1st track of the year for Muzz and me. 250 yard easy one to kick off the season. Guts plugged the hole so not much blood except for at the shot site. Deer was shot at 6:30 and we waited till around 1 to start tracking
First call of the year just came in……..Buck shot with a crossbow at 50 yards……Havent found the bolt but have good blood for 60-70 yards……Not sure where its hit…….The track is local so we’re gonna give it a try tonight and if he’s still too lively come back on him in the morning
First call of the year just came in……..Buck shot with a crossbow at 50 yards……Havent found the bolt but have good blood for 60-70 yards……Not sure where its hit…….The track is local so we’re gonna give it a try tonight and if he’s still too lively come back on him in the morning
No recovery.......Most likely shot in the shoulder......Hunter said she saw the bolt sticking out of the deer as it ran off.......Blood petered out after about 250 yards......Otis took it out to around 500 and then gave me the sign.
We got another call we're gonna go after in the morning....potential gut shot. Hunter got a pass through on the arrow but is pretty sure he hit too far back.....said it ran into some really thick stuff......To be continued
Last edited by CNC; 10/15/2410:11 PM.
We dont rent pigs
Re: Tracking Stories 2024-25
[Re: CNC]
#4213670 10/16/2407:29 AM10/16/2407:29 AM
Next call just came in from this morning’s hunt……..Hunter stuck a big 9 point about 7:30 this morning……Thinks he hit it around the shoulder……Says at least half the arrow is broke off in the deer…..Blood for 75 yards and then nothing………
To be continued.......
We dont rent pigs
Re: Tracking Stories 2024-25
[Re: CNC]
#4213775 10/16/2411:26 AM10/16/2411:26 AM
Mine turned out to be another shoulder shot.......Got a little bad intel over the phone......It turned out that there was blood halfway up the arrow but it was broke off just a couple inches above the broadhead......It was bleeding fairly decent there for a stretch but then it petered out to nothing.........Otis tracked it without any issues out to about 700 yards and we called it off......
If any hunters are reading this, PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM THE SHOULDER!!!!! PLEASE! It had been a rough start already for us... New pup seems to be doing great and leads the way and gets to the deer just to bark a few times and off they go. No catching up with them. My veteran dog starts telling me about 250 yds in that it is not worth pursuing. I may learn to listen to her one day.
Tracked a big 9pt lastnight around Hollytree. Man those mountains are tough. Found one last speck of blood around the 800 yard mark. Made it around 1.25 miles and the hunter asked if I'd mind doing one restart. Back up the mountain we go. We stop to catch our breath and Muzz drags a skunk out of a hole just a few feet away from us and slings it everywhere. We restart and Muzz takes us right back to the same spot. He goes another 300 yards jumps the deer and the deer runs off and leaves him. I was driving home across the river bridge in Lacey Springs and a car with one headlight is coming straight towards me. They jerked it over into the left lane and kept on driving. Had enough time to takes a shower and come to work. Everything smells like a skunk including my house. Wife's not very pleased and I need a nap.
Tracked a big 9pt lastnight around Hollytree. Man those mountains are tough. Found one last speck of blood around the 800 yard mark. Made it around 1.25 miles and the hunter asked if I'd mind doing one restart. Back up the mountain we go. We stop to catch our breath and Muzz drags a skunk out of a hole just a few feet away from us and slings it everywhere. We restart and Muzz takes us right back to the same spot. He goes another 300 yards jumps the deer and the deer runs off and leaves him. I was driving home across the river bridge in Lacey Springs and a car with one headlight is coming straight towards me. They jerked it over into the left lane and kept on driving. Had enough time to takes a shower and come to work. Everything smells like a skunk including my house. Wife's not very pleased and I need a nap.
Damn!! .........Killed my very first buck in Hollytree on top of the mountain behind the store.....I dont see how you do it in those mountains.
Tracked a big 9pt lastnight around Hollytree. Man those mountains are tough. Found one last speck of blood around the 800 yard mark. Made it around 1.25 miles and the hunter asked if I'd mind doing one restart. Back up the mountain we go. We stop to catch our breath and Muzz drags a skunk out of a hole just a few feet away from us and slings it everywhere. We restart and Muzz takes us right back to the same spot. He goes another 300 yards jumps the deer and the deer runs off and leaves him. I was driving home across the river bridge in Lacey Springs and a car with one headlight is coming straight towards me. They jerked it over into the left lane and kept on driving. Had enough time to takes a shower and come to work. Everything smells like a skunk including my house. Wife's not very pleased and I need a nap.
Damn!! .........Killed my very first buck in Hollytree on top of the mountain behind the store.....I dont see how you do it in those mountains.
Next call just came in……Older gentleman said he shot the biggest deer of his life this evening…….Said he had a green slime arrow with no blood on the ground…….Gonna meet up just after daylight in the morning to see if we can find him….I got a feeling this one may be a good one……
Got a call last night to help track a big buck a hunter had shot…..At first he didn’t have any blood or arrow and didn’t know where the deer was hit so he decided to back out until this morning. They called back a short while later and said they looked a little more and had found blood and thought he would be able to find it this morning……
Hunter came back in this morning and found what he says is pools of blood before jumping the buck a couple hundred yards from the hit site…..Said he looked hurt bad but he’s gonna need some help….We’ve given him a couple more hours to lay back down…..Sometimes getting them up like that jostles things around and they expire after laying down again….We’re about to go see what we can do with him here in another hour or so.
Well, that one did not play out as we hoped it would…….We found the arrow about 50 yards into the track and from the looks of it the hunter only got about 2-3 inches of penetration…..He said he found something that he thought for sure was a piece of liver so we suspect he my have just punctured his body cavity enough to lacerate the liver…..He wasn’t bleeding as good as originally described and he didn’t bleed any at all past the bed where he was jumped…..We tracked him for about 700 yards in really tough dry conditions but never caught up to him….I don’t think he was hurt quite as bad as the hunter thought……He may eventually succumb from his injuries though if he does indeed have a lacerated liver.
Here's the arrow showing the minimal penetration…..Sorry for the out of focus pic.....It was completely clean other than the little bit you see….I believe his setup just failed him…….Sucks too because this buck had a double main beam and was a pretty dang good one.
Postimage isn't working for me today. Been on a few shoulder shot deer that have smoked the dogs. Tracked on in Guntersville yesterday that was 32hrs old. Weird track. Alittle blood 100 yards or so from the shot site. We found a small puddle of blood around 800 yards where he stood for awhile. Found another spot of blood where he had stood around the 1,300 yard mark and then we cut out through a thick overgrown pasture a couple of creeks and had to call the track pushing two miles with zero beds. Was a really slow hard track but I enjoyed watching Muzz work it. Found a 5pt for a young man in Elkmont yesterday. Was his first deer with a bow. Headed to New Market after that. It was 10hrs after the shot and pushing a mile before the trail got hot. Dogs never even barked so they never laid eyes on him he had just jumped up infront of us and stayed ahead. Found a few specs of blood along the way but the dogs just came back and laid down after covering a 1.75 mile half circle trying to catch up. I'm sure he'll be fine.
Its gonna be tough until it rains again......I was surprised out how hard Otis had to dig to track this one today.
It is very slow hard tracking right now
I’ll probably try and avoid any more midday tracking until it rains again…..I got zapped by static electricity a couple times earlier today to the point I saw a blue spark fly off the end of my finger the second time…..When that starts happening the air is dryyyy
We dont rent pigs
Re: Tracking Stories 2024-25
[Re: CNC]
#4216079 10/21/2406:23 AM10/21/2406:23 AM
Somebody put some good juju on us this morning. Been a tough start to the season.....Waiting on hunter now to look for one shot yesterday evening......Broadside to slightly quartered away.....Not sure where it hit.....no arrow found......decent blood for 150 yards
We dont rent pigs
Re: Tracking Stories 2024-25
[Re: CNC]
#4216146 10/21/2408:23 AM10/21/2408:23 AM
I took yesterday off. My phone rang non stop. Been a crazy start for me. Got one lined up for late this evening. 24hr old track, gonna be slow and tough
If you haven’t seen one in action these little Black Diamond 500 series are some awesome little lights……I went ahead and bought a second one to give to the hunter…..They’re usually far and away brighter than any lights the hunters have and they’re so small and light weight that you don’t even know you’re wearing it……Academy carries the Black Diamond lights but not the 500…..you gotta order it over the interwebs…..They’re $70 shipped but worth every penny.
Cool I'll buy one. Ran two crap tracks but knew it. One was a 24hr shoulder shot. Pretty typical .8 mile hike with a few barks and the dogs getting smoked when he jumped up. The other was meat on the broad head and fat on the arrow. Tracked itn140 yards to the flint river and called it off. Dogs are tracking good anyways
That light comes in really handy for a lot of stuff…….I find sign at the hit sight all the time that the hunters have missed simply because I can light it up…..I’ve used it to help locate deer that were floating in ponds and creeks….I use it a lot of times just to orientate myself with the landscape around me……If I’m gonna go into the woods after dark I’m gonna go prepared and able to see
Last edited by CNC; 10/22/2409:08 AM.
We dont rent pigs
Re: Tracking Stories 2024-25
[Re: CNC]
#4216731 10/22/2409:39 AM10/22/2409:39 AM
Just got confirmation that the last deer we tracked showed back up on camera last night......That always makes you feel good knowing you called it correctly.
Last edited by CNC; 10/22/2409:54 AM.
We dont rent pigs
Re: Tracking Stories 2024-25
[Re: CNC]
#4216765 10/22/2410:43 AM10/22/2410:43 AM
Just got confirmation that the last deer we tracked showed back up on camera last night......That always makes you feel good knowing you called it correctly.
You think that dark spot on his neck is where he was hit? Looks like it's about the size of a broadhead hole.
Re: Tracking Stories 2024-25
[Re: abolt300]
#4216783 10/22/2411:15 AM10/22/2411:15 AM
You think that dark spot on his neck is where he was hit? Looks like it's about the size of a broadhead hole.
Yeah that's where it was hit......It was shot at by a kid with a compound in a ground blind.....Probably just jerked his shot a little on a quartering away angle while the deer had its head down
That light comes in really handy for a lot of stuff…….I find sign at the hit sight all the time that the hunters have missed simply because I can light it up…..I’ve used it to help locate deer that were floating in ponds and creeks….I use it a lot of times just to orientate myself with the landscape around me……If I’m gonna go into the woods after dark I’m gonna go prepared and able to see
You need to buy a good coon light. Very bright enough to do what you do with the other. Wear it on your head and have two free hands… I use mine for everything. Mine has red/green/amber and 4 settings of LED. I couldn’t ever go back to having to hold a light in my hand.
That light comes in really handy for a lot of stuff…….I find sign at the hit sight all the time that the hunters have missed simply because I can light it up…..I’ve used it to help locate deer that were floating in ponds and creeks….I use it a lot of times just to orientate myself with the landscape around me……If I’m gonna go into the woods after dark I’m gonna go prepared and able to see
You need to buy a good coon light. Very bright enough to do what you do with the other. Wear it on your head and have two free hands… I use mine for everything. Mine has red/green/amber and 4 settings of LED. I couldn’t ever go back to having to hold a light in my hand.
I hate the coon lights going through thick briars and vines tracking. To aggrevating having them knocked off my head constantly
You think that dark spot on his neck is where he was hit? Looks like it's about the size of a broadhead hole.
Yeah that's where it was hit......It was shot at by a kid with a compound in a ground blind.....Probably just jerked his shot a little on a quartering away angle while the deer had its head down
Inch lower on the neck and he's got a dead deer with a blood trail that a blind man could follow. Hate it for the kid but that's pure meat right there and that deer will be fine if he doesnt get an infection and GG from it.
Call just came in........Hunter said he straight up gut shot his target buck......Said that he's just gonna back straight out and have us come in with the dog tomorrow morning.....Supposed to be a really good one.
Tracked one tonight. Believe the hit was somewhere in front of the shoulders. Muzz jumped him about 500 yards in and only barked twice. Caught up to him again about 300 yards later just for a split second and let out one more bark. Smoked us after that and the dogs quit 900 yards out and came back. Feel 100 percent certain he'll be fine
If you haven’t seen one in action these little Black Diamond 500 series are some awesome little lights……I went ahead and bought a second one to give to the hunter…..They’re usually far and away brighter than any lights the hunters have and they’re so small and light weight that you don’t even know you’re wearing it……Academy carries the Black Diamond lights but not the 500…..you gotta order it over the interwebs…..They’re $70 shipped but worth every penny.
Got a link? I can't find anything but a headlamp
Re: Tracking Stories 2024-25
[Re: CNC]
#4218077 10/25/2408:35 AM10/25/2408:35 AM
The hunter did the right thing by backing out and giving it overnight…….We found it at just over 300 yards from the hit site with very little sign to go on…..A couple spots of blood here and there but that was it……Heck of a nice deer….. Coyotes had found him and ate the other side is why he looks so sunken in….
Got some lady on The Blood Trailing Network complaining that the picture I posted is showing the deer's guts......Said that we should present them in a more tactful manner..... Ok, I'll be sure to do that on the next one.
We dont rent pigs
Re: Tracking Stories 2024-25
[Re: CNC]
#4218657 10/26/2411:40 AM10/26/2411:40 AM
Got some lady on The Blood Trailing Network complaining that the picture I posted is showing the deer's guts......Said that we should present them in a more tactful manner..... Ok, I'll be sure to do that on the next one.
😂take it from the other end, upside down
Re: Tracking Stories 2024-25
[Re: CNC]
#4218664 10/26/2411:54 AM10/26/2411:54 AM
Not sure what it is, but I have had a lot less traffic on my game cameras over the past 5 or 6 days. Maybe we can get a little cold front to move down and get them going again.
Not sure what it is, but I have had a lot less traffic on my game cameras over the past 5 or 6 days. Maybe we can get a little cold front to move down and get them going again.
Yeah, movement, especially bucks, has really slowed way down in the past 8 days. It was slow the week before opening day and then activity picked up going into the opener with the cooler weather, and as soon as the cool weather started backing out and warming up on opening weekend, it started slowing right back down. At least there were 4-5 good days to hunt right at the start. There were a bunch of deer and some really good ones killed in that short period too.
I’m gonna shoulder shoot two this afternoon , yall come and we’ll have a tracking contest.. plenty of rain and it’s cooled off a tad. Be equal for both teams!!!!
Re: Tracking Stories 2024-25
[Re: CNC]
#4221709 11/01/2409:08 AM11/01/2409:08 AM
Everyone is slow….its not just a CNC thing……Nobody has tracked more than just a handful…….There’s really no reason to believe that anything should have changed from the perspective of my operation’s “data”…….I don’t really have much competition close to me and I’ve been well established for a long time…. I think its just what I said in the predictions thread…..It’s not a coincidence that I called it before the season started in saying it was about to be a slow year in south Alabama……
Everyone is slow….its not just a CNC thing……Nobody has tracked more than just a handful…….There’s really no reason to believe that anything should have changed from the perspective of my operation’s “data”…….I don’t really have much competition close to me and I’ve been well established for a long time…. I think its just what I said in the predictions thread…..It’s not a coincidence that I called it before the season started in saying it was about to be a slow year in south Alabama……
If anyone else in SE Bama is like me, they just aren't hunting yet. Seeing more deer on cams this year than last 2 years, but I'm not sitting in 80+ degree temps to kill one.
If anyone else in SE Bama is like me, they just aren't hunting yet. Seeing more deer on cams this year than last 2 years, but I'm not sitting in 80+ degree temps to kill one.
If folks had something worth shooting then they'd be sitting regardless of the wather.......
Last edited by CNC; 11/02/2404:35 PM.
We dont rent pigs
Re: Tracking Stories 2024-25
[Re: CNC]
#4222596 11/03/2403:06 AM11/03/2403:06 AM
Everyone is slow….its not just a CNC thing……Nobody has tracked more than just a handful…….There’s really no reason to believe that anything should have changed from the perspective of my operation’s “data”…….I don’t really have much competition close to me and I’ve been well established for a long time…. I think its just what I said in the predictions thread…..It’s not a coincidence that I called it before the season started in saying it was about to be a slow year in south Alabama……
Get you and your dogs plenty of excercise and rest cause you know folks will be ringing the phone off the hook shortly!
Re: Tracking Stories 2024-25
[Re: CNC]
#4222687 11/03/2408:50 AM11/03/2408:50 AM
I thought that maybe if I pushed the button a little early it would ensure that someone immediately called afterwards……We’re trying anything to break the slump right now…… I guess its time to turn my hat inside out or something…..
If someone doesnt call this weekend then I'm sounding the alarm......This is very abnormal
Economy sucks. Broadheads and arrows have not been immune to inflation either. Maybe with money tight, people finally practiced during the summer months and actually learned how to properly shoot their bows. Shoot a good broad head, Take out both lungs, and a tracking dog is rarely needed. On a serious note. Deer activity on cams has shifted to almost exclusively during non-shooting hours, especially on mature bucks, since the Sunday after opening day. I’m predicting it’ll start picking back up middle of this week. And in the areas I’m talking about, the movement changes are not hunting pressure related. Deer and bucks are still there, in numbers, just moving between 7 pm and 5 am right now.
Tracked a buck in St Clair county this morning. Ended up finding a clean arrow and just a few specks of bright red blood. Dogs tracked it around 450 yards and just started circling. Called it off and headed out towards Gurley to help a guy find his first deer with a bow. He was more excited over that doe than most people are over big bucks.
If anyone else in SE Bama is like me, they just aren't hunting yet. Seeing more deer on cams this year than last 2 years, but I'm not sitting in 80+ degree temps to kill one.
If folks had something worth shooting then they'd be sitting regardless of the wather.......
I have plenty to kill, just not gonna sweat my ass off in the process. I’m not desperate and there will be another day to kill deer.
What a night! Between keeping up with the election and spending 3hrs trying to sort out a track its been rough. The hunter said he shot the deer between the shoulder blades straight under him. We started the track went about 150 yards and ended up in the middle of a gravel road. We're standing their watching the dogs work and a yearling doe comes trotting up the road straight to us. She gets 20 yards away and just stops. Dogs freeze and just stare at her. She finally turns off to our left and walks off down a trail. The dogs work for alittle longer and take the same trail as the yearling doe. I think it confused them and they ended up coming back and working the road some more. They finally take the same trail as the little doe go 200 yards and jump the deer. Muzz stayed with him for a few hundred yards but then lost him. Stayed hung up for awhile but they finally figured it out and got us on some blood. This is all really thick privet and briars the whole time. Finally caught up to him when he had to start going uphill. The deer had 10 to 12 inches of arrow running just under the skin down his neck almost like a splint. Weirdest part was he had 4 deer standing around him blowing while the dogs had him bayed. Glad we pulled if off because I imagine that deer had a slow miserable death coming if it wasn't for us.
Re: Tracking Stories 2024-25
[Re: CNC]
#4224677 11/06/2403:52 AM11/06/2403:52 AM
I wish we could see more detailed data for game check……I’d like to be able to compare harvest totals for any given county according to date…..Meaning, I’d like to compare the number of bucks killed on 11/7 this year compared to that same date in years past and so forth…..If I’m not mistaken we are actually around the same number of total deer killed statewide at this point in the season as we were last year……It seems like I remember bow season being 8 thousand and something deer…..I have a feeling though that the make-up of that total is different……
Alabama bow hunters for the most part are very opportunistic hunters……They may be hunting for that “shooter” but most bow hunters will drastically lower their standards just to shoot something during bow season…..”Any buck is a good buck with a bow” is true for most bow hunters……I say that to mean that even though the total is the same……I bet it has mostly been folks filling their bow season quotas with young bucks and does……I bet there has been a dramatic decrease in the number of older bucks being shot…..and that’s why all the trackers are so slow compared to past seasons……
For the most part “shooters” make up the bulk of what we get called on unless it’s a kids first deer or something like that…..Yes, we do get called out on 4 pts and such for grown hunters sometimes but its like 75% of the calls are for shooters and 25% for young bucks or something like that………We make our living so to speak off of “good bucks”……People call us to track those “just to make sure”…..Not so though on a doe or a 4 pt……the majority of those just wont get called on…….Its just the way it sets up……..I think lack of “quality” really impacts trackers…..We thrive when there are plenty of good bucks getting shot at
Calls are probably gonna be slow all year……I think we have impacted our age structure across the board statewide…..To what degree??......It seems fairly substantial......more so in some areas than others
CNC- you can't push an agenda guided by truth and facts.... everything needs to be a little cloudy so the experts can " interpret " the data and do what is in our best interest and we should accept it.
WDE
Re: Tracking Stories 2024-25
[Re: Stickers]
#4226321 11/08/2409:03 AM11/08/2409:03 AM
CNC- you can't push an agenda guided by truth and facts.... everything needs to be a little cloudy so the experts can " interpret " the data and do what is in our best interest and we should accept it.
We dont rent pigs
Re: Tracking Stories 2024-25
[Re: CNC]
#4226869 11/09/2409:43 AM11/09/2409:43 AM
Most of the hunters I know have not even been yet because of the hot weather. Last year we had a couple frosts by this time. That has to play a role in it being slow this year
I’m sure that there’s some weather effect that’s adding onto the slowness but I’ve been tracking 11 years now and I’ve never seen anything remotely close to it being like this……Folks are still hunting and killing deer though as shown by game check…..I think the number of good bucks out there is just much lower…….The top end of your age structure pyramid has taken a severe hit along with a lot more high grading of young bucks……That’s what happens when you jack your buck harvest rates up by an additional 20-30% or more for several years……That isnt sustainable and why I fully expected for reality to catch up with us at some point……
Tracked a deer in Madison County earlier. The hunter tracked him around 200 yards and lost blood. Muzz and Cotton tracked him another 1,000 yards. Started out where the hunter lost it. Crossed a big pasture and the dogs took a right once we got into the woods. We go around 200 yards and find a speck of blood. The dogs turned back the way we came from then back off to the right where we found him DOA around 1200 yards from the hit site
I became friends with a tracker from Linden, Michigan years ago due to him getting a Kopov and wanting to know about mine…..I’ve watched his Facebook feed for quite awhile now and I can tell you that what most of us trackers do down here in Alabama doesn’t seem to hold a candle to what they’re doing up there……He said the other day that he had gotten 86 calls in a 48 hr period and he was telling folks that all the trackers on their network couldnt keep up at the moment……And he’s just constantly posting pics of one stud after another too…..They have a lot stricter rules than what we have though…..From what I can tell they allow a 2 buck limit with a 2 week gun season along with some muzzleloader days and a few more extra gun doe days ……I think the result is a bunch of good bucks that people want to find when they shoot one of their two……His volume of calls almost needs its own operator...
I say that just to point out that we are just the opposite in Alabama……on the other end of that spectrum……Its an unbridled free for all at this point…..“Come one, come all and corn the chit out of ‘em for months on end with a rifle and no enforced limits”….. and the quality heavily reflects it….Seeing what their trackers are doing in comparison is why I feel pretty confident that we just slid farther to that chitty end of the quality spectrum….Trackers seem to be a pretty good indicator of a few things……
I have no doubt that corn and 3 months of gun season plays a huge factor. Be interesting to see what the numbers show once we get some cooler weather. Good luck this season and keep the tracking stories coming!
Re: Tracking Stories 2024-25
[Re: rhino21]
#4227424 11/10/2412:34 AM11/10/2412:34 AM
Most of the hunters I know have not even been yet because of the hot weather. Last year we had a couple frosts by this time. That has to play a role in it being slow this year
This. I think you are reading to deep into this CNC. The best bucks I have on camera are seen in daylight most evenings, but myself nor anyone I hunt with has gone in the afternoon due to the extremely warm weather.
We don’t have a single good buck on camera still. Neighbors are your worst enemy or best friends when hunting. The one deer i have with any rack will get killed if he shows up in daylight. I’m to the point to turn my daughter loose on him.
Would walk over a naked woman to get to a gobblin turkey!
We don’t have a single good buck on camera still. Neighbors are your worst enemy or best friends when hunting. The one deer i have with any rack will get killed if he shows up in daylight. I’m to the point to turn my daughter loose on him.
I’m guessing this same scenario is playing out in a lot of places right now……This whole process is still ongoing because of just what you said, a lot of hunters probably start shooting a buck they typically wouldn’t when they start feeling like they have no realistic chance at a “shooter”…........It wasn’t hot around here this weekend…..It’s dang sure cool enough to be in a tree with a front moving through if you’re a bow hunter. I kind of wonder sometimes if the state is intentionally sitting back and just waiting for the hunters to knock things back so bad that the hunters themselves start calling for stricter rules…..I guess that’s one way of going about gathering public support……Truth be told it’ll probably be a pretty effective plan long term…..It just may be another 5-10 years from now before we see it all come full circle……and it’ll just be a matter of how chitty does it get in the meantime before it gets better.
I doubt it……We’ll definitely get some calls coming in next weekend for the youth hunt but I don’t expect any kind of “boom” to happen except a little bit around the rut…..The "boom" was the last few years while folks were shooting the chit out 'em......December is typically the slowest time period of the season….I think its gonna be a trickle of calls with a few tracks here and there…….The most depressing part is knowing that it isnt gonna get any better anytime soon….Folks will eventually start coming around to the realization of what we’ve done (are doing) just like they eventually did with the 2 per day doe slaughtering after it had already occurred…..The same way folks started looking around saying “Hey wait a minute, there arent as many deer anymore!”……They will say….”Hey wait a minute, where did the bucks go?”……You cant just shoot a pile of extra ones for multiple years in a row and think its not going to catch up with you eventually……Its just common sense to expect it…..I think the chickens are coming home to roost in many areas.
Last edited by CNC; 11/11/2406:51 PM.
We dont rent pigs
Re: Tracking Stories 2024-25
[Re: CNC]
#4228520 11/12/2408:30 AM11/12/2408:30 AM
Here’s the conundrum…….When they passed the legalized baiting rule they should have went ahead and passed stricter buck harvest regulations of some kind in conjunction with that change in order to balance out the impacts…..From a herd management standpoint that would have been the best way of preventing what just happened…….
However, there’s more to consider than just the deer……there’s people management…..I get that…..Hunters would have pitched a fit back when baiting was legalized if the state reduced the buck limit or issued tags, etc…..They would have had their pitchforks out hollering “No new rules!!”……..A lot of hunters will still have this attitude when the drum beat starts for change in the coming years……But they have you by the short and curlies now because most people….even the ones who would protest new rules now…..will eventually concede over time if their hunting gets bad enough or if your tracking calls remain a fraction of what they used to be……Its just a matter of whether you concede now or whether you kick and scream for a while…..The baiting genie isnt going back in the bottle even if folks wanted it to……
We dont rent pigs
Re: Tracking Stories 2024-25
[Re: CNC]
#4228594 11/12/2411:22 AM11/12/2411:22 AM
The thing I keep pondering over and going back and forth with is the question of…..Exactly how bad have we dicked it up??.....A little bit?......A lot??.......Somewhere in the middle??.......I keep telling myself that the weather is just amplifying the perception of it being bad-bad and it’s probably closer to just being more moderate levels of negative impact than what it looks like right now……
However, there’s still the very real possibility that we’ve dicked it up bad in a lot of places and haven’t even reached the bottom yet……I’ve just gone three weeks without getting a single call other than one false alarm. As far as I can recall that has never happened in 11 years…..It may have my very first year or something but this is definitely a severe deviation from the norm…..which is why I say that there’s the potential that we’ve dicked it up pretty bad……Call rates for folks like me and John are direct reflections of hunter opportunities or lack there of. There’s no doubt that all the trackers are about to start getting more calls over the next couple weeks with gun season cranking off……We’ll see how the rest of the season plays out from here….. That will tell us a lot more about how much of this has just been the weather.....As it is right now though, bow season 2024 is officially going down as a flop.
A lot of people just got rain on their food plots within the last week and are like me and have not gone hunting yet. I have not been even once this year, which is abnormal. I get to hunt some great places in Macon and Bullock that seem to be some of your best areas. If I'm like that, how many other hunters are the same. It's not chicken little. People just haven't hunted yet and the weather has sucked so far. Calm down and reevaluate at the end of the season.
If any of yall know Wendell the game warden in Limestone county tell him John said to go f himself. Made me quit tracking a deer for a 8 year old boy. The deer is hurt bad but he's a idiot and said I was hunting deer not tracking. The deer will die. No tickets or laws broken just a a**hole game warden letting a kids first big buck go. He lives close by so I really question if he wasn't after the same deer. Either way he's a douche bag in my book.
If any of yall know Wendell the game warden in Limestone county tell him John said to go f himself. Made me quit tracking a deer for a 8 year old boy. The deer is hurt bad but he's a idiot and said I was hunting deer not tracking. The deer will die. No tickets or laws broken just a a**hole game warden letting a kids first big buck go. He lives close by so I really question if he wasn't after the same deer. Either way he's a douche bag in my book.
That sucks......Did y'all just run across him in the middle of the track?.........I've checked two non-lethal bow shots yesterday and today....
If any of yall know Wendell the game warden in Limestone county tell him John said to go f himself. Made me quit tracking a deer for a 8 year old boy. The deer is hurt bad but he's a idiot and said I was hunting deer not tracking. The deer will die. No tickets or laws broken just a a**hole game warden letting a kids first big buck go. He lives close by so I really question if he wasn't after the same deer. Either way he's a douche bag in my book.
That sucks......Did y'all just run across him in the middle of the track?.........I've checked two non-lethal bow shots yesterday and today....
The neighbor we needed permission from was friends with the warden. He wanted us to come to his house and talk to him first before we tracked on his land which is fine. Problem was he had green jeans waiting on us. Was really just a setup for a butt chewing. I've tracked and bayed deer for game wardens. Called a Madison County warden and told him what was said and even he agreed it was stupid. Wendel the warden said he didn't care how bad the deer was hurt if he isn't dead we're hunting and he's putting a stop to it.
Recovered a nice buck for a twelve year boy’s first deer……He put a pretty good shot on it with a .308 but it just didn’t bleed any more than a couple small specks at the hit site. They were hunting in the middle of an extremely thick stand of little pines so after not being able to track it they just backed out and called in the dogs instead of gridding.
Nice deer there! Wish I’d had yall Saturday to find little mans mini doe! Keep up the good work
Call me if you ever need help again 256 200 5613. I got my butt whooped by a bow shot deer in Huntsville lastnight. We crawled around for over an hour in privet and briars just to jump him up and get smoked. Pretty confident he was hit high behind the shoulder.
Went and checked bow shot for a hunter that was shot yesterday evening so it was roughly 23 hrs old……The hunter had basically shot it high through the top of the back with it less than 10 yards from his stand with the arrow staying in the deer…..We tracked him out to the 750 yard mark where we jumped him….Pretty sure he was still good and lively…..I let the dogs run him a couple hundred yards to the property line before we had to call it but he never even checked up…….
On the way back I did have this interesting encounter with a wild pig……He was standing in the middle of the dirt road and wasn’t a bit scared of me and the truck……
Got to help a youngman find his first deer tonight. He shot her and they said she ran about 50 yards and flopped over. They waited till dark and got down only to realize the deer was gone and they couldn't find any blood with the rain. The dogs didn't waste anytime picking up the track and taking us around 350 yards into a over grown clear cut full of briars straight to her.
This deer was shot quartered away from the hunter with a muzzleloader around 4 yesterday evening in the rain. He found one spot of blood smeared on a tree and followed turned up leaves as far as he could. He called me around 9 this morning and when he told me he lived close by I clocked out of work and headed his way. The dogs picked up on it right away and took off. The hunter was telling me a story so I just listened while I was watching the dogs on the handheld. They made their way off the side of a mountain and we're showing treed. I love when the hunter gets all tore up when I ask if they want to go look at the deer or not. Awesome guy to track for!
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.........Killed my very first buck in Hollytree on top of the mountain behind the store.....I dont see how you do it in those mountains.
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