Tracking wounded deer across river yields some surprises

By Darren Doran

2015/11/05

I had a track today for a hunter that I tracked for last year. Last year we tracked his deer to a river that we didn’t have permission to cross. It took the hunter 4 days to get permission, and he found his deer 75 yards on the other side with his head cut off.

This year permission to cross had been secured just in case. Anyway the hunter shot the deer at 45 yards with a crossbow, and only had a split second to observe the deer through the foliage before it was gone. He thought the shot was good. He got down and didn’t find his bolt or any blood at the hit site. He didn’t search any further and called me.

I started Theo where the hunter thought the deer had been hit and Theo took a line. We went down into the bottom and started hooking around and heading behind the hunter. I hadn’t seen any blood and we had gone far enough. I told the hunter I wanted to re start and went back to the hit site.

Theo restarted and took a different line and the hunter thought that this was the way the deer had run. After some distance I marked a drop of blood and knew that: 1) the hunter actually hit the deer and 2) we were on a right line. Theo tracked into the bottom and to a bed. I had found about a shot glass of blood to this point and the bed was blood free.

We continued on and I knew the deer was heading for the river. Sure enough we tracked in ankle deep water and muck to the river’s edge. I sent Theo up and down both banks as far as we could go in the mud to make sure the deer didn’t turn but it was evident it swam across. This river is not real wide but too deep and muddy to get across. I flagged the spot and marked the GPS, and we went back to the trucks to drive around. The hunter called the landowner and told him we were coming on his side.

Once on the opposite side of the river where the deer crossed, I noticed a gas pipe line across the river. The weeds and brush along that bank were mowed about 30 feet wide where the pipe went under the river. I restarted Theo and he was checking all around. He was sniffing the grass and all the weeds along the edge on our side.

When Theo can’t find the scent he is looking for he will circle and go back to a spot he knows he had it. Today was no different. He jumped into the river and swam back to the side we had just left. Here’s where a 50 ft. lead comes in handy. I was able to wade out some with the water below my boots and give him enough lead to do his thing. He checked around on the bank by my flag and satisfied the deer crossed he swam back.

The river in this spot made an S bend and Theo then swam out to the belly of the S. He was standing in the water at the bank sniffing the weeds and grasses at the edge. Here’s where it started to get a little messy. I didn’t have enough lead to let him get up the bank and this was the way he wanted to go. I had to wade out to my knees to give him enough lead to get up the bank. Theo’s really pulling now and I’m stuck I can’t go any further forward. I told the hunter that we need a boat.

The hunter called the landowner and just so happened he had a jon boat. It took about 20 minutes to get the boat and the whole time Theo wants to go. In my training with Theo I’ve trained an EASY command. What this means is that I’m coming but you have to give me time. I use it a lot when I’m crawling and snipping my way through briars or navigating dead falls. I told him EASY and he just stood slightly pulling on the lead. We got into the boat and paddled across and Theo took of down a run on the ox bow of the river. We were tracking along on a run in about ankle deep water. I hadn’t seen any blood and suddenly he turned right into some thick swamp grass and brush. Next think I know all hell is breaking loose. I thought for sure the deer was getting up and I yelled to the hunter there he goes. Only thing it wasn’t a deer it was a giant gobbler that flushed out. I’m not used to seeing turkeys in a swamp like that and that was the last thing I expected to see.

I corrected Theo and continued to search the rest of the ox bow for the deer or sign while the hunter paddled down the river looking. Theo wanted to go back down the run he was on before he got side tracked by the turkey, but the water was getting too deep and muddy to get through. I do believe the deer went that way but I also believe the deer was still alive.

The hunter didn’t track or attempt to pursue the buck the night before and I believe him. We should have found the deer in the first bed or another one very close if he was mortally wounded.

I called the track, got in the boat and we went back to the pipe line. I searched the rest of the river bank and brush back to the bridge at the road just in case we missed something.

And so it goes I told the hunter if he finds the deer or sees him alive to give me a call.

Not all wounded deer can be recovered, even if you use a tracking dog

Time to get back to the topic of tracking dogs because we really fell behind with our blogging and emails. I apologize to all our contributors and those who are still waiting for our replies.

We received this letter from Judy Catrett on December 10. As you recall Judy lives in Georgia where it is legal to track with a dog off-leash. Mossy (aka Viola von Moosbach-Zuzelek) is an eight-month-old daughter of Tommy and Tuesday. Thank you Judy!

Just a note to let you know how Mossy is progressing.  We have now started doing a fair amount of tracking for hunters other than those that are guests of the plantation which Craig manages.  I had read John's books, Dead On!  and Tracking Dogs for Wounded Deer prior to tracking season, but have found myself using them as a reference after several tracks recently.  I am always wondering what we (Mossy and I) did not do when we were unable to retrieve a wounded deer--so I dig into the books hoping to obtain a little more knowledge along with rethinking what we did and could have done differently on each track. 

Mossy Brooke continues to be an excellent tracker and her name has become well known around our little town and county as well as into some neighboring counties.  Since I last emailed you, we have been on several tracks that we were unable to find the deer.  One deer had a broken front leg--the hunter shot the deer straight on into the brisket area. Leg bone, a fragment of the bullet, and muscle tissue were found at the site of the shot.  Mossy and I arrived approx. 5 hours after the deer had been shot and after 2 inches of rain.  She immediately picked up the trail and actually jumped the deer within 100 yards of the last blood the hunter had found (this had been washed away by the time we arrived).  She was tracking off leash as she was in an area that was safe for her to do this and the briars were so thick and tall that it was almost impossible for me to keep her on leash.  I was 40 yards behind her when she bayed the deer. The deer immediately ran and she bayed it twice more during her trailing, for only a few seconds each time.   The deer had stopped bleeding and crossed 2 creeks during this tracking.  We trailed this deer for 1 1/2 miles and it was showing no signs of slowing down, so I stopped Mossy as I felt that this was another wound that would not slow the deer enough for us to retrieve it.

We had a similar experience with a buck that I think was shot above the spine and stunned for a few minutes.  This was the second buck that we have tracked this year with this type of injury.  Mossy tracked it on leash for over 1 mile. This track was 11 hours old when we arrived.  On arrival, she immediately picked up on the blood trail which dwindled to no blood within 150 yards.  She continued to pull strong on the leash throughout the entire track.  I finally had to stop her around midnight as this seemed to be a nonfatal injury with no bleeding being noted along the trail past the first 150 yards and I had to work the next day.

We then tracked a deer that was gut shot 24 hours previous to our arrival.  This deer was probably shot in the stomach as acorns and corn were noted at the shot site.  I certainly thought that this buck would be found.  There had been 2 to 3 inches of rain during the 24 hours that had passed since the shot.  She trailed the buck for approx. 1 to 1 1/4 miles total, off leash. She bayed the buck in a very thick pine thicket with terrible briars for a few seconds, but when the buck heard me coming it ran.  Mossy trailed it to a large pond which neither she nor I could cross.  The hunter's (age 12) father owned this land and decided that there was no easy way to get to where the buck may have gone if he was able to cross the water and that he would watch for a floating deer or buzzards in the next few days.  This is one track that I am still puzzled over.  I certainly thought that the deer would be in the edge of the water and that the wound would be significant enough that Mossy and I could catch up with the deer.  I am still mulling this over in my head trying to decide what should have been done differently.

Craig took Mossy on a track in which the deer was tracked for 1 1/2 miles.  She was on leash on this track and Craig did not have a gun as the hunter was carrying a rifle and going with them.  After 3/4 mile, Mossy walked into a briar thicket and actually put her nose on the deer's hip.  The deer was still alive --shot through the flank areas (gut shot)--and it stood up when Mossy touched it.  The hunter had been unable to keep up with Craig and Mossy in the briars and when Craig had to yell for him to come with the gun, the deer ran another 3/4 of a mile at which time Craig had to stop tracking due to property lines.  Craig has not tracked as much as I have and did not realize the importance of being self sufficient and having his own gun.  A lesson well learned he said after being dragged through 1 1/2 miles of briars by Mossy.

I am realizing that wounded bucks will let Mossy Brooke get fairly close to them and they will have a stand off with her if they still have enough life left in them to possibly survive. This I think occurs because of her small size and bucks detecting her as not being threatening.  If I try to approach a buck with a wound that may not be fatal, it immediately bolts as soon as it detects a larger creature approaching.  It is almost impossible for me to get to the buck without making noise due to the thick vegetation and briars.  I would appreciate any feedback on how to handle these situations.  I think that this is one reason a lot of trackers in the south use larger dogs who actually catch the deer and keep them at bay until the person with a gun can get there.  Don't worry, I would never trade my Mossy Brooke for a larger dog.

Mossy Brooke is an awesome little dog with a love for tracking that cannot be described.  I consider myself very lucky to have her--for tracking and more so as a companion.   She is almost 8 months old and has now found a total of 26 deer (December 10).  

Hope you and John have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,

Judy

Mossy modeling her camo jacket with Erin prior to going hunting. Mossy stays in the car very quietly with her camo jacket when I take the kids hunting. I am also sending a picture of the buck that Erin killed on our hunt a couple of hours after this picture was taken. Mossy was not in the picture because Erin dropped the deer in its tracks. Mossy still had fun acting like she found it. All of the kids love Mossy as she does them. I take most of these kids turkey hunting in the spring also, so, if Mossy finds a deer for anyone, when they ask what they owe for her services, I request the favor of being able to bring one kid to their property for a turkey hunt next spring.  I am now having to keep a list of the places Mossy has earned us the opportunity to turkey hunt.  When I sit back and look at all Mossy has done here in Georgia--in addition to tracking wounded deer--I am overwhelmed. Introducing kids to hunting, the outdoors, and WHDs is awesome.

Memorable tracks do not have to end with recovered deer or bear

Sometimes the most memorable tracks do not produce a dead deer or bear at the end. These are two examples of such tracks that were also very long. A big thank you to Chris and Pete for sharing them with us..

Chris Barr from Indiana tracks with Gerti (Gwen von Moosbach-Zuzelek), who is a  5½ year old daughter of Billy and Gilda, and the track is a direct quote from his email:

I wanted to tell you about my most recent track with Gerti which occurred this past Tuesday evening. The hunter shot a small buck at 9:00 in the morning with a head on facing chest shot. He had blood and bone fragments at the hit sight. He tracked for approximately 150 yards before losing the blood. I arrived at the hit site at about 7:00 that evening and put Gerti down at the hit. She took off immediately with no re-starts necessary. She pulled me down to the point of loss very quickly. I had not seen any blood since the first 50 yards or so but she was pulling very confidently. We continued for several hundred yards with no blood. I called back to the hunter, who was doing a great job of keeping up, that the rope “felt” the same as it had since the hit site but that I was dying for some confirmation. (I have a bad habit of not trusting Gerti sometimes). Well I finally saw some blood and I felt very confident that I could pretty much blindly trust her from that point forward.

It ended up being a 3.5 mile track where we caught up to the deer twice and I even got a shot at him the second time. He only let me get about 30 yards away. The cliff-notes version is that we were in Yellowwood State Forrest. We had no cell signal and we had to rob the batteries from my portable radios for my GPS as it had gone dead. We kept pushing the deer because I just felt (and I checked with 2 experts) that it was the right thing to do. To this point, I had never had a track where I had seen the deer and not eventually recovered it. 

We finally had to make the hard decision to abandon the track. We recorded last blood with GPS coordinates and he was going to try to come back. I was honestly starting to get a little freaked out when everything battery powered we had was dying. I was concerned that if we lost our lights that we may have a long night in the woods in front of us. Temps dipped into the 20’s, and as you can imagine, we’d worked up quite a sweat.

This was without a doubt Gerti’s best track of the season. I give her credit for a “find” because she found him twice! I believe shot must have glanced down and along the brisket and hit the shoulder. I think we could have eventually walked him down. I hated to leave him.

We’ve had a frustrating season. This was only our 10^th track total. We are usually in the 20’s by now. I haven’t had the local calls I’m used to and many of the UBT calls have just been too far with me working and hunting myself. This was our 3^rd find and possibly Gerti’s best track ever. The total distance from the truck back to the truck was 5.5 miles….and suffice it to say there were no fields and the hills of Brown County can get steep.

When we made it home around midnight Gerti ate supper and then disappeared under a blanket with my daughter’s fiancé. Not a bad life…for me either.

---------------

Pete Martin from Kiamesha Lake, NY, wrote recently about one of his tracking adventures with Lisa von Moosbach-Zuzelek, a  9½ year old daughter of Billy and Gela.

What an unbelievable bear call on Saturday night of November 15.  Took up track Sunday morning @ 7:30 am, 11 hours later. Bear was shot with .270 @ 50 yards by a 17 year old hunter. It was in Ulster County, on state land in Voor Nuy Kill area outside Ellenville.

The hit site showed moderate blood and hair. As we proceeded to track it was obvious that the bear was bleeding profusely. The hunter, his dad and uncle did excellent  job tracking bear 400-500 yards, zig-zagging up and down side of steep mountainside. We passed last marker and blood. Lisa was on this track like nobody’s business. Straight down mountainside to small wet swampy area with good blood all the way.

Here comes the LONG TRACK made short. Next 4 miles up mountainsides, down steep hills, flat open hardwoods, blowdowns, streams, mountain laurel. You had to crawl on hands and knees. Lisa showed us every little blood spot you could possibly imagine, It wasn't too long, maybe one mile, I realized and explained to tracking crew we were pushing a wise old bear. We saw fresh wet blood. At start of track blood was plentiful and dark. This bear couldn’t have been that far ahead of us but just far enough we couldn't catch up. Lisa was totally vocal which indicated to me she was on very fresh scent and blood.

There were two very tough checking spots for Lisa to figure out but after 12 minutes or so she took us off in the right direction to more blood. Amazing. Some blood drops were 75 to 100 yards apart. I could not believe the strength and persistence of this bear. This bear did everything you could imagine Circled, went up and down same but different hills more than once, back tracked, bedded. Near the end blood was getting watery and weak but Lisa was right on it. The tracking crew and hunter could not believe it. At one point close to end of track someone behind me said "you have a million dollar dog -never saw anything like this before. These were experienced hunters.

Lisa never quit pulling, nose to the ground so focused and vocal. She wanted this bear so bad and knew it wasn't that far ahead of us. Still had small drops of blood going up yet another hill. Hunter’s father and uncle decided we were not going to catch up to bear, and they called off track after 4½  hrs. Everybody was completely exhausted, myself including. My only regret is that we didn't take a long break and continue to track as I thought the bear must be at his end. We were almost to the Roundout Reservoir.

Two Old Men in the Woods

by John Jeanneney

Yesterday  was the first day of our bow season and my first day of tracking at age 79. I have total confidence in my tracking dog Tommy, but I confess that I was a bit concerned about my own agility in  the woods. Jolanta was even more concerned and went along so that she could call in the EMS helicopter if necessary.

I was almost relieved when I met the hunter. He was slightly younger than I am, but in considerably worse  physical shape. I knew that no one was going to laugh at me in this situation. It turned out that he had brought along his own daughter/caregiver, who got along just fine with Jolanta.

Fortunately Tommy Tracker was the one who really had his act together. The start was complicated because there were no markers, and the hunter could not find any blood to verify the line. We ended up going  to the "point of loss", which is  not the ideal place to begin. Here there was  a confusing pattern of muscle blood that had been walked over by the hunter. Tommy figured the mess out and took a line. Blood... Blood.... Then a long stretch with no blood, but I could see that Tommy was confident. "Trust your dog."

The deer was a big doe, shot quartering away with a Rage expandable broadhead. We had hoped for a one-lunger at least, but had seen nothing but muscle blood. As you know, Rage broadheads have been know to deflect along a rib cage. The doe never laid down, but after a quarter mile in very dense cover, I could tell by Tommy's body language that he had jumped her. The hunter also found a drop of blood, which laid any doubts to rest.

We were on the line.

We pushed another 100 yards, and then all agreed that this big venison package was not "gettable". The hunter's family was in need of the meat, but we had to face reality. At least I could  face the reality of some fine dog work. This was enough for me and Tommy and Jolanta. We will help this hunter another day.

Muscle blood

.

Two different deer tracking strategies produced different results

Thank you to Ken Parker, a UBT member from Georgia, for the report on two tracks he did with Mirko and Baby, his Bavarians.

Tuesday morning around 10 AM I got a call from a hunter stating that he had shot a big buck around 8:30 with his crossbow but backed out when he realized he had gut shot the deer. I advised him that we needed to wait 6-8 hrs after the shot before we took up the track. I was going to try to get off around 2:30 to head his way.
Well around lunch I got a second call of a deer down that could not be found. The hunter could not find any more blood after a few hundred yards and he had spent the morning walking the woods looking for his deer. We talked some and I told him that I should be able to get to him between 9 and 10 that night.  He said that he had someone coming in a few hours and they were going to be looking some more.

I was not able to get off until 3:30 so that would put me getting to the first track around 5. We were able to get in and get started quickly. Mirko, my male BGS, was the one who was up for this track. He quickly worked the line out to the hunter's stopping point and out into an old grown up field. The wind was swirling some and he kept putting his head up like he was winding the deer. He finally picked a line and off we went down into a swamp. There was so much deer sign it was hard to to tell if he was on the right deer or not.

I decided to pull him off the track and restart him to see if he brought us back to the same spot. In the meantime I also got a call from the second hunter stating that they had found a wound bed and were going to bring in a bloodhound. If they did, would it be an issue for my dogs if I was till needed? I said no problem, go for it.

Returning to the hit site I restarted Mirko and he took us right down to the same opening and started working with his head up again. Off we went down the same trail again for about 50 yards, then we turn left, OK, new spot, lets go. Mirko took me across the old field and over near the road and power line. Here he turned up toward an industrial building. At this point I was just letting him drag the lead around as I did not want to crawl into the thicket he was in. That is when the world came alive.

A big deer came barreling by me and I knew right away we had the hunter's deer up and moving. It was now 6:30 and it had been 10 hrs since the shot. We decided to give the deer some time and went to move the trucks around to where we were now. Boy I did not know it was going to take us so long to get started again. As I was getting ready to go back in the woods I realized I did not have my GPS tracker for the dogs. I must have dropped it when we were getting back in the trucks. So off we went back to the other side but no gps. Now I was mad as that was a lot of money, then it hit me. The controller beeps when the dog trees so we could check if we heard it.

I started to think when the last time was when we had it. So we went back to the spot where the deer about ran me over and started our search. Sure enough, we heard the beep so it was close but where? We spent the next 30-45 minutes walking in a 20 yard circle hearing the beep but not finding the unit. Finally, we all agreed that we were within 10 ft but still could not find it  because of very tall briars. Then Derek looked down and low and behold we had been standing on it in the trail.

Back to work - did the deer go to the swamp or cross the road. Mirko was so ready that when I hooked him back up and told him to "find it" that he about pulled my arm out of the socket going after the fresh track that was now a little over 1 1/2 hrs old. Well this is the lucky hunter as we came up on the deer in about 150 yards as it was taking its last breath. When it got up and ran that was the last bit of energy it had.

So back to what we all knew would be the unlucky hunter. I gave him a call and told him that I could be there at 9 PM if they had not found the deer. They did not find it and wanted us to come. I got there at 9 and we got down to the hit sight. As it turned out the hunter had waited only 20 minutes before he started to look for his deer. That is when we heard a large pack of coyotes off in the direction I was told the deer had gone. I wanted to start at the beginning of the track since they had spent the better part of the day looking near the point of loss and later another dog had been on the track.

This time it was Baby's turn to track. She is getting old and is easy to follow so I just let her drag the lead instead of holding onto it. We quickly worked the line out to the point of loss and then out to were the hunter's friend had found a wound bed. Baby was slow and steady and not only showed us the wound bed but the other two wound beds also. So we kept going and the deer turned and went under a fence. I was told that the bloodhound did that too but he turned and went back down the fence the way we came. Baby ignored this and went straight across the open area into the next wood lot. Here things got a little weird and we lost the track. I decided to work her around the field to see if we cut the track or could wind the deer in the field.

We worked all the way around the field and came back to the track at the wound beds. But this time I spotted the fourth wound bed. There were 4 in 50 yards. This deer was hit hard to keep getting up and moving like that. So again under the fence and into the woods but this time we took an immediate right just inside the woods. It was now getting close to 11 and the hunter's was about to drop from being so tired and worn out from looking all day. I was also getting tired. But that is when we noticed, more blood. So here we were with new sign to guide us. Baby continued finding a few more spots and then took me out across this wood lot into another field across it and into the next section of woods that holds two house and the road. Well this was where the track ended for us. The deer crossed the road and went where we could not go at that time.

 

The difference in recovering and not was pretty straight forward.

•  The first hunter recognized he gut shot and backed out following my instructions not to go back in there as he might push the deer. Second hunter only waited 20 minutes and searched all day walking and disturbing the woods.
• If the deer runs out of sight wait at least 2 hrs. If you even think there is a chance of gut or liver wait 6 hours or more if you can. I know weather plays a big factor in how long you can wait.
• If you go more than a few hundred yards and have not found the deer, back out and wait a while.
• If you do jump the deer wait another 4 hrs.
• None of this will guarantee a recovery but it will increase your odds. It will also be less likely that you have to call in a tracking dog. But if you do and have done everything right, then hopefully your deer will be found within a few hundred yards instead of a mile or more because you were in to big a rush and pushed the deer.

Here is Derek Snyder and his boy with Derek's perfect 10. This was a very tall and heavy racked 10. Not a lot of spread on him but a very symmetrical rack.

When a track is a success?

We all get that question, "What's your success rate?".  In the leashed tracking dog states we have to tell them, "Around 35%" because we know that what they are asking for is the frequency with which we find the deer and tag it. It goes without saying that the non-productive 65% are FAILURES.

If you have tracked for a while you come to realize that it's not that simple. Some of those FAILURES, when you didn't get the deer, actually become sources of pride and satisfaction. Our tracking adventure this afternoon is a good illustration.

We got the call this morning. The buck had been hit behind the shoulder late the previous afternoon with a Rage expandable broadhead. As happens, all too frequently, there had been inadequate penetration, four to five inches. The one thing that made me take the call was detail that the buck was occasionally blowing fine droplets of blood from his nose; a lung had been penetrated, but it was impossible to know how much damage had been done. A deer can go on one lung, and the damaged lung can eventually heal and become functional again.

Another slight complication was that the hunter's son was playing that morning in a high school football game. A good father knows that family comes first! It wasn't until 1:30 PM that Jolanta, Tommy and I  started on a long ATV ride back to where we were to begin tracking. We didn't start at the hit site, which is the normal thing to do, because the buck had been eye-tracked so far the previous night. Tommy, our tracking dog, started on a drop of blood and took off across the very dry leaves and pine needles.

Occasional drops of blood reassured us that we were on a right track.

The hunter and his buddy had done a superb  of eye-tracking, the best I've ever seen, and Tommy stayed on the line for a quarter of a mile into some very thick brush that involved crawling on my hands and knees. It was a hot mid-afternoon, but I was thankful for my heavy nylon coat and chaps. I had to plow along where Tommy  was tracking. Jolanta zoomed in whenever the brush cleared to give Tommy water and encouragement to us both. Tommy was hot, but totally focused on his  work. He was "locked in" on the scent line now 22 hours old. We broke out into an overgrown field where the deer had bedded the night before.

John's worn out tracking coat.

In the field of dry grass and goldenrod we found no blood at all, but Tommy seemed to have footprint scent to work with. Clearly the scent line was fresher now, even though scenting conditions were at their worst. Tommy worked down through the deer runs, checking carefully to make sure at each intersection. This was a hot deer area, but Tommy seemed positive that he was on the right line. "Trust your dog!"

Tommy tracking the lung-shot wounded deer that we could not get.

I began to realize that there would be no "successful find" on this call. This buck had come too far and had stayed strong for too long. If he had been fatally gut shot, things would have been different, but clearly this buck was not  losing blood now  and he was in a condition to keep going, back into the thick stuff, as long as we wanted to follow.

The decision to quit is a delicate matter. I like to have the hunter participate and  agree that there is little chance of catching up to the deer. Would the hunter believe that we were  still on his buck and not just rambling around on hot lines of healthy deer? Then the hunter's buddy, who had been following us closely, found blood, a tiny drop, but it was fresh and still wet. I checked Tommy for briar scratches, which might have left that drop. Tommy was clean, and Tommy was right. We were still on the wounded buck, and the buck was still strong after 22 hours. We pushed on for another 200 yards with Tommy pulling confidently.

We came to an ATV trail through the thickets. Tommy pushed on across but the humans were ready to stop. The hunter knew that the trail led back to where we had originally left the ATV. We called  back Tommy and he seemed to understand. There was no getting this deer even though  he had done his best. The whole tracking adventure seemed  a success, not a failure,  both for Tommy and for the folks who had supported him from  the other end of the long tracking leash.

What do you think? Success or failure?

Going back to the ATV.

Tracking adventures of Bob and Thor on the opening weekend

By Bob Yax, Deer Search of Finger Lakes

owner of Thor (Thor von Moosbach-Zuzelek, born April 6, 2012)

We had a good opening weekend even though the temps were in the 70s and 80s and it rained a lot.  We went on 3 calls with 2 pretty easy recoveries and a weird non-recovery.   Thor showed me that he was picking up pretty much where we left off last year.

       

The 1st call was for a hit that took place at sunset, in the pouring rain, on Friday evening.  The hunter Josh,  said he didn’t know where he hit the buck, but he did have a broadside pass through shot from about 40 yds.  He said that it looked like dark blood and stomach matter on the arrow.  After the hit, he only followed the slight blood trail a short way in the rain, before turning back.  After talking to him, we decided to pick up the trail first thing Saturday morning.  When I inspected the arrow on Saturday morning, I did find dark blood and the telltale gritty / sand-like particles that indicated stomach contents.  I told Josh that if it was a stomach only hit, the deer could still be alive, but if it also hit liver, the deer would be dead by now (13 hrs after the hit), likely within a few hundred yards.

Once at the hit site, Thor quickly picked up the scent in the still wet  hardwoods.  In the first 50 yds of the trail I was happy to come across a few spots where the blood had not been washed away.  Thor continued on a pretty straight line another 50 yds or so until he began circling and backtracking a bit.  Since the hunter had not followed the trail this far, I figured that the buck must have stopped here and wandered around a bit looking for a place to bed.   Over the next  5 minutes, Thor constantly went back and forth over the same 30 yd circle.  I learned last year that at this point I had to let him figure this out on his own.  The only help I could provided was to make sure my son Nate had marked the last blood sign up the trail a bit in case we had to go back to it.  Luckily, Thor finally headed off in a clear direction along an overgrown logging road.  After a short distance, I then saw another blood drop – Great ! we’re back on it.   After a few more blood drops in the next  75 yds down the logging road, Thor took a left off the road and there in the patch of berry bushes was the dead 7pt.  We confirmed later that the arrow had just caught the bottom of the liver as well as the stomach.   All toll, we probably only traveled about 250 yds during the 10 – 15 minute search.  

         

                                                     Hunter  with  Nate Yax & Thor in Howard NY

         

Our 2nd track was a very similar situation.  The Hunter, Cory had hit a buck on Saturday evening just before dark.  He too had a good broadside shot from about 30 yds but didn’t know where he hit it.  The arrow had blood from tip to tip but he didn’t  think there was any stomach matter on the arrow.  When he inspected the hit site,  he found some blood, but it soon began disappearing when a hard rain started.  He tracked some blood for about 100 yds, but then could find no more.  Later that night he and his father searched an area ahead of the last blood sign with no luck.   I arranged to meet him first thing Sunday morning.  Associate tracker Ark Pisarevsky was along to help.

It was very damp and foggy when we met up with Cory on Sunday morning.  This time the arrow contained a lot of bright pink/red blood – lung blood.  There was no sign of stomach contents or dark muscle or liver blood.  From the description of the hit, this could be a good double lung hit.  Once we got to the hit site, I could see that Cory had marked his initial blood trail with orange tape for about 100 yds. The area was a mix of trees with a lot of thick rose bushes at ground level.  

Thor got on the trail quickly and followed right along the markers.  There was no blood sign however. We soon got to the end of the markers and to the point where Cory and his dad had lost the trail the previous night.  At this point I knew we would have trouble.  After losing the trail the previous night, Cory and his dad had done a grid search of the area ahead, surely with blood on their boots.  At this point Thor began searching in a random pattern all around the area.  At one point we headed off into an uncontaminated area of thick rose bushes.  After about 50 yds, Thor got stuck in thorns with nowhere to go.  I had to pick him up and carry him several times just to free him.

I finally headed him back to the last blood marker and after a few minutes of seemingly random searching the “mucked up – boot print” area again,  he headed off in a straight line like he was on something.  Within a few minutes,  I looked up and saw the dead 9 pt about 40 yds ahead of  him.  The shot ended up being a good, slightly high,  double lung shot.  The buck had gone about 200 yds total.  Again it only took about 15 minutes and I never did see a spec of blood.  I was really happy to see that  Thor again had worked through a problem area and got on the right trail to the deer.

Hunter with Bob Yax and Thor in Hemlock NY

Finally we took our 3rd call late Sunday afternoon.  Associate Deer Search tracker Joe Dallas was with me.  The temperature was 82 degrees!!!  This hunter had hit the deer at 7 am Sunday.   The button buck was only 5 yds from his 16 ft high tree stand.  The deer was facing directly at him with his head down and feeding when he shot (bad shot to take!).  He described the hit, which he plainly saw, as just to the left of the deer’s  spine  (the deer’s right side) and  towards the back of the lung area. He said it was a complete pass thru and there seemed to be stomach matter as well as a little blood and white hair on the fletching.  

The arrow was stuck in the ground when he found it.  He described just a slight blood trail because again, right after he hit the deer it had rained hard.  He thought that the arrow had also been somewhat cleaned off from the hard rain.  After talking to him I agreed to help him at about 5:00.  If it was a one lung & gut hit, this might be enough time.  If it was a liver and gut hit the deer would be dead.  When I met up with him I did a quick inspection of the arrow.  The broad head and first 4 inches of the arrow was covered in dirt.  The camo arrow shaft was pretty clean with just a few area of pink/red.   The fletching were slightly greasy had a slight odor and a few grainy particles (gut matter?) on them.  Both the fletching and nock had white hair on them.

To make a 45 minute, hot /sweaty story,  shorter,   there was no blood at the hit site, no blood on the trail.  No beds found.  Thor never seemed to get hot onto any trail, until near the end when I think he jumped a live/not wounded deer – he began yelping / barking  and pulling hard, a classic sign for him.  About the time I was ready to give up,  we were back near the hunters truck.  I told Joe, “I want to see that arrow again”.  It was in the bed of the hunters truck.  I pulled a paper towel  from my pocket, spit on it and proceeded to wipe down the entire arrow and fletching.  There was not a trace of pink on the paper towel!!   The arrow did still have a little pink / red  PAINT!  on it however.    About this time the hunter came back to the truck.  He said “what now ?”  –  I said “I’ve got one question for you”-  “Did you wash your arrow” – he said no!   I said “then you never hit the deer” and showed him the clean paper towel.  He said, “maybe I need glasses”!

I learned again that often what a hunter sees and what really happened are not the same.

PS – I think this hunter shot off to the side of the deer and stuck the arrow deep into the ground.  The deer then jumped and turned 180 degrees to run off.  I think he landed belly first on the nock end of the arrow leaving some grease and white hair on it.

A memorable bear track for Buster and Susanne

This picture shows Susanne and Buster on one of the tracks they did in 2012.

By Susanne Hamilton

The saying that things get better with age is true although for me it comes as a two edged sword.

My dog Buster is 11 years old and has many jobs of which all of them he takes very seriously. He is my best friend, my constant companion, my horse show dog, my field trialing dog, my agility dog and last but not least my tracking dog. My friend Jolanta always says that there is no such thing as the perfect dog, but  to me this little guy is the embodiment of perfection and all I wish is that I could make time stand still to keep him just the way he is right now for ever and ever! 

I want to tell the story of a recent track  in which although we did not end up with a find, everything went right...

It was at 11:30 at night and I was just ready to get to bed when I got a Facebook message that someone was looking for a tracking dog to find a wounded bear in Maine. After a short conversation on the I couldn't resist going on this track even though I realized this was two and a half hours away. It was our first call of the season and both Buster and I were itching to go.

The man that called, Chris, is an experienced hunter and guide, and he was devastated because a good shot turned into a bad one. The bear moved the moment he pulled back the release of his bow, which resulted in the arrow landing on the upper part  of his hindquarters. The bear had taken off with a loud roar, then crashed, then got up again and crashed again, and after that there had been silence.

From the description of the shot, I did not think we had a fatally wounded animal, however, there is always the question "what if", and Chris, my hunter was really anxious. The arrow was a fixed blade, and from the description,  it was at least ten inches in the bear. I pondered it for a short while, and decided to take a chance.

There was no evidence of blood at the hit site, and Chris had really never found any blood during his search for the bear he had shot at 6pm that evening,  but Buster does not need blood to follow a track. We knew the bear had been hit high, with no exit wound.  The people who usually need blood evidence, are either a) the tracker, who would like to know that his/her dog is persuing the right animal or b) the hunter, who feels awful, that he took a bad shot, and made every effort to find a "bloodhound" and now doesn't really trust that a little 20 pound dog  on short legs with a blonde chick at the end of a tether could  in all actuality sniff out and recover his wounded game.

When we arrived at the bait site at about 2:30 AM, my eyes fell on all the bait scattered at the site...   to me it stank, but to Buster, it must have smelled like a feast.  I wondered for a split second, if Buster was going to show more interest in the food than in the bear track, but I was mistaken, and he never even glanced at it. As always, he was all business.

Chris  showed me the exact direction the bear had taken off after being hit, but Buster gingerly chose an entirely different trail in front of the trail camera.  I was puzzled,  and trusting my dog, I let him lead the way for a bit, but then  chose to reset him back onto the trail that the hunter showed me, and that he had been certain, the bear had disappeared. Buster threw me a short glance, put his nose down, and started tracking.

Off we went, and Chris who was searching for any evidence behind me was excited. He felt that this was exactly the direction the bear had taken,  just before he heard him crash.  Buster confidently kept up on the trail, swung slightly to the left after about 300 yards, and kept a good pull on the lead. He felt very consistent to me but after a half a mile with absolutely no blood evidence I made the decision to go back to the bait site to see if Buster would take the same track again.

My general rule is, if Buster tracks it once, I may on occasion be allowed to be a skeptic, especially if there is absolutely no evidence or signs to prove we're on the right track,  but  if he takes the same trail twice and he is committed to that track, I had BETTER follow his lead.

I carried Buster back to the bait site,  put him  on the same trail and asked him to "find that bear".  He gave me a look that one would get from someone who feels a bit sorry for you because you're a little slow on the uptake, but then turned, and patiently took me along exactly the same trail we had taken before.

I love tracking at night, there is something serene and quiet about it. There aren't any of  the loud abstract colors and distractions  that appear in the daylight, my entire world exists in the low glow of my headlamp and everything around us is dark. It gives you a feeling of being almost encapsulated. The little world includes only myself, my dog and often my hunter. One’s senses tend to sharpen to details of the trail.

 This time,  about 300 yards into the track, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a tiny black spot, I did a double take low and behold, on a small fern, with only six or so fern leaves, there was a pin drop of blood. I hollered for Chris to come and check it out, and the excitement grew.  I marked the spot with some tape, and also marked it in my GPS. This pin drop of blood was to be the only blood we found on the entire trail.

We tracked to our half mile mark, and just when I told Chris that we were now passing the spot where we had decided to reset Buster the last time,  I found the chewed off  end of the arrow. Buster had stopped and pointed it out to me.

From that arrow, we could now tell that it probably had only penetrated about 4-5 inches, which made me suddenly realize, that this bear was probably at the most just "pissed off".

 However, Buster really pulled and told me to get going, and Chris really felt that he wasn't finished "looking" ye, so  we marked that spot and off we went again. This time, the track took us on a large circle, which after fifteen minutes ended exactly where I had marked the arrow. Then suddenly we heard a loud crashing through the woods, VERY close to us. Buster jumped directly behind me.  I have to give it to him.... He knows he's in charge of finding these bears, but when it comes to "killing them", he'd rather leave the job to one of his two- legged hunting partners.

 From this moment on, Buster tracked very close to me, which is usually a sign, that the bear is very close by.  This was evident on many levels, being that we had a heavy morning dew at this point, we could see where the dew was disrupted. It was also evident that this large male bear lived here.  There was evidence of bedding places, and bear trails, and Chris knew from the cameras, that this was the only male bear in the area. He had over 400 pictures of this bear, and we where literally right  in HIS living room!!!

 

The bear's picture caught on a trail camera

 

 When we had traveled a total of about two miles,  had tracked for 3.5 hours and the first signs of daylight where visible in the sky and it was 6:00 am , I looked at Chris, and on his face, I could tell that he was finally satisfied, that he had done the best he could, and that aside from the feeling of guilt causing an animal to suffer, he could accept that this bear was not going to get caught... not that night anyway! 

 I took off Buster’s harness, and we checked compass and GPS for the way back to the truck. Tired, sweat soaked, thirsty, but satisfied, I climbed into the car for a two-and-a-half hour ride home.

 Our reward....  Chris's awe and  pure amazement at what my little dog had done for him. We had taken a donation towards gas money, but that means little in comparison to the enthusiastic praise and re-capture of things he had seen Buster do, that "for sure made him the SMARTEST dog he had ever seen in his life..."  that "boy oh boy, he was sure glad that Buster didn't track HIM, because that is 20 LBS of NASTY". Hunters like  Chris, remind me why I can spend an entire night driving and tracking, not get a wink of sleep, but will walk around all day long, with a smile on my face :o)

 Chris called me at 10:30 AM to tell me that he had checked his trail cam, and that the bear had come back to the bait  five hours after he had been shot, with the arrow already gone and hungry for a snack. So I have much confidence, that his bottom will be sore for a few days, with the embedded broad head in it, but that he will recover fully.

 On a short note, the evidence of the camera showed that the bear  left the area EXACTLY where Buster first chose to track him until I reset him onto the colder trail.

 Upon getting home, my tired Buster refused to eat his breakfast, until, according to our tradition, I told Cliff the whole long tracking story. Buster  will sit in front of Cliff, wagging his tail, looking back and forth from me  telling the story to Cliff, ooooh-ing and aaaaaah-ing , and occasionally giving a woof  of encouragement.  It is only then, that he will eat and climb into bed...

What an AWESOME dog!!!

---------------------------------

 

BTW, this is a note Chris left on the United Blood Trackers Facebook: You folks offer a great service and being somewhat of a skeptic prior to this event, I can tell you that I am not a skeptic anymore. This is the first time I have ever relinquished control on a tracking job to anyone else and it taught me a good lesson... A good dog is worth a thousand men, maybe more. Buster is THE MAN!

Not all wounded deer can be recovered

By Andy Bensing

As all trackers know, not all deer that you track are gettable.  Notice how after we jumped the buck, which was heading right back towards the original hit site.  I see this quite frequently, and it helps me to confirm the jumped buck is the right one when you don't see him or there is no sign.    It would be too much of a coincidence for some other deer to take that path as frequently as I see it.  I have had confirmed sightings of this behavior of wounded deer in the past.  We did not see the buck go out but I was pretty sure this was the correct deer when the trail went hot since there was pulled hair in the bloodless bed he came out of.  Pulled hair and a path back to the hit sight confirmed it for me.    Also notice the buck made a classic "J" hook before he bedded.  Distance from hit to bed where we jumped him was 1200 meters and there was no visible blood after the point of loss.  This buck had been shot twice and knocked down twice from both shots with a shotgun slug.  He actually fell down and did not move for 5 minutes after the 2nd shot before he got up and stumbled away.  I found bone fragments that appeared to come from a large joint either leg or hip.  Since he was running well ahead of us 26 hours after the shot and he only bled for 150 yards after the shot in the first place I deemed him ungettable with a dog on a leash, and we quit the trail

Notice how the "active log" has made a nice clean line on Google Earth.  When you save a track on a Garmin and then transfer it to Google earth it displays all those annoying bread crumbs dots on Google Earth.  The "active log" does not display the bread crumbs.   I filled in the approximate path the buck took after I lost my GPS with the thin yellow line.  We did not get the buck but I was real happy when I found my dropped GPS as I re-traced my trail in the swamp.

I try to put my hunters to work as best I can. The hunter is carrying my backpack
and 2 sets of waders just in case we need them to go into the marsh.

Classic Deer Behavior from a Classic Poor Shot Selection

by Andy Bensing
November 13, 2011

Here is the story of a track I had that encompassed many valuable lessons about blood tracking with a dog and hunting whitetail deer in general.  When the call came in the hunter reported having arrowed a mature buck from 20 feet up and at the close distance of only 5 to 8 yards.  When I got to the hit sit the distance was actually even worse.  It was only 4 yards at best.  To make matters even worse than that, the buck was facing directly towards the hunter when he shot.  In that configuration, there is absolutely no chance of double lunging the animal and only an extremely very low chance of hitting the heart.  This is a shot that never should be taken with a bow.  The hunter did not see the arrow hit the deer but he reported a bright red blood soaked arrow with short gray or white hairs on it. 

At the shot, the deer barely reacted and walked away 10 yards and stood wobbling for 20 seconds then walked another 15 yards away and lay down behind a tree in some brush.  The deer laid there, with no window for a second shot, for 45 minutes with its mouth wide open panting.  After 45 minutes the hunter reported the deer staggered to his feet and wobbled away out of sight without offering another shot opportunity.  The deer left a solid 2 inch wide strip of bright red blood from a few yards past the hit site to the place it laid for 45 minutes.  After it got up from the 45 minute bed there was not a single drop of blood found by the hunter or my dog the next day over the course of the whole track as seen below.

After hearing the hunter's account of the deer's behavior after the shot, I assumed he had hit back farther than he had aimed and gut-shot the deer.  When I got to the hit sight I quickly discovered that the deer had been single lunged, not gut shot.  There were 2 oak leaves in the 45 minute bed filled with coagulated blood still showing the typical hundreds of bird shot sized bubbles often seen in blood gurgling out of a deer from a lung shot.  From that point forward there was not a drop of blood found.

In retrospect, what likely happened was the razor sharp arrow cleanly slipped between the ribs and pierced one lung without touching any bone and the deer barely knew anything happened other than a sudden shortness of breath and sick feeling.  He walked over, laid down to rest, the lung collapsed and therefore stopped bleeding as Mother Nature had planned.  Mature bucks are masters of conserving energy.  They rarely panic.  That's how they get to be mature bucks.  Once the bleeding stops and the deer has been lucky enough to not go into shock (as a result of not panicking and running off all crazed and losing too much blood too fast) now all you have is a tired anemic deer with one lung.  No different than a person who just came out of surgery after having one of his two lungs removed.

When I started my dog Eibe on the 24 hour old track she had a bit of difficulty getting going.  I am guessing that with all the massive blood the first 30 yards the area was flooded with scent and she had a hard time figuring out what the deer himself smelled like.  We knew what direction the deer had walked out of the bed but I let Eibe take 4 or 5 trial runs in several directions for 30 or 40 meters each until she finally locked into the deer's individual scent.  There was no blood to be seen and she started poking her nose down into the fluffy oak leaves and checking hoof prints in the soft underlying ground.  Once locked into the correct buck we tracked bloodlessly for 1000 meters through open forest and field and up a steep hill to a briar and laurel thicket.  The trail went about 100 meters into the thicket on the top of the hill and then began to hook back. 

At that point I said to the hunter that I believed we were about to find a dead deer or jump him still alive. This deer had shown typical wounded deer behavior.  He had rested till he got his wits about himself and then headed efficiently back to a safe bedding area to hold up.  Deer will often make a button hook, as indicated on the map above, before bedding down.  This allows them to watch their back trail and see predators coming and slip away before the predator is right up on them.  And that is exactly what this buck did.  After hooking back 100 meters and laying on the edge of a bench 70 meters off to the side of his back trail, this buck saw/heard us coming and slipped away before we saw him.  Eibe got stuck for about 5 minutes at his bed in the button hook I assume because of the abundance of scent there from being there all night.  Once she got that worked out she shot off like a rocket and I suspected then we were on the buck's hot trail but could not be sure as there was no sign except for the classic pattern the track had been taking. 

After 500 meters on the hot trail with no confirming sign I was starting to worry that maybe we were not on the correct deer's trail.  Most of the hot trail showed no hoof prints or sign at all except I had seen some small fresh tracks that went with some very small, warm to the touch droppings.  Not a good sign as these could not possibly have been from our buck.  The small prints eventually disappeared and the trail then began to curve around to begin to make a circle and large prints from a running deer appeared on the line.  I believe the buck initially just walked away from his button hook bed but we eventually got closer and he began to run and therefore started making easily visible tracks. 

I still wasn't absolutely sure Eibe was on the correct deer but when I saw the path of the deer on my GPS circling back to his original trail from the day before my confidence level began to rise.  What are the odds that some other random other deer would take this course?  Not very high in my estimation.  I told the hunter that if the deer we were following continued to loop back towards the button hook bed then we could be pretty darn sure it was the buck we were after.  Deer, just like rabbits and other prey animals make circles back over their previous course of escape to confuse their pursuers. 

Well this buck did not use that strategy but used another strategy that I have seen before.  When he got to the place I expected him to circle back to the button hook, he instead ran right through an overgrown field filled with deer paths everywhere but took the exact course through the field that he had gone the day before but in the opposite direction for 250 meters.  Clearly no coincidence.  If I had had any doubts, they were gone.  This was the correct buck that had been shot the day before through one lung.  The other thing I was pretty sure of was that he was too strong to catch up to with a tracking dog on a leash.  I forgot to mention the other strong, evasive maneuver he used that worked pretty well for him. 

I am sitting here typing this out with my arm in a sling because at one point when he started the 250 meter retrace in the field, it appeared he purposely avoided an easy crossing of a 7 foot deep by 4 foot wide ravine and jumped across the ravine at an awkward spot.  Well, his pursuer, me, fell into that ravine when a log he used as a bridge broke!  But I am pretty tough too so I handed the leash to the hunter for awhile and hobbled along till I got my wind and could take the reins again.  The buck continued back right past the original hit sight and eventually got on the back trail of the trail he had followed before he was shot.  At this point I considered all the following information I knew about the deer:

1.    One lung hit that collapsed and stopped bleeding.
2.    Hole out bottom of chest but not really that much blood likely lost.
3.    Was willing to go up a very steep hill within one or two hours of being shot the day before.
4.    Never let us get close enough to see or hear him even in some very open hardwoods after chasing him
1½ miles after the button hook bed.
5.    Appeared to be able to run through the forest at will without struggling 24 hours after the shot.
6.    Made a very large 500m circle and had enough wits about him to throw in a 250 meter back track.
7.    Tried to kill his pursuers (and almost did) by setting up a booby trap at the ravine :-)

I decided to give up the trail.  As long as this deer can fight off any ensuing infection, this deer has a good chance to recover from his wounds.  I hope my shoulder heels as quickly!

We can't recover all the deer tracked but we can educate hunters.

Genti Shero has an interesting post Blood Tracking Success Depends On?, where he speaks of his frustration of getting only one deer recovered of seven deer and one bear tracked. Also a couple of weeks ago, I received an e-mail from one of our 2010 puppy buyers who wrote:

"Jolanta and John,
Hello. We were wondering if you could offer some pointers or advice. Buford has went on two tracks that were successful finding deer but the last 2 have been unsuccessful. Is this common? Should we be doing something different? We understand that he is young, but we just want to make sure that this is not an uncommon thing. Or if there is something different we should be doing.

One of the tracks there was very little blood, the other he was tracking for miles and we kept seeing blood but then we came to a 20 acre cornfield and lost the trail. Can you offer any suggestions on what to do in these situations?"

Yesterday I talked to Tim Nichols, an outstanding Deer Search blood tracker, who just had gone through a dry spell of 0 recoveries per 8 calls; then on the weekend he recovered two difficult deer. We talked for a long time, and we both came to the conclusion that perhaps inexperienced trackers and people who are just getting into this sport don't realize how tough blood tracking really is. Maybe images and stories  of successful recoveries do not show a realistic pictures what is involved in tracking wounded game with dogs. For every successful track you usually go on many trails that don't not end with a dead deer and celebration.

I recall an e-mail that Kevin Armstrong sent to Chris Barr last year, when Chris was frustrated with his puppy. I really like what Kevin wrote:

In Deer Search we think of our mission in terms of education. Of course finding the deer is important but there will be 3 or 4 or 5 we do not recover for every one we do recover. We gain experience in a single season that will surpass what most hunters experience in a lifetime of hunting. We have an opportunity to teach hunters a great deal about shot placement and game anatomy. I'm learning to take a great satisfaction in the education I pass along on deer calls. It sounds like your getting plenty of experience for your dog. I think that field experience is the key to unlock a hunting dogs natural ability and potential. Keep at em!

I think that reading John's old post from 2008 http://borntotracknews.blogspot.com/2008/12/what-is-your-success-recovery-rate.html might be very helpful for those who have not seen it.

To illustrate trackers' inability to find all the deer that they track, I'd like to close with Larry Gohlke's recent e-mail. He received this message and picture from Mike Crist, a hunter that three weeks ago he tracked this particular deer (and did not find) for. Even though Larry could not find the deer first time around (it was not gettable), his time was not wasted. Read on...

Good morning Larry,

Just wanted to forward a picture of the deer you and Nix were on the trail of back on October 20th. I was lucky enough to shoot this deer on November 1st for the second time. As I mentioned in our brief phone conversation the deer was hit low and just in front of the front legs, this by no means was a fatal wound and it was healing good.

Thanks again for helping me out, you can't possible imagine how terrible I felt after making such a poor shot. I'm surprised I was even out there hunting as that had taken all the air out of my sails.

I just received my book on trailing wound deer and I'm going to be contacting you again after I finish it up ( If that's alright with you). Meeting someone like yourself is a real treat and makes a guy like myself look at things a little differently. I have always been interested in how dogs or any animal use their nose to track and find things. I believe I most likely going to be in the market for a good German Wired Hair Dachshund in the future as what we did on October 20th was really fun and I could see myself doing this more in the future……...
Again, thanks so much!

Mike Christ with the deer he shot for the second time on November 1. Larry Gohlke and Nix tracked this deer when he was shot for the first time on October 20; it was a brisket wound and the deer was not gettable.

By the way, if you'd like to educate hunters about shot placement and right tactics for finding wounded deer, consider pointing them to John's book  Dead On! Deer Anatomy and Shot Placement for Bow and Gun Hunters. Tracking Techniques for Wounded Whitetails.  It was written for hunters who have no access to tracking dogs.

How to handle a situation when you have to terminate a track?

Billy M. asked:

Does it hurt your dog to go out and track deer and not find them? I know that not all deer can be found but does it hurt the dogs confidence when they do not find the deer at the end of the track? What do you do when you have done everything to find the wounded animal and you know it is a lost cause to look any longer? And one last question how frequent can you use your dog to track? I have been getting 2 to 3 calls a day. I don't want to over work my dog. How many calls do you take? Thank for your time any information you give will be appreciated.   

John Jeanneney's answer:

Dogs don’t seem to get discouraged after a string of tracking experiences that don’t produce a deer. They are not like humans in this way. Your hound tracks for the love of tracking, just as he would run rabbits all day, even if you never shot one ahead of him.

When you decide that there is no hope of catching up to the deer you are tracking, praise the dog for a good job and then lead him off the line. He will understand.

I find that experienced dogs learn to recognize that a deer is “ungettable” for themselves, and they will turn to give you a look that says as much. They learn to understand the tracking game as well as we do.

The number of calls a dog can handle a day depends on the circumstances. What tires the dog out is not the distance traveled; what tires him out is the intense mental concentration required to follow a difficult scent line. If the dog can stroll along with his nose two inches off the ground, he can probably track all day. If it is a tough track where the dog is checking a lot and is working slowly with his nose down under the leaves of the forest floor, then he may “burn out” in two or three hours. Mental stamina varies from dog to dog, but in tracking wounded deer it is a more important factor than physical stamina, provided that the dog is in good shape and not obese.

Some misconceptions about blood tracking

John Jeanneney © January 2010 for Full Cry

We are stuck with the term “blood tracking.” It has been used for a long time, but these words do create a lot of confusion. More than one hunter has asked, “What good is a blood tracking dog? If there’s blood to track, I can track my own deer. You’re a lazy hunter for sure, if you need a dog to do the work for you!” Well, these guys do have a point. And up North it’s a point of pride to find your own deer all by yourself.

Of course the real value of the experienced “blood tracking dog” is that he can go on tracking when the visible blood on the ground runs out. The dog actually works on a lot of things in addition to the blood that the hunter can see. In some situations the dog detects the faint scent of ground disturbance. More important are the microscopic scent particles that come down from the wound and the dead skin particles that drift down from animals and humans, whether they are wounded or not. Then there is the scent given off by the various glands of the deer.

To our feeble human noses the strongest scent glands of a deer are the tarsal glands located inside the rear hocks. During the rut bucks deliberately urinate on their own tarsal glands, and the combination of gland secretion and urine is so strong that even a human can follow it in the air if it is fresh and the scenting conditions are good.

I suspect my dogs pity me for my own weak nose, but over the years and 930 calls they have patiently taught me a little bit about how deer scent works for tracking purposes. Sabina taught me that tarsal gland scent, strong as it is, can be a confusing factor. Yes, it tells you where a buck went, but it might be any buck. Tarsal gland scent is so overwhelmingly strong, that sometimes it blocks out some of the more useful, more individual scents like the scent from the interdigital glands at the top of the foot between the cloves of the hoof.

A few times I saw old Sabina correct herself and go back after tracking over a hundred yards on the wrong line. This would always happen when we had a buck moving right out ahead of us at the peak of the rut.

The interdigital glands seem to be really important. When I’m training dogs on lines made with tracking shoes with deer hoofs attached, they can distinguish one set of hoofs from another. I have made a scent line with one set of hoofs, and then changed the hoofs and laid cross tracks. When we tracked to the junction of the two scent lines, the dog would hesitate a moment, but then continue on the original line.

Sometimes a hunter will say, “I didn’t call you because it rained and the blood was all washed out.” Well, a blood tracking dog isn’t tracking by eye. As any coon hunter knows, a gentle rain on a scent line actually improves it. When it rains hard for a long time, things get tougher, but for a good, experienced dog, following the line can still be possible.

I can remember when Max, who was an experienced, but not an exceptional dog, took a line over a cedar knob in a driving rain with the water running in sheets through the poverty grass. There was water almost everywhere, but he could pick up enough scent to follow down a long hill, across a road to where the buck was lying, still alive, on the edge of swamp. The line was only four hours old.

And then there was Clary, who was both experienced and exceptional. With two inches of water in the rain gauge we went out to track a deer that had been gut-shot the day before. The hunters had tracked the deer about three hundred yards before running out of blood sign. They marked the point of loss, went home and then it began to rain. Clary began at the hit site the next morning, tracked to the point of loss although no blood was to be seen anymore and continued on without any problem. Two hundred yards more and there was the deer, still alive.

It’s pleasant to reminisce about old experiences of tracking without blood, but to be honest I have to dredge up an experience in which a very good dog, the same Clary, couldn’t track with visible blood. It was a sultry, grey day, and a storm was brewing. We were tracking a big doe that had been gut shot. There wasn’t a lot of blood, but just enough so that I could follow the big, brown drops by eye. Clary couldn’t smell a thing; she was useless, and we didn’t find the deer. I’ve had the experience a number of times since. With a storm front coming in and the barometer falling, the dog’s sense of smell was powerless.

I wish I could be a dog for a week and learn more about these things. I’d be glad to eat dry kibble and sleep in a crate. I’m tired of being an idiot in these matters that my dogs know so well. They have taught me quite a bit, but not nearly enough.

Sally Marchmont (left) of Vermont writes of “a beautiful, 200-pound, 8-pointer we found for a lady who had shot him in the pouring rain. The rain had washed all the blood away so I had no choice but to trust Petey completely. He made short work of it, so it was a lesson well learned for me.”

Scott Semrau with a buck his “Buddy” found after a hard rain in Ohio.