Last year, I recovered an 8 ptr,one-lung hit after a 3500-yd tracking job.I am confident of the distance, as I reconciled our path witha high resolution map of the Navy Base where I hunt-the map hastwo-foot contour lines. The tracking job took ~5hours.
- At 7am, I made what I thought was an excellent pass-thru shot (see attached photo for the hit behind the shoulder) - my stand is at 20 feet, the deer was 18 ydsand in the process of turning away from me after approaching my doe decoy head-on. Iheard the deer crash in the woods after 40 yds, caught a glimpse ofhim running again, andthen heard (?)him crash again (I thought for good). I did not take up the trail other than to mark first blood at the hit.I went to getmy hunting partner and readiedmy truck for the deer.
- One hour after the shot, we took up the trail. At ~120 yds, we found two very bloody beds, and a fresh blood trail headed toward a swamp - we had pushed the deer out of the bed. The issue then was to wait or pursue. I haveover 100 tracking jobs under my belt (~40 yrs of bowhunting,and as a volunteer tracker on the Navy Base).We discussed the situation,and decidedto push -we had agood bloodtrail andhad already blown our opportunity of letting him die in the first bed(s).
- We had a steady drip - drip - drip for a long time, and no trouble tracking.Atone stage, the buck circled wide to double back onhis trail. So, no doubt that wewere pushing him, but hewaswalking, not running.One advantage to pushing was that when the deer climbed or descended any elevation, the wound would open up and increase the blood flow. We also had a fresh carpet of fallen oak leaves that helpedshowed the drips. We could not figure out how the deer could lose so much blood as we were trailing it, and were always expecting to find it just over the next hill. At the ~1.7 mile mark,the buck's trail started to wander off thedeer trails hehad been following, and I suspected he was looking to bed down.We slowed way down -my partner looking forthe next blood, me looking for deer. Just after 5 hours, and at 2+ miles, I spotted the deer on the ground. He wasbedded head-down in a dense laurel thicket, just 15 yds ahead of us. When Ishouted "there he is!", the buck lifted his head - what a bummer! There was just a small gap for a shot, I had to get low, butI managed to drive an arrow into his heart - at the shot, he rocketed out but collaspedafter 40 yds.
-No way of knowing "what if" had we waited 6 hours before taking up the trail. Imho, I do not think we'd recovered him without pushing him, but I do not think the deer would have survived.
- The necropsy showed I caught the back of one lung withthe arrow angling back andsharply down - I think it caught the spleen. The deer did not exhale any blood thru his nostrils, yet we found foamy blood up to the first bed.
-fsh
