spear
09-21-2011, 04:51 PM
Tuesday saw me hiking up the sidehill before light, shot a muley here last year so I knew bucks liked the area. Brought along a trusted friend who wouldn't say a word about where we were, it was steep and deep to get in here but if people only knew what WAS in here, they would be all over it. I have scouted this area numerous times with bucks sightings throughout the year.
First light came and shortly after I noticed a lone deer 300 yards away feeding up a finger ridge, wait there's 4 deer, all bucks, 2 legal four points, this is getting good, glad we had good glass. Made it to a ridge 280 yards away and determined I could shoot prone, second thoughts made us decide a stalk over some open country, we made it to 200 yards and a smaller buck busted us. Over the ridge they go, up the mountain we go. We blow out two more bucks on the way up, nothing legal but still nice Muley's. We come up and over trying to get on top of the bucks that we missed, sure enough we end up 40-50 yards up hill and one ridge over from them, they are sparring and feeding and have no idea we are there.
I belly crawl to the edge of the rimrock, glass to identify the deer, one was signifigantly bigger than the other 2 I could see, a 5x4 with good mass, and deep forked tines, I have never even seen a deer this big before. scope on him, calm as I can, I fire a shot steep downhill just over his back. I am without my magazine (dont ask) so I eject the round and feed one in by hand, lower my cross hairs and squeeze off a round, the buck hunches up and trotts away? Think I just gut shot him @%*#.
I Knew exactly what to do, after a short search revealing no blood I called in the pros.
Many of you know HOTLOAD from this site and Im lucky to call him a friend, he didnt hesitate to show up in short time with his blue heeler Billie. Hotload and Billie have spent a lot of time together blood tracking, we put our faith in the two of them and set off back up the mountain.
It wasn't hard for Billie to pick up the scent at the point of impact, from the word go she had her nose buried deep, pulling Hotload up fresh track. 40-50 yards up hill the buck jumped a log and made a hard right heading east, Billie didnt miss a beat. We were convinced she was going in the wrong direction until we saw how hard she was pulling and the size of the tracks she was on.
It's impressive to see such a well trained and disciplined team at work, this is not easy terrain either, open shale slides, cactus infested slopes and thick pine timbered draws. Like a champ Billie tracked that buck for 2+ miles, we found numerous beds that she indicated were fresh.
It appeared that we were continually bumping the buck further, but with the heat we didn't want to leave him for too long. Billie took us through some nasty thickets always over very fresh track but never even a hint of blood, let me tell you that dog could smell that buck in distress and she never let up. We ended our search on the far side of a watering hole after we determined this deer just kept bumping faster than we could catch him. We had been tracking for 4+ hours. Billie never quit.
We aren't sure if I may have knicked the deer because of the steep angle of shot, or if indeed I did gut shot it. ?Without any blood to indicate the type of wound I am lost. I doubt many dogs can track deer that well without good blood. Certainly I would have never been able to track this deer without Hotload and Billie, unfourtunately we never recovered the animal despite our best efforts.
Im back up that mountain tomorrow to look again for any signs, but I already know if they couldn't find that buck I dont have a chance.
Thanks to Hotload and his heeler for giving it there best, Im satisfied we did everything possible but it still hurts nonetheless.
First light came and shortly after I noticed a lone deer 300 yards away feeding up a finger ridge, wait there's 4 deer, all bucks, 2 legal four points, this is getting good, glad we had good glass. Made it to a ridge 280 yards away and determined I could shoot prone, second thoughts made us decide a stalk over some open country, we made it to 200 yards and a smaller buck busted us. Over the ridge they go, up the mountain we go. We blow out two more bucks on the way up, nothing legal but still nice Muley's. We come up and over trying to get on top of the bucks that we missed, sure enough we end up 40-50 yards up hill and one ridge over from them, they are sparring and feeding and have no idea we are there.
I belly crawl to the edge of the rimrock, glass to identify the deer, one was signifigantly bigger than the other 2 I could see, a 5x4 with good mass, and deep forked tines, I have never even seen a deer this big before. scope on him, calm as I can, I fire a shot steep downhill just over his back. I am without my magazine (dont ask) so I eject the round and feed one in by hand, lower my cross hairs and squeeze off a round, the buck hunches up and trotts away? Think I just gut shot him @%*#.
I Knew exactly what to do, after a short search revealing no blood I called in the pros.
Many of you know HOTLOAD from this site and Im lucky to call him a friend, he didnt hesitate to show up in short time with his blue heeler Billie. Hotload and Billie have spent a lot of time together blood tracking, we put our faith in the two of them and set off back up the mountain.
It wasn't hard for Billie to pick up the scent at the point of impact, from the word go she had her nose buried deep, pulling Hotload up fresh track. 40-50 yards up hill the buck jumped a log and made a hard right heading east, Billie didnt miss a beat. We were convinced she was going in the wrong direction until we saw how hard she was pulling and the size of the tracks she was on.
It's impressive to see such a well trained and disciplined team at work, this is not easy terrain either, open shale slides, cactus infested slopes and thick pine timbered draws. Like a champ Billie tracked that buck for 2+ miles, we found numerous beds that she indicated were fresh.
It appeared that we were continually bumping the buck further, but with the heat we didn't want to leave him for too long. Billie took us through some nasty thickets always over very fresh track but never even a hint of blood, let me tell you that dog could smell that buck in distress and she never let up. We ended our search on the far side of a watering hole after we determined this deer just kept bumping faster than we could catch him. We had been tracking for 4+ hours. Billie never quit.
We aren't sure if I may have knicked the deer because of the steep angle of shot, or if indeed I did gut shot it. ?Without any blood to indicate the type of wound I am lost. I doubt many dogs can track deer that well without good blood. Certainly I would have never been able to track this deer without Hotload and Billie, unfourtunately we never recovered the animal despite our best efforts.
Im back up that mountain tomorrow to look again for any signs, but I already know if they couldn't find that buck I dont have a chance.
Thanks to Hotload and his heeler for giving it there best, Im satisfied we did everything possible but it still hurts nonetheless.