RockinU
Member
The majority of the calls I take my dogs on are usually pretty short, and have a dead deer that just didn't bleed externally much at the end of them. Occasionally there is a leg shot deer that is going to run and fight thrown in, and then there are the gut shots. You just never know, if they are shot forward enough that some liver is involved, or high enough that some kidney is involved, they will bleed out and you can find them dead in fairly short order, but when it's just rumen it can get interesting. So yesterday a buddy of mine who I am partners with on some dogs calls me and asks me to bring Lacy, as he is on a track that his dog (a good dog, but not quite as finished as Lacy) is having some trouble with. I asked what kind of track was giving him trouble, and he describes a bad gut-shot, with lots of stomach contents, and little blood. Dude, your dog eats up gut-shots, what's the deal? I ask. He tells me that as luck would have it, the deer's track led right through where a cow had a calf the night before, and there was placenta, and blood, and all kinds of fragrant goo that his dog just couldn't get past. Said he would cast about, get spooky and come back to him. So I ran home at lunch got Lacy and took her to him, but had to get back to work to finish up. When I did get done I called him to see how it was going, and he told me that she had worked out the trail, jumped the deer, chased it for about 750 yards, and brought it to bay, all out of his sight. He jumped in the truck and tried to get to her in his truck, and from what he could guess she came off the deer on hearing the truck and came back to him (she's a little insecure when I leave her), and he couldn't figure the GPS unit out enough to get back to where she had him bayed. I hurried out, worked out the track on the GPS at the end of which we found a splotch of blood on the ground where he either fell or was pulled down, and started over from there. She then led us to a flooded creek where the track went into the water, and she started casting hard. The hunter figured the game was over at the water's edge, but I told him to just giver her a little time, and before too long she took off swimming. Landowner says "What now?" In we go I answered...luckily he knew a place to cross where it was only knee deep, unluckily it was knee deep for the next 250 yards. Best I can figure she found enough of the deer's scent on the dead weeds sticking out of the water to stay on trail, but the end result was after trailing those 250 yards in water the whole time, and having to swim twice she found him...quick finishing shot...happy hunter. Pretty proud of her, it was a tough track, and she was as professional as can be.
Couple pics of the hunter, Lacy, and the deer:
Couple pics of the hunter, Lacy, and the deer:
That's huntin' for ya!!! Great story and pics!!!
Sorry, had to.
