I
just finished my 50th call of the year with a live jump of a non-mortally
wounded deer. I thought it was a gut shot by the hunter's phone interview, but
when I got to the hit site it was quite clear what really happened. The ground
hunting hunter reported a line of white hair on the ground making me think a
low belly opening slice like I have seen often before with big mechanical broad
heads. The big mature buck reportedly acted like a gut shot as well. He jumped
slightly at the shot and stopped 30 yards away and stood with tail down and
breathed heavily for 15 minutes as he milled around "acting oddly" before walking slowly away.
The
hunter reported a lot of blood where the deer stood for 15 minutes and an easy
blood trail leading away. I had tracked successfully for this novice hunter
before so he called me from the hit site at 9am an hour after the shot and I
advised him to wait until 2 hours before dark (3pm) which would be 7 hours
after the shot before tracking. The
hunter called back after dark and reported the blood trail petered out after 600
yards with one big puddle along the way. From the phone conversation I
believed he had pushed him unseen in the dark when he tracked him that night.
When
I got to the hit site in the morning the real story was there to be seen. The
"line" of white hair was actually a big oval "puff" of
white hair and some of the white hairs had brown tips indicative of the white
hairs at the border of the white and brown on the back of a deer's rear legs
under the tail.
The
hunter had been unable to find the bolt from his crossbow even though he
reported a double thump when he shot. I
assumed one thump hitting the deer and a second one with the bolt likely
striking a tree behind the deer a split second later. When my dog Eibe surveyed
the hit site before taking off down the line she found the bolt embedded in a
tree 15 yards behind the puff of hair.
The bolt had deflected left 30 degrees from the original line of travel
after striking the deer. With the 25 yard shot hitting the deer so far off the
point of aim and so many small branches in the line of sight I lined up from
the puff of hair and the stump the hunter was leaning on for the shot I suspect
the first thump was a deflection off a limb before the bolt hit the deer rather
than the striking of the deer.
The
puff of hair and the brown tips on the
white hairs told the story but the bolt confirmed it. It appeared to be
perfectly clean but when I sprayed it with peroxide, as you can see in the
photos below, it showed a glancing blow.
The shaft between two of the three fletchings foamed up but the opposite side
did not. Also the rest of the shaft did not foam at all except for a very small
spot on one side of the shaft just
behind the broad head an inch or two. After wiggling the broad head out of the
tree, only two of the three blades of
the Grim Reaper mechanical broad head foamed as well. Also the large amount of
blood reported by the hunter where the deer milled around for 15 minutes was
just a bunch of drops. Lots of small drops but nothing even approaching "a
lot" of blood.
Note
white specks of foam from peroxide. The
shaft appeared perfectly clean before the peroxide was applied. I was surprised to see it foam up.
Not
seen in this photo but only 2 of the 3 blades foamed from the peroxide and a
small speck of material foamed on the shaft 1 or 2 inches back from the broad
head on the same side of the shaft as the 2 blades that foamed.
Looking
at the small specks of foam from the peroxide on the bolt I could visualize 2
of the 3 blades of the mechanical opening as they contacted the back edge of
the rear legs of the buck and sliced the skin open barely touching the muscle underneath
and lightly spraying a little tissue on one side of the bolt's shaft. As the blades created drag on one side of the
shaft the back end of the bolt would kick away from the animal and as soon as
the blades passed out of the skin the bolt would try to true itself thrusting
the fletching back towards the deer's rump and smacking 2 of the 3 fletchings
against the wound in the skin. This would cut an enormous amount of white hair as
the blades raked across the back of the rear legs.
After
evaluating the shot I told the hunter there was almost no chance of recovering
the deer but since I had driven 90 miles and was there any way I would give it
a shot. I was personally curious if this big buck who reacted so conservatively
to the glancing shot would lay up and rest. And there is always the chance that
somehow I miss interpreted the sign and he was more severely hurt. At the very
least since I was so sure of what had occurred from the available sign I planned
on using the call as a training exercise and learning more about my dog.
Well
I started my dog and she easily followed the 600 meters the hunter had tracked
and just kept on going through the point of loss without missing a beat. 165
meters past the hunter's point of loss the trail made a J-hook and we jumped
the buck unseen but it was clear from my dog's actions that the trail had gone
hot. He was laying 50 meters off his
back trail. We chased him about 1½ miles
in easy terrain just for the fun of it and to observe the pattern he would
take. As expected for a minimally hurting deer he took minimal evasive maneuvers at first feeling little threat from
his pursuers being he was really not that hurt. He did make one small trick y move but that was pretty much it. He ran out into a field and made a 50 meter
circle and then cut back at a hard angle across an opposite field. At one point after that he busted through 5 or 6 bedded does. We saw the does running hard ahead of us and
tracked his single tracks across their
beds. I wonder if he did that on purpose? The does ran down the same trail he did for
awhile. I was quite proud of my dog in that when the buck's single tracks
branched off from the group at a Y in the trail my Eibe never missed a beat and
was right on him and ignored the does' heavy, hot line. When I was sure Eibe was just on him by
himself I picked a convenient place to quite the trail when the buck veered in
a direction that was not back towards the truck.
We
had chased the buck live for an hour over a distance of about 1 ½ miles and he
had shown no signs of weakness. I had
seen my dog negotiate the buck's evasive circle maneuver effortlessly, and I
gained even more confidence in her ability to concentrate on the correct line when
we busted through the bedded does. This
was a productive day for my dog and I salvaged out of a non-gettable call. And a nice fat tip from the hunter topped it
all off!
Thanks Andy for the great post!
6 comments:
That was fun! Like reading a mystery CSI novel!
Really sharp writeup! Thank you very much for sharing it!
Forgot to emphasize in my post the way big, mature bucks act so differently from younger less mature Bucks. My good friend Daren Doran, a frequent poster here, brought to my attention a couple of years ago this difference in behavior. Darren regular hunts mature deer for many years. This big deer was a classic case. These big mature deer get that way because they don't panic when hit. They stay calm and collected. I assume mother nature has them stay that way so as not to raise their blood pressure and physical activity level so as to reduce blood loss and reduce additional injury from over reaction to initial injury. Since Daren brought this to my attention I have taken note how many times I have jumped big non-mortally wounded deer 24 or even 48 hours after the shot not very far from the hit site or from where the hunter lost the trail.
This lightly hit buck acted like a gut shot deer but clearly was not hit very hard.
I
Great post & a good job on the track !
Would be interested in knowing what GPS you are using as my old hand held needs to be replaced soon.
Thank you for sharing your track ...
I use a Garmin map 76csx which is basically the same as the Map 60csx. The new 78's and 62's are nice but they use a new software for the desktop that I find difficult to use. Buy a 76 or 60 before they are no longer available.
Great reading....we are very satisfied with our Garmin Astro 220, there is a new one 320 and its better in some functions. Its very good to know where your dog is and you can easily get to the dog if he hunts outside the area, if they of any reason get stuck ...really saved many dog lives.
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