I took tracks #39 and #40 yesterday and today; they were a good example of how the results of hard work can be rewarded unfairly. All this is easier to handle if you get your best personal rewards from seeing good dog work. If you define success only by the number of big bucks found, you feel like a loser all too often.
In track #39 the signs looked good enough so that it was definitely worth checking out. Here’s the abbreviated story:
The hunter’s point of loss was on the edge of a ravine so steep we could only get to the creek at the bottom by sliding down 50 yards on our butts. Joeri took us across the creek and showed us a few flecks of blood. Then up, up, up with just enough blood to confirm that Joeri had it right.
I took Joeri off the line a half mile farther on as we descended toward the creek again. We had no blood, but Joeri was sure he was right; I trusted him. The deer had never bedded, but reading Joeri I could see that the line was warmer than when we had started. There was no catching up to the deer that night. He was moving out way ahead.
The next morning we took up the line again. Now Joeri showed us two splinters of bone and some of the same type of hair we had seen the previous day. We crossed the creek again and worked through a remote wooded valley. No deer, no hope. Assessing the bone chips it seemed like a probably low brisket hit that had not entered the chest cavity.
We had tracked a total of five hours. Our only reward was Joeri’s good work on what had become an old cold line with almost no blood.
It so happened that another hunter had called that morning. He had shot a buck behind his house that was right beside my return route. There was little blood and little evidence of a good hit, but what the hell; it was on my way home. In all my life had never before taken 40 calls in a year.
I started Joeri on a few drops of blood. To him the line was very easy because it was six hours fresh. We went through 150 yards of the easiest “thick stuff” that I’ve see all fall. And there lay the deer, dead from a wound in the stomach. He was a very nice nine pointer. The hunter was deliriously happy to have the biggest buck he had ever shot. Joeri seemed just as pleased as if he had tracked it for five hours. My own pleasures came from the pleasure of the others.
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| Dennis Schmidt with his nine pointer and Joeri |
John you could not be more correct. This fall(2010) was my best year tracking wounded white tails here in michigan. With that being said I recovered less deer do to the hunter did not make a mortal shot. This fall scout performance was stellar. I felt bad for him because he worked so hard to just have the deer run off. I get the famous question what is your success rate.
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