What are the Chances?

Growing up in Shelbyville, Illinois the closest movie theater was 45 minutes to the southeast in Effingham.  Effingham lies along I-70 and, until the "Reagan Boom" of the 1980's, was the closest source of chain restaurants, Walmart, and other conveniences of mass culture.

Ron Slifer and his bloodhound "Dio" are based in Effingham county but track wounded game all around the area.

  Last week he had this memorable experience.

Spent the better part of the day tracking this buck for an out of stater, a real nice fella.

Anyhow he was upfront with me told me he was high and back on his shot, with no exit and of course no arrow. Going into this track I was thinking negative, but I've been fooled before. He had tracked it yesterday morning a couple hrs after he had shot it. Good blood for 200 yards to a railroad and he stopped there. He seen that the deer had crossed the tracks and backed out to wait for me and Dio this morning.

We sat out on the blood on the tracks and tracked the deer into a 3 acre thick as heck brush patch finding small drops of blood all throughout and some really fresh scrapes...Uh-ho I've seen that before!  

Anyhow we pursued and found the deer angled out of the thicket and walked right along the RR tracks in the rocks! I left Dio tied up in the thicket, because we could visibly see drops of blood and I wanted him to slow down a bit. He is usually a bit wound up on the first track of the day as this one was, I find this works. I also didn't know how he would track on the RR rocks.

The hunter and I went nearly a 1/4 mile doing this util we couldn't find anymore. I then walked back to Dio and off we went down the rocks a lil past where we had lost blood. He stopped and came back and shot across the tracks and wouldn't you know it BLOOD on some grass! We then went in a bean field towards a finger of woods shooting out into the field (looked good to me), but no blood. 

Tis but a scratch

We worked hard through this woods to find nothing. When I came out the hunter was standing in the bean field. I asked him if he seen anything come out, he said no! About that time I looked out in the field and there laid a DEAD DEER. I jumped and yelled and hugged the hunter, we had put almost 4 hrs in this track already. 

We ran over to the deer only to discover it was not his deer! What are the odds of a dead buck laying in an open field? There was no visible wounds on this dead buck, although it looked as if a battle of some sorts occurred where it laid at. Talk about a huge BUZZKILL!!!

So on the way home from the 2 hr drive I got this pic.! I knew it he was alive! I am certain he will survive this wound. 

The hunter was leaving for home today. He will return next week before the gun season. Hope he gets a closing to this buck. I think he stands a good chance to see him anyhow.

If you need Ron you can contact him here. He also has a Facebook page.