Doug Crowe
Well-Known Member
Field & Stream submission
My BIL Lance asked me to put my trail cam out before Halloween and I left it out there for 10 days in northern, Virginia. On this past Wednesday I brought the camera inside and connected it to my computer. Camera was not recording any night shots, but 500 pics taken in a week. I started scrolling and at around 100 pictures saw antlers. Kept scrolling and quickly saw we had a hog out there and texted the pics to Lance.
Lance arrived Thursday around 3 and headed back to the clamp on stand. He texted me last light at 5:30 saying "The hog came in and I took a 50 yard bow shot, come out and help me look"
I came out and we looked for 10 minutes, with my Q beam, but found nothing. No blood and no arrow, but Lance said he heard a thump and it sounded like the deer was limping and it stood in one place for 5 minutes and then took off. We both decided to not push it so we said we'd try again in the morning.
Lance showed up at 7:30 the next morning and I was still sleeping when he started looking. I came out at 8 and he had found blood and the arrow which had blood all the way and passed through, great sign. We followed the blood to the power line and then nothing. We noticed buzzards to the left around 1 mile away and knew they would be in the know, so we walked that way, nothing. Came back to starting point and saw another buzzard to the right a mile away. Lance hiked that way and I got down on my hands and knees looking for more blood. We both got nothing .....
Serious drop in morale at this point as we had been looking for almost 4 hours. Both of us floated calling it a day and waiting to see if we saw more buzzards or even that Lance missed and the deer could be miles away and we'd never find it at all.
Desperate times require desperate measures so we did two things as last gasp efforts. Lance googled a tracking service and located one in Arlington and left a message for help.
I called "The Wolf" Paul Facchina for any last gasp ideas. Paul says "If he's hit he didn't break left or right he ran straight away, have you looked straight out yet ?" Quick reply from me was "no" and we had nothing to lose so I headed straight back across the power line. I looked everywhere for around 30 minutes and found nothing. The entire power line is covered with 4-5' tall super dry and sharp sticker bushes and I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt. My legs, arms and hands were pretty cut up from looking.
I walked back and told Lance I had nothing. Now Lance had the trackers phone number and called him with me standing there.
At this point, we had done all we could do ...... Lance is on the phone with the tracker, puts his hand over the mic and says "Where's Greta ?" (His dog) I pointed and said "that way, straight out, she followed me into the sticker bushes."
I'm just about to leave, Lance finds Greta, who found blood and "Says, hey I got serious blood over here." I run up the hill and find a big patch of bright red blood, followed by an even bigger patch of bright red blood and it was obvious the deer had bedded there, but no deer. We were in 4' tall sticker bushes so we couldn't see anything.
All of a sudden Lance says "Holy **** there he is" and he was just another 10 yards. The buzzards had found it and a small part of the back leg was eaten, but both back straps and hanging tenders were harvested nicely for good eating. Unbelievable feeling to find that deer after 5 hours looking for it. We were both high fiving and yelling yahoo, super cool experience !!!
So it turns out, Lance shot the deer at 50 yards. He ran straight back from where he came from and piled up another 150 yards from there, straight away from where he was last seen running. Biggest deer I've ever seen in Fairfax County and a hog for any jurisdiction. Both of us struggled to lift it on to the gambrill, easy over 180lbs, 22.5" spread, 10pts, 12" G2's and around 138" estimated 7-8 years old, no back teeth
One for the ages .......
My BIL Lance asked me to put my trail cam out before Halloween and I left it out there for 10 days in northern, Virginia. On this past Wednesday I brought the camera inside and connected it to my computer. Camera was not recording any night shots, but 500 pics taken in a week. I started scrolling and at around 100 pictures saw antlers. Kept scrolling and quickly saw we had a hog out there and texted the pics to Lance.
Lance arrived Thursday around 3 and headed back to the clamp on stand. He texted me last light at 5:30 saying "The hog came in and I took a 50 yard bow shot, come out and help me look"
I came out and we looked for 10 minutes, with my Q beam, but found nothing. No blood and no arrow, but Lance said he heard a thump and it sounded like the deer was limping and it stood in one place for 5 minutes and then took off. We both decided to not push it so we said we'd try again in the morning.
Lance showed up at 7:30 the next morning and I was still sleeping when he started looking. I came out at 8 and he had found blood and the arrow which had blood all the way and passed through, great sign. We followed the blood to the power line and then nothing. We noticed buzzards to the left around 1 mile away and knew they would be in the know, so we walked that way, nothing. Came back to starting point and saw another buzzard to the right a mile away. Lance hiked that way and I got down on my hands and knees looking for more blood. We both got nothing .....
Serious drop in morale at this point as we had been looking for almost 4 hours. Both of us floated calling it a day and waiting to see if we saw more buzzards or even that Lance missed and the deer could be miles away and we'd never find it at all.
Desperate times require desperate measures so we did two things as last gasp efforts. Lance googled a tracking service and located one in Arlington and left a message for help.
I called "The Wolf" Paul Facchina for any last gasp ideas. Paul says "If he's hit he didn't break left or right he ran straight away, have you looked straight out yet ?" Quick reply from me was "no" and we had nothing to lose so I headed straight back across the power line. I looked everywhere for around 30 minutes and found nothing. The entire power line is covered with 4-5' tall super dry and sharp sticker bushes and I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt. My legs, arms and hands were pretty cut up from looking.
I walked back and told Lance I had nothing. Now Lance had the trackers phone number and called him with me standing there.
At this point, we had done all we could do ...... Lance is on the phone with the tracker, puts his hand over the mic and says "Where's Greta ?" (His dog) I pointed and said "that way, straight out, she followed me into the sticker bushes."
I'm just about to leave, Lance finds Greta, who found blood and "Says, hey I got serious blood over here." I run up the hill and find a big patch of bright red blood, followed by an even bigger patch of bright red blood and it was obvious the deer had bedded there, but no deer. We were in 4' tall sticker bushes so we couldn't see anything.
All of a sudden Lance says "Holy **** there he is" and he was just another 10 yards. The buzzards had found it and a small part of the back leg was eaten, but both back straps and hanging tenders were harvested nicely for good eating. Unbelievable feeling to find that deer after 5 hours looking for it. We were both high fiving and yelling yahoo, super cool experience !!!
So it turns out, Lance shot the deer at 50 yards. He ran straight back from where he came from and piled up another 150 yards from there, straight away from where he was last seen running. Biggest deer I've ever seen in Fairfax County and a hog for any jurisdiction. Both of us struggled to lift it on to the gambrill, easy over 180lbs, 22.5" spread, 10pts, 12" G2's and around 138" estimated 7-8 years old, no back teeth
One for the ages .......
