A twelve-year-old hunter Madison gets her liver-shot deer thanks to Dan and Keena

Two years ago Tommy and I found a deer for a young local hunter Dan Hardin. Last year Dan got his tracking license, and started to track with our Keena. Ultimately Keena will go to live with Dan (she is totally in love with him), but in the meantime he comes here to pick her up when there is a deer call that he can take.

This is Dan's report from the call he took several days ago.

By Dan Hardin

I got the call for my second track of the year just before 7 PM as I was on my way out of the woods. This was the first deer for a young hunter Madison (12 years old) who made the 15 yard shot with her compound bow. Her father Jim was in the stand with her and saw the arrow hit the middle of the deer but a little far back, while still being within the rib cage. The arrow, which wasn’t found, was sticking out as the doe took off, but the blood showed an exit wound. There was an easy blood trail visually and Keena took off intently. Heavy fog and a light drizzle previously made scenting conditions good but the stillness of the air seemed to spread the scent over a wider area.

The trail took us through a sparse forest with mixed trees and heavy thorn bush undergrowth. We made the 300 yard track to Madison’s last blood and practice arrow. Keena tried several directions but didn’t seem sure so we went back to last blood where Madison spotted blood on the opposite side of a tree. It showed that the deer had looped around the tree and backtracked. We continued crawling under thorn bushes finding steady dime to pea sized drops when the blood really picked up. Keena in her excitement had cut her ear on a thorn that opened a blood vessel, which bled quite a bit.
 

After the bleeding stopped we were waiting for Jim to return with some tape and paper towel.  Keena would shake her head and reopen the scratch, which was stopped each time by applying moss and light pressure.

 

Madison had gone ahead on the blood trail to confirm that we were still on the right path and advanced the trail an additional 40 feet on her own. Jim returned with the medical supplies and we wrapped Keena’s ear which was a task since she was pulling hard to run down the line again. It was only another 10-20 yards when I saw the doe down by a fallen tree maybe a little over 100 yards from where Madison and Jim had lost the blood trail.

Jim gutted the deer right away, kindly donating the liver and some blood for training purposes, and didn’t think that the meat would be lost. The paunch was intact and the liver starred by the Muzzy 100. Congratulations Madison on your first deer and Keena on her fist find of the season!

 As a side note this was my first track using my 1000lumen Cree headlamp for tracking. It lasted the three hours advertised on full power, which made the blood stand right out. I had attached the battery pack to the headpiece and it was comfortable to wear. One issue that is to be expected with a light of this power is the heat generated, which could cause a burn if you are not careful. (There is no risk of this on low power from my experience.) The other issue is that there isn’t a noticeable dimming of the light before the battery runs out. It just stops working and that is it. They don’t sell replacement batteries, but I was able to find an equivalent online and install the needed socket.

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 

Tracking Dog Supply Store opens for business

We would like to extend congratulations to our friends Gentian and Beth Shero, who today opened their online Tracking Dog Supply store at  http://www.trackingdogsupply.com/. You will find there blood tracking collars and leads, training and grooming equipment, and more.

Gentian and Beth, we wish you much success in your new venture!

Blood tracking collar for dachshunds

Blood tracking leash and collar now sold by the United Blood Trackers

John and I get a lot of inquiries from handlers looking for a blood tracking leash and collar for their tracking dog. In the US it is not easy to get the specialized equipment so easily available in Europe, but this situation is changing. United Blood Trackers has started to carry the ten-meter tracking leash that comes in three colors. The leash is made from the unique very durable material that will not stretch, hold water or pick up briars as it slides along the ground. It cleans up very easily with just soap and water. This lead feels like leather but without all the leather drawbacks. There are two snaps available to choose from: one is a standard snap, and the other one is a super secure alligator snap.

Above - standard snap, below- alligator snap

The UBT store also carries a blood tracking 2-inch wide collar with a solid brass swivel. It comes in brown only. The edges of the collar are rounded. This collar is suitable for mid-and large sized dogs. A lighter 1.5-inch-wide collar for smaller breeds will be available soon. These items are available for online purchase at the UBT store. A big thank you to Ken Parker who has worked really hard on this project!

Congratulations to Bill Smith and Nevada; spotlit for tracking at night

This New Year Day started with e-mail from Bill Smith who reported that his wirehaired dachshund Nevada found her 45th deer today at 8:15am. The number of Nevada's recoveries is mind boggling as she is just 2.5 years old. Bill hunts and tracks a lot, and his hunting season in Virginia is very long (his Urban Archery Season goes until March 27), but still his tracking record is very impressive. Bill donates all the venison Hunters for the Hungry Program. By the way, Nevada v Moosbach-Zuzelek is a daughter of Buster and Emma.

In our recent correspondence Bill raved about the small light that he clips on Nevada's collar when she tracks at night. Susanne Hamilton loves the light as well. It is called Spotlit and is manufactured by Niteize

I picked up the light at Cabelas (search for Spotlight LED Pet Light), but you can get it at other places such as Battery Barn.

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.

Joe and Doc - a tracking team from Indiana; a vest for a blood tracking dog

The picture of Doc and Carl came from Joe Walters from Indiana, who wrote:

The tracking was excellent. After last blood nothing for about 75 yds. He went past the deer on the down wind side by about 10 yds and raised his head to wind it and circled back to it. Chewed on the tail. And after hunter gutted it out, I gave Doc a piece of liver and he chewed on it for a second and spit it out and started barking and wanting back on the deer. If you can't find Doc in the pic, look for his red harness.

Just few days later I talked to Susanne Hamilton who was on her way back from a weekend of blood tracking in Vermont. Susanne and Buster recovered two deer out of four, but what she raved most about was Buster's harness. Two of their calls were in a swamp, and in situations like this she finds this harness/vest invaluable. Actually, Susanne was the first who started to use this particular type of vest, and since then other handlers have started to use it too. The DiPietro family from Vermont swears by it. The picture below show Chris DiPietro handling Scout at the August workshop in NH, and Scout is sporting the red vest.

This particular harness/vest is carried by Ruffwear and more info and pics are posted here.

Handlers who use the vest for their dogs point out the advantages:

- ease of pulling the dog out of swamp or river thanks to the handle mounted on the top
- when a dogs pulls a lot, there is no pressure exerted on his windpipe as it is the case with a collar
- a dog's chest is somewhat protected from getting scratched and cut; as Susanne says: the soft underbelly flannel somehow keeps Buster from having his entire belly scratched up.

I am looking forward to hearing Andy Bensing's review of the custom made vest he ordered from Wild Boar USA/Ugly Dog Ranch store. One of his dogs has a pretty thin hair and gets all torn up on the chest, sides and belly when she squeezes through the briars. I think that his vest might provide a better protection from scratches than the Ruffwear harness.

10/18/2009
Joe Walters sent me this e-mail after he had seen the post about the Ruffwear vest:
I was tracking a gut shot deer for a hunter the other morning and the track ended at a ditch. It only had about three or four inches of water in it so I picked Doc up by his harness and proceeded across. Under the water was about three feet of black muck and I went in over my "frog legs", chaps over knee boots. Doc came out unscaithed, but I came out smelling pretty awful and very wet. Oh, the joys of tracking. I love it. Joe and Doc

Susanne Hamilton added:

With all the tracking I've done, I have not had a single issue with injuries to the skin at all, (amazing enough no scratches whatsoever). The thing that's most valuable is the handle... heck I pick Buster up by it all the time. The other good thing is that the actual clip where I use the leash seems just in the right place to relieve stress of the dogs back.
Buster has been less tired and less sore since using the ruffwear harness. Sometimes too much harness can cause rubbing, so until the new vest is proven and put through the ringer, like the ruffwear one has, and by several trackers, I think it's not really right to say that Andy's vest is going to be even better.

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It looks like handlers love the Ruffwear harness/vest.