Post by: elkboy on December 11, 2015, 10:22:41 AM
I hope everyone is doing well.
Post by: gutsnthegrass on December 11, 2015, 10:39:10 AM
Post by: lokidog on December 12, 2015, 09:59:23 AM
Post by: elkboy on December 12, 2015, 06:05:11 PM
Post by: GoexBlackhorn on December 16, 2015, 08:37:09 PM
Post by: lokidog on December 16, 2015, 08:42:32 PM
Anything yet?
Season's done.
Post by: elkboy on December 17, 2015, 10:33:34 AM
I wait a few minutes, and then walk forward, my steps dampened by the step moss and the soft forest floor. No blood, no hair, no sign at all. I do my five yard circle around the place where she stood, on my hands and knees, then the ten yard circle. Then the twenty, the thirty. No sign of blood, and the rain does not help. I drop off the ridge-top into a gully in the direction the doe was facing, and I find the tracks of a running deer. Still not quite believing I had a hit deer, I follow these tracks. At 70 yards, there is a sign- a foot-long drag where her hooves had scraped through the forest litter. This gives me some hope, and I cast ahead for each new set of splayed out tracks. At 130 yards from where she had been shot, there she was- a 1.5 year old doe (I checked the teeth- erupting pre-molars- not a fawn!). My shot had gone in front of one shoulder, and exited behind the other. She is not a massive deer, being both young and from the Islands, but like any deer, she is a gift. And need I say, her venison can almost be cut with a fork. Would I have taken the shot, had I known better her relative young age and smaller size? Possibly not. But it is a needless question. The challenge of judging deer on a dark, rainy December day, the challenge of still-hunting through the branch-littered understory, the fact that any legal deer is a gift to be cherished- all these make it a moot point. Whether a deer yields 25 pounds of venison or 80- it is a gift. I choose to focus on the facts that I made a good shot, and I was successful in one of the toughest tracking and recovery jobs I have had. Her strength in her final run was nothing short of amazing, and is no small inspiration to me. These are things that can’t quite be measured in pounds of venison, or inches of antler, but are at the heart of the hunt.
Happy Holidays! I wish you all a great 2016.
Post by: lokidog on December 17, 2015, 10:39:49 AM
Post by: elkboy on December 17, 2015, 10:54:54 AM
Post by: MLBowhunting on December 17, 2015, 11:19:11 AM
Post by: Jonathan_S on December 17, 2015, 02:40:12 PM
These are things that can’t quite be measured in pounds of venison, or inches of antler, but are at the heart of the hunt.
Darn true! Excellent way to articulate that thought. What an adorable, tasty little thing :) Great job :tup:
Great job on the recovery. That rain is terrible for tracking at times.
My little bull last year was pouring blood out of a liver hit and in the pouring rain, couldn't even be blood tracked 5 mins later.
Post by: Sabotloader on December 17, 2015, 03:58:36 PM
Excellent written description of the accounts of the day... and as I read it I was very confident about your feelings for the hunt and the animal. I can somewhat identify with some of your thoughts after the shot since was in the same place a few days ago wondering and tracking..
Congrats!!!
Now you have to return to the normal everyday life without hunting - for awhile anyway :)
mike
Post by: MD36 on December 30, 2015, 03:55:57 AM
Post by: boneaddict on December 30, 2015, 05:13:47 AM