Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting A *RANT* on tracking deer

I have been the dog my whole life. As a very young kid I got put on blood and told not to com back without the deer. I have lost a few that were very poorly hit. I have never lost one I shot in 60 odd years. I have had to leave a couple that were obviously fully functional and able to stay ahead of me in the dark, but if they're moving well at night they won't spoil by morning. The only time it makes sense to wait til morning is when it's very clear that it is going to take another shot the stop the deer. They get as much head start on me as it takes to get from the stand onto the blood. I look at it like if I give the deer time to lay up and clot up it's a hell of a lot more difficult to find than if I keep it moving and bleeding.

With today's LED flashlights you can light up a 6 foot diameter circle at your feet at least as bright as daylight, and that with a light that fits in your pocket! They can be had for ~$20, sometimes less. It's inexcusable not to have one with you. There is no reason not to keep one in the glove box year round, I have used my glove box light to track hit by car deer in the night.

About toilet paper...Buy a can of generic shave cream for $1 and use it! You can stick it anywhere and it shines better than TP when you hit it with a light. Prepare yourself properly to go find on in the dark and it is no harder to do than it is in the daylight, other than finding your way back to a vehicle. For under $50 you can find a small hand held GPS that will solve getting home too. I hunt birds in areas of 30 square miles without roads and a compass and GPS is always with me. In smaller broken up chunks of woods you ought to be able to get by just looking at the land and knowing where you are, day or night.

Well I can say it wasn’t shot that far back on purpose. he was on the move down the ridge when I shot. It was a placement mistake on my part. One that I didn’t know until I found the deer. I was lectured by the older, more experienced guys in camp to let them stop first from now on. I do shoot them on the move still, but pay better attention now days.

Thanks. Lily's been a fine dog, and she's just coming to the end of a long and mostly happy road. You couldn't have wished it any better for her, but it's still rough to see her go. On the one hand, her back legs won't support her squatting anymore, so she has to lay down to pee. On the other hand, she still throws herself down on the carpeting and rolls about like a puppy when she gets to being happy. She still loves her food, still gives and takes affection, and watches TV assiduously.

The easiest thing in the world is to get a dog interested in deer hunting. What's not to like? Guts, blood, all the stuff a dog craves. You just have to let the wolf out of 'em and let nature do the rest. The one drawback is that in the late winter, the dog keeps coming home with bits of carcass (yuck!) and if you don't watch them, they'll run off and roll in gut piles. (Double yuck!) You haven't lived life until you are awakened from a sound sleep by a joyous beagle at 0300, jumping on the bed to share the deer detritus that's hanging from her fur.