Darren Doran and his tracking dachshund Theo recover a deer 55 hours after the shot

By Darren Doran

A local hunter that I know called me Monday morning of November 16 after he had shot a good buck. He thought he had hit forward, and after the shot he just snuck out of the woods. He was going back after lunch to look for sign. I told him I would hold a spot for him in case he needed Theo.

He called me back and said that he tracked to a bed about 50 yds from the hit site and then he found another bed very close. The blood was wet in the second bed, and he thought he might have bumped the deer. He backed out. We discussed the hit and our options and decided that the hunter would look again the next morning and give the deer more time.

In a lot of places in New Jersey the properties are very small. A pushed deer, especially a mature buck, can cross many properties, all of which we need permission to enter before we can track. I always tell a hunter to give the deer time as if he’s dead he’ll be right there. If he’s pushed too soon and knows he’s 

being tracked by a man, the recovery can get very difficult.

The hunter called at noon on Tuesday and said he had advanced the line to another bed but thought the deer might have crossed the railroad tracks to another property. He marked his last blood and gained permission to enter the property just in case. I got there at 3:30 pm, 32 hours after the hit.

We went to the hit site and I looked at the arrow. There was white hair at the hit. The hunter described a hit forward with what looked like a long gash on his side. The shot was 32 yds from a stand about 22 feet high.

I started Theo and he circled the hit, took the trail the buck came in on, then turned around, tracked through he hit site and took the buck’s line. We tracked to the first bed and on through to the second and continued on. Theo was tracking with the intensity that usually accompanies a recovery, and he was extremely focused. The hunter pointed to his last blood as Theo tracked about 20 yds to the left and straight past it. Theo continued on and I marked another drop of blood and soon we were at the railroad tracks and on across. We tracked to a sandy deadfall, and Theo located 3 more beds. The hunter had never tracked to this point and had no idea the deer had gone this way. Theo then worked the line back to the tracks and across once again and back into the woods we just left. Theo tracked to the hunter’s last blood mark and past. It became evident that the hunter during his searching had found this blood by accident and cut of about 200 yds of the track.

We continued on paralleling the railroad and crossed a water filled ditch into some briars and swampy brush. Theo marked another bed with dried blood and then started out of the briars back to the tracks and across once more. We already had permission to enter so we just kept tracking. In a short while I heard a deer get up in front of us. I hadn’t seen any blood since the last bed and this was a typical deer bedding area. I wanted to make sure we were tracking the right deer and was holding Theo back and telling him EASY. He was barking and I had him close. All of a sudden the hunter says “I have blood”. I asked him to bring it to me and sure enough it was blood. I moved forward with Theo and soon we were on the deer’s bed. Theo was hot now and the deer started to bleed again. I also noticed a strong smell of rotten gut. The hunter could also smell this. We tracked about 300 more yds and started to lose the light. We decided to come back next day and restart the track. I marked the GPS and flagged the spot.

We started Wednesday afternoon about 3 pm and picked up where we left off. Theo started right away and we had gone about 100 yds when we ran into a large flock of about 25 turkeys. Theo jumped up on a log and looked at the birds flapping and yelping in front of us. I told him in a stern voice to “get back on the line and find the blood”. Immediately he forgot about the birds and resumed tracking. We had gone about another 100 yds right through the turkey distraction and started to turn to the left. I was familiar with this property and knew the deer was going to turn to get around the corner of a deer fence that went around a large nursery. We came to the corner of the fence and there was a T shaped water filled ditch that followed the corner and went out into the woods. Right at this spot the deer stopped for a while and there was a hand sized amount of blood. The deer has never lain back down since we jumped him yesterday.

Theo worked this check for a good while. He checked the banks of the ditch on our side. He went across and checked the other side. He came back to the blood a few times. Eventually he took a line into the woods away from the fence and in about 20 yds we found the deer next to a log.

This deer was finally recovered about 55 hours after it got shot, and would have never been found without a dog team. The arrow actually hit low on the left side just above the sternum. The arrow somehow bruised the left lung but never cut it. It went between the sections of liver and out the gut. That counts for the strong rotten smell we had when we put him up the day before.

Theo is now 3 and a half and is maturing into a very honest and efficient tracking dog. I love handling this dog and watching him work. 

A liver-shot buck recovered by Bob and Thor

Another Lesson Learned

By Bob Yax, Deer Search of Finger Lakes

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

     Thor and I took a call on Sunday 10/13/13.  The hunter, Bob, called in around 11 AM for a Buck he had hit at 8:45 that morning.  He said the deer was totally broadside and the arrow hit about 5 or 6 inches behind the left front leg and about 5 inches up from the bottom of the deer.   The shot was at a slightly downward angle so the exit hole would be slightly lower.  Bob had found his arrow at the hit site and said that it had dark blood on it with no sign of lung blood or stomach contents.   His description of the hit location had me hoping that he may have caught the bottom of the liver while exiting the deer.  It would be close.  His description of the deer’s reaction to the hit also had me believing it was a liver hit.  When hit, the Buck jumped a bit but then slowly walked away.  After only 50 yards or so, the deer bedded down.  Bob got out of his stand and headed home to wait.   After about 2 hours he went back, only to see the Buck slowly walking about 70yds ahead of where he had originally bedded.  Bob said the Buck looked like he was looking for another place to bed.  It was at this time that he called into Deer Search.  After discussing the hit with Bob, I told him that it sounded like a Liver hit and we had to give the Buck 6 hours before tracking.  I believe that 95% of Liver hit deer will be dead within 6 hours.
     
At 3:00 that afternoon, my son Nate and I met up with Bob.  When he showed me the arrow I immediately saw dark dried blood on it along with the sand like particles that indicate stomach contents.  This had me worried.  If it was only a stomach hit, then 6 hours would not be nearly long enough to wait.   After a 10 minute walk back to the hit site, we got on the start of the blood trail.  The blood was dark, definitely not lung blood.   Thor got on the trail quickly in the open hardwoods and after a little of his usual initial excitement wandering took us past the 1st bed.  In the bed, I was able to show Bob a small pile of stomach contents that confirmed at least a stomach hit.  Thor continued on the trail showing us blood sign periodically along the way.  After a few hundred yards, we passed through a jumble of downed trees.  When we came out of it, Thor seemed to be at a new level of excitement.  I think the deer may have been bedded there and we were now on a very fresh trail.  From this point on, the blood sign we were seeing looked fresh.  For the next half hour or so we followed Thor on a path that skirted around a relatively dry swamp in the middle of the woods.  Along the way we were constantly seeing small signs of fresh blood – the Buck was definitely on the move ahead of us.  At about 4:00 PM, over 7 hours after the hit, the blood trail crossed a clearing and headed into the open hardwoods again.

At this point we stopped to re-evaluate our strategy.  The Buck was definitely on the move ahead of us.  Thor was hot on the trail and would have no problem following this deer for as long as it took.  We had yet to get close enough to catch a glimpse of the Buck.  We knew the deer was at least gut hit and it seemed that he still had too much energy to be Liver hit. With a stomach only hit, it was possible for the deer to live another 15 hours or more.  We could push him into the next county by then.   After talking with another experienced Deer Search Tracker, we all decided it was best to back out now and allow the deer to bed again, hopefully for the last time.  We would come back first thing in the morning to pick up the trail.  The entire time that we were stopped, deciding our next move, Thor was straining at the end of the lead barking wildly, wanting to continue on the trail in the hardwoods.  We marked our location and backed quietly out of the woods.  On our drive back home it started to rain and then rained harder overnight.  Even with the rain, I had a lot of confidence that Thor would continue hot on the trail in the morning, although visible blood sign would probably be gone, making it more anxious for us human trackers.

Thor and I met up with Bob at 7:45 on Monday morning.  It was very damp and calm and the rain had stopped.  It seemed like a perfect morning to find a Buck.  On the walk back to where we had left off, Thor stopped and stuck his nose high into the air, looking into the hardwoods.  Bob said that Thor might be smelling a dead Coyote that was off in that direction.  After a few seconds, Thor was back to walking down the path towards our deer trail.  A short time later, Bob and I both picked up the smell of the rotting Coyote.  Thor didn’t even pick his head up into the smelly breeze.  Once we got within sight of our marker from the previous night, Thor's excitement grew.    When got within 20 yards of the trail marker, Thor was pulling hard on the lead.   At the marker, he was off in a flash into the hardwoods.  After the first 20 yards, it was obvious that the blood we were seeing before the rain was no longer visible, but Thor seemed to be hot on the trail anyway.  Just about as fast as the tracking started, it ended when I looked up and saw the white belly of a deer in the open hardwoods 50 yds ahead.  It was our Buck, only 75yds from where we had stop tracking on Sunday.  Whether he had crashed there before we stopped, or laid down after we backed out,  we’ll never know. 

The entrance wound on the Buck was about 5 to 6 inches back from the front leg and just a few inches higher than the hunter thought, about 7 inches up from the bottom (you can see the big entrance wound in the photo). The exit wound was about 2 inches lower.   During the autopsy, it was obvious that the Rage broad head had indeed passed through the liver about 2 inches up from the bottom.  I’ve always thought that for a big buck, 6 hours may not be enough time to wait on a Liver hit.  This Buck proved it, since we know he was on his feet 7 hours after the hit.  Another lesson learned.

A perfect afternoon of deer tracking and photography

By John Jeanneney

On October 8  I had a call from a young college student at SUNY Cobleskill. He had bow shot a mature doe that morning and had tracked it about 300 yards to a lawn behind the house of the property owner. He was "pretty sure" that the deer had turned back up into the woods, but he couldn't find any more blood.

It was a beautiful fall afternoon when Jolanta, Tommy and I met the hunter and drove to his hunting  area which was about 25 miles from where we live in Berne. Jolanta had her camera and was ready to shoot anything, dog, deer or landscape that might present  a photo op.

I like to start at the hit site, but since we had good blood much closer, Tommy and I started up in the woods about 50 yards  from the point of loss at the  lawn where the doe was supposed to have turned back. Tommy locked in on the scent  line, and when we came to the lawn he did not hesitate. 

Out across the lawn he went, across a road, and then we had to stop to get permission to continue. A 100 yards  of lawn stretched out ahead. No visible blood and the scent line was ten hours old on closely mowed grass. How could Tommy track with such ease in  such a situation? Was he making it up?

We were reassured when we got down into the brushy woods and  saw blood. No problem. Tommy went another 150 yards to the dead doe. Meanwhile, Jolanta's camera was constantly at work. You  see the results here.

 

A good ending!

When the recovered was being dressed Tommy had to be tied to a tree on a light chain. In the past he chewed through many plastic leashed in similar situations

We gutted the doe and the hunter dragged it up the hill and across the expanse of lawns. Jolanta took more photos in the beautiful, late afternoon light.

When Jolanta posted the landscape photos on a Facebook group for Hilltowners that evening, a comment soon came in,  "Hey, that photo was taken in front of my house."

The next day another message came in from the same man. "Did you find the deer? Was just wondering because one of my Labs brought me home a wonderful gift this morning: the mammary glands that had been cut out of a doe. Hahaha... I had to laugh, especially after seeing your photo and knowing the story behind it"

What a small world!

Huge bucks mark a great beginning of Kasey and Boomer's tracking season

Kasey Morgan is a United Blood Trackers member from Elderon Wisconsin and he operates under the name Bloodhound Deer Tracking Services. He has had a great beginning of this tracking season with a number of very impressive bucks.

By Kasey Morgan

The 2013 Wisconsin Archery Season was upon us and the calls for tracks came in fast and furious.  Boomer, my bloodhound, would get his first action the night of opening day on a good buck hit high and slightly back from perfect.  We took up the track and Boomer made short work of the 250 yard track.  The buck had fled the scene in a completely different direction than the hunter had remembered.  The amount of sign along the track was minimal, but a fairly steady track of blood droplets.  We were on the deer in less than a half hour and Boomer was on the board with his first “fair chase” whitetail of the year. 

The next call would come in shortly after leaving our first track.  Matt Serwa of “Real Deal Mineral” had hit a deer he knew very well.  He quickly sent me a picture of the deer from one of his trail cameras, and I was amazed at the size.  He described the chain of events that lead to the shot and the shot location.  He had stomach hit the deer.  The shot was back, but looked to be center of the deer between spine and bottom of the belly.  We were dealing with a number of variables on this track.  The first issue was the fact that it had started to rain steadily and was predicted to continue throughout the night.  Being able to locate blood throughout the track is not the most important thing, but it certainly helps confirm that we are heading in the right direction.  The second was the temperature.  The temperature was predicted to stay above the 70 degree mark which would cause a gut shot deer to spoil more quickly.  Matt and I agreed that waiting until the following morning was still the best option.  Pushing the deer that night would definitely destroy our chances of a recovery.

Early the next morning Boomer took up the track.  It was still raining very steadily, and there was no sign of blood.  We began the track and Boomer followed in a similar line as was described by the hunter as the deer’s path of exit from its feeding area.  We tracked off of a food plot down into a low swamp area.  The dog became very excited and proceeded to make a right hand turn into an area full of marsh grass.  There were several deer beds in the area, none of which we were able to find blood in.  We trusted the hound as he led us on fairly straight path through the marsh and down into a creek bottom.  We had now progressed somewhere in the neighborhood of 400 yards with no visible blood.  Boomer searched both sides of the creek bank frantically looking for the scent.  He decided on a line heading westward deeper into the swamp. 

 After another 200 yards the terrain had changed from marsh grass and creek bottoms to tag alders and a foot of water.  Boomer pressed on through the water but soon appeared to have lost the track.  He began a back track and I watched as his body language showed some confusion.  As he backtracked out of the tags he soon hit the scent of the track and again progressed westward.  I was out ahead of the hunter when Boomer turned north and locked up completely along the edge of the creek.  I circled around the creek bank and was astounded at what I was looking at.  Boomer was baying like a fog horn on top of a fair chase, two hundred plus inch, whitetail deer.  I yelled back to Matt that we had found his deer.  He excitedly made his way toward me.  We exchanged high fives and the celebration was on.  We snapped some great photos and awed over the sight of such a monarch.

 

It was not the longest track we have ever run with a successful ending.  However, the 14 hours of continuous rain and the tough tracking terrain made the near one thousand yard run, my proudest moment as a tracker.  Although Boomer does not pay attention to the Boon & Crocket Scoring System but, the record book whitetail at the end was a great bonus.

Dustin McAloon of DeerFest with a massive Wisconsin 8 point!!

Remi and Justin, a blood tracking team from Utah, recover a mule buck

We are happy to report that Remi (Remy von Moosbach-Zuzelek) from Utah recovered his first mule buck of the season. Justin Richins sent us a really nice e-mail with a quote from his client (slightly edited): "Anyway, Justin, thank you so much for interrupting your day to help me. I am leaving donation for all you do with Remy. Please buy him a big standing prime rib bone-in roast, cook it rare and hand it to him for me! Or eat if for dinner with your family and just throw Remy a bone. As I said to you earlier in the sagebrush, this outfit you guys are running, from the people, to the lodge, to the guides to this amazing ranch….is absolutely the best I have ever seen, and I have seen some great ones. Keep up the great work until I get back."

"It took Remi about 1 min to lock on, then its was an easy short track for the liver/stomach shot mule deer. We ran the trail during the 85 degree heat of the day around 4 pm and the deer was shot early in the morning. We had a little heavy cross wind and when Remi picked his head up high in the air I knew the dead buck was close."

Justin's website: www.thehuntingcompany.com