On Thursday morning I received a call from a hunter who had just shot his first buck. The buck was shot at 7:45 A.M., and I arrived about 11:30. Post shot was handled perfectly by the hunter, who watched the deer's reaction, direction of travel and after searching maybe 20 feet and seeing no sign, called for a dog.
So at 11:30 the hunter and his buddy were standing over the hit sight with me, trying to solve a mystery. You see, the hunter was shooting a 72 pound compound bow with a fixed blade, lighted nock, and didn't get a pass through... yet he heard a thump and saw the arrow sticking out of the buck, well behind the ribs. Something had stopped that arrow, and the hunter insisted that the arrow entered below the spine.
With a gut shot I know to wait 8+ hours, and explained that in detail to the hunter, but the temperature was becoming a concern. The hunter wanted to find his deer sooner than later, so we began tracking with UBT2 Breeze, and Breeze thought that was a good idea!!!!
There were two buck together when the hunter shot and they ran off together. Breeze was on the track and pulling like a freight train, in the direction the hunter saw the two bucks travel. About 100 yards in we found the slightest amount of blood. 100 yards and no blood later I carried Breeze back to last blood and restarted her. This time she veered to the right and blood confirmed she was on it! We traveled about a half mile, crossed a road and into heavy cover and made the recovery. High 5's and smiles all around!!!
The buck was broadside, but the arrow had angled into a hind leg, so not waiting resulted in the meat being fresh.