phenixfalconer on Nostr: ...

This buck was shot last night at dusk. A passthrough shoulder with a shotgun slug. Hunters lost the blood trail into thick cover and called me. Pip and I were on the scene this morning at 7am. She did a really great job tracking until we found blood at the bank of a river. It looked like it crossed. At least that's what pip thought. By then it was 830am and I had to leave to take the kids to the dentist. So I told the hunters to search for blood on the other side and I might be able to come out again. By 1130am I was back. The hunters reported no blood, nothing. But Pip and I went ahead and started running circuits off where I thought the deer crossed. After almost 1hr and a bit Pip led me with determination, south along the river, weaving and pulling good. Eventually we stopped and Pip started air scenting. Then I heard what i thought was a hunter or someone walking through the brush to our west about 70m. I reasoned it 100% had to be a person. So loud, breaking branches. I called out "hello?". No response. " hello?". I started getting a little nervous as there was no response. Is this guy pissed I'm hollering to him. Then more noise. So we started approaching. Pip started growling. Closer we went and right 30m in front of us I could see it was a big deer! Stumbling obviously wounded. The hunters meanwhile went in another direction away from us. I tried calling his cell 3 times. No answer. So we backed away and bolted back towards them. Out of breath, we caught up to them and told them the deer is ALIVE! So we headed back towards the spot and the hunter went in, ahead of us. Guns loaded. They refound it and dispatched it quickly. All in all I think the deer travelled about 1 km. No blood found once it crossed river. This was Pip's first Real Deal recovery. And what a good one. The hunters were so pleased with Pip! And so was I! Good girl Pip! #hunting #huntstr #gunstr #dogstr #grownostr