Spent some quality time sitting in two different blinds and came to the conclusion that I'd better make darned sure I make a killing shot on the first one. And I'm talking DRT; not running off 20-30 yards before expiring! The weeds on the place I hunt are waist high and very thick. To the point that it's actually difficult to push your way through them. Finding a downed deer this year is going to take all the tracking skills and help I can get. We need a cold, freezing rain to knock this stuff down a bit, but that ain't likely by opening day.

I keep my area mowed because of that. I've even use a push mower if nothing else.

After this last January and February, could we say "cold, light, freezing rain?"

Sounds like your pre-season prep could of prevented that.

Hahahaha

You should see some of the blackbrush thickets we tracked and recovered deer in down south.
OMG

The only way through them was hands and knees using hog trails through them and I promise you that you are digging thorns out of places a month later that you have no idea in hell how they got there. lmao

On one of my small food plots, if I don't drop a deer on the spot you can bet it will be somewhere in the acre and a half of waist high blackberry just south of the plot. A few years ago I got smart and got a guy with a tractor to bush hog five foot wide paths through that section, about fifteen yards apart. Now, every year in May and September I drive those paths with my 4-wheeler and 15 gallon sprayer full of Glyphosate to keep the paths open.

Tall weeds and brush can definitely make tracking a challenge... but I have found many hogs by the blood they brushed off onto tall weeds or brush/bushes - along with the drops that hit the ground along the way. Squares of toilet paper hung at blood spots along the way will keep you on track.

Good advice here (bolded above)

But my question is, what the hell are you tracking a hog for instead of just being thankful the sorry POS ran off and you didn't have to jack with it?

Haha! I hear ya... Sometimes it's just curiosity of how the bullet performed. Sometimes it's for the fun/challenge of tracking (good practice). Most of the time it's because I might want to butcher it. I butchered over 20 last fall/winter. They were exceptionally fat. Cured ham, pan sausage, link sausage, bbq, etc. I love my pork!

I don't mind some taller weeds, its easier to see blood a lot of time then on the ground for tracking a kill.

I've pretty much gotten away from butchering any of em. I guess they pissed me off so much the last 20 years I've lost my taste for jacking with em. lmao
I will however keep a nice sized gilt for bbqng or even a small piglet to throw on the pit cut in half once in a while.

I just have a hate that runs deep for the b------s!!!

That’s the type of terrain a .300WM was made for. Drop them in their tracks, no tracking necessary.

Thaaaat's right lol. Add to the blackbrush thick granjeno, crown of thorns, retama, and cactus etc. Exactly why I was taught to make DRT shots. The last deer I shot behind the shoulder was in an open area and running, I whistled and as soon as he stopped I popped him. He ran 75 yrds and crashed in the middle of a huge cactus patch. Was not fun getting him out of there, or cleaning him. Noooo, he couldn't have crashed in the open area.

We’ve got one food plot and feeder set up that runs along the side of a 40ft vertical drop in the cliff face. Runs about 200yds off the long edge of the pasture. The deer however have a little trail that winds it’s way down to get to the bottom past the drop off. We have a rule there that if you shoot one and it’s headed that direction put another in it because the only way to get it would be to drag it half a mile down that slope and then back up the opposite slope to the nearest ATV road. Haven’t had to do it yet thankfully