Something with this on lead or off lead discussion that is more easily seen by the folks who are doing the tracking is that a lot of what determines how the story unfolds is simply time. Take the deer below for example……It was clipped low in the guts on an afternoon hunt……I got there the next morning and jumped him still alive and finished him off on a bay. If I was forced to track on lead it would have probably not been possible to recover……However, give the same deer another 12-24 hrs and he may be dead or able to simply be dispatched in his bed without being bayed…….He may also be completely eaten by coyotes by then as well…….

That’s the conundrum of it with every track we go on…….How long do you wait?? The longer you do the less lively the deer is likely to be in the event that its still alive but also the more likely for it to be a complete waste if the yotes find him during that time……If you force trackers to track on lead or don’t allow them to track and night, etc…..then those rules themselves are making tracking more about just recovering racks as someone jokingly said in another thread. It doesn’t really make good practical in the field sense…..

The reality that I’m hoping folks in charge are able to see is that it’s a dead deer no matter what…..Whether I get there in 4 hrs and it’s a little lively or I get there in 24 hrs and its dead on arrival. The dog chasing it and baying it has little to no bearing on that fact with any deer we recover. Making someone stay “on lead” is just a feel good measure that doesn’t do anything to prevent abuse from occurring that would have happened otherwise. I hope Alabama doesnt feel like they need to follow suit with what those other states are currently doing