Did you lose your bull in Little Naches, off the 1902 road? I found him!!

[Pete112288]

I hope something didn't happen to the hunter. If not I hope it was one of those things where maybe he made a mistake and is kicking himself for it a little. I only say it that way because I have seen a bit too much of people giving up without putting in the work to try and find an animal. Ran into a guy last year in the woods and started chit chatting. Topic got to archery and he said "yea screw that! I tried it and it don't work, I went back to guns after my first year archery hunting, lost 3 bulls in 2 days because of the f***ing bow. They developed guns for a reason." I asked him where he had shot them and he told me about 50 yards off the road under the powerlines that run through this area. Told me by which stump one was standing specifically (its a freaking huge stump that sticks out to the eye). Through the conversation I could tell he knew very little about hunting esp with a bow. Where he said he shot those 3 was in a spot they cross to and from a farmer's field on the other side of the road. That's how he got 3 chances so close together. I know the farmer and talk to him regularly. He is retired and walks his dogs on the trails around his property and across the road. He said that year a 3pt ended up dead in his field (100 yards from where the guy said he shot it) with an arrow through his bowels. Then said a few days later his dogs pointed him towards a different trail when walking and found a second 3pt with an arrow through his neck. When I told the farmer about this guy and compared notes about timelines it worked out. I wish I had seen this guys rig or got his full name. After this I hunted my way up and down on that hillside for a few days and found a deadhead myself of a small 5X4 laying in a thicket of blackberry vines, the rest of the bigger bones were not far off, and low and behold, I stepped on a broadhead that was under the leaves (lucky it was a little bleeder blade that stuck the sole of my boot) I was just sick. This guy had completely blamed that it was because of the bow, he expected them to just drop dead. When I asked him why he didn't look for any of them more than an hour he said that's not how its supposed to go, if they can run far enough to be out of sight then oh well "Im not going down that steep stuff that far for an animal" is roughly what he claimed. DUDE THERE IS ANOTHER FREAKING ROAD LESS THAN A QUARTER MILE DOWN THAT HILL!!! Sorry, rant, this thread stirred up the memory.  The farmer and I both made reports but were pretty much told that with no more than a first name and no vehicle description they cant do much.

[Bill W]

Tracking isn't the glamour part of hunting.   I remember one deer I helped trail for a hunter.   His dad and I crawled on the ground for part of the trailing looking for disturbed leaves and some blood sign.    The deer went up a trail, couldn't get over a log, turned back on the trail and went off on another trail.  We kept going up the fallen log and thought aliens might have transported the deer off.

It was a P&Y mule deer and took 4 hours to find.

[elkinrutdrivemenuts]

It is not easy tracking them, especially in thick, nasty stuff.  My buddy shot a bull last year and he knew he made a good shot through the lungs.  We found the arrow and knew the general direction it went.  When I showed up he still had not found it and the worst part was that there was no blood to track.  We started making circles and after a couple hours were starting to fear the worst.  Then I stumbled across it while circling the ridge it had made its escape on.  Its very easy to lose them if you don't have a blood trail or decent ground to follow tracks.   

[gaddy]

Is that a broken arrow in the lower neck area?

[Austin94]

I hunted almost every day of this season up there. What a waste, I really hope someone could've claimed this bull. Sad to see, beings I never even had a chance to shoot one, got close but was never close enough! 

[AnacortesBuckguy15]

Argh! I was JUST southeast of there in the Nile at http://elkridgecampground.com for two nights and didn't see one alive or dead! One less for my muzzleloader next month!

[buglebrush]

Not to start another raging debate, but that is why I use lighted nocks.  Always helps with the hours of looking with no blood if you know for sure you didn't miss.   

I heard a story from Idaho last week about a guy who shot a nice 6x6.  He looked for a couple hours, couldn't find anything and finally decided he must've missed.  Went back a week later and found it by scent.  Didn't bleed at all, and died 200 yards from the shot.  If he had seen his arrow go...   

[elkinrutdrivemenuts]

I've met a few guys here in Idaho that use them, because in their mind a lost animal is worse than the ticket, which they will gladly pay when caught.