Game on! Final update

[megalomaniac]

Well, the buck has been found by other members!

The manager of the lease saw him crossing an interior road tending a doe on a section of the lease very few hunt. That same night, a friend got a pic of him on his cell cam. Now it's game on between the two of them going after him. I'm having a blast watching the drama unfold! (For south MS, this is a deer of a lifetime). It will be interesting to see if the other 16 lease members catch on... its a soap opera! (I'm tagged out so I can't hunt him... but I know where he beds, travels, etc)

 

[Deer Assassin]

great buck

 

[megalomaniac]

I need one more deer for the freezer... im bucked out on the lease, and our club rules is you can't shoot a doe with a fawn... im having the dickens trying to find a dry doe, but still enjoying being able to hunt for another week! Buck season is open till Feb 14th. I give the huge 8 50-50 odds of surviving my 2 friends

 

[7mm08]

I need one more deer for the freezer... im bucked out on the lease, and our club rules is you can't shoot a doe with a fawn... im having the dickens trying to find a dry doe, but still enjoying being able to hunt for another week! Buck season is open till Feb 14th. I give the huge 8 50-50 odds of surviving my 2 friends

Wow! That's a stud in any state!

 

[Wrangler95]

Very nice,congrats!!

 

[Andy S.]

Good stuff, buck hunting until Valentine's Day is a perspective I have never had. Thanks for sharing.

 

[timberjack86]

Y'all still hunting? That's crazy!! Good luck!!

 

[megalomaniac]

Y'all still hunting? That's crazy!! Good luck!!

Not only are we still hunting, but the best hunting of the entire season this far south is mid Jan to mid Feb... our 1st rut just ended, and bucks are shifting onto food sources. They will begin searching like crazy 2nd rut around Feb 10th.

It's common for does to have spotted fawns in November, with the occasional spotted fawn all the way till January. There is a fair amount of breeding still going on here in March.

 

[megalomaniac]

Welp... he came out last night at the end of legal shooting light for my buddy on the feeder. He was acting squirrelly, so my buddy rushed the shot quartered toward him at 100y. Deer ran off, large chunk of muscle (2in size) and white hair. Basically no blood.

He called me asking what to do and I made a call to a local tracker with 3 Catahoula catch dogs. They came out, chased the deer 2.5 miles in circles all through his core bedding area but could never catch up to him to finish him off. Maybe he will make it. I'm guessing he hit him in the ham quartered with exit out the rear.

I'm still pretty sick about it, and my buddy feels worse. Would have been his best buck ever. Just a couple more days and he would have made it through the season and I could have chased him next year.

 

[Gravey]

Welp... he came out last night at the end of legal shooting light for my buddy on the feeder. He was acting squirrelly, so my buddy rushed the shot quartered toward him at 100y. Deer ran off, large chunk of muscle (2in size) and white hair. Basically no blood.

He called me asking what to do and I made a call to a local tracker with 3 Catahoula catch dogs. They came out, chased the deer 2.5 miles in circles all through his core bedding area but could never catch up to him to finish him off. Maybe he will make it. I'm guessing he hit him in the ham quartered with exit out the rear.

I'm still pretty sick about it, and my buddy feels worse. Would have been his best buck ever. Just a couple more days and he would have made it through the season and I could have chased him next year.

That sucks!

 

[redblood]

Welp... he came out last night at the end of legal shooting light for my buddy on the feeder. He was acting squirrelly, so my buddy rushed the shot quartered toward him at 100y. Deer ran off, large chunk of muscle (2in size) and white hair. Basically no blood.

He called me asking what to do and I made a call to a local tracker with 3 Catahoula catch dogs. They came out, chased the deer 2.5 miles in circles all through his core bedding area but could never catch up to him to finish him off. Maybe he will make it. I'm guessing he hit him in the ham quartered with exit out the rear.

I'm still pretty sick about it, and my buddy feels worse. Would have been his best buck ever. Just a couple more days and he would have made it through the season and I could have chased him next year.

That is tough

 

[DoubleRidge]

Maybe you'll get trail camera images to confirm he made it and you can hunt him next year.

 

[Ski]

Ouch. I feel for both of you.

 

[muddyboots]

Dang. Maybe he will make it.

 

[backyardtndeer]

Welp... he came out last night at the end of legal shooting light for my buddy on the feeder. He was acting squirrelly, so my buddy rushed the shot quartered toward him at 100y. Deer ran off, large chunk of muscle (2in size) and white hair. Basically no blood.

He called me asking what to do and I made a call to a local tracker with 3 Catahoula catch dogs. They came out, chased the deer 2.5 miles in circles all through his core bedding area but could never catch up to him to finish him off. Maybe he will make it. I'm guessing he hit him in the ham quartered with exit out the rear.

I'm still pretty sick about it, and my buddy feels worse. Would have been his best buck ever. Just a couple more days and he would have made it through the season and I could have chased him next year.

Man that sucks. Hope you find out either way. Would be watching for buzzards.

 

[megalomaniac]

Man that sucks. Hope you find out either way. Would be watching for buzzards.

Honestly, the deer will probably survive unless jacket fragments perforated the rectum (then he will abscess out and die in 5 to 7d).

These deer dogs in MS are different than in TN... not only do they track the wounded deer based on the scent a wounded deer gives off from the interdigital scent gland, they will catch the live injured deer, bay it, and usually kill it before you can arrive and finish it off with a knife.

A leg shot deer is nearly 100% recoverable with these dogs. You can argue the ethics of that (allowing injured deer that would have recovered on their own to be chased down and dispatched by the pack).

But if a deer is not injured enough to be able to run the dogs in circles for 2.5 miles (the owner called them back after he realized they were never going to catch him, they never lost the trail) and the dogs couldn't catch him, in all likelihood the injury wasn't severe enough to be mortal.

Hopefully he shows back up on camera in a couple weeks... my buddy is hunting this afternoon, same spot, no buzzards circling yet.