This morning on my way to the first track (gutshot), the other hunter texted and told me he was on watch this morning and saw the buck he shot last night. He said it must have jumped the string because it had a crease through the skin on its back.
The gutshot track didn't go well....
Luna and I went on our first track of the season this morning. We were tracking a buck that had been gutshot 48 hours earlier. The hunter backed out of the area for 24 hours after retrieving his arrow and seeing evidence of the poor hit. He spent all of yesterday grid searching the area. We started the track at the hit site and quickly advanced the 100 yards or so to the hunters point of loss. Luna appeared focused and still on track for a very short distance beyond there, then clearly looked unsure. We went back to the point of loss many times for restarts, slowly searched in circles, and went to a river a quarter mile away and searched there, all with no results. I'm at a loss, as I know that deer is dead, and since it wasn't pushed it seems like it would have bedded close and died. I can't help but think I should have found this deer. A couple other things that are noteworthy......very dry tracking conditions, and the hunter told me he and his wife 10 days ago counted over 90 deer in the alfalfa field bordering the woodlot.
Oct 3 - I had a call last night from a hunter that shot a 7 pointer. He said the deer moved just as he released and the arrow hit way back. The good news is the buck was quartering away. He stated the arrow was sticking out about 8 inches as it ran off, and the hunter and his friend followed good blood for a couple hundred yards, then marked where it became sparse and called me. 
