RE: DEER DRIVES NOT HUNTING
As I stated before, other than the past two years, I have dog hunted all my life.
I am not saying that this can't happen, but I have never found or know of anyone who has found a deer that died from this. I guess you would have to have anatopsy to actually find out, but I've never heard of anyone finding perfectallyhealthylooking deer dead.
Most dogs wear out before a deer will. A deer has a lot of natural preditors so he is used to being chased by coyotes and such. They aren't dumb. They know how to hit water to get read of the dogs or double back to get the dogs lost on their previous trail. I've seen deer stand in the middle of a beaver pond and look at dogs and walk right down the middle of a creek with nothing but their head sticking out.
A deer can travel miles a day in search of food, water, or a mate. I am sure that they are in more than good enough shape for a 15-25minutechase. And with that said, most dogs barely break trot stride while on a deer, so its not like the deer is running constantly. Most of the time if thedeerget out of the drive before anyoneshoots them or if they are just let go b/c they are too small or whatever, the dogs are stopped and put in the trucks to beturned out again on another drive.
I am not for sure if the comment on the deer being shot and left behind are for the dog hunting or what.We takepride in any deer that we shoot, rather it be a doe or wall hanger. If someone shoots and can not find the deer (even if they THINK they hit it andcan't even find blood) we willwaitan hour or so just like you would while still hunting, then take a tracking dog on a rope and go track the deer.I will assure you, I have walked many of miles looking for deer that were totally missed so I would be scared to count the ones that I actually walked and found the deer.
Most ofthe deer that I have shot while dog hunting fell in their tracks.You want to see how good of a shot youare, even with buck shot, try taking downrunningdeer at 35yds.