GA Deer

[bigblister]

Shot a Deer Friday evening and obviously didn't make a good shot. I was at a buddy's farm that I hunted a lot in college but hadn't been out there in years. I had no blood at the impact sight but found blood 40 yards in the woods. I was at the farm with old buddies which most didn't hunt but all wanted to lend a hand to look for the down buck. Of course this was not ideal since they were crushing the blood trail and pushing a possibly wounded deer. Cleared out around midnight and planned to come back in AM since the weather was brutal with rain and temps around 80 degrees.

Got up at sunlight with one buddy who knew how to track and started where I left off and went deeper with no more blood. At this point I was feeling really bummed because I knew it was a decent buck and I had spent most of my "hall pass" tracking a deer instead of relaxing - side note just had a kid 3'weeks ago so I had to make the most of my time with my buddies.

Back to tracking- I was deep in a bottom when I began to cross a deep drainage ditch and this guy was waiting on me:

Freaked me and my other buddy out so we took it to the house. I was driving home wet, sore and grossly second guessed my marksmanship when the farmhand that lives at the farm had pulled a chip from a camera next the stand I was hunting and texted me this:

Tex

Now this changed everything. I knew this was a buck I couldn't lose and I had to find a bloodhound, or so I thought.

I drove back to my house to pay pentence to my wife while I watched the Georgia game. I looked up trackers trying to find one available. Talked to many but all were working. Finally found Pat Cleveland but he had a Lab named Speck. Speck didn't track blood only wounded animals.

I was skeptical as my buddies told me you needed blue ticks or hounds that could get on a blood trail. I had no choice I told him to come on and I headed back to the farm. Pat and Speck beat me to the farm and the farm hand had directed him where I shot the buck. Speck had a GPS collar on and was 700 yards away and was on my buck!

Suddenly, after about 15 minutes and 3.5 miles of trailing Speck stopped so we high tailed it to his spot. We ran through the woods at a speed where I thought I was going to pass out. I looked up and saw Speck but no deer. Pat was constantly coaching me not to shoot his dog and I would rather not get the deer than shoot his pup.

The dog then took off again and Pat looked down at his GPS console. It appeared Speck was back at the truck. It was a long walk back. However, as we got closer to the truck Pat started walking faster. He said that the dog was back on him and was 870 yards away. We hoped in the truck and gave chase. Speck chased the deer across a big creek (about 200 yards wide) we set on the other side. Finally, he spooked the deer on the bank and gave me a shot. The big 8 was recovered and the meat was salvaged thanks to a 9 year old lab of steel.

See his stats below. My leg shot blew his leg off but still trailed him at 4 miles an hour for almost 4.5 miles.

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[Fish Dawg]

Nice work Blister ! Good Buck and worth every bit of sweat and money to find that deer !!

[SS-342]

Glad you got him. I've lost some like that and it makes you feel awful.