What are the odds?
12-07-2009, 03:08 PM
#1
Fork Horn
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: NE Ohio
Posts: 430
What are the odds?
Woke up from a nap yesterday about 1620. Last day of gun season. I've already got all the deer we really need this year, but decided to walk out back over the hill with my .357 for the last half-hour of legal shooting time.
I went to a milk crate where my wife had been sitting earlier in the year, and sat down. Looked down at the ground and saw a very small spot of...is that blood? It was, and wet. How long one could expect blood to stay wet in yesterday's conditions (just above freezing, not necessarily humid, but not exactly dry) is anyone's guess.
Of course, I have no idea which way it's going, but I start following. There' s not much to it and the trail ended 20 yards or so later, so I went the other way.
More blood this way, but still not a lot. Over or under a barbed wire fence right near my crate. Found two real good splotches not far on the other side of the fence, like it had stopped for a bit. I wondered if I had pushed it when I walked down the hill. So I'm following it along, losing light. Doubled back to the fence, through some real thick stuff. I was low crawling under the barbed wire when I heard a couple of shots across the swamp. Saw the guy, maybe 300 yds. away. Was he shooting at this cripple, or something else? I'll never know, cause I didn't go over there. I don't care for approaching hunters who are shooting after legal hours (only ten minutes or so, but the heck with that, anyway).
From that time, I only found one further drop before it was too dark to see them very well. Total distance, going this direction, including doubling back, maybe 20 yards, if that.
From the drops I was seeing I don't think it was a lethal hit. Not much blood. I wish I was able to follow it further. I leave for work in the dark and get home in the dark, so no chance to get after it this week. An unsolved mystery.
So what are the odds of there being a blood trail right where I sit to hunt, and my looking down and seeing that first drop, that was smaller than the head of a pencil eraser?!
I went to a milk crate where my wife had been sitting earlier in the year, and sat down. Looked down at the ground and saw a very small spot of...is that blood? It was, and wet. How long one could expect blood to stay wet in yesterday's conditions (just above freezing, not necessarily humid, but not exactly dry) is anyone's guess.
Of course, I have no idea which way it's going, but I start following. There' s not much to it and the trail ended 20 yards or so later, so I went the other way.
More blood this way, but still not a lot. Over or under a barbed wire fence right near my crate. Found two real good splotches not far on the other side of the fence, like it had stopped for a bit. I wondered if I had pushed it when I walked down the hill. So I'm following it along, losing light. Doubled back to the fence, through some real thick stuff. I was low crawling under the barbed wire when I heard a couple of shots across the swamp. Saw the guy, maybe 300 yds. away. Was he shooting at this cripple, or something else? I'll never know, cause I didn't go over there. I don't care for approaching hunters who are shooting after legal hours (only ten minutes or so, but the heck with that, anyway).
From that time, I only found one further drop before it was too dark to see them very well. Total distance, going this direction, including doubling back, maybe 20 yards, if that.
From the drops I was seeing I don't think it was a lethal hit. Not much blood. I wish I was able to follow it further. I leave for work in the dark and get home in the dark, so no chance to get after it this week. An unsolved mystery.
So what are the odds of there being a blood trail right where I sit to hunt, and my looking down and seeing that first drop, that was smaller than the head of a pencil eraser?!
