2025 documenting hunts / another Ben series

[BenP]

Forgot my lights. Luckily my brother came with his.

 

[BenP]

Not looking too good. Can see where she stopped and then turned around. Now very little blood and thinking I hit lower.

 

[duckhunt]

Good luck.

 

[BenP]

So conclusion after those 2 hours of cats claw misery, pretty sure based off the blood color, the height on trees, how she stopped in one spot and there was three puddles and then back tracked and turned a different direction there was very little blood and spaced out long distances through grass that should have picked up blood off her easily. So pretty confident I hit her low and on the leg maybe.

There were 7 deer out there and I ranged them at 130 yards. Then they played a little and moved out further and I didn't range them and didn't think to compensate the added distance that was probably 145-150 yards. With my slug gun that's a 2" drop.

Bummed about it but confident it was not fatal. If you have ever experienced cats claw then you know what terrible fun my brother and I just went through.

 

[BenP]

I've been thinking about it and I have talked a little to some on here about my struggles but it really bothers me this year that I had my first turkey that I hit and couldn't recover and now a deer.

I've always struggled with deer hunting because I was not a good rifleman. I had a hard time squeezing the trigger and would just yank it like I would a shotgun at ducks and missed a lot of deer in my early years. I have put a lot of focus into my trigger pull and I ended up hyper fixating on that this evening that I didn't even think about the deer moving further out from when I ranged them.

I have one more day to hunt deer on Thursday but I'll be honest, I'm struggling even thinking about going back out hunting.

 

[F250]

Anyone have tracking dogs available in your area ?

 

[BenP]

I don't know anyone who has an actual tracking dog. There are dog hunters but they are trained to be turned loose in a pack to run deer out not to find a shot deer, and where this place is at those people don't have permission to be, landowner doesn't like dog hunters.

 

[F250]

Some state Fish and Game Departments actually list licensed tracking dog folks for hunters to contact. A friend of mine who is licensed, finds dozens of wounded deer for hunters each season.

 

[BenP]

Some state Fish and Game Departments actually list licensed tracking dog folks for hunters to contact. A friend of mine who is licensed, finds dozens of wounded deer for hunters each season.

Just did a search and everything turned up online is for the middle to western part of my state. Even the drone people listed were on the western side and over 4 hours away.