Well Doc you said stay in the stand all day sooo....I went up at noonish and froze my friggin ass off for three hours. I dunno where you live but it was pretty cool here yesterday ....-12C with a howlin wind. I swore at you and took your name in vain haha. Anyway around 3 oclock I took my boots off and dropped in some hand warmers, stuck a hand warmer down the back of my pants where the wind was blowing down, and a hand warmer in one mitt. I was just getting myself back together when I heard grunting. Damn a deer came in and I wasn't ready, I got the arrow on the string while he was at 5 yards. Then he went to about 20-25 yards and stopped to eyeball my decoys. I got the shot off but damned if he didn't take a step as I released...hit him kinda far back.

I'm telling this story so that hopefully someone can learn a little from my mistakes. So I left him to bed down for an hour and a half then I went for a look. I followed until I found a drop of blood at about 100 yards out and unfortunately spooked the deer. I backed off and heard the neighbours dog going nuts so I figure it spooked the deer off again. It was too dark now to track anything so I went home with a pretty bad feeling. I've never lost an animal and it makes me sick to think about it. I thought about the damned coyotes all night.

Next morning I went back, I followed the blood trail for about 300 yards sometimes on my knees one drop at a time and other times at a brisk walk where the sign was heavy. I lost the trail twice and prayed to God for a little help, a voice in my head said you don't need my help all you deed is persistence just don't stop. The trail back tracked a couple times and I got that figured out and once it turned in a couple circles on the spot I had a hell of a time finding where the blood trail was from that one. Finally the blood just stopped I crawled in circles for an hour and a half but no blood. So I decided to follow the bush line around the edge of the field, it was a long ways and I had to do 2 or 3 passes where it was thick. Finally I saw where the magpies were in the bush and there was my deer.

Nothing left at all -you might have been able to boil the bones for soup but it would have been pretty thin broth. I figured that's the way it would end up and I'm upset to lose my meat. I hunt for meat first and antlers second like any good chef!!

lessons learned:
- my shot wasn't bad but my luck was even though I shoot a recurve I doubt a compound would have made a difference on that shot.
-the tracking was awesome on the snow but hell in the wheat field
-don't move forward untin you spot the next blood
-sometines you have to get down low or get off to the side to see the blood.
-don't step in the track you might destroy some of the sign.
-don't give up I almost did at the end but I'm damned glad I didn't
-bring something to drink it may take longer than you think.
-use flagging to mark the last blood when it looks like things are petering out. Where the blood was heavy I didn't mark the trail-it wasn't necessary.
-When the deer backtracked the blood obviously stopped so I went back down the trail looking on both sides until I found the new trail.
-the coyotes found the blood trail and followed it right in...you could see where they had eaten the bloody snow.
-watch for magpies or ravens

In the end I got a 6x6 white tail it's a gorgeous little buck and I'm damned happy that it's my first bow kill. Obviousle I'm upset and even a little ashamed that things didn't work out better. If that damned dog wouldn't have pushed the buck I'm sure I would have retrieved it last night. I'm proud of my tracking job, there was no blood for the first 100 yards and I still managed to find it.

the chef

Hi Chef!

Good job on the tracking! That can be tough without a good dog.

Interesting remark on that there was nothing left on the carcass. I've come to a carcass once very early in the morning, shot the afternoon before, to find it completely stripped of meat. Really completely stripped, not even meat in between the ribs. I just couldn't believe that that much meat and guts could disappear so quickly (the animal had been gutted, and the carcass stored a few hundred yards away overnight, on the ground, for lack of trees to hoist it up in).

Congrats on the deer just the same. It is still your first bow kill, and you're one ahead of me!!

Frans

Bad luck on the deer moving. Yuou are right, compound or trad, if they move you miss.

Glad you stuck to your search.

quote:

Originally posted by calgarychef1:
Well Doc you said stay in the stand all day sooo....I went up at noonish and froze my friggin ass off for three hours. I dunno where you live but it was pretty cool here yesterday ....-12C with a howlin wind. I swore at you and took your name in vain haha.

Yea, you were cussin me til that deer walked in huh!! Glad to hear you had some success. It is simply an unfortunate outcome, but that happens.

Today is the first cold day we've had. Yesterday I rode with the air conditioning on. Today, I started my truck and let it heat up before I drove home from work. Maybe in the 30's. Tomorrow should be a fine day to see deer. Clear and COLD. I know I'm going to!

Sorry about what happen to your deer but it was a great story. You did an outstanding job of tracking most people would have given up way to go.

Congratulations Chef and great tracking. Well, that's odd about the animals eating your kill so fast. Last year my husband killed a deer that we didn't find till 36 hours later and nothing had touched it. It was down over a hill. This year the gut pile of my deer vanished within 24 hours on a sort of ridge. The wind is what gets the message out. Tough luck about the dogs.

Penny

Chef: Sorry about the outcome, but great tracking job. I had a really hard tracking job this year on a deer my wife shot with rifle. I recovered it after about 2 1/2 hours.

I agree, great tracking job! We are fortunate where I live that there are no coyotes yet. I have had to go back in the morning to find a deer and nothing has been touched, only the crows found it and led me to it.
A gut pile is another thing though and all the small animals and buzzards make short work of it. Most animals eat the guts first because of the fats. They can vanish in one night.

I think if the deer hadn't gone so far the coyotes may not have found him, but there was a blood trail for about 400 yards...very easy for mr. coyote to happen across.

It's nice to hear everyone's support!!! Hopefully I can fill a doe tag this Friday. I still need my winter meat. No moose, the coyotes ate my deer-sheesh.

I might starve

the hungry chef