I received a call from a friend on Saturday morning. He asked my to come to his new home, in the country, and help him track a six point whitetail buck he had just shot an hour previously on his property.
My friend is color blind and he was having problems differentiating red from the green grass on the tracking trail.
Tracking has to be one of my all-time favorite activities. The French refer to it as the 'petite hunt'. There is nothing more rewarding than to stay on a blood trail to a successful conclusion. But, in this case, it turned out to be deer 1 and hunter zero.
My friend is an excellent hunter. He had dropped a nice doe the week before. But, on this occasion, his bowstring had caught his coat sleeve on the release and the arrow had ventured off its mark.
We discovered the arrow 70 yards from the original entry point. The arrow had penetrated 13 inches and from the color of the blood, and the bent broadhead, it appeared to be a high back shot just before the haunches.
The blood trail was light but consistent. With the buck leaving markers on the high grass as it proceeded into the heaviest cover you can imagine.
When you don't have a strong blood trail to follow, half the skill of tracking is knowing the woods you are hunting and you need to get inside that deers head by predicting where they will seek cover when stressed.
We tracked through swamp, around a pond (where the buck wisely back trailed on us twice), and since we were in farm cover, he would be moving parallel to fence lines always keeping about 50 to 60 yards of cover between him and the open field.
Sadly, after 3 1/2 hours of tracking, the blood trail ran out. We found the last spot he laid down and the blood showed signs of coagulation.
Whenever a blood trail runs dry, I always place a marker at the last spot we discover blood. Then I slowly work a 20 yard radius around that marker in an attempt to pickup the trail again.
But, in this case, this was trails end. Our tracking was over. We looked at each other, with remorse, and consoled each other with the encouraging words that we had performed our duty to the deer by doing everything possible to recover it.
Lesson learned?
Always use a forearm protector to keep your bowstring from hitting your sleeve.
As for the deer? A neighbor called to say that he just saw the buck, two miles away, crossing his bean field. He commented that it was shot in the leg.
I listened as my friend was trying to explain that it was not a leg shot but a high back shot.
I guess when you are the new guy, surrounded by established farmers, you don't want the nickname – 'The Leg Shooter'.
Have a safe and sucessful deer hunting season,
Buck |