Blood tracking in New Jersey with Darren Doran and Karl

In 2010 blood tracking in New Jersey is its experimental phase. You can read more about its legalities click here. We received this report from Darren Doran, who is one of the ten trackers listed on the Wildlife Management Permit. Darren and his dog Karl (a 20-month-old son of Billy and Laurel Whistance-Smith's Pagan) have passed a necessary tracking test and this year they have been on a number of calls.

Darren, who is a member of United Blood Trackers and Deer Search, wrote:
I met a friend I hadn't seen in awhile. We got talking and he told me he had hit a buck that morning. He didn't know that I had a tracking dog or that I could track in Jersey. I told him I'd be willing to track for him if he wanted. He agreed, and we met about 2:30 in the afternoon. I made the call to Fish and Wildlife and did our paperwork. The buck was hit at 8:00 am, and the hunter was able to get a second shot at the deer. He knew his first arrow was back but wasn't sure about the second, and he hadn't found either one. The deer had bedded twice in sight, and after an hour it got up and walked away. The hunter snuck out of his stand and noticed some blood on the way out. There had been another buck with the one that was wounded, and when I started Karl he pulled off the hit buck and started on the healthy deer. I corrected him and restarted.

Karl found and tracked past the first arrow, which was covered in what looked like liver blood. He tracked up to the next arrow but it looked like it was a miss.We were in oaks, blueberry scrub and green briars. Karl was under all the briars and I was on the top.We got to the top of a small hill. We had just tracked through a bed, and I noticed Karl air scenting. I thought to myself that we were getting close. No sooner had that thought left my head when Karl went under a blow down and the buck blasted out the other side. I shouted to the hunter that the deer was up and running. I couldn't get through the blow down and had to go around. Karl was barking like crazy. The hunter had got 2 shots at the deer while it was running by and had one arrow left. Within 20 yds Karl had the deer backed and bayed in a patch of mountain laurel. He had gone under a limb that the size of my forearm, and a small stub had caught his collar and stopped his forward motion. He was about 8 yds from the deer and going nuts. The buck had his ears laid back and was rolling eyes and moving his head up and down. I grabbed Karl and moved back behind a large tree. As soon as I moved back with the dog, the deer went down and the hunter got his last arrow in him. I'm just lucky that deer didn't charge Karl or myself. That dog is fearless and he's doing a little better each time we go out.

Daren recovered his friend's buck with Karl's help. It was quite an adventure!

It was quite a coincidence but on the same day another e-mail arrived in my Inbox titled "one reason to legalize blood tracking in NJ". Teddy Moritz from New Jersey sent this picture with her comment.
 

Teddy wrote: I found this carcase while hawking today. She was about fifty feet below an office building's parking lot. The coyotes had eaten most of her back end. I found plenty of scat along the old railroad grade near her.

Hopefully next year more blood trackers in New Jersey will be able to help hunters recover their deer.