Never Assume A Miss
- Thread starter Uncle Norm
- Start date
Dorsettaff
Well-Known Member
Had a similar episode in the Autumn. Sika stag out in the middle of a field. 278m. Nicely lined up, steady sight picture....BOOOM........no thwack or shot reaction from the sika. Ran into a wood 100m away and disappeared. Bu**er!!!
Got down and walked to "strike" site...nothing......no paint no pins.........Deputy Dawg got her nose down.....did the usual spaniel quartering and narrowed down to where the sika had disappeared into the ferns and brash on the edge of the wood. No clear path but the hound was off at an angle and 20 seconds later was licking the blood off a "perfect" chest shot on a very dead sika. Bacon saved once more. Never underestimate the usefulness of a dog. Wouldnt be without her even if its for those eyes which say " I know you are a sh*t shot but I love you!"
Got down and walked to "strike" site...nothing......no paint no pins.........Deputy Dawg got her nose down.....did the usual spaniel quartering and narrowed down to where the sika had disappeared into the ferns and brash on the edge of the wood. No clear path but the hound was off at an angle and 20 seconds later was licking the blood off a "perfect" chest shot on a very dead sika. Bacon saved once more. Never underestimate the usefulness of a dog. Wouldnt be without her even if its for those eyes which say " I know you are a sh*t shot but I love you!"
Just lost my best friend and the best deer dog i have ever had (lungworm/pneumonia) Clumber x Springer. Got her as a rescue dog 2 years old and never looked back. Anyway thats not what i want to write about. The spaniel i had before was quite small but with a big heart.
I was in a high seat looking over a pheasant feed bin for muntys, when a nice buck walked out to feed, shot it got the dog to have a look (Training) gralloched it back at the seat and decided to spend the last 15 mins back up the same seat. Out came another buck, shot it and got down, let the dog of the snap lead and
off she went and i heard a squeal and thought (the little bugger ain't dead) when i got to the buck it was dead, shot through the neck and out the shoulder (tough little deer) looked at my dog and she was covered in blood right down her front. I thought that cant be from the deer and when i looked
she had been opened like a zip from the front of her elbow to her foot. I was three hours from home and worried. I took off my t shirt and cut it into strips, bound her leg and luckily had a roll of gaffer tape in the car. Wrapped it as tight as i could and got her back home and to the vets. operation to stitch her up and a big bill.
I would never use a dog on a munty again, those fangs are lethal. I am sure i am not the only person to have had a serious injury to their dog from a munty. Just a warning!!!!
Dodger
I was in a high seat looking over a pheasant feed bin for muntys, when a nice buck walked out to feed, shot it got the dog to have a look (Training) gralloched it back at the seat and decided to spend the last 15 mins back up the same seat. Out came another buck, shot it and got down, let the dog of the snap lead and
off she went and i heard a squeal and thought (the little bugger ain't dead) when i got to the buck it was dead, shot through the neck and out the shoulder (tough little deer) looked at my dog and she was covered in blood right down her front. I thought that cant be from the deer and when i looked
she had been opened like a zip from the front of her elbow to her foot. I was three hours from home and worried. I took off my t shirt and cut it into strips, bound her leg and luckily had a roll of gaffer tape in the car. Wrapped it as tight as i could and got her back home and to the vets. operation to stitch her up and a big bill.
I would never use a dog on a munty again, those fangs are lethal. I am sure i am not the only person to have had a serious injury to their dog from a munty. Just a warning!!!!
Dodger
Clever!!!!Saw the title of this thread and thought it was a post about gender equality!
Andy seatrout
Well-Known Member
Quick question related; I’ve three cocker spaniels 2 lunatics that are six and one steady hand at ten. Never trained on deer, only pheasants…. The older one will walk to heel even with birds milling around but seems to be selective on retrieving ( he doesn’t peg any and seems to consistently get the ‘hit’ bird- the other two will bring back anything that’s not fast enough 
)
Do you think on a blood scent the old cocker is worth a go? I have a thermal but I think he’d enjoy it….. and a dogs nose is certainly better…
)Do you think on a blood scent the old cocker is worth a go? I have a thermal but I think he’d enjoy it….. and a dogs nose is certainly better…
Hi Andy, The dog i have just lost came to me as a 2 year old lunatic, after about 6 months and she had calmed down a bit, i was walking around a piece of woodland and she put up 3 fallow right under her feet. Yup you guessed it, off like a bat out of hell and took about 10 mins before she came back.
I started to take her stalking to the high seats and pegged her underneath. When i had shot something i went down and let her go and watched her take the wind and find it, (very excited, her not me) after just a few outings she had the idea and i body shot a fallow knowing it would run a little into the wood before dying.
slipped her and let her find the strike and then she followed the blood trail. Never looked back after that. Now and again when a deer was a runner she would bay it and bark like hell so you knew she was on it and where she was. I never lost a deer with that dog and now she has gone i am at a loss.
The best advice i can give you is always trust your dogs nose, They will know where the deer are as long as there is a blood trail to follow. Combined with a thermal you should have no problem and a lot of fun.
Dodger
I started to take her stalking to the high seats and pegged her underneath. When i had shot something i went down and let her go and watched her take the wind and find it, (very excited, her not me) after just a few outings she had the idea and i body shot a fallow knowing it would run a little into the wood before dying.
slipped her and let her find the strike and then she followed the blood trail. Never looked back after that. Now and again when a deer was a runner she would bay it and bark like hell so you knew she was on it and where she was. I never lost a deer with that dog and now she has gone i am at a loss.
The best advice i can give you is always trust your dogs nose, They will know where the deer are as long as there is a blood trail to follow. Combined with a thermal you should have no problem and a lot of fun.
Dodger
Leec6.5
Well-Known Member
A dog can follow without a blood trail if trained t do so!
I agree but if you have 50/60 fallow in front of you and they all run with the wounded one ,life for a dog trained or untrained is sometimes difficult
Does that often happen? Genuine question - I have a lot less experience than many folk on here. However, in my limited experience, a shot fallow tends to continue in the direction that it was already travelling, while the rest of the group head back the way they came.
Leec6.5
Well-Known Member
Again this is not a problem for a correctly trained dog to follow a single track amongst many, i have done it several times.
Uncle Norm
Well-Known Member
A long time ago, with snow covering the forest floor, I shot a Roe in the chest. It ran for about fifty yards before expiring.
The track looked like a person with red aerosol paint had given the snow a very fine squirt every few feet. Very little, if any of the miniscule particles would have been visible in the absence of snow. It was quite an unforgettable revelation.
We may think there isn't any blood trail but to our dog........ it may just be a no brainer.
When Ruby tells me ''It went that way'', that's where it will be...... for sure. Doesn't matter whether single deer or one in a herd, she will be right, providing it has taken a meaningful hit.
Nothing can be 100% always, as some superficial wounds may genuinely not bleed much at all. Such an incident may well be time to ask for expert assistance.
The track looked like a person with red aerosol paint had given the snow a very fine squirt every few feet. Very little, if any of the miniscule particles would have been visible in the absence of snow. It was quite an unforgettable revelation.
We may think there isn't any blood trail but to our dog........ it may just be a no brainer.
When Ruby tells me ''It went that way'', that's where it will be...... for sure. Doesn't matter whether single deer or one in a herd, she will be right, providing it has taken a meaningful hit.
Nothing can be 100% always, as some superficial wounds may genuinely not bleed much at all. Such an incident may well be time to ask for expert assistance.
Andy - Fish
Well-Known Member
Years ago on a fox drive my mates lurcher was opened up my a munty - you could see the dogs organs and its heart beating away - I would have put strong money on the dog dying but following a trip to the vets it eventually recovered and went on to have a good working life
Exactly!!! never use a dog on muntys. Thats just my opinion obviously
well done you and of course your dog
It just shows you what these little buggers are capable of. Imagine if they had the tusks of a chinese water deer!!!!
8x57
Distinguished Member
I wouldn't like to generalise and say that's the norm but I've experienced something similar to that a couple of times.
One morning I shot a doe that was coming up a bank towards my high seat and at the shot the herd ran to the right. I failed to find the doe that I had shot at, and after checking my rifle with a couple of test shots as I was at a total loss as to how I had "missed" the doe I went back to the car to fetch Kaiser. On approaching the shot site I cast off the dog and he immediately went left, the opposite direction to which the herd had run. I remember saying "if you're taking the p*ss I'll kick you bl**dy arse", only to have to take my words back a few moments later when Kaiser found the doe lying 20 yards away in a gulley/ stream bed. Lesson learnt that day - trust your dog.
I had something almost identical happen back last year, when the buck I shot went off in the opposite direction to the remainder of the herd and disappeared into what I thought would be deep cover. Not wishing to disturb things I fetched my mate Brno but this time had him on the long lead. As soon as he approached the shot site he set off like a train and took me straight to the buck about 50 yards in, which I probably would have found by myself eventually as the cover wasn't quite as thick as I first though, however he saved me an awful lot of time and doubt. Once again I thought to myself - Trust your dog.
baguio
Well-Known Member
Absolute lottery VSS. The 'dead' deer doesn't know where it's going whilst the rest of the herd do. Therefore, every so often the 'dead one will go in the correct direction with the herd at least to start with. Most of the time though, it will go somewhere else as they're running blind!
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