12/07/2024
Tracking for a teenager and watching Daisy Mae pursue her buck is as gratifying as it gets and worthy of me taking time to post her story. The young hunter took a shot at this buck as the sun crested the horizon. She and Dad thought the shot was a little further back than desired. Dad is a very experienced hunter and as they inspected the shot sight he sensed he could smell stomach however, there was no evidence of this in the snow. Dad and daughter waited a couple hours before they even began following the sparse but enticing blood trail in the snow. The decision to wait to track was the first of three decisions that led to a successful recovery. Hours passed and dad and daughter started the track in several inches of snow. Sounds easy enough? Not on their hunting grounds. The amount of deer tracks in the snow resembled an entire school yard covered in snow after all the classes completed their recesses at the end of the day. Then as it so often happens the blood stopped. Dad decided to back out and call in a dog for the assist. This was the second decision that led to a successful recovery and maybe the most important one. Dad and daughter backed out and called me to discuss the situation. We discussed the shot and the track. During this conversation dad didn’t have any photos of the blood so I could only assume it was a stomach shot and suggested a 24 hour wait before we come in to track. Dad quickly volunteered to go back to the hit sight and take photos of the blood. An hour later we were on the phone again discussing the shot. The blood was minimal and sparse but I recognized two small spots of blood that appeared to be liver blood. The majority of the blood was muscle blood. Dad and I were now confident that we could track much sooner with the evidence of a liver hit. We then discussed the start time to begin the track. Dad allowed for my conservative approach to the start time and humored my 12 hour suggested wait time. This was dad’s third decision that increased the successful recovery of his daughter’s buck.
After work I loaded up Daisy Mae and met dad and the young huntress. We began the track at the 12 hour mark. After working through all of the area dad and huntress searched for the buck at mid day Daisy took us to last blood. Once she picked up the clean track line she took us across a small opening and into some very tall and very thick switchgrass. Daisy made a brief self correction before she dove into the switchgrass and the way she raised her head briefly and spun around made me feel the buck was close. I said follow us and off we went into the dense switchgrass. It was so thick I couldn’t see Daisy. It was like walking with a curtain in my face in the dark night. Then the slack from her 30 foot leash went limp. I continued to follow the bright orange leash. As I got to the end of the leash I could see the switchgrass getting tossed around by Daisy’s butt wiggle and tail wagging. That’s her recovery excitement and I knew it. I had to walk up over her to finally get a glimpse of this buck as she ripped into the bucks hind quarters. Then I got to tell dad and daughter to come to me. That’s one of the best parts of tracking for people. Daisy Mae and the young hunter celebrated. Daisy Mae gave her host a smooch and we took some pictures.
Dad is a very experienced and successful hunter. He did three things that were very impactful in this recovery. First, upon his initial inspection of the hit sight and the shot sequence he recognized the need to wait a couple hours to begin their track. Secondly, when they did track they came to last blood and stopped, backed out and called a dog. This was the best decision he made because ultimately we recovered the buck under a hundred yards from the point he stopped tracking last blood, laying in switchgarss so thick you couldn’t see a foot in front of your face. Had they entered that switchgrass when they tracked at mid day they most likely push that buck and not even know it. He was laying in that switchgrass as they came to last blood and most likely very much alive. Finally, dad’s humility to trust my conservative wait time decision was another factor in setting up his daughter’s successful recovery. I believe that buck had expired within an hour or two before we recovered him by the evidence in front of me. It’s easy to search the internet and start your track after 6 to 9 hours on a liver hit deer as the internet recommends. It’s not so easy accepting a trackers recommendation to wait 12 hours. These decisions dad made set up Daisy Mae and his daughter for a successful recovery.
I appreciate the opportunity to share in your hunt and congratulations to both dad and daughter on a great buck!
