a muddy spot. We eventually called it off.

Call came in while I was gone for tomorrow morning……..

Deer was shot late this morning. Hunter started tracking it within 45 minutes of the shot and spent most of the day progressing the track for 800+ yards. They’ve finally ran out of blood and lost it. Its not far from home so I agreed to meet them in the morning to see what we can do with it. It sounds like its bleeding pretty decently but its more than likely being pushed. We’re gonna give it overnight to see if lays down and dies. Not sure what kind of hit we're dealing with. Hoping for a low gut hit.

To be continued……..

I agree with you. It's just getting good.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZC-u2HxMtTY

Hey CNC if u watch this video the guy shoots a mature buck but doesn't find any blood. Shot is on camera and the buck is quartering and he hits it in shoulder. Wanted to know if you think that buck will live or die eventually

It’s hard to say for 100% sure on these kind of things but I paused the video right at the point of impact and it looks to me like he hit way too far forward. The way he was standing quartered away would mean the bullet really just clipped the front of the shoulder and exited out the front…..not catching any vitals….just a hard flesh wound. Take coyotes out of the equation and I would say that the deer lives and may just have a gimp leg or may even fully recover. Add coyotes to the situation though and I think it just depends on how good he’s still able to flee and if he can avoid being caught. His wasn’t using his left leg as he ran off.

The hunter for tomorrow morning just called and canceled…..said they finally found it.....who knows…....tis the life of a tracker I guess………

Call just came in for tomorrow morning……

Buck was crossing a logging road at about 200 yards. Hunter missed the first shot and the deer just stood there. On the second shot the deer spun around and took off. They haven’t found any blood but feel like they hit the deer on the second shot. Another nearby hunter said he heard it hit the deer. Not 100% sure if they’re looking in the right spot in the road. While searching for blood they think they heard some rustling and think they may have jumped the deer but not sure…….. This one could be anything from the deer just laying there to a clean miss. We’ll just have to see what we have in the morning.

To be continued….