On Sunday we received this tracking report with some pictures from Judy Catrett. Judy is tracking with Mossy Brooke, an 19-month-old daughter of Tommy and Tuesday.
Mossy Brooke has been very busy these past several days.
She has made several recoveries and we have not been able to catch up with
several wounded deer. We have had two leg wounds, with bone fragment at the
site of the shot. We were not able to
catch up with either buck even though she tracked with all of her might. The
blood trail finally ran out on both, and after 1/2 mile with no blood and briars so thick, I could take no more, I stopped Mossy.
Unsure as to whether I made the right
decision, I came home, picked up John's book, Tracking Dogs For Finding Wounded Deer, and read the chapter on leg wounds. I often refer to his book when Mossy
and I have failed to recover the deer, and usually I am reminded of things I
could have done better. I am convinced that it is at times impossible to catch
a 3-legged deer.
We have had one buck
shot high in the upper, anterior aspect of chest with an arrow. Basically, same story as above. Tracked blood
for 1/2 mile and then another 1/2 mile with no blood thru briars so thick Mossy
had difficulty getting thru. She finally asked me on this track if I would
carry her. This let me know that she had not had scent of blood in a
while. So, she definitely was ready for
a reward at the end of her tracking. No
big bucks, but to Mossy a dead deer is a dead deer.
She has found 3 does this weekend. Fairly good blood
trail on all 3 and better than anything for her, a dead deer at the end of the
trail. One of the does had been dead for
only 1 1/2 hours when Mossy found it. It had been covered completely with pine
straw and leaves as I have seen Mountain Lions out west do. We left part of the deer and put up
cameras---this was done by a large bobcat, not a Mt. Lion, much to my relief. Mt. Lions in this area have not been
documented.
Mossy is one happy and tired tracker today--she is
napping in hopes of being able to track again later today. WHDs--Trackers, they are.
No comments:
Post a Comment