Finding a deer and getting a deer is not exactly the same thing!

Andy Bensing says "Here is a narrated GPS video of my track from Tuesday night. We did not "get " the deer but the video gives some interesting insight into what blood trackers do and the kind of things deer do as well.

Whenever I come home from tracking my wife always asks the question, "Did you find him?"  Sometimes my answer has to be qualified by using the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky approach, "It depends how you define, FIND HIM."  My wife means did we find the dead deer but as all blood trackers know, especially trackers who have to keep their dogs on a leash like most of us, finding them and getting them are often two very different things.  This GPS video is a good example of finding him but not getting him.  Heck, we saw him 5 times but couldn't get him.  The video shows what non-mortally wounded deer can sometimes do and explains some of the strategy I use to determine when to give up."

Did You Find Him? Yes but........ from Andy Bensing on Vimeo.

Andy Bensing's opinion about touch screen GPS

 A short intro to Andy's post is in order. Andy's love for detailed records of his tracks is well documented on this blog. And it is very impressive. However, very few handlers are interested in maintaining this kind of data. For what Andy does, a touch screen GPS is not an option and he explains why. For many other trackers, it might be a good, inexpensive alternative.

by Andy Bensing

On another forum we were discussing using smart phones as a gps while blood tracking and the availability of gloves that will work with a smart phone screen.  The main problem with touch screen gps when tracking is the inability to very quickly and easily use the screen while tracking in the field.  If you just want to record your path, mark the infrequent waypoint along the way and look at it on the map as you track along, no problem with a touch screen, but if you want to mark a lot of waypoints for various reasons along the way and if you want to individually record each restart you do if you have to pick your dog up and restart, then a touch screen is very cumbersome, nearly useless in my opinion.  At least for me and I have tried it.  

I have a perfect example of a track I did last night in the rain in rough terrain with steep hills, nasty briars and a deep stream. Here are the maps that show how much I marked and all the different restarts.  It would have been impossible to mark all that easily with a touch screen. We got to a deep stream crossing and while making sure it was correct, I believe Eibe got on a second wounded deer and found blood and a piece of an arrow and it lead to a second place she wanted to cross.  We had to drive around to the other side and sort it out over there with several restarts as well on that side.  I mark each restart with a different color track and the dark blue is always where we were walking not tracking to make the restarts.  All that being said, when we realized we could not cross the deep stream, I whipped out my smart phone, brought up Google earth, and figured out the best way to get around to the other side.

Incidentally, we did not get this deer.  He was very lightly opened up across the belly (the hunter watched him for 15 minutes with binoculars with intestines hanging but very little blood coming out even where he initially stood 100 yards from the shot).  After almost 4 hours of tracking in the rain and wind and rough terrain and working 2 different blood lines and taking both slightly over 1 mile from the hit site we decided to give up.  This deer will surely die and may have been already dead (we were tracking 24 hours after the shot) but the hunter and I had had enough.  My dog Eibe on the other hand still was raring to go.

Cabelas Recon Hunt is an app of choice for Ray Holohan from Illinois

Ray Holohan uses Cabelas Recon Hunt to record his blood tracks with Roscoe, a wirehaired dachshund. For more information about this particular call go to http://cabelas.trimbleoutdoors.com/Trip/26774 and you will find detailed data there. It looks like an excellent tool for blood trackers. Thank you Ray for sharing your experience with us!

Ray Holohan with Roscoe

To see another track from October 27 go to  http://cabelas.trimbleoutdoors.com/Trip/25426

Ray Holohan's case for carrying a smartphone in the field

Ray Holohan from Illinois sent us an interesting e-mail:

 

Recently I have started using an iphone so I got an app from Cabela' s called Recon Hunt. It is really a neat program that is set up for tracking a wounded deer. You have satellite imagery and GPS ability, plus it gives you all kinds of data that can be printed out and kept. 

 

I have been using it all summer on all my practice tracks and walks with Rosco. I'm planning on using it this tracking season. So I have come up with a way to carry and use it in the field. I showed it to Joe Walters and Chris Barr and they think it is really neat,  and they are telling me I should put a patent on it. I'm not really interested in doing that, but thought I might offer it to club members (I think Ray means United Blood Trackers) who use a smart phone for the same purpose out there. I'm using an iphone with a protective case on it. The device that I have made is fabricated from .050 alum. and is very light. It offers more protection and pretty much keeps the phone waterproof. It it is carried around your neck with a binocular harness and whenever you want to mark blood or a wayward point you just flip it open and punch it in. The device is fairly easy to fabricate. If someone would want one, I would tell them to make a cardboard template of their phone - the exact side size, thickness and placement of any buttons they would need to use, and send it to me. I think I could make them for 40-50 dollars . They could get their own binocular harness. If you think this might have some interest would you mind posting this. There are five photos attached that pretty much show how it works.

 

 

Ray can be contacted at rantler@ameritech.net 

Advanced Blood Tracking Training: Wound Bed Indication, Dead Spots, and Search Pattern

by Andy Bensing

Eibe's Training Line March 2, 2011

After a successful weekend at the North Carolina VSwP I am continuing to train Eibe in anticipation of the Deer Search Competition coming up in April. The purpose of this training exercise was to work on wound bed indication, dead spots, and efficient search patterns. Additionally I wanted to reassure myself that Eibe's problem of ignoring artificial blood scent and looking for a real wounded deer "scent picture" was gone.

The training line consisted of the following:

1. 1000 meter blood line was laid out in CRP field using about seven ounces of blood.

2. Six 12-inch-diameter wound beds with a clump of bloody hair in the center.

3. Two offset "Dead Spots" were created, one 30m and one 20m in length.

4. A little extra blood was squirted at corners.

The video is long, 48 minutes, but with all the wound beds, turns and dead spots there is pretty much some type of training technique being demonstrated every few minutes. The highlights of the exercise are as follows:

1. It is obvious right from the start that Eibe is now having no problem tracking just blood.

2. Wound bed indication improved as the exercise progressed.

3. I continued to confirm a suspicion I had that Eibe will attempt to use human track scent to advance the line when no blood scent is present (I began to believe this during my parking lot training exercise). At the 30m offset dead spot she followed my bloodless path 25m past the last blood until she turned around and began to search. At all the turns, where of course I turned, that she overshot, she went straight 10m or less before beginning the check. At the 20m dead spot I made a turn when I laid it, and when Eibe got to the beginning of the dead spot she made the bloodless turn exactly as I had done. She slowed down in the void and was obviously looking for blood but clearly was following my scent. When she hit the blood again at 20m she kicked back into a faster speed. It was obvious that she was looking for blood but using my path to get there. As I mentioned in the video, I do not think this will be a problem in testing or in real life tracking. Actually, it might even be a help in taking a test.

4. Eibe's performance on the overall exercise was great but it clearly showed my future training needs to emphasize ingraining efficient search patterns.

Eibe - Sign Indication, Dead Spots, and Search Patterns from Andy Bensing on Vimeo.

A map of whole blood line - click to enlarge.

The above expanding concentric circles were a directed search initiated by me to teach the pattern.

More Spring Training 3/16/2011

As I continued my spring training with Eibe today I ran a very similar line as described above but this time it was a little longer and was in a hardwood forest as I expect the Deer Search Competition to be held in. It was a 24-hour-old line and there was about ½ inch of rain on it overnight.

The whole exercise went very well and I continue to build my confidence in her understanding that we are not tracking real deer right now. There were 3 highlights from today's work:

1. Eibe's speed is picking up without sacrificing accuracy. I think now that she is more comfortable smelling for just blood, she is making fewer unnecessary checks and the checks are quicker. She tracked the first 1000m of today's line in 33 minutes and that included 9 minutes working out the second Dead Spot.

2. Completely on her own Eibe located, stopped, and stood over all five small, six-inch-diameter wound beds I had laid out. I think this was the cleanest series of indications she has ever given to date.

3. I did run into a logistical problem in my attempt to work on teaching more efficient search patterns. When I laid the line and created the Dead Spots to use for teaching an expanding concentric search pattern I stopped the blood and walked to the spot where I would restart the blood in a way that was not direct. I hoped that Eibe would not follow my human scent trail. Well, that did not work as she very quickly and easily found my trail and followed it to the blood as you can see on these two GPS diagrams below. I have a different layout in mind for trying to prevent her from using my human scent next time. I will let you know how it works. One thing is absolutely for sure. After seeing how she worked these Dead Spots this time, there is no doubt in my mind that when the blood is gone on an artificial line, she will follow human scent if it is there in expectation that it will lead to blood again. She uses the human scent as a guide. She follows it slowly a few feet then checks to the left and right a few yards then moves forward on it a few feet again. When she hits the blood, she then takes off quite quickly.

Tracking wounded deer with Tom Munoz and Meg from Alabama

Jolanta and John,
We always love to read your posts. It's amazing how busy the dachshunds have been. Meg and Tom from Alabama have also been busy.

On October 15 Adam and Pastor Don (his73-year-old Grandfather) were hunting. Adam shot this 9 pointer. Meg tracked this deer for 400 yards. They were delighted. On the way back to the car on the 4 wheeler, Don driving and Tom as the passenger, the 4 wheeler flipped on a steep hill. Tom broke his finger so off to the hospital.

Pastor Don, Adam and Tom Munoz with Meg

A few days later on October 21 Cory, a hunter that had called us in past, called to let us know he gut shot a 4 pointer. Meg got right on track once we let her go with the gps. Once she bayed the deer Cory was ready with a 22 to dispatch the deer.

Cory, Tom and Meg

On October 23 Dewey and his friend Shane called Tom for help in finding a 10 pointer. Meg followed the trail for about 350 yards. She went into a wall of briars. After a couple of minutes we heard Meg barking and then whimpering. Tom decided to go in and check on her. When we arrived Meg was 10 feet from the wounded deer. The deer saw us and bolted. Meg seemed fine so we walked back out of that area.

Tom wanted to call the hunt off. No one had a gun and he was concerned for Meg. As we talked about it Meg snuck off and returned to the briars a little farther down from where we were. After a couple of minutes she started barking again, and Tom decided to go in  again. The hunters went around to the other side hoping the buck would come out and give them another bow shot. Tom found Meg 15 feet from deer. The deer was on the ground but kept picking up his head. Tom jumped on the deer and called for the hunter to come and help him. The hunter tore through the briars with knife in hand and dispatched the deer. Tom realized later that what he had done was foolish but said he was concerned for Meg and felt that the deer was giving up. The hunter wrote us this note afterwards "Thanks for turning a good hunt into a great memory. PS tell Meg I love her. Thanks so much."  Whats funny is that we feel the same way. Take a look at picture you can see the hunters arms all cut up.

Tom Munoz and Dewey.

Well hope you enjoy the stories. I'm sure you have heard them all by know.
 Tom and Jackie Munoz


Tom and Jackie,
Thank you for sharing your adventures with all of us. They sound almost too exciting!

Two deer recovered by Axel and Greg Accardo from Louisiana

Yesterday we received e-mail from Greg Accardo describing his very busy but rewarding day of tracking.

Jola, we had a busy day. I emailed you some pics of two bucks we tracked this morning. I got a call last night at 9:30 pm about two local hunters who bow shot two bucks yesterday afternoon late. I suggested we should go out the next morning early. The first buck is a 13 pt gut shot and Axel tracked him for about 200 yds and found him still alive hiding in a briar patch, but very weak. The next buck was an 8 pt shot from the rear quartering away from the hunter with a mechanical broad head. The arrow didn't exit the deer and I don't think the broad head opened on impact. By the way, it was a Rage Broad head.

Axel, working with the Gamin Astro system, tracked this buck for about 300 yds before jumping him up and running him for another 300 yds before he layed down in a creek bottom and gave up. We had to dispatch him too. The arrow was still lodged in the body up to the fletching. Long morning and lots of ground covered and three tired men. Also, the last pics are of Axel resting his head on the back of the 8pt while he and I waited for the hunters to come back with the 4 wheeler. You can tell how exhausted he is.

Greg, great job! It looks like Axel is coming to his own. Congratulations to both of you.

They aren't always big

Andy Bensing writes:

Eibe and I had 2 more calls on Saturday. Our 1st call today was a quickie. The hunter had gut shot a little button buck and was only able to track it 40 meters till the blood ran out. The hunter and his buddy had grid searched out about 300 meters in the direction he had last seen the deer running but were unable to find the deer. We found the little button buck only 200 meters away but not in the direction the hunter had searched. The deer had button hooked (pun intended!) right after the hunter lost sight of it and Eibe was able to find it in less than 30 minutes. We only saw one spot of blood along the way.

As you can see in the pictures, the deer somehow fell into a creek and ended up under the stream bank. We came up to the stream from the high bank side and when Eibe got to the creek she stretched over the bank and poked her head into the roots, I thought she was smelling for critters! She then went a few feet up the stream bank where she could jump down to the water and proceeded under the bank overhang. I was about to scold her for looking for critters when I was surprised to see her biting at the deer! Good thing I didn't yell at her!

And Ybensing is holding Eibe who found the button buck.

GPS map of the track showing one spot of blood.



Google Earth representation of the track

 The second call was for a nice buck with a lot of penetration and sounded pretty good on the phone. When I got to the hunter's house he showed me on Google Earth the course of the 400 meters he had already tracked the deer. I did not like what I saw. The buck had made several what looked like unnecessary turns on the map. Not something a hard hit deer would usually do in my opinion. The hunter had the shot on video and he thought it looked a lot better than I did when I saw the video at the hunter's house before we went out. It did not look very encouraging to me from the start but I was there so we of course gave it a shot. The interesting thing about this call was that the hunter owned a 1 1/2 year old Hanoverian hound that he had imported from Germany and had run the dog at 2 hours after the shot. The young dog had done a great job the 1st 400m (with no blood at the start and for the 1st 200 meters) but came to a grass yard and was distracted by several people and vehicles that came to see what the hunter was doing. At that point the dog and hunter did some searching of the edges of the yard but were unable to continue and called me for help. I was there at 10 hours after the shot. We put another 600 meters on the line and found 3 or 4 spots of blood but eventually quit the trail surmising that the deer was not mortally wounded. There was one place where the buck chose to jump over a strand of barbed wire that was 4 feet high when he could have very easily just walked under it ( like we did). His belly left a little hair with a touch of blood on it on the wire.

Congratulations Andy on another fine find!

Great tracking season for Greg Accardo and his two dachshunds

We got these GREAT pics and report from Greg Accardo who tracks wounded deer with two wirehaired dachshunds - Ariel and her son Axel. Ariel was bred by Andy Bensing and Axel vom Feliciana is out of Greg's breeding. Greg and his two dogs are having a fantastic tracking season. Congratulations Greg!

Greg wrote:

"The pic with the three bucks was taken on 1/03/10. The big buck to the left was shot on Friday, 1st of 2010. The other two bucks were shot on Saturday, 2nd. Hunters called me on the 2nd and was not able to get there until Sunday, 3rd. We tracked all 3 bucks that morning with Ariel and Axel using the Garmin Astro.




The last pic (below) with me and the dogs was taken last Sunday, the 10th of January. That was a 24 hour old track where the buck was shot in the rear of the gut with very little sign. On top of that, the ground was frozen solid due to a hard freeze the night before. But again the dogs locked down on what scent they had and went right to him about 200 yds away. This club is archery hunting only. They called me out 4 times to track 6 different deer and we found 5. So far this year we have 9 finds, 3 still alive and bayed up by the dogs, and we still have 3 weeks of deer hunting left.

An exciting recovery for Greg Accardo and his dachshunds

These two pictures show a buck recovered by Greg Accardo from Louisiana and his two wirehaired dachshunds. Greg can work his dogs off leash and uses Garmin Astro GPS to keep track of them. Congratulations Greg on this exciting recovery!

Ability to self-correct is very important in a blood tracking dog (and husband)

Joeri's recovery #6 took place yesterday in Claverack, NY

John Jeanneney wrote:

Yesterday we had an interesting call down at a site in Columbia County about 45 miles away. The eight pointer had been hit by a Rage broadhead far back in the rib cage about half way down. I took young Joeri, who is doing very well but can always profit from more experience.

The arrow has entered and exited, but the interesting thing was that there was very little blood at the beginning and none after 75 yards. This lack of blood came about despite the fact that there was a two inch entry hole and a somewhat smaller exit hole. You see some strange things! The scent line was about 8 hours old.

Joeri worked slowly and carefully for about 300 yards, but then his body language showed that he knew he had run out of line. We started going back over the line we had just tracked, headed back to the last marker I had put up on blood. On the way back Joeri put his head down and began pulling hard to the left. “I’ve got the line now”, he said. Within 50 yards there was the dead deer.

I can’t be sure whether the deer backtracked from where Joeri ran out of line, or whether Joeri simply overshot a sharp turn and later corrected himself. Joeri communicates pretty well by body language, but he still leaves certain questions unanswered. Anyway he does correct himself. On this point Jolanta, my wife, believes that my dog can teach me something.

Below - the closeup of the last part of the track.

Great week for Joe and Doc, a blood tracking team from Indiana

Joe Walters and his two and a half years old tracking dog Doc (Magnum von Moosbach-Zuzelek) had a good week and recovered two deer. The picture below shows the buck recovered on November 3. What a great shot! Thanks Joe for sending it to us.

"Yesterday morning Doc located his third find on a buck after making a loss and me having to take him back to last blood. Track without loss would have been about 1/4 mile. I have to slow him down. He works entirely too fast."

The other buck was recovered on October 29 and this is what Joe wrote:

"I got a call at 7pm from the same two guys that I tracked for before. A Rage broadhead pass through on lungs and the deer went 200 yds. Doc tracked it out of weed field across cut beans into a woods and found it. I'll send you some pics later. I couldn't believe the deer could go that far with such a big hole through it's chest. The entrance was small but the exit hole was two inches. More blood the last five yds that on the entire track. In fact I only saw blood once before we got real close. I was looking down at rope on ground to see which way Doc went and told hunter that deer was headed back out to bean field when I spotted deer with Doc latched onto it. Good boy."

As you can see from the pictures Doc wears Garmin Astro and Ruffwear harness when is tracking.

Joe asked how to slow Doc down as his tracking speed is excessive. First, a dog has to be trained to "slow" down away from any tracking situation. Just like you would not start to teach your dog to sit when he is busy tracking you would not start training him to slow down in such a situation. The command "slow" or "easy" has to be first introduced when you heel your dog on a regular leash, and then set-by-step progressively implemented into more complicated situations.

Roy Hindes III, his tracking dogs and trophy bucks

In Texas tracking wounded deer with dogs has different roots than in other parts of country. Most of the dogs that began to be used were all-purpose curdogs and cowdogs. The methods that were used to trail up cattle and hogs hiding in the mesquite or the canebreaks, could be applied to wounded deer as well. A cowdog could track and bay up a wounded buck with the same instincts and intelligence that made him a good cowdog. Catahoulas, black mouth curs and Lacy curs are involved in this kind of work today.

It was the Hindes family of Charlotte in South Texas who perfected the art of using cowdogs. Today Roy Hindes III and his son Cuatro work their famous “blue dogs” across the “Golden Triangle” of trophy buck country stretching from San Antonio down to the Mexican border. The big-racked bucks of Quality Deer Management on the South Texas ranches are highly valued, both in dollars and in respect and appreciation. Not many of these bucks are wasted as coyote feed. Roy's dogs are worked off leash.

John asked Roy in one of his e-mails: "I'm curious about one thing. In the attached photo I see that you are still using the electronic tracking collar. Why do you prefer this over the new Garmin GPS Astro for dogs, which has a more compact receiver and is much easier to use?"

Roy's reply was : "I also have a Garmin Astro GPS system. But the Garmin system only reaches about .7 of a mile. This is just not far enough. Losing contact with my dogs is a scary scenario, especially when you are 100 miles from home, and on strange country. If that’s all I used I would lose contact with my dogs every week. Many wounded deer run several miles when found by a tracking dog, and I must maintain contact with the dogs at all times.

We sometimes use the Garmin system. But we only use it along with the Quicktrack system for a backup. My tracking system must be 100% reliable. The Quicktrack system, which I have used for over 10 years, is less complicated, reaches 4 or 5 miles anytime, and has never failed me-not even once. "

This deer (above) was shot in the top of the back. Shep trailed him 3 or 4 hundred yards and bayed him by himself till Roy slipped up there and shot him. Roy says: "Top of the back shots are typically real hard to catch. If this deer had ever run from me or the dog I'm sure we wouldn't have caught him. Shep will be 2 years old in March."





John,
Take a look at what one antler of a South Texas 12 point did to old Gus. He had five punctures down one side and a big hernia requiring two surgeries over a two week period. His vet bill for all of this has totaled over $1100. He is out of service as a wounded deer dog for the rest of the season, but he should recover fully. Using a leashed dog sometimes has it's advantages!
Roy

A.J. Niette and his blood tracking dogs

A.J. Niette lives with his dogs in southern Georgia; they track in that state and in Alabama. A.J. has a gift for seeing tracking potential in puppies and then developing their natural abilities with lots of personal attention and work in the field. A. J. does not depend on breed lablels and knows what can be done with the right kind of cross breeds.

Molly an English Pointer/Beagle cross is three years old has found many deer.



Jake is a Kemmer Cur/Treeing Walker cross is just a year old, but is showing great promise and is finding difficult deer on his own.


When conditions permit both dogs work off lead with Garmin’s GPS Astro equipment. Handler/dog teamwork and technology come together raising blood tracking to a new level of effectiveness.

A hunter with Molly