First weekend of gun season was very busy for blood trackers from the Hilltowns.

I have not posted yet all the pics and reports I have in my Inbox, and I apologize for that. This is such a busy time for us, and I really would like to squeeze this post in before I start catching up.
The weekend of November 19-20 was the first weekend of gun season in the Southern Zone of NY. We got a lot of calls, especially on Sunday. The weather has been nice, and a lot of hunters were in the field.

This year Dan Hardin from Greenville is helping us with tracking. You might remember that Dan was the hunter that Tommy found a buck for in the Fox Creek last year. Dan took a DEC exam last August. Now he is a licensed tracker, but he does not have his own dog. Every weekend he takes our Keena out tracking, and yesterday they recovered their first deer together. How exciting! A big thank you to dan for tracking with Keena and for really nice pictures!


Keena with a 6 pointer she found while handled by Dan.



Dan Harding is holding Keena - finally a successful recovery!

Keena on her way back from the recovery is enjoying a ride in the passenger's seat
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John took two calls with Joeri on Sunday and they receovered both deer.

This buck was gut shot and recovered 18 hours after the shot. The trail was around 200 yards, in Berne, NY.

Sunday afternoon - John and Joeri found this nice buck in Esperance, NY. The buck was liver-shot, the trail was 5 hours old.

We also failed to report Joeri's previous recovery on November 16:

On November 16 John and Joeri recovered a liver/stomach shot buck that traveled a long way. Joeri cold tracked for almost two miles, then jumped the deer. In the end the deer had to be put down (Knox, NY).