I had done four Lake Martin swamp tours, and was feeling strong so I agreed to drive 100 miles one way to look for their deer.
I dropped off the tour boat and loaded 4 dogs, then headed north on I-49.
Of course, I brought Jessie, who is sporting his new blaze orange neoprene vest below.
The plan was to bring a camera, but it got left on the dashboard of the truck, so I don't have any actual pictures of this track to share here.
I arrived there about 8:30PM and found a long line of blood, well dried, and flagged.
At the end of the flagging is a few more sightings of dried blood, and judging by the dogs circling, there must have been false trails everywhere.
Just as we were starting to head back to a point of last blood and refocus the dogs, Jessie started baying. He had found the buck, and with the other 3 dogs walking away, Jessie was left alone and couldn't stop this deer in the dark.
From this point we found fresh rich red blood, a piece of deer meat and watery blood suggesting this was not a vital organ and this deer was on the move 12 hours after being shot. At a certain point you have to consider if it is in our best interest to continue pushing on after this deer. Also considering the deer is wounded, but not dead after 12 hours, the most ethical thing we can do is to stop pushing it.
No comments:
Post a Comment