The landowner where I hunt was waiting for me when I got back to my truck this evening. "How would you like to help me track one?"
He had seen several deer in a field and couldn't get to his stand on the edge of the field, so he circled closer through the cedars and set up on the ground a few yards from the field edge.
He told me, "The tall 6 and the little 8 were out there, so I grunted a few times with my call. I'm not sure which one it was because I only had a narrow window to see the field - I saw horns at 20 yards and when it hit the opening I "baaaa ed" it to a stop and shot. It ran across the field and took the trail across the creek the does always use."
I know those trails well, so we got the tractor and headed for the creek bottom field where he shot it. We didn't find a blood trail crossing the field, but we went to the trail he thought it took and found good blood. I took the trail and it headed for the creek about 15 yards deeper in the brush. I could tell it made it to the creek but luckily that's as far as it went!
Made it easy for the field dressing with running water to wash up.
And we were able to back the tractor wight to the edge of the creek bank. All we had to do was drag it up a 6' bank and load it on the carrier.
I snapped a couple pics of him with his buck, but he was wrong about which deer it was. I wasn't the tall 6 or the little 8 at all. Another buck had slipped in on him and it turned out to be the new one. He got a high double lung hit which explained the lack of good blood at first.
He wasn't upset about it being a different deer.
He was a Horton owner, but I let him shoot my Phoenix from the bench. Three arrows in the same hole and he was sold on Excalibur's accuracy.