10/20/2026
As Rut Daniel’s says, “didn’t go 20!”
A couple days ago I received a call from a hunter, Justin. Justin informed me that he had struck a buck with his arrow, which had a mechanical broadhead on it. The arrow had passed all the way through the deer, but as it often happens when archery hunting things happen very quickly. Justin wasn’t absolutely sure where the arrow actually hit the deer, but he believed the arrow hit the deer behind the shoulder. I’ve often said there is a huge difference between AIM POINT and HIT POINT. A lot of the times when we recover a deer for a hunter, they are shocked to where the arrow actually struck the deer.
Anyhow, Justin gave a bit of a wait before he began tracking the buck. When Justin got to the hit site, he was amazed in the amount of blood he saw. Justin then assumed, as many hunters do, that the buck was hit pretty good and began to take up the track. After going 60-80 yards on a very heavy blood trail, Justin came to an empty bloody wound bed. As it frequently happens when tracking a wounded deer, the blood trail now became more faint and more difficult to track after the wound bed.
From the wound bed, Justin was able to slowly track the wounded buck down a large hill from the wound bed to a creek. It was at the top edge of a creek bank that the blood trail vanished. Justin searched the creek bed, the other side of the creek and to the right and left of
that last spot of blood. This creek bank was Justin’s point of loss (POL) and this is where he made the call to Team Jewel.
I informed Justin that Team Jewel was a couple hours north of him and would be coming through his area, so we would be able to assist him. Team Jewel arrived a couple hours after the phone conversation with Justin.
Once meeting with Justin and his buddies, we all drove to the hunting area and made a lengthy walk to the hit site. As we were getting closer to the hit site Jewel picked her head up sniffing in the wind, she then walked directly to the wound bed Justin had found earlier. I thought this wound bed would be good enough for Jewel to start at. I knelt down to harness Jewel and said a prayer before we began the track. I then gave her the command to go find him. We all followed Jewel down the big hill the deer traveled and went directly to the Justin’s POL.
At the POL Jewel didn’t hesitate to then drop down in the creek and continue on up on the other side. Once Jewel got on top of the creek bank on the other side, she immediately cut to her right. On this side of the creek there was standing cornfield Jewel walked along the standing corn and the creek. Sure enough after a short distance, Jewel took us over some spots of blood. Unfortunately for me the wounded buck eventually decided to angle off into the standing cornfield. I’ve mentioned this before, but tracking behind a dog in a standing cornfield is an absolute nightmare. Jewel eventually worked her way through the standing corn and into the woods on the opposite side of the field.
Justin was directly behind me backing me up, letting me know when he saw blood when I failed to see it. Now in the woods, Jewel was picking up her pace a bit more. Jewel was taking Justin and I over what appeared to me fairly fresh/wet blood now. I started to have concerns that we might be pushing the buck now. We continued tracking for a very long distance, however I never laid eyes on the buck.
The buck appeared to be pretty strong yet to me, but maybe with more time it could possibly expire. I decided that we needed call the track off at this point, hopefully giving the buck some more time to expire. Our stopping point was where it looked like the buck was starting to circle back towards where it was hit, however it abruptly turned the opposite direction. Again as before, the buck was traveling between the outside row of the standing cornfield and the woods nearby. When the buck made this abrupt turn, it went up a pretty steep hill that was covered with Autumn Olive and a lot brush. The vegetation was so thick on this hillside you couldn’t even see the ground on the hillside where we stood. Justin wisely activated a lit nock from one of his arrows in his quiver and stuck it in the ground where the buck turned to go up the steep hill. This was to be our starting point when I returned later that night.
A little after 11:00PM, 6 1/2 hrs later, Team Jewel arrived at Justin’s location to begin the track once again. This time Gary was along! Gary had just returned from a fishing trip in Florida. I had called Gary on my way to Justin’s, asking him if he would be interested in joining in with Jewel and I. Gary was thankfully all in, Team Jewel was now in full force! Once at Justin’s location, we all walked to the arrow with the lit nock shining brightly. The lit nock definitely made it extremely easy to find the location to where the deer cut up the hillside. As Gary harnessed up Jewel, I jokingly said, “wouldn’t it be something if the buck was only 20 yards up the hill!” When Gary had Jewel fully harnessed, he gave her the command to go find him. We all followed Jewel up the steep hill with Gary directly behind Jewel, Justin was next, and I was behind Justin. Jewel, Gary, and Justin suddenly came to a stop. I couldn’t see why everyone had stopped, but I heard Gary say, “you mean we are looking for this deer right here.” I immediately thought damnit Gary, quit screwing around. However as I made my way up to everyone, I saw the lights from Gary’s helmet shining on the deer lying on the ground! The buck didn’t go 20, it went 15 yards!!!
I’m not certain of the bucks expiration time, but can tell you it was pretty warm yet. There happened to be a small puddle of blood 6 feet from the deer. Gary and I both assumed that the deer was likely alive when Justin, Jewel, and I were all standing at the bottom of the hill where it cut up earlier in the day. Gary and I felt that the deer felt safe where it was standing at the time, due to the dense cover it was hiding in.
A short easy track for Gary, a long and tiring one for me. However it was all Jewel that got the Corn Dragon in The Wagon! Justin would have never recovered this buck had it not been for Miss Jewel. BTW Justin’s arrow placement was a tad further back than he originally thought.
