I headed out by myself yesterday morning and was in my stand by about 6 am. Not much doing until about 7:15 when I hear the familiar sound of leaves rustling and twigs breaking. I look in the direction of the noise to see 2 nice Does heading my way. As they reach the bottom of the small hill they were coming down they become caution, stopping, looking, listening, smelling. They look at me but obviously don't see me. They continue towards my shooting lane but not without continually stopping and checking. They know something is up but apparently nothing serious enough for them to flee. As they get closer and closer to my shooting lane the lead Doe changes her course and starts to head away from me. Fortunately the second Doe continues along the same path. By this point I'm completely open to them but they haven't seen me. Any movement has to be very subtle. I have my bow on my lap just waiting for my chance to raise it up and take aim. It's going to be about a 30 yard shot and I won't have a lot of time to sight the shot in, it's going to have to be quick.
She finally gives me my chance. She's completely broadside looking straight ahead. I lift the bow quickly, pick my spot and let my custom Grey Wolf bolt tipped with a 100 grain Slick Trick fly.
Whack! She's hit. She bucks and then runs, she stumbles but recovers, stumbles again but recovers...stumbles again but recovers. I thought for sure she was going to go down right there but no. She gets up over a hill and out of sight. I'm figuring she has to be just on the other side. The hill goes up steep to a small flat spot and then down steep again on the other side. I'm figuring she's probably fallen down the other side and waiting at the bottom. I call my neighbour Vince and tell him the news. He tells me to give her some time to let her go down.
I wait 30 mins and then climb down. I got over to where I shot her and find my bolt. It's broken off just slightly more that half way down the shaft. There is blood and it's dark. I'm figuring shoulder blade. I walk to where she went up over the hill and check the other side. Nothing..Do a quick search around the area. Nothing. I call Vince again and he tells me to come home and give her some time. We only live 2 minutes away. He says we'll go back after he gets his daughter off to school.
I head home for a coffee and to check changed out of my camo. By this time it's about 8:15 am. At 8:30 we head back over. This is when the excitment begins.
Now all of you should know that I am red/green colour blind. I don't know if there is anyone else on the site that suffers from the same affliction but let me tell you it doesn't bode well for blood tracking. For those that aren't aware if a person is missing the red colour pigment, as I am, you don't see the colour red nearly as brilliantly as a non-colourblind person. Mix that with the autumn leaves and as you can imagine seeing blood on the ground is next to impossible. Lucky for me Vince does not have this problem. We get back over to where she has likely gone and right away we find some fresh tracks and a hair, one hair. We follow the tracks and soon Vince finds blood, then more blood. Things are looking good.
Vince continues to track the blood all the while expecting we are going to find her at anytime but we don't. There is not a lot of blood but enough to keep us moving forward.
Wow is this story ever getting long.......
Okay so we follow the blood trail to the edge of a creek. Just as we are approaching the creek Vince stops suddenly and pulls me down to duck. He tells me there are 2 Does on the other side of the creek heading our way. They haven't seen us even though we are in plain view and they haven't scented us because we are down wind. I have my bow with me just in case we find my Doe injured and needing to be put down. The first of these 2 Does we see starts to cross the creek. She comes through the creek, up the other side and is walking right by us 10 yards away without even knowing we are there. Vince gives a little "blah" and she stops...Shoot her, shoot her Vince says. We have the tags, so why not. I rush the shot. I put the crosshairs on her when I should have put the 10 yards mark and I shoot high. I give her a little hair cut, bolt sticks in a tree and she walks away. But wait...what about the one on the other side of the creek. She's still there, she doesn't even clue into what's going on. I quickly cock my bow (by hand) put in another bolt and take aim. Again Vince prompts me to shoot her but encourages me to take my time. This one is about a 20 yard shot. I take my time, crosshairs on the vital, thwack! I hit her. She peels off. I see where she runs and then suddenly I see a Doe running off in another direction. I think it's her. I think she's done a big loop and is heading out of dodge because if she had have continued in the direction that she first ran she would have run right onto the road. I know she's hit.
Vince and I can't believe what just happened.
We continue to follow the blood trail and we'll worry about the second Doe after.
The problem is, it's getting to be close to 9:30 and Vince HAS to go to work. There are days when he can skip off or start late but today is not one of them....figures.
So...I've got 2 deer that I need to find. I can't see blood, Vince has to go to work, what do I do. Why I go home and get my wife oh course.
Vince heads off to work. I got home and fill my wife in on what's gone on since I got out of bed at 5:30.
It's about 10:30 - 10:45 by the time we have a coffee and something to eat. We had back over and pick up from where Vince and I had followed the blood to from the first Doe. Liette (my wife) picks up the trail and follows it a little further. Luckily she can see the blood just as well as Vince can.
We continually find and lose the trail and come to a dead end where we can't find where it goes. We're around a bedding area that is very thick brambly brush and grass. I do visual searches for the Doe since I'm really no good when it comes to trying to follow the blood. It gets to the point where we just don't know where she has gone so we decide to cross the creek to see if we can pick anything up on the other side and see if we can find the second Doe.
The creek is at least 20 feet wide and too deep to wade through. There is a downed tree that goes all the way across though and we're able to shimmy our way across.
We go to where I think I shot the second Doe. Turns out it was the wrong spot and maybe that would explain why we couldn't find my bolt or any blood.
The terrain on this side of the creek is super nasty. Throny brambles that you can hardly walk through and thick brush. We do an area search hoping that were going to find a downed deer (or 2) but nothing. Stupid me doesn't bother to go and check where I saw the second Doe run after I first shot her because I think she's turned and run off in another direction....more on that later.
We catch a break...sort of. Liette finds bloods. We don't know if this is blood from the first or second deer. and at this point we can't tell which direction it's going. We follow it through some unbelieveable terrain. Stuff that you wouldn't even think a rabbit could get through.
Liette continues to follow the blood and I continue to branch off in different directions in hopes of finding a body (or 2).
We are reasonably certain we know which direction the blood is going based on where I think I saw the second doe run. We "think" we're tracking the second doe. Again we get to a point where we lose it and can't pick it up again. Remember we're in some nasty, nasty stuff.
It's getting to be about 2 pm now and we're getting tired and we're getting hungry. We headed home to get something to eat and rest for a bit. Vince was now available again so him and I were going to head back out again. Riley (my son) gets home from school just before 3 pm and he is going to head over to help when he gets home. He has no idea what has gone on.
Vince and I go and search some areas where we think the first one could have gone but don't turn up anything. We then cross the creek and search some areas where we think the second one could have gone but don't turn up anything.
Riley joins up with us by about 3:30 pm and we spread out to search between the creek and embankment to the west. As we're walking along we push out a Buck. Vince has his bow with him and I think it's headind his way. I call out to alert him but he doesn't see it. No sooner does the buck leave my sight I look over towards the embankment and see what sure looks like a dead deer. Yep it's a dead deer! I walk over for a closer look. Turns out it's the first one I shot. This Doe has gone probably close to a KM with a big hole in her shoulder and 1/2 a bolt stuck in her.
Here is a couple of pics. She's a BIG Doe.
Riley and I with her...
We drag her back to the edge of the creek which was a helluva job getting her through all the crap plus she weighed a ton! We didn't want to gut her until we got her to the other side of the creek. Vince is going to go home and get his ATV because we're still a long way back to the truck. Before he goes he asks me if I check the area where the second Doe first ran to. I said I didn't because I thought she had turned and ran off in another direction. Lesson learned...never overlook the obvious.
Riley and I venture over to the area and low and behold what do we find is Doe number 2 not 50 yards from where I shot her! I call Vince up on his cell and give him the good news. It turns out that the blood that Liette was tracking was from the first Doe not the second Doe.
I didn't take a pic of Doe number 2 by herself but here is a pic of the 2 of them strapped to the back of the ATV ready for a ride through the bush back to the truck. Vince and Riley in the pic with the girls.
It was one heck of a day that ended up in a good result from hard work and determination.
If you've shot a deer and you know you've hit it well enough to kill it don't give up. It is amazing the stamina that these animals have and how far they can go. Also don't "assume" you know where an animal went. Check everywhere!
Sorry for the long drawn out story.
Keeping with the rememberance day theme. Thanks to those who have serve and currently serve.
Dave
when I called 4 hours later for them to bring the truck & a couple of cold ones I stood back with the coldones enjoying every last drop while they loaded it up 