I knew that Kevin has taken 29 calls at the time and asked him what in his opinion was the reason for the fact that he recovered only four deer. Thank you Kevin for your insights:
Jola, Karma did outstanding work. In my opinion this years low recovery rate is due to poor call quality. In addition, in three cases the deer was taken by someone else before we got to it. In one case, which is under investigation by en con police, the antlers will probably be the 4th biggest buck ever taken in NYS. In another case my hunter tracked down the guys who took the deer and got a photo. That was an 8 pointer who would have probably scored around 160. In a third case we were under observation by a stranger in a car on a nearby road throughout the track. No doubt the deer was removed with a motor vehicle and stashed somewhere nearby. Some people will do awful things to own a really big buck. Unfortunate. In most of the other trails we ultimately jumped the deer and in most cases chased it for significant distances before abandoning the trail. If we include the three deer that were taken before we got there I think we had a 100% success rate at recovering all the mortally wounded deer we went after. I believe that if the deer is out there, dead, Karma and I will find it. That said it is hard to hold such a positive attitude after 9 or 10 trails without a recovery. I suppose we all have to expect some good years, some bad years, and some average years. I just hate to have below average years while my little dog is in her prime.
The season isn't over yet. Anything could happen. My goal is always 25% with a stretched goal of 33%. If I recover the next couple deer I go after I suppose I'm doing OK. We had a master tracker with an outstanding dog in FLC DSI last year who only recovered 1 in 28 or some such figure. No fault of his, just the way it rolls.
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