10/03/2026
🩸🐾 YOU MADE THE CALL — HERE'S WHAT REALLY HAPPENED
Yesterday I gave you the same evidence we had going into this track and let everyone make their guesses.
Now we know the answer—and this one was a puzzle.
On Day 1, Merlin tracked this buck 500+ yards to his first bed. From there we moved through several beds quickly, visible blood disappeared, and Merlin's intensity went through the roof. After another few hundred yards, we restarted him and he still wanted the same line.
But that line was taking us off the property we had permission to track, so we had to stop.
At that point, we honestly weren't sure whether this deer was going to die.
After going back over the evidence and talking it through with James and another tracker, we decided there were enough unanswered questions that this deer deserved another look the next morning.
Day 2: Bring in Rose the Nose. 🌹🐾
Rosie picked up where we'd left off and finished the track in short order. The buck crossed the road, went behind a pond and onto neighboring property, where we were fortunate enough to get permission to continue.
At roughly 1,200 yards from the shot, we finally had our answer.
Dead deer. 🦌
And once we recovered him, all those strange clues from Day 1 finally made sense.
The self-ranging crossbow scope had malfunctioned. What the hunter believed was a 19-yard shot wasn't actually 19 yards, and the bolt had struck the buck directly in the knee, shattering the bone.
🔪 The destroyed three-blade MegaMeat?
It had smashed through bone, bending the blades and breaking one completely off.
🩸 The thin crimson/dark-red blood with those tiny bubbles?
Not lung blood. The hit had damaged an artery in the leg without completely severing it.
🔩 The relatively clean bolt and damaged fletchings?
The bolt had never entered the body cavity.
That arterial damage appears to be what ultimately killed him through blood loss—but it took a long time.
When we reached the buck 21 hours after the shot, he was still flexible and warm internally. He likely hadn't been dead very long.
That also explains why Merlin was so fired up after reaching those beds the night before. The deer was still out there ahead of us, and Merlin desperately wanted to keep going.
This is exactly why tracks like this are so interesting. The evidence doesn't always fit neatly into a textbook answer, and sometimes you don't know what you're dealing with until you finally put your hands on the deer.
Huge congratulations to the hunter on getting his beautiful Kentucky 10-point back, and a big thank-you to the property owners for helping us get the permission needed to finish this one.
Merlin started the puzzle. Rosie gave us the answer. Two days, two dogs, roughly 1,200 yards—and another one on the tailgate. 🎩🌹🐾
So... who had knee shot with arterial damage on their bingo card? 😂
Don't let one get away... Send in the Hounds! 🦌🐾
