10/16/2020
Great read and info!
Thanks to everyone who provided input on my last "How far did he go? post. The hunter recognized the poor hit location, picked up his arrow which was coated in blood with no gut smell, and left the scene. Buck was recovered the following morning (12 hours) at only 140 yards.
A summary of y'alls responses to the earlier post:
Undisturbed distances ranged from 30-880 yards, but with an average of 247 yards. Almost everyone made some comment about the buck going farther if not left alone, almost all measured in miles. Not everyone included wait times, but those that did ranged from 2-16 hours.
Interesting side note - based on 11 years of our tracking data, bucks that are hit back averaged 671 yards to recovery. That's a stark contrast to the group estimate of 247 yards, which demonstrates that when hunters start tracking a deer hit back, they often bump the deer whether they now it or not. I don't have the quantitative data to support it, but my observation over the last few years has been that hunters who leave the scene will recover their animals within about 300 yards. Well...at least those deer that succumbed to the wound.
Point of the exercise is to continue to hammer the concept of just leave the scene if things are looking bad, and wait about 12 hours. And holler at a dog handler.
Now, if we keep this among ourselves, dog tracking gang, then it doesn't help as much as it would if hunters saw it. So, please feel free to share this info with any hunting groups in your area.
Congrats to this hunter, Michael! Excellent decision and excellent buck! Thanks for use of the photo.
