I got a call from a friend of mine about 8:30 Saturday night asking me if I wanted to run my dog on a track. This weekend was the youth hunt in Wisconsin where youths can use a firearm for the weekend. He told me that his ten-year-old son shot at a nice 9 point but it was right at shooting time and it was hard to tell if he hit the deer at all.
Usually I don't like to go on tracks like this but it was for a friend and a youth hunter so I decided to give it a go. When I arrived we drove down to the food plot where he shot at the deer. He said there were 2 other bucks with this one and that when he shot the other deer scattered but this one turned into a row of pines that opened up into a small hardwoods. I put Stella where the deer was standing with the shot and she pulled me to the edge of the pines and took a trail into them. When we got into the hardwoods she pulled me about 30 yards or so and then stopped and put her nose into the leaves. I looked down and there was a good amount of blood. When I examined the blood it looked dark red and when I picked up a leaf to smell it the leaf reeked of guts.
I advised that we stop immediately and come back in the morning as to not push him. We arrived back at 7:00 AM the following morning and picked up where we left off the night before. The blood was sparse and there were large gaps between spots of visible blood. It wasn't long and we were at the edge of the hardwoods and into some tall prairie grass that led to a large marsh that is currently dried up. Not long into the grass we found blood again then the deer took a sharp left turn and we found the first bed with a good amount of blood in it...and then another bed about 10 steps from there with a large amount of blood, and then another, and then another. It was very apparent that this deer was hurting very badly. Within another 20 yards we were standing on top of this nice 9 pointer. This was this young man's first deer and he was super excited. He said to me, "your dog is awesome!!". I am a teacher and this young man is one of my students at school. He said, "I will definitely have a story for everyone at school on Monday!" Always nice to help out a youth hunter!!
Dean Muthig
Wisconsin
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| Stella, a German Wirehaired Pointer, has recovered this nice buck for a ten-year-old hunter. |
2 comments:
What a GREAT first deer! Never get tired of reading about kids and their first deer. That will be etched into his memory for the rest of his life! Nicely done!!
Great job to track the buck so it didn´t suffer more. Sad though that it happens.
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