Tracking and Recovering Shoulder Shots: Lessons from Kentucky K9 Deer Tracking

Lost one last year on a shoulder shot similar to that. Arrow busted off and only got 5-7 inches of penetration. I made the mistake of not giving enough time and was over confident in my fixed blade set up. Bumped the deer 4 hours after the shot and never recovered. Wish we could use dogs up here

@Brian I have a friend that lives on an island up there, and she also said no tracking allowed. Dogs are great on a shoulder shot because if the setup is still in the animal, tracking it can speed up their death with movement causing more trauma and they can succumb to their injury! Maybe one day MA will change!

Great info!

@Kentucky yeah I lost blood in a cattail swamp. A dog could have made the difference in finding that deer. It was so thick in the swamp that unless you stepped on the deer, the chances were slim. One I hope they change that. I would love to train a tracking dog myself

@Brian it's very rewarding!!