Deer TRACKING - Day 2 - OCT 02 2013

So while the rest of us (who aren't retired) had to work on Wednesday, Nick took the whole day off and went hunting.  He stopped by the house to pick up his gear and hit the field about 7:20 am.  He jumped one walking in to his stand.

He was at the corner on N at the W stand and there was a doe feeding in the corn.  He had the patience to nock an arrow, draw and shoot without spooking her.  10 yards broadside.  As she ran off, Nick could see the arrow sticking out of both sides of her body.  He texted me.

I did not take the time to reply, but instead just called him.  I told him to stop, sit, and listen.  He claimed that was tough because the squirrels were working the walnuts something fierce.  After 30 minutes of waiting, I told him to start tracking.

He could print track her through the cornfield for about 40 yards where she turned and went into the woods. There, he found blood - always a good sign.  My phone went off about 8:40 - and what I hoped it to see was a photo of a dead deer.  Instead I saw this, with the below caption...

And so the tracking begins

Not exactly what I had wanted.  Nick tracked for about 3 hours, but found NOTHING other than the first sign.  He asked for suggestions.  I told him to put an arrow in the ground so the location could be found again and back out.  I would leave after my meetings and help him.

Jump ahead to about 2:30 and Nick and I are back at his arrow.  He showed me the leaf above.  We could print track her for about 3 steps from there - her general direction was NE.  No other blood what-so-ever.

We fanned out and worked 4 clover-leaf patterns in the cardinal directions - me on the outside longer loop and Nick on the inner loop.  We hoped by cutting for sign this way we could come across blood or a DB (dead body).  After another 2 hours and NOTHING else, we called it.  She had to have gone across the property and made the corn opposite the woods.  

By this time, it's 77 degrees and she's been gone 8 hours.  It sucks to lose an animal like that, but as the Outlaw Jose Wales (Clint Eastwood) said, "The buzzards gotta eat, same as the worm."  Well coyotes, buzzards and worms - enjoy.  I would have much rather had that doe on the grill for dinner than give her to you, but that's bow hunting.

So, the tribe is still starving.  More hunting come this week-end, as work is getting in the way...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cleaning Winchester SX3 / SX4 Shotguns

Image
The Winchester SX4 is my Go To shotgun for everything - clays, doves, ducks, geese, pheasants, whatever.  It is an awesome firearm.  The drawback?  There are multiple moving parts and a few of them like to collect carbon.  And this carbon sticks as if it were put on those parts with super glue! Specifically, the magazine tube and the gas piston are the main carbon collectors.  Those parts come out more black than silver & gold. The inner components of an SX3 / SX4 with highlights where carbon will form So what is my trick for cleaning those bits?  I drop the gas piston into my Hornady sonic cleaner.  Inside the cleaner I put in about a cup of Hornady's One Shot Sonic Clean Solution for gun parts, add some DI water, a couple squirts of Dawn liquid dish soap, and then top it off with a dash or two of the citrus version of Dr. Bronner's pure castile liquid soap.  I have found that the citrus Dr. Bronner's is awesome at removing grease and oil.  All of that bakes in the son
Read more

Winchester SX4 Trigger Assembly Update

Image
First, you need to read the post immediately before this one to understand why I had to take my Winchester SX4 shotgun apart - all the way apart - specifically the trigger assembly. Second, my bad.  I had neglected to clean the gun after returning from last October's pheasant trip.  I had about one bale of grass seed inside that gun, which in the end, may have kept the #8 pellet from getting out on its own.  Shame. Finally, I did not give up.  I watched four different YouTube videos on how to disassemble and reassemble the trigger group.  Sadly, no one did the SX4, only the previous version, the SX3.  Close enough.  Why did it take 4 videos?  Because no one explained HOW the damn sear goes back in.  Everyone either ASSUMED we all know how OR in two cases, the reassembly process was out of the camera frame.  Aggravating! The key, and this is more for me to remember, was on the fourth video, the author said, "The sear kinda slides down into a channel in the housing."  Bam. 
Read more

Determine Sex of Deer from Tracks

Image
It IS possible to determine from a set of tracks whether the deer you are tracking is a doe (female) or a buck (male).  And, it's actually pretty simple if you know a few facts about deer. First, you have to know what a deer track looks like.  Deer leave a track that looks like the outline of a heart. Next, you have to know the direction of travel.  Deer are moving toward the "pointy" end of the heart.  So in the above example, the deer is traveling toward the top of this post, or up. Here is an actual photo of deer tracks in the wild so you can get a better idea.  Again, this deer is traveling up, or towards the top of this page.  (It is also clear that this deer was STANDING, not walking - well clear enough to me.  Read on to find out why I know that). Sometimes if the ground is soft or if the deer is traveling really fast (jumping), the track left will show the deer's dew claws at the rear of the direction traveling, like so: The two little "
Read more