"The Bittersweet Buck"
This one drops us down to 3 of 7 recovered.
The hunter found us on the UBT website and gave us a call last night. The arrow had almost no blood on it and other than a small spot about 4 feet up a tree where the giant bodied brute ran into it, there was no blood to be found anywhere. We agreed it was best to wait until today to go track it and I had to work, so we arrived a little over 20 hours after the shot and it had been raining on and off for at least 16 hours straight. At this point it was 73 degrees.
We took up the track at the hit site and Finley got a good whiff of the tree and the ground and took off in the direction of travel the hunter said he went (up the hill). She quickly located the bolt and we proceeded up the hill where I had to crawl on hands and knees through the brush. We were stopped by a hog wire fence so I had to take her back to an opening I saw earlier and she got right back on it. Opened up to a small field and she headed straight across and when she got to the end, she turned around and headed back to where we came out of the thicket. She seemed to get back on scent and her confidence was high.
Then I saw the trucks, and we were headed straight for them......
I let her keep going until about 20 yards from the truck where I stopped her because i thought she was going to the trucks instead of tracking. I said aloud, "sorry girl, let's go start again, I just don't trust you".
We went back to restart at the thicket and she kind of searched around a bit and my phone rang. It's the hunter!
"I found him!"
I was so happy for the hunter but also kind of bummed for not us finding it, so I told him I'd be there in a bit and I was going to see if she could take me there, and we continued on. This time when she took me towards the trucks, I let her.
She passed right by the trucks and kept going to the bottom of the hill and made a 90 to the left where we were met with the fence again, but there was no way around and I had to lift her over (4 foot with barb wire) and I climbed over after. She made it to the clearing and made another 90 to the left, back the way we came but along the bottom of the field. She trudged along about another 400 yards or so to right where the buck was found.
Would we have found it if the hunter didn't? I don't know. Was she confident in where she was going? Very. Will I doubt her again? It's likely, but hopefully it's fewer and farther in between as we get more experience in these conditions and longer aged tracks. There was zero blood anywhere, including leading up to the buck, which really makes it hard to track without trust. It was a single lung, so I'm still glad we didn't go in last night.
We met and amazing dude that I'm certain we will cross paths with again, we were able to share a super cool moment with a hunter and his giant buck, and we learned.
Not a recovery for team Finley, but a success none the less. On to the next track!
This one drops us down to 3 of 7 recovered.
The hunter found us on the UBT website and gave us a call last night. The arrow had almost no blood on it and other than a small spot about 4 feet up a tree where the giant bodied brute ran into it, there was no blood to be found anywhere. We agreed it was best to wait until today to go track it and I had to work, so we arrived a little over 20 hours after the shot and it had been raining on and off for at least 16 hours straight. At this point it was 73 degrees.
We took up the track at the hit site and Finley got a good whiff of the tree and the ground and took off in the direction of travel the hunter said he went (up the hill). She quickly located the bolt and we proceeded up the hill where I had to crawl on hands and knees through the brush. We were stopped by a hog wire fence so I had to take her back to an opening I saw earlier and she got right back on it. Opened up to a small field and she headed straight across and when she got to the end, she turned around and headed back to where we came out of the thicket. She seemed to get back on scent and her confidence was high.
Then I saw the trucks, and we were headed straight for them......
I let her keep going until about 20 yards from the truck where I stopped her because i thought she was going to the trucks instead of tracking. I said aloud, "sorry girl, let's go start again, I just don't trust you".
We went back to restart at the thicket and she kind of searched around a bit and my phone rang. It's the hunter!
"I found him!"
I was so happy for the hunter but also kind of bummed for not us finding it, so I told him I'd be there in a bit and I was going to see if she could take me there, and we continued on. This time when she took me towards the trucks, I let her.
She passed right by the trucks and kept going to the bottom of the hill and made a 90 to the left where we were met with the fence again, but there was no way around and I had to lift her over (4 foot with barb wire) and I climbed over after. She made it to the clearing and made another 90 to the left, back the way we came but along the bottom of the field. She trudged along about another 400 yards or so to right where the buck was found.
Would we have found it if the hunter didn't? I don't know. Was she confident in where she was going? Very. Will I doubt her again? It's likely, but hopefully it's fewer and farther in between as we get more experience in these conditions and longer aged tracks. There was zero blood anywhere, including leading up to the buck, which really makes it hard to track without trust. It was a single lung, so I'm still glad we didn't go in last night.
We met and amazing dude that I'm certain we will cross paths with again, we were able to share a super cool moment with a hunter and his giant buck, and we learned.
Not a recovery for team Finley, but a success none the less. On to the next track!
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