It is not uncommon to have a poor initial blood trail with a high hit from rifle or bow but you need to know what to do when that happens. Below is a scenario that can and does occur.

It is minutes before shooting light is gone! Your heart sinks as the sky darkens, but wait, a buck suddenly appears. He is right beneath your tree stand. You can hear the leaves rustle under his feet. Your heart went from normal to now beating out of your chest, adrenaline rushes to every corner of your body.

As the deer steps in front of you, your bow comes up and you draw and put the 20 yard pin on his back and let fly. The arrow thwacks the deer loudly but you are not exactly sure where it hit. It was all so fast… as if in a blur. The deer is gone. Now is the time your brain replays the shot, over and over. Stay in your tree and observe where you last saw the deer and mark that spot. After 30 minutes the hunter climbs down to look for the arrow and does not find it with his flash light. No blood! The hunter guesses the deer direction after the hit and finds a speck of blood on a leaf. It is now that the hunter recalls that he did not see the tail flag after the shot. A possible sign that the deer may be hit hard. The hunter follows scuff marks as the deer exited but no more blood. It is likely the arrow is still in the deer but did not exit to provide a blood trail. What to do? Notify Fish and Game. Here in Southern NH the coyotes are hoping you cant find your deer in time. The clock is ticking…will you get your deer before the coyotes? You can wait till morning and get back on the deer’s tracks or you can see if you can get a Trained dog to help you find your buck. Yes you heard that right, there are dogs in NH that are trained to recover wounded game. The site below is a list of dog owners that are licensed to track wounded deer. The owner cannot charge a fee for his services to find your game but you can certainly thank him or her in a multitude of ways.

https://wildlife.state.nh.us/hunting/leashed-dog-tracking.html 

If the search can continue that evening with permission of NHFG and a trained dog you are likely to find that deer maybe in 150 yards or so if the arrow hit the chest cavity from high on the back. The scapula and other bones often gets in the way and slows the arrow from exiting. The surgically sharp broad-heads today will sever lungs, heart and arteries if the broad-head is in the chest area in a hurry, however, without the exit wound it will be harder to locate your deer.

If there is no dog available for recovery then with NHFG permission the hunter and experienced friends can help you look for blood and scuffing with flashlights before coyotes find it. It is a game of time and your tracking skill and that of a trained dog if you are so lucky…

Below is the dog and deer recovery video from the above NHFG website.

It is my belief that trained dogs may be increasingly be needed to quickly recover game for your freezer, especially on coyote laden areas of southern NH. We need more trained dogs!

Good Hunting!

©2018

New Hampshire Fish and Game Report all indicators for another banner year for deer hunters. Last years Youth Hunt was better than the year before. Read it here!

https://wildlife.state.nh.us/hunting/deer-forecast.html

I have been out doing some scouting recently and the deer are there just waiting for you. My wife tells me that deer and turkeys are crossing roads at 5 am all over southern NH as she drives to work. The hickory nuts in my yard are so laden that they are breaking branches. The squirrels are going nuts literally. I like squirrel stew y’know just as much as venison stew.

Deer scouting with a 22 LR can put some squirrels in your pouch. It opened September 1st. Just remember to keep your license on you.

https://wildlife.state.nh.us/hunting/small-game-season.html

Acorns will drop shortly!

Good Hunting!

Sport hunting whitetail deer is big business these days. There are many states that have lower human population and lots of open space.

My research indicates that the place where managing wild whitetails for hunting becomes a science is in-fact Texas. I was aware of that, some time ago but never did the homework till I booked this Texas hunt in late October.

Wildlife Biologists and cattle ranchers work together to maximize and coordinate wild game among its beef ranches to include turkey, javelina, whitetail deer, mule deer, and antelope. But the foremost big game in Texas is whitetail deer with an estimated 4 million whitetails roaming wild in the land.

Every business and College/University that can get a monetary slice of that pie is evident. Texans have over 24 million acres to grow healthy deer. Managing deer herds and land among domestic animals requires a science approach to balance plant nutrition and wild carry capacity of the land with growing healthy deer.  Hunt management is needed to cull inferior antlered deer to produce large healthy antlered bucks is preferred. The buck to doe ratio is equally important and is ideal at around 1 or 2 does per buck.

Intensely managed ranches such as the one I will be hunting, supplementally feed deer a high protein and phosphorus rich diet. It is a costly proposition but well worth the effort when there are hunters looking for a mature whitetail with a terrific set of antlers and meat for the freezer that is really tasty.

Of course these deer are wild and hunting them perhaps on a 40 square mile tract of land is not easy when you are after a mature animal that sports a nice rack.

Many truly mature bucks are in fact, nocturnal, and only feed at night. You still have your work cut out for you given your investment to hunt them, often over $4000 to $6000 for the chance to hunt them.

Some mature bucks live and die and have never been seen in daylight only to find the massive antlers after death.

To see a buck with heavy main beams and a wide spread with G2 and G3’s over a foot long is a spectacle to behold for many whitetail hunters including me. The fact that there are plenty of deer growing nice racks gives comfort that there are plenty more where that deer came from…and I can attempt to take one with a bow or rifle.

Who knows, I may come back with stories of the one that got away!

©2018

We all dream of getting that big whitetail buck of our dreams but can you imagine having so many bucks in the field in front of you that you can’t figure which one to shoot? Yea, man I say to myself, “throw me in that brier patch! Right!”

That one on the left is a big 8 point, the other is a 9 point but looks young and perhaps not quite as majestic looking, and the third, you can see the nice rack over his tail as he is faced the other way but not sure. You mumble to your guide that you need help choosing which one to take and then the guide says yes you can take the one on the left, he’s a dandy, but there is a “much” larger one that may come out if you want to wait. The hunter looks at the guide and whispers, “You have got to be kidding me.”

The hunter waits.

The last photons of light fade to purple, all you can see are deer silhouette’s. Shooting light has passed, and with it a chance at that dandy whitetail the guide talked about. You both sneak out of the blind as quiet as possible and boogie out of there with your headlamps turned on. The hunter, upset with the missed opportunity and with his decision.

This scenario often plays out… Back at the cabin it becomes a well earned campfire story of I should’a or could’a. The embers glow red and seem to pulsate when the wind blows on the fire, you look deep into the embers as humans did for a millenia. You recant the story as other hunters listen. “No way”, one hunter says, “you had three bucks in front of you like that!” “Yes,he said sheepishly; “And I let them go hoping for a bigger one!” The guide chimes in, “yes the one that we were waiting for is “much” bigger!”

Another hunter says, ” I would’a waited too… after all, that was only your first night out and more days to hunt.” Tomorrow will renew your spirit…And a smile returns…

And so the story goes, on a Texas Trophy Hunt!

Good Hunting!

© 2018

The impetus that necessitates your ability to read wind speed in Miles Per Hour (MPH) is of course long range shooting/hunting, particularly a rifle and hitting your intended target. The further the distance your bullet has to travel to a target or a game animal, the more time the wind has to push it in a given direction. As a hunter I have had a deer at 300 yards a few years back. It was cold, drizzling rain but the wind was nearly still. I trained some time ago to watch grass, bushes and trees and dust and sand to get a sense of wind speed. I pulled the shot off in part because there was little wind and I created a bullet drop and wind chart and taped it to my rifle. But I should have even been better prepared with a wind meter in hand to train with.  Of course the most recent person to drive home the importance on this ability is Brian Litz of  Applied Ballistics LLC.

Practice by guessing at wind speed then taking a hand held wind meter out to check your guess is a good simple way to determine wind speed and train yourself to see grass,bushes, tree limbs and trees move at say 0 to 5, 5 to10 or even 10 to 20 mph. On a hunt you may have to decide to “shoot or not to shoot” based on distance and wind.

Equally Important is what angle the wind is coming from in relation to your bullet. Milletsights.com has  a web article that does justice to your knowledge of wind and direction et al.

 http://www.millettsights.com/resources/shooting-tips/shooting-in-the-wind/

There are lots of wind meters on the market so just type hand held wind meters for sale and you can see a full range of them for 20 dollars to over $100 depending on what you need. So check around for cost and quality.

Some of best in class are the Kestrel Meters. https://kestrelmeters.com/

Since I may be faced again this fall with a longer shot at a deer on a windy day.  Make that shot count by training in advance of the hunt.

Good Hunting!

I remember a nearby patch of woods never looked so good with pre-season deer sign.  So did lots of other bowhunters. In fact it seemed that they were competing for the same darn tree. Of course deer are stupid y’know. They don’t look up and never mind the lingering smell of humans shuffling through the autumn leaves. Of course they look up! We taught them that! Of course you are there opening morning to shoot a big’un and may be you saw a deer or two. In fact maybe a deer or two were harvested but no big bucks. I admit to being among those folks before. After the deer find out that hunting season has begun they shift to new territory in daylight and come back only at night. Yep, you made them nocturnal…

It is better to hunt where the deer aren’t readily apparent so to speak so as not to tip off the other bowhunters competing for the same space. Look for out of the way funnels and thickets and the nasty stuff and you will see more uspooked deer. Have you ever seen a deer walk as if on glass? I have. The deer knows you are there and is trying to locate you and seems nervous and jumpy. These are deer that will jump the string so to speak as the arrow sails over its back.

So be aware too many bowhunters in a really small area will surely educate the deer. And you will never find a big buck there…except at midnight. Yes the lessons we learn…

Good Hunting!