Shanghai McCoy
Member
Yesterday morning a good buddy of mine called to tell me that he'd arrowed a buck with his longbow but the hit might have been "high". I offered my help in tracking so we met up and headed out to where he'd made the shot. There were three of us, with varying eyesight and experience, but we found blood right away and had a decent trail. At first...
Because we'd given the deer an hour and a half to, hopefully, bed up and bleed out, the blood was drying and freezing. Then it got to be where it was getting hard to spot till we got to where there just wasn't any. That spot was the edge of a field of prairie grass with a web of deer trails through it. I marked the last spot and we cast about for sign with out finding any.
Bill was getting pretty bummed and, to be honest, Mike and I thought it was looking not so good but, after Bill had circled the field without any luck,we decided to spread out and walk the field.
There was a fresh looking trail that I decided to follow, no blood, but the prints and other sign looked new and, as luck would have it, it was the trail laid by that buck and I was able to find it.
The bad news was that some coyotes had found it first and chewed through into the guts and made a bit of a mess of things. It appeared that his arrow was further back than he thought and the deer pretty much bled out inside. He called today and said that the one back strap and part of a roast were tore up but the rest of the meat is good.
So, the point of this long winded story is get some help and keep looking if you are on a trail that's less than "perfect" and put in that extra effort.
We owe it to the game that we shoot folks.
Because we'd given the deer an hour and a half to, hopefully, bed up and bleed out, the blood was drying and freezing. Then it got to be where it was getting hard to spot till we got to where there just wasn't any. That spot was the edge of a field of prairie grass with a web of deer trails through it. I marked the last spot and we cast about for sign with out finding any.
Bill was getting pretty bummed and, to be honest, Mike and I thought it was looking not so good but, after Bill had circled the field without any luck,we decided to spread out and walk the field.
There was a fresh looking trail that I decided to follow, no blood, but the prints and other sign looked new and, as luck would have it, it was the trail laid by that buck and I was able to find it.
The bad news was that some coyotes had found it first and chewed through into the guts and made a bit of a mess of things. It appeared that his arrow was further back than he thought and the deer pretty much bled out inside. He called today and said that the one back strap and part of a roast were tore up but the rest of the meat is good.
So, the point of this long winded story is get some help and keep looking if you are on a trail that's less than "perfect" and put in that extra effort.
We owe it to the game that we shoot folks.