10/21/2024
Hunters get a form of PTSD when they keep reliving poor shot placement on a deer. This is a difficult post for me as I’m beating myself up and reliving a poor decision on my 2nd track yesterday. Harley spent about 20 minutes fighting through an aggressive grid search area from last blood. The hunter is not in good physical shape, so he and the ranch manager went back to the trucks. Finally, Harley broke out of the false track and began serious tracking… he was on it. He made a giant loop and after about 15 minutes, we were within 50 yards of the trucks. He took me to the front of the truck parked next to the fence, and I had already DISTRACTED FROM THE DOG and begun talking with the Hunter and the ranch manager who were both standing AT THE FENCE! I told them Harley was on point, but because they were standing there talking, I thought Harley got distracted because he thought they may have known something we didn’t know. I told them I wanted to do a restart and I begin the 150 yard walk back to the hit site. Again they stayed at the truck. THREE MINUTES after I started back, he called and said they found the deer. About 30 seconds after I left them, the ranch manager looks at the fence, WHERE HARLEY TOOK ME, and saw where the deer had jumped the fence about 10 feet away. He crossed the fence, and the deer was 50 yards away just inside the tree line. I HAD TAKEN MY EYES OFF MY DOG AND LET MYSELF GET DISTRACTED! I can’t make this up… this happened and I am still kicking myself over this. I refused the money from the hunter and have apologized over and over to Harley. I wrestled with posting this, but putting it out there, so others DON’T quit paying attention to their dog!!!!! It was tempting to just post the photo and say “another one found.” That would’ve been one of those “half truths”situations! Harley did his job, I didn’t, but what a weird set of circumstances! Oh, one more thing we could have driven on the dirt road right up to the hit site… What are the chances that we would park 10 feet from where the deer jumped!