bowhuntingrook
Old Mossy Horns
It wasn't, it was alive 24 hours later. Hard quartering away
Coopers 2022 Deer Recovery Thread
- Thread starter bowhuntingrook
- Start date
Eh...shows what I know. lol.
bowhuntingrook
Old Mossy Horns
Can't tell much from picture, complete arrow was hanging out of deer when we dispatched him. I had hard time pulling the arrow out.Eh...shows what I know. lol.
Hunting Nut
Old Mossy Horns
Heckuva buck !
Good job Jeff and Cooper !!!
Good job Jeff and Cooper !!!
bowhuntingrook
Old Mossy Horns
This deer was shot last night, about 40 yards shot with the muzzleloader, the deer bedded less then 10 yards from the shot but behind a tree, the hunter could not see the deer and after getting down he immediately jumped it. Eventually they took up the trail again and had steady blood tell almost 200 yards when they ran out. We spoke last night and started the track at 0830 this morning. This track was never flat, it was pretty hardwoods and within a couple minutes Cooper was at the last spot of blood where Cooper then veered left traversing a hill until eventually heading up and over. Back down we went into another dry creek and back up the other side, I'm not seeing any blood, but I'm not really looking. I'm just focusing on Coopers body language and watching in front of him. We go up the hill after crossing that dry creek and over (and under) a barbwire fence, . We have permission for this area and Cooper is working confidently through this knee high green pasture grass, but of course it's all downhill now. The field is very long, and not a spot a buck with time would likely stop to die. We reach the back of the fields, Cooper works the edge and enters the hardwoods at the corner. Another creek and fence and I can see a lake in the far distance. I'm whispering to myself please be on the edge of this lake, please be on the edge of this lake. Cooper takes us to a point that juts out into the lake where to continue you have to cross a canal or swim the lake. He's wanting to jump in the lake but doesn't smell a deer, I sit down and Cooper continues to track to that very edge where I believe now that the deer entered. I'm looking in the water, it's plenty deep for a deer to be 99% submerged. I actually see a couple spots and mention them but I can't say for certain. In my head I'm thinking I need a fishing pole. With the information we have I come to the conclusion that if this is a liver like the hunter said he saw and the blood suggests, it is in this lake. But if it was high, and spinal shock is what caused him to bed at hit site, then likely this deer got across and will not be found today. Ideally we wanted to float the area in search or to cross, but instead the hunters went back to where Cooper said deer entered and found the buck 25 feet into the lake after a fisherman nearby alerted them to it. When the water is deep enough the deers head will sink furthest, butt up and maybe a softball sized patch of brown hair will be visible, this was the case. Great buck buddy. Hunter said the deer was 1 mile from the shot, they only found blood for 200 yards, liver shot.
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bowhuntingrook
Old Mossy Horns
bowhuntingrook
Old Mossy Horns
Beaver damn buck
oldest school
Old Mossy Horns
Happy Hunters- Happy Dog - cant beat that combo.
Congratulations on some fine recoveries.
Congratulations on some fine recoveries.
That one brings a smile to my eyes. Gotta love it when stories have happy endings! So happy for her.
Rescue44
Old Mossy Horns
10 point? Big enough to put a smile on her. Dad going to have to beat the fellows away. Lol
bowhuntingrook
Old Mossy Horns
BLOODBROTHER
Twelve Pointer
Very very good work. Impressive.
Hunting Nut
Old Mossy Horns
Just awesome, Jeff. Great stuff.
Super Cooper and you saved that tremendous animal's meat, hide, and antlers for the hunter. What a service you provided !
Super Cooper and you saved that tremendous animal's meat, hide, and antlers for the hunter. What a service you provided !
TrkyJedi
Eight Pointer
Good stuff, Jeff. In the moment, I bet that's as exciting as the hunt. Cooper's a tough cookie.
bowhuntingrook
Old Mossy Horns
More exciting then any buck I've ever killed. What's exciting is being right. We were right about what we believed was going to happen, we were right on the restart, and we found a live buck 24 hours later, 500 yards from the shot, with a leashed dog and ended his inevitable terrible ending with coyotes.
Awesome work Cooper!!
What do you use to dispatch with?
What do you use to dispatch with?
bowhuntingrook
Old Mossy Horns
Depends on season
I was meaning archery season
bowhuntingrook
Old Mossy Horns
Have to use 22 cal in bow season in NC, or a bow obviously.
I know that you have to use a .22 cal or bow. I was asking more to model. Ruger Single Six, S&W 317, Sig Trailside, etc
I think a PMR 30 would be the ticket! @woodmoose ?
Rescue44
Old Mossy Horns
Well, you sure would have a lot of chances.
bowhuntingrook
Old Mossy Horns
Bowhunter grunted this buck in, shot it quartering toward him. 200 yards it went, had to leave overnight to prevent bumping it unfortunately.
lasttombstone
Kinder, Gentler LTS
Is that in one of your heavy yote counties? I hate to see it but there seems to be a lot of losses overnight.
bowhuntingrook
Old Mossy Horns
They are unpredictable, I can do overnight tracks 1 week apart in same cutover and have 1 untouched and 1 skin and half bones gone no meat left.
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bowhuntingrook
Old Mossy Horns
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bowhuntingrook
Old Mossy Horns
bowhuntingrook
Old Mossy Horns
Rescue44
Old Mossy Horns
bowhuntingrook
Old Mossy Horns
Last night, I did my best to help as many people over the phone as I could before work, my first call was a gentleman I met last year. I'd tracked a buck for him and he was very generous and appreciative of the work we put in, even inviting me to hunt later that season. I hadn't heard from him since then, until last night when he said his son shot 2 bucks out of a soybean field. They were able to find 1 buck, but the other they could not find any blood or hair. He said after his son shot, he saw the buck run off while holding up a front leg. If he's correct, at least I know it's hit but I have very little hope. Without blood or any other information, they chose to stay out of the cutover until we could arrive this morning. I pulled in and as I was talking to two of his friends about the difficulties in a track with this little to go on, here walks in my buddy, "So how are you going to go about this with nothing to start on" I said, um how about you tell me and we all had a little laugh.
So I use a "find it" command in the general area they said the deer was standing, I have to give him credit, as soon as I put Cooper down he had good energy suggesting we were in the area of the hit. Cooper is weaving left and right and really working to advance through the soybeans and he is going right for the spot we were told the deer went. Cooper eventually reaches the edge of the cutover and checks multiple trails going into it, eventually going back to the first trail he was interested in, and here he enters. It's tough to see Cooper but he is right in front of me, not working fast, no pulling but still advancing in the same direction. Soon we are 75 yards away in the cutover and the growth is above my head, at that point Cooper jumps the buck from close range. I hear the buck struggling to get up and out of the thick stuff we are in, enough of a struggle that I considered following to dispatch the deer as Cooper waited. Cooper was whining and barking as he sits in the bed the deer was in, I radio back to the hunter to get his shotgun, I'm glad he was prepared.
I feel like if this is a liver, we will likely catch up to him soon as his heart rate increases and his oxygen demand increases he will not have the blood volume to perfuse his brain and other organs after sitting all night. But instead, we find our first blood soon after we begin and the blood is medium red in color, suggesting muscle. We track up to a pond and Cooper takes a right and we continue. We are working with the hunter, letting him ahead of us and correcting his direction with Cooper's tracking. We are attempting to see the deer bedded before Cooper pushes it with his noise. We do this for 3/4 of a mile, and while doing so, we are seeing little blood here and there but come to the conclusion that he will not stop in the open woods. But he is heading to a thicker area and then a swamp. I've recovered leg shots in swamps because of how difficult it can be for them to get through the mud on 3 legs, they are definitely more likely to bed there. We push through the thicker area but what I thought was supposed to be the swamp wasn't, it's more like a dry creek bed, we stopped and looked ahead in the pines and me and another hunter saw movement from left to right about 80 yards in. The hunter advances slowly ahead, and then calls for Cooper to come ahead, Cooper gets to the 80 yards mark and takes a right just as expected. Now the real swamp is ahead, as we approach it I'm listening and looking forward as there really is no way around it for the deer, if he got through this, we will not find him. The hunter and Cooper are even as they approach, Cooper left, the hunter right. I'm letting Cooper work the edge to see if he will attempt to swim and show me exactly the path the deer went, but before that, the hunter yells, "there he is, he's dead". All we can see is the rump of the deer out of the water on the swamp edge, the deer's head is underwater as this deer has intentionally submerged itself in an attempt to hide, we find this out after Cooper bites the rump of the deer and it jumps 6 foot high and forward and into the swamp where the hunter dispatches him. I pull Cooper to the bank as he is attempting to show off his swimming skills again in an attempt to wrestle a deer in water. Without the swamp, we'd still be tracking. This deer couldn't hide from Cooper. The hunter had 4 years of photos of this deer and believes him to be 6 years old, we are happy to add closure for all of them, it took 1.2 miles though. Hole is exit, shoulder is broken on other side where bullet entered.
Deer weighed 218#, some of that was water I'm sure but still heavy.
So I use a "find it" command in the general area they said the deer was standing, I have to give him credit, as soon as I put Cooper down he had good energy suggesting we were in the area of the hit. Cooper is weaving left and right and really working to advance through the soybeans and he is going right for the spot we were told the deer went. Cooper eventually reaches the edge of the cutover and checks multiple trails going into it, eventually going back to the first trail he was interested in, and here he enters. It's tough to see Cooper but he is right in front of me, not working fast, no pulling but still advancing in the same direction. Soon we are 75 yards away in the cutover and the growth is above my head, at that point Cooper jumps the buck from close range. I hear the buck struggling to get up and out of the thick stuff we are in, enough of a struggle that I considered following to dispatch the deer as Cooper waited. Cooper was whining and barking as he sits in the bed the deer was in, I radio back to the hunter to get his shotgun, I'm glad he was prepared.
I feel like if this is a liver, we will likely catch up to him soon as his heart rate increases and his oxygen demand increases he will not have the blood volume to perfuse his brain and other organs after sitting all night. But instead, we find our first blood soon after we begin and the blood is medium red in color, suggesting muscle. We track up to a pond and Cooper takes a right and we continue. We are working with the hunter, letting him ahead of us and correcting his direction with Cooper's tracking. We are attempting to see the deer bedded before Cooper pushes it with his noise. We do this for 3/4 of a mile, and while doing so, we are seeing little blood here and there but come to the conclusion that he will not stop in the open woods. But he is heading to a thicker area and then a swamp. I've recovered leg shots in swamps because of how difficult it can be for them to get through the mud on 3 legs, they are definitely more likely to bed there. We push through the thicker area but what I thought was supposed to be the swamp wasn't, it's more like a dry creek bed, we stopped and looked ahead in the pines and me and another hunter saw movement from left to right about 80 yards in. The hunter advances slowly ahead, and then calls for Cooper to come ahead, Cooper gets to the 80 yards mark and takes a right just as expected. Now the real swamp is ahead, as we approach it I'm listening and looking forward as there really is no way around it for the deer, if he got through this, we will not find him. The hunter and Cooper are even as they approach, Cooper left, the hunter right. I'm letting Cooper work the edge to see if he will attempt to swim and show me exactly the path the deer went, but before that, the hunter yells, "there he is, he's dead". All we can see is the rump of the deer out of the water on the swamp edge, the deer's head is underwater as this deer has intentionally submerged itself in an attempt to hide, we find this out after Cooper bites the rump of the deer and it jumps 6 foot high and forward and into the swamp where the hunter dispatches him. I pull Cooper to the bank as he is attempting to show off his swimming skills again in an attempt to wrestle a deer in water. Without the swamp, we'd still be tracking. This deer couldn't hide from Cooper. The hunter had 4 years of photos of this deer and believes him to be 6 years old, we are happy to add closure for all of them, it took 1.2 miles though. Hole is exit, shoulder is broken on other side where bullet entered.
Deer weighed 218#, some of that was water I'm sure but still heavy.
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