Last week you read that I arrowed a buck during the archery season. This week I am picking up where I left off - I had pulled off the trail and was waiting for a drone to arrive to assist with the recovery.

Four hours after I hit a nice eight-point brow tine sticker buck I met Jake Gilles of Gilles Land Company & Drone Recovery. Right off the bat Jake asked me for every detail. In hindsight, his gathering information for comparison to previous recoveries was to aid him on this mission. I liked how he operated and I liked him. I explained to Jake where I thought I had hit the buck and I described the condition of the blood trail. After I had made my shot, I thought that I had made a really good one. The further I tracked the buck, the more my confidence eroded. I could tell that Jake had already formed some opinions, but he kept his cards close to the vest.

Jake then started setting up shop. He pulled out his drone, the control panel and a 26-inch TV. His drone was roughly 2-by-2 feet. The control panel looked like an iPad with toggle switches on both sides. When he powered everything up and all the flight instruments sprang to life I thought Jake surely must have his pilot’s license in order to operate such a complex piece of electronic aeronautics. I stood there in awe, eyes wide open and jaw dropped like a little kid watching the coolest thing ever seen. Oh, and the TV? Jake had his control panel patch a live feed to a TV so that I could watch, even more dumbfounded.

With a WWWWWUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR the drone was airborne and seeking out thermal targets. It didn’t take long to find one. A small white blob with on occasional red ripple lit up against the dark backdrop of the forest floor. The underside of the drone had a spotlight that Jake turned on and then he activated a powerful video camera lens. A half second later we were looking at the biggest racoon I had ever seen in my life. The drone was hovering 300 feet above the ground, but it looked like we were only 15 feet from the racoon.

For the next 20 minutes that routine was followed with the only difference being the targets found. Jake guided the drone over does, more coons, bucks and a pile of turkeys. It was all so interesting and captivating. I was glued to his TV taking in the action. The more Jake maneuvered from one target to another the better I got at identifying them. The turkeys were easy to identify because, well, they looked like white turkeys and they were the only roosting targets. Things got even more interesting as Jake neared the area where I thought my buck had gone.

“There’s a bigger target,” Jake announced and then immediately turned on both the spotlight and the camera. An instant later I was staring at the TV which was airing live video of my buck. The buck was bedded less than 100 yards from where I gave up the chase. It was obvious he wasn’t doing well and as much I wanted to do something, anything, I knew leaving the woods and coming back later was the best play.

We backed our trucks out as a precaution against spooking the deer and reconvened at the start of the field road. It was there that Jake gave me his summation.

“You hit just a little further back than you thought. You may have hit one lung but for sure you got the liver. Come back tomorrow morning and he’ll be laying in that same spot.” He closed by adding, “I had a guy who didn’t wait. He returned at midnight and bumped his buck and he never found it.”

I had seen and heard enough to know that Jake was right. The next morning, I went back at first light to find that my buck had never moved. I hoped that the buck had expired sooner rather than later. I am forever grateful that I got hooked up with Jake. I would never dream of using a drone to locate and hunt a buck, but I’m all for using this technology so that I don’t waste one. 

Thanks Jake.

If you want more information about drone recoveries or need help on a recovery, you can find Jake on Facebook at Jacob Gilles or Gilles Land Co.

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