Coopers 2022 Deer Recovery Thread

Rescue44

Old Mossy Horns
I just learned tonight that the father called another dog after I left, me and Cooper stopped on blood shown in video, and another dog was called apparently and went the remaining 20 yards 3 hours later. I don't know why he did this since he had blood to track and I told him it was likely within 50 yards. I did not know about the other dog until tonight so credit was not given to the other dog. Forgive me for not giving credit to Iggy, from Iggy Outfitters Wounded Game tracking and recovery. Couple fb warriors up in arms over this, saying I claimed this recovery. I left a track where I was on blood 400+ yards from hit, after stopping I then turned down $100 and potential $50 for finding because I felt we may push it and risk this girl never recovering her deer. I also drove 1.5 hours to help them . All I was sent from father that evening after I told them to go look was the following text. View attachment 100166

You are a class act. Doggie, too. No forgiveness is warranted. A ++ class team..my opinion from multiple posted tracks here I've read. Actually, read all the posts and look forward to reading, seeing pictures of Cooper eyeing his reward or chewing it's rear-end. Some folks "talk", accuse with too little information.
Sounds like you did what experience taught you. 👍👍👍
Looking forward to more of you and Mr. Cooper!!!
 

DozerD

Six Pointer
You are a class act. Doggie, too. No forgiveness is warranted. A ++ class team..my opinion from multiple posted tracks here I've read. Actually, read all the posts and look forward to reading, seeing pictures of Cooper eyeing his reward or chewing it's rear-end. Some folks "talk", accuse with too little information.
Sounds like you did what experience taught you. 👍👍👍
Looking forward to more of you and Mr. Cooper!!!
Couldn’t agree more with the above. This is definitely one of my favorite threads. Keep up the good work!!
 

bowhuntingrook

Old Mossy Horns
Got a call last night, hunter shot a broadside deer at about 25 yards from a 12ft ladder stand. The hunter couldn't find any blood even at the hit sight. I had him send me a picture of the arrow, it was a complete arrow with a mechanical broadhead that passed through and was found in the dirt. This leads me to believe it's not shoulder. My thought when I saw arrow was that it's a fatal shot, saw some dark blood and it was covered, he stated it didn't not smell bad. I also saw in the background pine needles covering the ground, this can be hard to sight track in. We started at about 4 hours and we're at the deer 150 yards into the woods in just a few minutes. I never saw any blood, liver entry, liver exit, bled mostly internally. IMG_20220929_004055.jpg
 
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bowhuntingrook

Old Mossy Horns
Omw to a gut shot went toward thicket, he lost blood, buck shot last night, I hope he's dead when we find him.
Hunter said shot last night, broadside 25 yards from ground blind. He tracked last night until he found beds with gut material and ran out of blood 100 yards from hit site, it's possible it was pushed from the beds, he backed out then. He didn't call tell about 18 hours after the shot, we started 20 hours after the shot. Started great but eventually Cooper wanted to restart himself at first sign, his way of saying you put me on the wrong track or this contaminated area is difficult. I decided to pick him up while hunter found the beds he'd marked with his arrow in dirt. From that point Cooper pulled me 150 yards or so to the deer we found in a cutover where buzzards had just started on it. A different direction then the hunter planned on looking. This was a mature deer, had a sagging gut and thick neck. I will post a little video later.
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YanceyGreenhorn

Still Not a Moderator
Awesome that you been posting videos. He’s a cool little dog. I noticed shortly before he found the deer, you said something like “there it is, probably.” Was that bc you were able to see the deer at that point ? We couldn’t see it in the video yet. So I wasn’t sure if you’d seen it by then , or you just knew he was bout to find it based on how he was acting? That’s one of my favorite things about hunting with dogs. Or in your case, tracking. The more you get to know the dog and spend time afield, the more you pick up on their little behaviors and indicators
 

bowhuntingrook

Old Mossy Horns
Awesome that you been posting videos. He’s a cool little dog. I noticed shortly before he found the deer, you said something like “there it is, probably.” Was that bc you were able to see the deer at that point ? We couldn’t see it in the video yet. So I wasn’t sure if you’d seen it by then , or you just knew he was bout to find it based on how he was acting? That’s one of my favorite things about hunting with dogs. Or in your case, tracking. The more you get to know the dog and spend time afield, the more you pick up on their little behaviors and indicators
No I saw buzzards on the ground right in front of me, so I said, there it is, probably. I knew we were going to find it before we got there. It's a paunch shot under 24 hours. When I set him on actual sign, you can see how he acted, once he acts like that it's game over. That's a fatal hit behavior from him. Early in the video, hunter points to trail he believes deer went, you can see Cooper wants to go left of it, I pick him up over the sticker bushes. If that was where the deer went, Cooper would have jumped over that himself, I should have ignored hunters idea. I started Cooper with "find it" command, this is what I use when hunter can't show me blood/gut. So initially he's in search mode, when I put him down over sticker bushes, he was off it, also the guy contaminated that area. Once out of contamination, you saw how quick it went.
 
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YanceyGreenhorn

Still Not a Moderator
No I saw buzzards on the ground right in front of me, so I said, there it is, probably. I knew we were going to find it before we got there. It's a paunch shot under 24 hours. When I set him on actual sign, you can see how he acted, once he acts like that it's game over. That's a fatal hit behavior from him. Early in the video, hunter points to trail he believes deer went, you can see Cooper wants to go left of it, I pick him up over the sticker bushes. If that was where the deer went, Cooper would have jumped over that himself, I should have ignored hunters idea. I started Cooper with "find it" command, this is what I use when hunter can't show me blood/gut. So initially he's in search mode, when I put him down over sticker bushes, he was off it, also the guy contaminated that area. Once out of contamination, you saw how quick it went.
Makes sense. I gotcha. Thanks
 

bowhuntingrook

Old Mossy Horns
We just ran a high liver shot and didn't find it. I don't have an explanation.. Couple drops of blood at start was all we had. We tracked a half loop, 200 yards or so 2 times. To my knowledge we've never left a liver shot in the woods. Headed to gut shot now that last they saw it was surrounded by coyotes fighting for it's life, could end up anywhere but won't likely have any meat left.
 

bowhuntingrook

Old Mossy Horns
Checked messages this morning, at midnight had a message of possibly a gut shot deer. When we spoke this morning they stated after waiting 5 or so hours, they tracked blood a few hundred yards, at some point the blood stopped, they noticed gut in it at this time but did 3 man grid search in the area the trail was heading. While doing this they heard coyotes and eventually found the deer bedded and surrounded by coyotes, this was 100 yards or so past last blood. They attempted to dispatch the animal with a 22 caliber, the only legal firearm option for dispatching a wounded deer during bow season in NC. They then backed out. We started at the hit site mid day, and contamination made it for a slow walk through the hardwoods headed straight to where the showdown was, eventually Cooper made it to the exact bed the deer was in when the hunter attempted to dispatch it. There was no blood that we could see, even in this bed. Cooper then picked up the pace, and headed a direction slightly different than anticipated. Straight away instead of left to the swamp, I was glad. 200 or so more yards and deer was dead. Low stomach, that's entry you see in picture from treestand 30-35 feet high, hunter is very lucky to recover this buck, 19 hours after the bow shot. Meat still good and coyotes never reclaimed their prize.
IMG_20221005_140348.jpg
 
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Deep River

Ten Pointer
Contributor
Checked messages this morning, at midnight had a message of possibly a gut shot deer. When we spoke this morning they stated after waiting 5 or so hours, they tracked blood a few hundred yards, at some point the blood stopped, they noticed gut in it at this time but did 3 man grid search in the area the trail was heading. While doing this they heard coyotes and eventually found the deer bedded and surrounded by coyotes, this was 100 yards or so past last blood. They attempted to dispatch the animal with a 22 caliber, the only legal firearm option for dispatching a wounded deer during bow season in NC. They then backed out. We started at the hit site mid day, and contamination made it for a slow walk through the hardwoods headed straight to where the showdown was, eventually Cooper made it to the exact bed the deer was in when the hunter attempted to dispatch it. There was no blood that we could see, even in this bed. Cooper then picked up the pace, and headed a direction slightly different than anticipated. Straight away instead of left to the swamp, I was glad. 200 or so more yards and deer was dead. Low stomach, that's entry you see in picture from treestand 30-35 feet high, hunter is very lucky to recover this buck, 19 hours after the bow shot. Meat still good and coyotes never reclaimed their prize.
View attachment 100857
What county?
 

Deep River

Ten Pointer
Contributor
Deep River, he can't tell you that. It would betray the hunter's wishes and that's bad business I would think. I don't want to speak for bowhuntingrook, but I would think that would open up a potential can of worms.
Yeah. You may be right. A county seems like a very big place though.
 

Hunting Nut

Old Mossy Horns
Checked messages this morning, at midnight had a message of possibly a gut shot deer. When we spoke this morning they stated after waiting 5 or so hours, they tracked blood a few hundred yards, at some point the blood stopped, they noticed gut in it at this time but did 3 man grid search in the area the trail was heading. While doing this they heard coyotes and eventually found the deer bedded and surrounded by coyotes, this was 100 yards or so past last blood. They attempted to dispatch the animal with a 22 caliber, the only legal firearm option for dispatching a wounded deer during bow season in NC. They then backed out. We started at the hit site mid day, and contamination made it for a slow walk through the hardwoods headed straight to where the showdown was, eventually Cooper made it to the exact bed the deer was in when the hunter attempted to dispatch it. There was no blood that we could see, even in this bed. Cooper then picked up the pace, and headed a direction slightly different than anticipated. Straight away instead of left to the swamp, I was glad. 200 or so more yards and deer was dead. Low stomach, that's entry you see in picture from treestand 30-35 feet high, hunter is very lucky to recover this buck, 19 hours after the bow shot. Meat still good and coyotes never reclaimed their prize.
View attachment 100857

That's a heckuva NC deer !
Good job again Super Cooper !
 
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