By Robert Yax (owner of Thor von Moosbach-Zuzelek), Deer Search of Finger Lakes
Sunday 10/12/14,
I returned home at about 9 PM after taking three unsuccessful tracks, which included two one-lung hits that we tracked a long way, and a very minor brisket hit. I called
into the Deer Search hotline and heard a call that came in at 5 PM from Hunter,
Brian in Scottsville. I called him back
at 10 PM and found that he had hit a
Mature Buck at 7:30 that morning. The
shot was from a tree stand at a shallow angle with a fixed broad head. The Buck was slightly quartering towards him
and he hit the Deer’s left side. He
thought the hit was about mid-way up the body and “back a little”. The shot was a complete pass thru and he said
the arrow was covered with dark blood.
After the shot, the buck took off running and went out of sight around a
swamp. After a short time, Brian carefully got down and examined the hit
site. At that point he decided to back
out and wait a while before tracking.
After a 2 ½ hour wait, he and a friend got on the easy to follow blood
trail. They found the blood covered
arrow a short distance up the trail and soon after they jumped the Buck from
its bed, about 75 yards from the hit site.
The buck ran off, but seemed to
be struggling a little. Brian then
decided to back out again. At 2 PM he
and his friend got back on the blood trail and took it about 300 yards beyond the first bed before running out of blood sign in the middle of a large open block of
tall pines. At this point they searched
the pines for another 75 yards in the
direction the Buck was headed. At the
far (west) end of the pines they stopped
and decided not to go into the thick brush beyond. Brian then decided to call Deer Search (two good decisions!)
After
hearing the story from Brian, it seemed
that a liver hit was very likely, especially since he had mentioned dark blood
and that the buck had bedded so quickly.
It was especially promising because Brian and his friend had not reached
the end of the blood trail till 7 hours after the hit. If it was a liver hit, it was very likely that the Buck would have
been dead in its second bed at that point, and it was not likely that they had pushed
it any further. Hopefully, we would find the Buck in the thick stuff, not
too far from the end of the blood trail in the pines. I agreed to meet Brian at 8:00 on Monday
morning.
We
started the search on Monday morning just about 24 hours after the hit. It was warm (60 deg) and dry – not ideal
tracking conditions. The arrow Brian
showed me was covered with darkish dried blood but contained no stomach matter
– it certainly could have been a liver shot.
After a hike back to the woods we started on the trail, just beyond the first bed. Thor was on it
easily and quickly followed the known 300 yard
trail (with a little dried blood sign) to the point of last blood that Brian
had marked the previous day in the tall open pines. From there Thor continued tracking, with no blood sign, the 100 yards or so until
we hit the thick brush at the west end of the pines. Brian and his friend had searched to this
point, but had not gone into this thick area the previous day, so I was really
hopeful that we would find the dead Buck in this area.
After a little searching along the edge, Thor
took an obvious deer trail into the
thick stuff. After only about 25 yards,
Thor took a quick left and headed to a nearby pond. He jumped in and did a little 4 foot diameter
swim and then got back on dry land.
(Thor seems to like to take advantage of water holes and streams whenever he gets a chance while
tracking, especially on warm days). Once
out of the pond, he headed back to the thick area he came from. After only a few seconds of searching he
stopped and looked back up at me as if to say
“so what do you want me to do here”?
-- I was like “what the hell “! I
tried to get him back on the track, but he obviously didn’t think there was any
reason for us to be there. Then it hit me! From the last blood sign, we had continued straight back to the thick area
at the west end of the Pines. This is
the same path the hunters had gone the previous day – probably with blood on
their boots! Thor had taken this same
path, but once he got into the thick stuff,
there was no more blood scent – the hunters hadn’t gone in there.
I quickly brought Thor back into the pines
heading back to the last blood sign.
Along the way, he veered to the south and we were soon heading into the
thick brush along that side of the pines.
It wasn’t long before he put his head up, air scenting something ahead
of us. A minute later we crossed a coyote den, where he stopped for a second to stick his head down a hole. After I pulled him out, he was quickly back on
the job. After about 100 yards in the
thick stuff we popped out into a horse pasture.
Now what? I thought, but was quickly surprised to see the white
belly of dead deer laying in the corner of the pasture about 40 yards ahead of
Thor – we got him! ---- Not! The
dead deer was a recently dead button buck – not a nice Mature Buck. Not sure what killed it, as we couldn’t find a hole or mark on it. Possibly a car hit deer that ran off?
Now we had to forget this distraction and
get back to our deer. I again headed
Thor back to the last known blood sign in the middle of the block of
pines. Once there, I decided that because the hunters had mucked
up the pines while searching the previous day with bloody boots, I would take Thor along the outside edge of the pine block and
hope he could catch the Buck’s clean
trail heading out. Starting at the last
blood sign, we headed 90 degrees off the Buck’s known trail and came to the north edge of the pines. We then started
searching along the edge, just inside of the pines. After only about 50 yards along the edge, Thor turned and started tracking into the grassy
field to the north. He definitely
seemed to be on the trail with his nose tight to the ground as he tracked the
first 75 yards into the field. At that
point he began circling wildly while hopping up and down thru the grass. I knew
the dead buck had to be close and then saw it about 25 yards ahead in the
grass.
Thor got to it first and had a
few moments of “chew time” before we
began examining it. From the entrance
wound location, (low and just behind
the left front leg) it was obvious that it wasn't a liver hit. It seemed as though it should have hit the
heart. A short time later we confirmed
that it actually did put a two inch slice in the outside of the heart as well as
hit one lung. This is the third heart shot deer we’ve recovered in the past few years. All of them bedded quickly, within 100 yards but then got up when pushed a few hours
later. We even kicked one up out of its second bed 25 hours after the hit
before finding it dead four later.
There’s no telling how long Brian’s Buck lived, but probably for quite a while
since the deer was still good 25 hrs after the hit. He definitely made the right decision by not
randomly searching the thick stuff the previous day.
Thor and I also
confirmed that we definitely need to work as a team to successfully overcome
the complications and distractions that go along with tracking wounded deer.
This picture shows Thor with a buck recovered in Monroe County on October 4. |
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