Deer Recovery

[AverageGuy]

Spud added deer recovery to his first season resume tonight. I put a good shot on that buck with a big mechanical broadhead, but somehow there was no visible blood trail and the buck went 250 yards (heart shot deer run hard). Shot the buck at 5pm, looked enough to confirm no visible blood trail so I went to the house and changed out of my hunting clothes, got my coon hunting belt light and loaded up Spud. He took the track right off and tracked right to the buck. The drag out was brutal. Wish the photo was better quality but the wife and I were both exhausted from dragging and loading that buck, and in the dark and fog it was the best we could do.

Proud of my puppy. He has done everything I have thrown at him in his first season.

[orhunter]

Nice work spud. Nice buck. Good eats.

Mechanical heads aren't legal in Oregon. We're forced to use good broadheads by law. In a word, Zwickey.

[AverageGuy]

Orhunter,

That buck's heart was unrecognizable when I opened him up. I have had excellent success on whitetails, turkeys and mule deer with Rage Mechanical broadheads. But they do not always exit on large deer, and did not in this case as well as the fletch of the arrow was blocking the entrance hole and hence no discernible (to a human eye) external blood trial. That buck was very close and tense when I shot so I aimed at the heart in case he ducked down. Heart shot deer are notorious for running as hard as they can go till they tumble and that is what he did. I usually shoot for the lungs and the big majority have gone down within sight and or hearing. The huge cut from the mechanicals is devastating.

I use a fixed head for elk. ViperTrick by SlickTrick. Cut to the tip design, 4 replaceable blades which allow me to shoot each broadhead and arrow, select only the best then put in fresh blades and into the quiver they go, extremely sharp, very accurate and very durable. https://slicktrick.net

[jlw034]

What a dog!

[Texasphez]

Nice work spud!

You know you should probably send that dog to me where he'd have to opportunity to get out and do something every once in awhile... You know bring out his full potential

[orhunter]

AG: I've seen enough TV shows to know how well those heads kill in lots of situations. What I don't like to see is after a couple of bounds, the arrows falling out of the deer. Yea, the blood loss is incredible and they die but doesn't seem right to me. I'd want not nothing but complete pass throughs on everything, deer and elk combined (especially elk) for good blood trails and quick kills. Just about everyone out this way uses tough, cut from the point, broadheads for elk. Those old style chisel point heads have gone the way of the dinosaur and not used much any more. Not saying they don't work, they just don't work as well. A very popular head these days is the Grizzly and others like it. And the old reliable Zwickeys. I haven't archery hunted since before about 1990 and things have changed a lot since then but one thing that hasn't changed, and hunters have learned this, new technology just doesn't produce a very good elk point. There really is no substitute for a solid, cut from the point, broadhead. But lots of elk die without them.

[AverageGuy]

Orhunter,

That ViperTrick is the modern day improvement of exactly the strong, sharp cut to the tip broadhead design you favor and used.

I have shot completely through big bull elk with it out to 56 yards. I shot this bull in Sept at 42 yards through both lungs, hit a large bone on the opposite side and the arrow did not pass through. The Bull staggered around for 10 yards and crashed dead to the ground forcing the arrow back up out of the entrance hole a bit in the photo. The skinned out quarters with the legs cut off weighed 532 pounds alone, which puts the live weight over 1100 lbs. I shoot a 60 lb. bow due to aging shoulders and elbows while allowing me to draw the bow smoothly at any awkward position I might be in while doing spot and stalk hunting for elk, mule deer and antelope.

I hear you on the pass-thru. Shooting 60 lbs I do not get pass-thrus on a lot of my deer shooting those huge mechanicals. So I do debate with myself on using the Vipertricks for everything. Ultimately it is about putting it in the right spot.

[orhunter]

Gorgeous bull. Looks like our Roosevelts in the horns and body size but the country doesn't look anything like Roosevelt country. Coastal rain forest jungle is where I hunt. Long shot opportunities are possible but not usually taken as there is so much brush and stuff to deflect arrows. I'm a perfect example of an arrow deflection victim. Shots under 20 yards are common for rifle hunters too. My last (largest) bull was 5 yards. Trimmed, hanging weight was 450 lbs of the toughest meat on the planet. Don't know how old he was but I was figuring 7 for no particular reason. Our yearling spike bulls usually run right at 270 ready to butcher, cut with a fork.

[AverageGuy]

That Bull was taken in NM and estimated age of 10 or 11. They keep getting bigger if they keep living. Two successive years of mild winter and rain at the right times for grass and browse had the bulls in great shape. My closest archery bull is 7 yards. It is a great story. Get your feet straightened out and we will meet up in the Dakotas in 2017 and swap some stories after we limit out.

[AverageGuy]

Thank You to the 3 Commenters for the nice compliments on Spud. There are a lot of folks on this forum and otherwise who have nice dogs/puppies, such as yourselves. It is fun to be able to share some high points in the field with like minded folks.

[jlw034]

Thank You to the 3 Commenters for the nice compliments on Spud. There are a lot of folks on this forum and otherwise who have nice dogs/puppies, such as yourselves. It is fun to be able to share some high points in the field with like minded folks.

I believe we got our pups around the same time. I find it very enjoyable to see how pups progress.

Tracking deer with dogs is illegal here in Minnesota...otherwise I would have loved to helped out some fellow hunters on a track.

[AverageGuy]

It is so unfortunate when bad laws/regulations are passed. That one needs to be changed and deer hunters (particularly archery), are now in tune with the benefits of tracking dogs such that I expect there would be a lot of support for it. Meanwhile, there is always legal grouse, squirrel and coon hunting where a dog might just stumble across a dead deer that could be reunited with the hunter who shot it ...

[jlw034]

It is so unfortunate when bad laws/regulations are passed. That one needs to be changed and deer hunters (particularly archery), are now in tune with the benefits of tracking dogs such that I expect there would be a lot of support for it. Meanwhile, there is always legal grouse, squirrel and coon hunting where a dog might just stumble across a dead deer that could be reunited with the hunter who shot it ...

Are you a lawyer? Cuz I was talking to my wife about this (she's a lawyer), and she gave me a very similar response! Haha

[AverageGuy]

Well there you go, Smart Lady.

[bullfrog]

That's an impressive track and one hell of a bull!
Congrats on the deer too. Sometimes there just isn't a blood trail no matter how well they are hit. I've even had complete pass throughs that left very little trail but the body cavity is full of blood when you open them up.