Bow hunting report - Florida 2007-2

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Bow Report 2007: Florida -2


Sept. 28, 2007 ( AM hunt) #

Wind: east 7+/-
temp.: l. 73, h. 86
moon: 2 days after full
major feed:           am
pressure: 30.00
humidity: avg. 80%
rain: 0

I decided to hunt Dee Dot this morning. I hunted the ladder at the South end of the sand bar which is a grass woods pasture out in a marsh. About 8:00 here comes a couple does and I took deer #2 for the season at 30yds. The deer loped off into the chest high march grass and crashed. after about 75 yds.

[Notice where Lacy's nose is...buried in the red "x"]

I went home to get Lacy for her second tracking exercise of the year and the girls came back with me for the recovery. Lacy did a great job and we recovered another floating deer in high grass. The deer was under the grass in the edge of a waste deep hole of water and we both fell in when I stepped on the grass mat that concealed the water (and the deer). Once we climbed back out we could see part of the sunken deer and the trackin' was over.
 
This is my second kill with a bow borrowed from my buddy Capt. Rick. It would be three but I had a deer duck the string at 35 yds.  There was an 8pt that came out of the marsh that morning, limping but did not get close enough to shoot. I have also seen two other bucks, a young buck with 7-8" horns and a good shooter 7pt.. Hopefully we will run into him again.

I sent my bow back to Mathews on Monday and it just got back yesterday....completely rebuilt, the only thing left from my bow was the cams! No charge. Now that's a warranty program.
 
Here's a link to the story of Lacy's 2 nd find: Lacy finds #2
 
Best of hunts,
Larry

Bow hunting report - Florida 2007-1

Bow Report 2007: Florida -1
Sept. 22, 2007 ( PM hunt) #1

Wind: east 5+/-
temp.: l. 75, h. 86
moon: 4 days before full
major feed:        pm
pressure: 30.05
humidity: avg. 89%
rain: 0

Its been wet, hot and muggy to the point of misery but the skeeters haven't been to bad. We had 6" of rain just before the season opened and everything is underwater.

How is this for a good start to the 2007 bow season.... Friday night, the eave of opening day, I was doing a little last minute shooting when  the upper idler wheel on my Mathews Feathermax bow pulled out of the end of the limb at full draw! It literally exploded in my hand! Just about knocked me out! I did not even know what happened for a second.....one minute I'm at full draw and the next I'm holding a handful of spaghetti and I'm seeing stars!
 
Capt. Rick, one of my best hunting buddies let me borrow his new Switchback and with a few tweaks of the sights i was back in business.
 
Rick's weapon was thus unproven in battle but that was all about to change.
 
The first afternoon I hunted a stand in a section of flooded pines and shortly before dark two does made their way in to the stand and I put a shaft thru the boiler room of the larger doe. She splashed off thru the flooded timber out of sight. I had been wait in for the situation I could put my new pup to work on and it was time to see what she could do.
 
Here is the link to the tracking story: Lacy's first track!
 
Lacy did an unbelievable job and made a successful 100 yd track in completely flooded conditions.
 
It turned out to be a nice 90# type doe.
 
I sent my bow off to Mathews to be repaired. We'll see what happens with that.
 
I was proud to break in Rick's bow right and I hope he don't mess up the lucky I have blessed  it with.
 
More to follow, let the games begin!
 
Larry s.
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Lacy, My 12 Week Old Bluetick Pup Finds First Deer!

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Sept. 22, 2007

This was so incredible I had to share it with everybody.

Lacy, my new blood trail prospect just found her first deer! Absolutely incredible!

I shot a 90# doe on the afternoon of the opening day of bow season in s stand of flooded pine trees. The deer splashed off thru the flood water and out of sight. I had been waiting for this moment, although I had not planned for such a difficult track for her first live exercise. Lacy and I have been training just about every day on short blood tracks I have laid for her.

Well, she just turned 12 weeks plus three days and sucessfully recovered the deer on her first real track in belly deep water! Pretty remarkable for such a young pup under those extreme conditions. I could hardly believe it!

There was another deer involved in the deal and Lacy made one loose and got off on the wrong deer. I recognizing her mistake and I took her back to the last blood and she straightened it out from there and went right to the deer.

The doe was literally floating in an old flooded pull trail, 2/3 submerged and Lacy was all but swimming by the time she found the deer! A 100 yd track in flooded conditions the whole way! Had I not seen it with my own two eyes I would not have believed it.

I gave Lacy some well deserved praise and began rafting the deer out to the hill. When we got back to the truck and started getting ready to take some pictures I turned around and Lacy was eating my our deer! I don't mean just licking it, she was tearing into the thing like she was half starved to death. It was a sight to see. She LOVES these things!

Here's some pictures of her first find

She sure looks like she is going to make one fine blood trail dog.

Best of Hunts,
Larry S.
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Lacy & Her Pet, Rosie!

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Here's a few pictures of Lacy i thought everyone would enjoy.

I have been working her on short tracks almost every day and I pack her everywhere I go. What a pain that is becoming! However this is very important and builds a bond between you and your dog that will return big rewards in the future. Additionally, the dog will learn so much more than a dog that is kept in a pen 24/7. That is not the way to go if you really want to develope a serious tracking dog.

Oh! the little brown dog in the picture is Rosie, Lacy's pet. Technically, I guess that is Rosie's bed but The "monster" as my girls refer to Lacy, has claimed posession of it at this point. Really pisses Rosie off!

Larry

My New Blood Trailing Hound, Lacy!

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I have been considering getting a new tracking dog prospect for tracking crippled deer.

Well, here she is.....Her name is Lacy, she is a full blooded Bluetick Coon Hound. Time will tell if I made the right pick. It's only been a day and she is about to wear me out. She better make a good one is all I can say!

I really wanted a Bavarian Mountain Bloodhound but they are quite proud of them and they start at about $1,000.00 if you can even get on the waiting list.

In an effort to keep me from buying a thousand dollar dog my bride Tammie, alerted me to an add in the local paper for some bluetick pups that were a third of the cost of a BMH.

We called the number in the add and setup an appointment to see the pups. I took a deer leg with me to see if i could get any reaction out of any of the pups and it came down to two females and we finally ended up with this one.

I had already decided I wanted a female as from my experience I feel females are a Little smarter and level headed. You have the issue of heat cycles but all in all I prefer a female.

The training process will start immediately with short deer blood training tracks and a regular diet of raw deer meat. I have been prepping for this and have enough blood, liver and legs to train 10 dogs.

Deciding to take on the training of a blood trail dog is quite a commitment if you expect results. It's going to be a pile of work and a lot of aggravation but in the end it will be worth it.

Here's a few pic's

Larry S.