United Blood Trackers and their dogs are busy in the woods helping hunters

The hunter hit this buck at 9AM on the 15th. He trailed it half a mile through a huge corn field. Meantime his wife saw the wounded buck cross the next road, enter a bunch of blowdowns, and bed down. At 2PM the hunter went into the blowdowns and jumped the buck. He called me at that point and I advised he park the deer in that woods overnight and that we would attempt to recover it at 8AM the next morning. The deer did not leave any blood after the first bed but once I got Karma on the right line she raced down the trail and we recovered the deer at 10AM.

After a couple of bad trails this week it felt mighty nice to make another recovery. Karma retains her 50/50 recovery rate for the season collecting #6 for 12 trails. MUCH BETTER than last season! We're smiling

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Walt Dixon rfrom Tully, NY reports: Here's a photo of gun hunter Tod Avery with a nice buck he shot that Ari recovered after a tough 400 yard trail with no blood sign for the last 300 yards. She recovered this deer 19 hours after it was hit. Ari took the trail out of the woods into a winter wheat field hen cut across a corner and worked the edge checking every deer trail that entered the field until the 5th one where the buck must have reentered the woods. I noticed her change from ground scenting to air scenting within 75 yards of the dead buck found in a swamp near a pond in thick cover. This was Ari's seventh recovery.

 

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Hi Jolanta: This is a picture of Razen's 15th recovery out of 27 tracks. This track was on camera and will be shown on the TV show Southern Woods and Water, not sure when yet. At least portions of it.  The deer was shot in the neck at 52 yrds, they had a good blood trail for about a 1/2 mile. Then it started to dwindle, so they backed out and gave me a call. The guy who shot it is Mike Wise a prostaffer for the show, he had been on another track that we did and I explained to them if the shot is iffy or the blood starts to dwindle, back out and give me a call. This way they wouldn't track it all up with the blood that would be on their shoes, it made this track a lot easier to track. We are having a great season, so far we have done 38 tracks with 18 recoveries.

Ray, Rosco, Claudia, and Razen Kane (Ashkum, IL)

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Gary Huber from Hamburg, NY reports: I went tracking today with new WNY DSI member David Powis. I am his master handler. Took him out last Saturday on a rear leg with Kita and he had the lead and got his first find, a "shooter". Wow did he get pumped, but today he really got pumped because I gave him the lead again in thick red brush on what turned out a "butt" shot. Dave jumped the buck 250 yards later and quickly dispatched him. We were tracking for a son and father. The father is a good friend of mine and a NYS trooper and his son is home on vacation from USA, Arizona, border patrol. His father,trooper Ron Wolf, has not seen his son for a year and a half until yesterday when they hunted together. The deer was wounded yesterday afternoon, tracked by eye and "jumped". We met them at 10:30 am this morning. Dave did a excellent job handling Kita. Especially in thick red brush. It was great to see a father and son embrace and everyone got "high fived" and it was the first for me to get "kissed" (on the cheek) by a NYS trooper.

 

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Andy Bensing wrote on November 27:

Eibe and I went 2 for 2 today in New Jersey, in the snow. Both deer were gut shot with a 50 caliber Muzzleloader and the trails were snowed on first thing in the morning. Both hunters were worried about the snow causing a problem for the dog but as all blood trackers know, snow doesn't cause a problem for the dog. Actually, I think a reasonable amount of snow may actually make it easier. The first track was from the previous morning and the deer had traveled ½ mile and was dead. The second line was from the previous evening and we found it still alive but the short chase and dispatch was very easy. The second hunter was happy to get his deer but the look on his face tells the whole story. He was upset with himself with the poor shot he made the day before from only 30 yards on a calm deer and the buck was well below his hunting club's standards. Did I mention the hunter was a state police swat team sniper and firearms instructor? Oops!