I talked to the hunter on the phone yesterday and told him that a chance of finding this deer was next to zero. Boy, was I wrong. Congratulations Kevin on this great recovery!
"We found this deer 87 hours after it was hit! The hunter hit the deer last Friday (10-24-08) and gave it up for lost on Saturday. Over the weekend he read about tracking dogs in Deer & Deer Hunting magazine. Through contact information in the magazine he managed to get the call narrowed down to me. Tuesday morning I left at daylight in a hard cold rain with little hope of recovering the deer nearly 4 days after the hit. The hunter was sure he had a body hit and he was willing to tag the deer if we found it. It took 2.5 hours of cold trailing, then area search and wind whiffing. Our adventure included an unplanned dip in the Clyde River but what the heck. Anyone crazy enough to take up a 4 day old trail is crazy enough to ... well. Long story short, we found him. Hunter, human tracker, and K9 tracker are all cold, wet, and tired. None of us could be happier!
Happy trails!
Kevin & Karma "
Simply amazing, I am lost for words. GREAT JOB. I could only dream of having a recovery like that.
ReplyDeleteI sure wish that PA allowed the use of tracking dogs...
ReplyDeleteI shot an 8-point on the same day as the hunter in the story. I put the pin just behind his shoulder but he was walking out of the area. I neglected to blat to make him stop. The arrow passed through the deer. I followed the blood trail for approx. 70 yards...and then nothing! I searched the woods for 7 hours and went back the next day and on Monday. Nothing! The deer either survived the hit or bedded down where I couldn't find it.
...I am still upset about the whole thing.
Joe