Tough Decisions
My
first tough decision was to publish this bloodtrail at all. I knew
I was going to get criticized harshly for my decisions, and for scoring
these decisions as the correct ones -given our hindsight. I stand
by my decision to publish this trail. It sparked some great dialogue
and it proves a point that our objective when shooting a doe is to
salvage the meat - not just find the deer.
If
this is your first time participating in one of our bloodtrail competitions,
then you should realize that these competitions use hindsight to formulate
scores. These should not be interpreted as "Best Practices"
for bloodtrailing or recommendations. Had we followed conventional
wisdom, we would have found this deer but there would be nothing left
to salvage. I can not argue that our decision carried a considerable
risk. We could have easily pushed this deer and not recovered it,
but after hearing that coyote yip, we were 95% certain it was either
risk it and hope the Muzzy did its job sooner than usual, or accept
the inevitable - finding a carcass destroyed by coyotes.
All areas are different and your area
may not have the coyote problems that ours has. In addition, had we
not heard the coyote we may very well have come back in the morning
- however knowing this area - that is doubtful.
The bottom line is that all factors need
to be considered when bloodtrailing. We still recommend waiting the
minimum of six hours when following up a gut-hit. But we strongly
recommend you look at the entire picture. Adapting to each situation
will make you a more effective bloodtrailer.
