While guiding a hunter this weekend we were put in the unfortunate position of finding a wounded buck. My hunter had to make a quick shot on a nice buck hitting him low breaking his leg just above the "elbow" joint. As soon as I saw the leg swinging we pulled off the deer and headed back to the ranch headquarters.

Tracking a deer with a broken leg in the South Texas brush country is usually an exercise in futility. We called in legendary deer tracking man Roy Hindes. Roy was tracking at another ranch and said he would come as soon as possible.

A couple hours later Roy and the dogs showed up. He put the dogs on the trail and within about ten minutes the dogs started barking signaling that they had the buck bayed. We eased in to the thick brush where the dogs were barking. Roy pulled out his Ruger .357 and shot. The deer headed straight for us but the dogs caught him. After another finishing shot it was all over.

It is simply amazing what a good tracking dog along with his owner can do. This deer would never have been found without the dogs. You may find them days later in a tank or by watching the birds but not if the coyotes pick their bones clean. Thanks to Roy and his dogs a happy hunter went home with a nice buck instead of going home empty handed. Her is a picture I took with my i-phone.

It's always a shame when a game animal gets wounded, but it is really our duty to do whatever we can to finish/recover the game. I think you handled it just right, and it is great you had access to such a great Owner and dogs.

You are certainly right, it is unreal what a god dog/dogs can do. I think I heard once that a dogs sense of smell is something like 10,000 times more sensitive than ours--something extreme like that-- which really makes you wonder about how they say hello to each other by sniffing....well you know what I mean....

It's this sense that allows them to track soemthing/someone so well though, so good for them!

It's good to see good dogs work and find a wounded animal when it is needed. My dad has trained blood trail dogs for years and often gets called to come find deer. I'm glad to know there are others around that can do it as well.

From what I understand, he loves to work his dogs. Glad you found the buck.

I met him some years back when we thought we had a wounded buck. It turned out there was no hit, no blood, no wounded buck. But I got to meet him and since it was not my deer I was not the one who had to pay for the privilege!

Hi
Great buck, what breed of dogs does he use?

Gabriel

I really don't know what breed the dogs are. I think it is kind of a trade secret. I did hear that they may be blue heeler/lacey? cross.

My Blue Heeler has a heck of a nose. I always wondered if he would be any good at tracking.

I used a Lab last year to track a wounded Aoudad through the canyons. That was one incredible, and exhausting experience.

The ability of that dog was simply incredible. Unfortunately, the ability of the Aoudad was even greater.

Very glad to hear that you got the deer. Nice deer too!

good job of tracking and recovering the wounded deer -

congratulations to the hounds!

Good job. I used dogs on a bow shot deer in the rain once. They amazed me.