you should have a watch on, and check to
see what time it is before you get up and
get ready to go out and look. sit still for
20 or 30 more minutes before you go out and
potentially bump a deer up and it runs off.
minutes seem like hours when you're ready to
go get your deer. i almost lost mine opening
day when it started pouring rain and i jumped
up and ran over to where it had fell not a
minute before. it got that adrenaline shot and
ran another 10 yards or so, but it could have
been a bad thing. sit and wait and use a watch.

With a good dog it doesn't matter completely about the lack of blood. Once they have the deer scent they can use it until the blood is picked up again.

Agreed. The sight of blood only points out to us, the track the dog can easily follow without it.

We so easy forget that dogs are still used to run deer in some parts of the country. But with the practice becoming more rare as time passes so that even less attention is paid to it, finding a dog that will track deer will likely become more difficult.

Well good news yesterday, on mlk day, I went and pick up my camera cards and the Buck has made it. He was shot on Dec 7 2016. He showed back up at one of my other feeders for the first time on Jan 11 2017 since he was shot. You can see where the buck got shot high just behind the shoulder and the bullet appears to of deflected and went up missing anything vital. I would post pictures but am computer challenged. Showed the pictures to about 7 or 8 respected hunters and non of them could believe that the shot didnt put him down. The shot narrowly missed the spine, looks to be by about 1" or so. One would have to say that buck was luckey to have avoided death.

Good to hear he made it and appears to be doing well. Always a relief to the hunter to finally know what the outcome was

I talked with one of the most respected trackers in the Hill country and he said he doesn't need blood and it doesn't matter how many deer were around the area when the deer was hit. He said he just needs proof that the animal was hit and that could be visual confirmation of a reaction or a video is even better. He says that he believes that a wounded animal smells different to the dogs and his theory is that it is caused by the adrenaline from the wound and he swears his dogs can pick that animal out of the group and track it

I looked for 7.5 hrs over a 2.5 days on our place and the next place over. My place is over run with pigs and turkeys in a sandy area. I couldnt find the exact spot he took off from because of all the tracks in the fine sand. The next day it snowed and it became impossible to track by prints. There is no doubt in my mind that a dog would of been able to track it but I couldn't put the dog on the exact tracts. Looking at the wound I think this deer ran for ever my bro just missed the vitals. I don't see how he didn't catch the lungs.

Same way police dogs work. They can exclude all human sent except for the perp who ran. The officer i spoke too said they pick up on the adrenaline "smell of fear". They were tracking a guy who ran on them in back of my house a few years ago. Did not find him that night because he made it to the creek. They even had the helicopter out with the heat imagining. Made for a wild scene in the neighborhood. He said the guy had some pretty serious warrants.

I am happy the deer has made it and is alive until next season unless Mother Nature takes its course.

Not trying to point fivers or anything but maybe a little more shooting practice for the brother. Shooting a deer with a .308 at 50 yards should be a no-brainer. I know buck fever gets in the way and we get shaky, believe me I do too, but if a good shot can't be taken at 50 yards then something isn't right that needs fixed. Maybe the gun or maybe the shooter, but nothing some extra practice couldn't sort out.