Sometimes You Need A Little Help

Robert WellerBucks n Bears, Friends of ELO, Hunting Tips & Techniques

Anyone that has hunted for any amount of time knows the heartache that comes when you hit a deer and it runs off leaving signs that say you make a poor shot. It’s happened to me and it’s happened to just about every hunter I know at one time or another. Yes sir, even those guys on TV have to let them lay overnight once in a while. On October 23, 2025, my hunting partner, Steve and I were out for an evening bow hunt. We were both running late and I only beat Steve to the woods by a few minutes. I opted to sit in a tree we call the nest as it was the tree I could get into the soonest without the risk of bumping deer. Just as I attached my tree tether to my saddle bridge I got a text from Steve asking me where I was sitting. He had gotten home just as I reached the tree and decided he would also sit for what was left of the evening. The wind was whipping and it seemed the few deer that I saw in the woods were on edge and very jumpy. Steve had climbed into the blind we call “The treehouse”. It’s an elevated box blind that’s big enough for four people and is located a mere eighty yards from the edge of Steve’s back yard making it a great spot to slip into if you only have an hour or so to hunt. I have harvested several deer from that blind with a crossbow as well as with a gun. Steve was seeing a lot of deer activity in the field between the blind and his house that evening so I knew his chances of killing a good buck that night were better than mine. Just as the sun began to set, I felt my phone buzzing in my pocket. I have a very distinct vibrate pattern set for Steve so I knew it was a text from him. I carefully pulled out my phone and as I looked at the screen, I read the words “Shot fired, a really heavy buck. He went west, north west.” I responded and told him to sit tight and that I would be there right after dark. About thirty minutes later, I met Steve on the lane in front of the blind. He was a bit shaken and said he had found the arrow and it appeared the broadhead may not have opened all the way. I quickly reassured him that more than likely the blades folded forward again after hitting the ground. I’ve seen it dozens of times when retrieving my own arrows. We walked over to the arrow and the first thing I saw was white hair and dark colored blood. I picked up the arrow and smelled it, it had just a little bit of stomach contents on one of the veins. I said “It looks like a liver shot and you may have also grazed the stomach.” We followed the blood trail for about 75 yards and all the signs pointed to a liver shot. Realizing our best move was to wait until morning, we backed out and headed to the house. I felt bad for Steve as I have in the same position before and I knew it was going to be a rough night for him with little sleep. I can remember a few times over the years just lying there awake with my mind racing all night as I replayed the shot and the events that lead up to it over and over. The following morning I arrived at Steve’s house with my seven month old Black Lab pup named Ranger. I’ve seen a few liver and gut shot deer in my day and I knew that there was a strong possibility the blood trail may get hard to follow the further we went so I figured Ranger’s nose may be very helpful.

Author’s Labrador with Steve’s buck

We took Ranger to the arrow, still on the ground from the night before. He started sniffing and licking it as he discovered a new smell he had not experienced before. I guided him along the blood trail and was very impressed how quickly he began to follow it on his own. I only needed to correct him a couple of times and before we knew it, we had crossed Steve’s property and were in the neighbor’s cut corn field. As I figured would happen, the blood trail started getting lighter and we were struggling to follow it visually. I let Ranger wander a bit on his retractable leash and he began to circle. When he stopped, I walked up to him and what do you know, he had found a spot of blood. We went on like that for a while as we worked across the corn stubble. Each time we would lose the trail visually, Ranger would help get us back on track. Eventually we got to the point that every hunter dreads. We were down to finding tiny pin drops of blood and they were spaced quite a ways apart. We had a hunch on the general direction so we did our best to walk along the path we thought the buck had taken. By this time, I wasn’t sure I could trust Ranger was following the right scent as we had no visual confirmation so I was keeping him back the best I could so as not to disrupt any blood that we might still find. Eventually we found where the buck had bedded down, and there was a concentrated spot of blood in the grass. I put Ranger on it and let him get reacquainted with the scent. I told Steve “I doubt we are going to find any more blood and Ranger seems adamant that he wants to go west along the creek. It seems logical the deer may have traveled that direction so I am going to let Ranger take the lead and trust he is following this buck.” Just as we got to the edge of the field, Ranger stopped, he had found another bed with blood in it. Steve spotted a few more drops of blood leading further west, giving us a direction of travel to go on and I directed Ranger to the trail again. He pulled me along the edge of a small food plot and led me to another bed, then another. This deer had now bedded five times and the last three beds were less than thirty or forty yards apart. I knew we must be getting close. Ranger suddenly lifted his head and began to wander south, not in the direction the deer had been traveling. He stopped in the middle of the food plot, raised his nose to the air and just stood there stretched out nose as high as he could get it and sniffed as if to tell me it’s close. I gazed past him towards the woods and immediately saw the back side of a deer laying in the weeds. As I stepped a little closer, I could see one antler sticking above the grass. I turned and hollered at Steve, “Hey, he’s up here, Ranger just found your buck!” Steve, in disbelief hollered back “Really!”

Author, his dog and buddy’s deer

I let Ranger get close to the buck and began to praise him over and over saying “Good boy Ranger, good boy”. We dragged the buck out into the open and Steve and I both got pictures next to the big eight point with Ranger by our side. What could have ended poorly, had turned out to be a successful track and recovery job. Steve and I have both tracked many deer over the years and I would like to think we might still have found it on our own, but I’m sure glad we had Ranger with us on this track. This was Steve’s biggest buck to date and I am so glad that I got to be there with him to help find it and get it out of the woods. We all need a little help from time to time, that’s what friends are for. They reassure us, keep us calm and think for us when we get overrun with emotion and distress.

Steve with his harvested buck

When the deer is recovered, they are also there to celebrate our success with us. And of course, deer sure do drag easier when you have a buddy there to grab hold of the other antler. 

Good luck out there this fall. Happy hunting, be safe and God Bless.

Robert Weller
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