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After having taken a good buck in early October’s archery season, I had volunteered to fill the role as support person for my hunting pal, Joe. That meant I would also “dog sit” his spirited Blue Tick hound mix, Junior, in an attempt to keep his mind from focusing on his owner, who would inexplicably march away without him. We had put the hound on three different deer-tracking chores in the past year as training exercises, and he was about to face his most difficult test to date.
The call came over the two-way radio at dusk that Joe had shot a large 8-point whitetail and I waited for him to return so that we could develop a plan to recover the animal. Joe didn’t provide many clues other than to convey that the shot was somewhat low – or, at least that’s what he thought.
Darkness was descending and that very fact may have caused us to make our second mistake. (I’ll get to the first mistake later.) Instead of waiting, Joe insisted on getting on the trail without delay. Although we found no blood or the arrow, Junior was impossible to hold back. The danger of pushing a wounded deer into the next county became a concern, as Junior pulled us deeper into the unknown, dark surroundings.
We called off the hound and made plans to resume the ordeal in the morning. The overnight temperature would be marginally cool enough to salvage the deer, if we were fortunate enough to locate it without further delay.
The landscape looked a lot more inviting at dawn, when Junior returned for some more controlled chaos. Farther and farther we went, all the while watching the dog’s reaction to scent we could not detect. Junior was all over the invisible airborne scent and was now guided by a slight breeze into his olfactory meter; he could not be held back and dragged Joe to the downed prize.
As I approached the duo, Joe was shaking his head in disbelief, as he stood motionless over an animal he didn’t want to believe was his. The massive 9-point buck had been torn apart by coyotes relegating us to nothing more than a meal of antler soup.
Now, let’s get back to the first mistake: the shot. We discovered that the arrow had struck the magnificent animal too far forward – some 8 inches off the mark and that’s where the troubles began. Although the 40-yard shot was simple to make in practice, real-world excitement had been in play.
We had not the luxury of knowing whether the animal was dead, and consequently made a judgment call to wait. Typically, hunters would do best to hedge their decision to pursue a deer with a measure of patience, but given the end result, there simply may have been no good recovery procedure.
No doubt, we should have held off our initial search for at least 30 minutes, which could have given the animal an opportunity to lie down and expire. While we’ll never know exactly what transpired after the shot, we do know the disheartening results could have been prevented with a better shot.
