The first weeks of the buck hunt it is traditionally all hands on deck and in a short period of time a lot of requests for research come in via our central or directly at the hunter. For example, Jef, a young hunter and student, received a call from a friend who hunts with him in the same hunting group.
He had shot at a roebuck and it had jumped off but after a few meters he lay down in the cover. Jef had obtained this, of course the question was asked to come. The reason was that with his young BGS in training he could use this as an exercise to get the dog used to finding a real piece of game.
Of course our friend accepted the question, but what he didn’t know at the time was that his friend went to see where the buck was, just to be sure. When approaching, the buck jumped off and disappeared through a hedge. He could no longer follow the buck.
His friend told the full story to Jef when he was getting ready. Honestly, other things happen where the truth is completely distorted or sometimes completely concealed if you have to continue completely on your own experience. But come here it was different.
Our young hunter went to the bulkhead where there were a few small splashes of blood. Further on the track that the dog worked out there was nothing to be found until he came to the “first” wound bed. Sweat (blood) not much but still. So the roebuck was clearly well hit as it had quickly laid down. In the meantime, the dog had followed a trail that had not been indicated by the shooter as he had not seen it again after the hedge.
So it was for our young hunter to fully trust his dog. He followed a trail, on which no indication could be found, which is possible, but our buck had laid down and there was blood. In the meantime, Jef had combed out a large damp cover, over some canals, etc. Nothing to be found and he had gone back to the wound bed to turn the dog back on. The second attack was also negative. He decided to post a message in our Whatsapp group. This yielded some answers but not the expected answer.
He decided to call me personally and told the story of his story. Jef “I’m coming” was my answer to the question to assist him. Three quarters of an hour later I was at the agreed place and I could also get ready. In the meantime I could hear Jef’s story again and I knew what he had already done. He had one question, “what did I do wrong”, my answer: “nothing”.
On to the place where the buck had been, just search in the area, nothing to be found. For me it was now lesson time and I could show our young student how I tried to solve this problem. I decided to let Jazz work separately from the belt, by the way I know he doesn’t look far ahead of me, so safe feeling.
Jazz took the direction that Jef had done with his dog, we searched the wet part and what struck me was that there had not been any passage on any canal and I decided to stop immediately. I gave the reason why to my student. Decide back to the beginning, the shooting place. Working by the book, turning on the dog (loose) observing and it turned out that when Jazz came to the wound bed, suddenly behind the hedge took a completely different direction. Nose to the ground and in a straight line with the hedge. Was this the track?
While we let Jazz do his work, he was about 50 meters in front of us, Jef noticed a splash of blood on a grass stem, my dog was good? No, he returned and at 15 meters in front of us he made a right angle turn and continued to stand ahead, refer for us. Here was something, so look, a wound bed. Well done, command look ahead. 10, 20, 50 m further Jazz stopped again and referred to a second wound bed. A good sign, wound beds at such a short distance, the buck would come in. Back looking ahead and again he went ahead of us, this time with a high nose. A very good sign, he obtained the blowing of the buck, for sure. Jazz was more driven so we were close to .
Jef get ready, was the assignment. The moment to have the weapon at hand in this case if the piece would jump off or the piece is alive in its wound bed to give it a catch. It was now also the time to give some clear guidelines to Jef as it was his first time that he experienced something like this.
Slowly but cautiously Jazz went on, until we came to a large cover of thorns. High nose and stock-still he stopped, close by, yes a wound bed. Fresh blood, so we were close but in this mating there was no getting through for us. We found some splashes of blood on leaves that went into this cover. The buck lay in this.
Our plan was that Jef would position himself on the other side of the cover in such a way that he had a clear view and could possibly give a catch shot taking into account the safety of the dog. I would let Jazz go into coverage. Prepare ourselves, done. Dog forward, a few seconds later we heard that Jazz had the buck screaming but could not keep it in this heavy cover. The result can be guessed, the buck comes out of the cover a few meters from Jef who was able to give a perfectly safe catch. Beautiful and mission accomplished.
What an experience for our student, you can’t give a better lesson. The buck had a high bishop shot and what surprised us that we had not found any bone splinters anywhere. But this was not important now, the buck was in and Jef’s adrinaline went back to normal arrow. In the meantime, the shooter had arrived at the place that had seen our work from a distance. A heartfelt Waidmansheil was given and the necessary photos were taken.
One thing is certainly a better lesson and experience I can’t give. That is why we ask if it is possible for students in training to join us to gain experience in the field, something that is not possible with theory and photos. To Jef, congratulations, perfectly finished in all the tension. Top;
