Susanne's graveyard track

A big thank you to Willette Brown who shared her story about a wounded buck track that took place on September 24. Susanne is now on her way to Florida where she spends her winters training horses. It was her best tracking season yet - she went on tracks of 58 deer, four moose and four bear. This kind of dedication to tracking is matched by very few!

By Willette Brown

I got out of the passenger seat and adjusted my coat and hat.  We were parked in a graveyard and heading for the field and woods just beyond. Susanne handed me a headlight and a coat because we had hurried from another location to the hit site and I didn't have any tracking gear with me.  I was thinking to myself that I hoped there wasn't any swamp because I only had my sneakers on… but I wasn't going to whine about it in front of everyone else.

As we got our equipment together Susanne recapped the information with the hunter… half the arrow still in the buck, no blood at the hit site, blood fifty yards later on.  Buster, Susanne's dog, was all business, quiet, thoughtful, and patient as she got him fitted with his harness and light.  He has been here and done that.  He knew the drill.

We moved towards the field and out into the night.  Susanne's headlamp illuminated the path, light banter and Buster's businesslike trot drew us on.  It was probably a four pointer the hunter explained, best he could tell in the heat of the moment. As we approached the hit site, Susanne hooked Buster to his tracking lead.  "Game on!" as far as Buster was concerned. Nose down he began to work. Suddenly, we were off into the tall weeds, thick and thin, with paths here and there that appeared to be game trails. 

Buster moved across the uncut field and spent some time looping.  We paused and watched him work.  Well, we actually couldn't see much except Susanne's shoulders and headlamp following through the rustling, dried weeds.  Down the edge of the woods he went, then back up to last blood  where we were standing.  Then he locked on and headed or the woods and we followed.  After maybe thirty seconds we hear, " I got it!" and about fifty yards into the woods, hidden in thick brush, lay the dead buck.  It was a 17 pointer! Wow!  The hunter was now REALLY pumped up.  He had brought his son and a friend to help get the buck out of the woods.  He was completely confident that Buster would find the deer.  He had worked with Susanne before and knew that if it was "gettable" they would get it.

In fact, he had quietly remarked as we set off into the night, that he wished he had met her 20 years ago.  I laughed, and knew that this was high praise, as well as backhanded marriage proposal.  Of course I think he would have to get in line, a very LONG line, as she has admirers all over Maine who have come home with a deer that might otherwise have become coyote food.

We then let my young dog follow the track and "find" the deer.  Susanne patiently guided him as he had an excited but muddled start.  Once on the line he quickly headed for the woods and "found" the deer, his first.  Initially he was surprised and unsure what to do with the dead deer, and he cautiously tugged on the ear, then looked around like, "Is that OK?" We laughed and praised his efforts.  He was getting very proud of himself.

It was full dark and the party, with dressed deer, moved back through the woods and fields. Bow season, warm weather, lots of night tracking.  I knew that I had watched a truly remarkable team at work and I couldn't help but admire the amazing partnership.  So sure of each other and focused on the job. And out of the maze of deep dark woods we were able to find this one deer.  Wow.

 Pools of light from headlamps guided us back and the relief and accomplishment was palpable.  The hunter had done the right thing, and the Buster had made short work of what might otherwise be a long, possibly fruitless search.

Tracking season had officially begun and "that look" was now in Susanne's eyes.  It is a hungry,  razor focused,  adrenalin laced look that might be terrifying if you were a wounded deer, but is unadulterated nourishment for her partner, Buster.  The look in Buster's eyes was a bit more ho hum, and as he settled into the car he quickly curled up.  Only eight more weeks to go!

This 17-pointer shot by Paul McFallin was recovered by Susanne Hamilton
and her 11.5-year-old dachshund Buster.

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!!

A Kentucky trophy buck recovered by Joe Mason and his wirehaired dachshund Shome

Shome gets the first buck of the season and what a buck it is!

Yesterday we received this letter from Shome's owner Joe Mason. BTW, Shome is a two year-old littermate of our Sky.

Great day for Shome and me. I am so excited. My granddaughter's husband has a high fence hunting club in our county. I don't know if it is this way nationally or not but in KY once you get the permit from the state to run a high fence club you set your own laws as far as when and how you hunt. He has had a few pay hunters come in already.

 

He called me this morning about 11:00 and said he had a hunter shoot a 200" deer late yesterday and they couldn't find it and wanted to know if I would bring Shome down and try. It was about a 150 yd. shot and it was so late they couldn't tell where the deer was hit and were only able to find one little area of blood about 40 yds from where the deer had been standing.

Well it was 84 degrees and the trail was going to be 16 hrs old by the time I could get there. I told Marlene I probably didn't have a Chinamans chance but I wanted to work Shome anyway so I was going. I tried to start him at the spot where they thought the deer was standing and didn't seem to have much luck so I picked him up and carried him to where the little bit of blood was that they had found. Bingo. I was holding the leash and I was sure he was tracking. In about 30 yds I saw a little more blood and that sure made me feel good.

 

After another 40-50 yds he went through some junk to where I just had to let go of the rope and he was gone. Almost as soon as I had let go of the leash I looked down and saw 2 drops of blood on a leaf on a vine so I knew he was still tracking. I use a bell on his collar and just within a minute he was out of hearing range. I began to blow my whistle and call but just like the day I lost him he didn't come back. After a few minutes of calling we heard him barking way back behind us. I first thought he had circled back looking for me. I blew my whistle and called a few more times but we could tell he wasn't coming toward us. Sam asked me if I thought he had tracked the deer back and had found him. I told him I didn't know but I was going back to see what was going on.

 

It sounded like he was back where we had left his vehicle. When I got back there he wasn't there and the barking was out in a big corn field that ran parallel to the woods. I got really excited then because I knew he was barking at something down out there. When I got to him there was the deer and Shome was having a ball. The deer was still alive but couldn't get up. I don't know if he would have barked had the deer been dead or not. What do you think? If he hadn't been barking or if he had come back to me when I was calling we would never have found the deer. After today I am definitely buying a GPS collar.

An Illinois monster buck recovered by Kevin Lutz and his tracking dachshund Arrchie.

Sorry for not posting for a week, but I had to take a break. Our hunting season will end on December 18 so we have two more days to go. After that, and especially after Christmas, I should have more time.

Let's start with a monster buck recovered by Kevin Lutz and his tracking dachshund Archie von Tierspur. Kevin is a United Blood Trackers member from Pennsylvania. Archie was bred by Genti and Beth Shero, and he was sired by our Billy.

Archie with the buck he recovered. Also in the picture Joe Wilson and a Hadley Creek Outfitters guide.

Kevin wrote: This year we had the opportunity to track for a friend who shot a good buck in Pike Co. Illinois.This friend of mine was hunting a lease that is surrounded on three sides by Hadley Creek, the largest outfitter in Illinois.The shot he made on this buck was high and the deer ran onto Hadley Creek's property so he had to obtain permission to track the deer the next morning. My friend Joe Wilson called me moments after the shot knowing that I was in Illinois hunting our lease only a few miles away. He was frantic about the situation and I tried to calm him down by asking him to text me a picture of any sign of blood. After looking at a picture of a good spot where there was a good amount of blood down, I told him I would like to bring Archie down the next morning. I thought he could help. It turned out to be an easy find, the deer only ran 150 yards.  I told my friend that I wish all hunters would do what he did - after making a bad hit he left the area until I could show up with Archie the next morning.

You can read the whole story at Lancaster Online.

Trophy bucks recovered by dachshunds in Illinois and Iowa

Great two pictures from Raymond Holohan from Ashkum, IL. He wrote: "Here is a picture of Razen and Claudia with another recovery. The hunter was Mike Wise; we tracked for him last Monday, again this was on camera. The buck was shot with a 12 ga. slug in the front shoulder. They followed until the blood ran out, then gave us a call. Claudia put Razen on last blood and she trailed for at least 500 yards. finding only 1 drop of blood right before the buck got up and they made the killing shot. Claudia said that Mike said on camera that he intends to show other hunters just how useful a tracking dog really is. He was very happy and said they wouldn't have found that buck if it weren't for Razen and Claudia. Razen also recovered a nice 9 pointer last evening. Claudia has been doing most of the tracking lately since I hurt my back last week pulling a deer out with my son. I will send you another picture of the hunter holding these 2 record book bucks. It'ss pretty impressive.
Thanks Ray, Rosco, Claudia and Razen Kane"
 

This picture came from Brian Hibbs, a United Blood Trackers member from Iowa. Brian is holding Scout, who actually is a dam of Rzen kane from the top photo.

Congratulations!

Two Pope and Young bucks recovered in one weekend!

Well, my plans have changed. Thursday early morning I am leaving for Maryland, where our young dogs will be participating in the NATC Small Game Hunting Test (Thursday), Zuchtschau (Friday) and two AKC field trials (Saturday and Sunday). I am taking Sky, Tuesday and Mielikki, all very young dogs. I should be back on Monday afternoon. It also means that I will have to catch up with posts after I get back (this is my last trip this year). Have a great weekend everybody!

Congratulations to Dean Muthig from Wisconsin who wrote few days ago: I got a call at about 9 this morning wondering if I could take a track. This gentleman found my name via the UBT "find a tracker" feature. He stated that he had gut shot a buck yesterday at 7:30 in the morning and had lost blood. Unfortunately he started tracking the buck only an hour after shooting it and tracked for 6 hours. I knew even though it was gut shot that this one might challenge us a bit especially being a 24 plus hour old track and that the deer was most likely pushed out of his bed. Well that assumption was correct as the hunter had tracked the deer well over 40 acres before losing the trail...At the original point of loss my dog seemed unsure of the path of the deer but walked me to a drainage ditch and put her nose in the grass as she crossed the other side telling me she was thinking this is where he crossed. She went a little further and seemed to lose interest so I decided to walk her down the drainage ditch to see if the deer was in the water. We walked a couple hundred yards down the drainage ditch and ran into another ditch which ran perpendicular to the one we first walked down. We then ran that ditch another 200 yds. While walking this ditch the wind was in our favor and she was able to scent check a large area. I decided to turn back around. When we came back to the ditch we were a hundred yards or so down from where I thought she smelled him originally. As I looped back into that area she whipped her nose straight up in the air and almost sounded like a pig snorting. She took off with me in tow and within another 30 seconds we were standing on top of this beautiful 8 point buck! He truly was a brute! And what was most impressive about this buck is that the hunter took him on a high pressured area of public land!

 

Second Pope and Young buck recovered by Dean Muthig last weekend.

 

First successful deer recovery of the season for Sam Allen from North Carolina and her mini dachshund Ollie

Samantha Allen, a United Blood Trackers member from North Carolina shared with us her first tracking experience of the season. This was a tough line and the recovery was made possible only by the partnership of the handler and and her dog. Great job Sam and Ollie!

The hunting still seems a little slow here in North Carolina but I received my first call of the year Tuesday October 9th. The call came in about 9:00 on Tuesday night from a hunter that had shot a buck that afternoon with his crossbow at 35 yards. The property he was hunting is about 1 hour 15 minutes from my home. The hunter had found blood at the hit sight but lost it after tracking the deer about 80 yards. He was unsure of the shot and legally in NC I can not track past 11:00 PM so I encouraged him to wait until I could get off work at 12:00 on Wednesday and I would head to the property with him. The temperature both days had been around 72 degrees and Tuesday night dropped to around 45 degrees with light winds.

We arrived at the property at around 1:30 PM on Wednesday, and I chose to take Ollie with me as she has more experience and this was going to be a tough line. We started the line at 18 hours old, and Ollie took off with no problem tracking to the point of loss. Then she seemed to have trouble finding anything from that point. After learning from the hunter they had walked the area the night before a good bit in search of blood. I patiently waited for her to find something and it seemed she had picked the line back up. We made our way through the dense briar thicket circling left from that last point of blood but in a matter of ten minutes we arrived back at the hunters ATV! After about 5 rounds of doing the same thing I figured that the hunters the night before most likely had blood from the buck on their boots and when they decided to pull out they set a false line right back to the starting point. Poor Ollie seemed confused by this endless circle!

I decided to move her about 75 yards in front of the point of loss to see if we could pick up the real line. The cover was VERY dense and mostly briars so we were now about 2 hours into this track. As we were tracking up the hill the hunter stumbled across a nice size area of blood. I restarted Ollie at this point and she began to track. In about 75 yards we hit a nice hardwood opening, but we have not seen a drop of blood since the last restart. In the opening Ollie made a dead left and headed back into the thicket. The hunter and his friend did not believe the deer went that way so they decided to search the hardwood tract. I of course followed Ollie, I trust her greatly. In about 50 yards I was down on my hands and knees in the thicket crawling behind her, she seemed very set on this line. We hit the top of the hill in the thicket and she began to go down the other side with increasing speed. Finally we popped out of the briars into a hardwood bottom with grass and cane plants. Ollie headed straight and in 75 yards she had found the buck!

The deer had been gut shot and I feel that he had not died until that morning if not later. I had to contact the hunter by cell phone and direct him to our point. After about 15 minutes he arrived at his trophy with a big smile on his face. He claimed Ollie as his new girlfriend! This track lasted about 4 hours and estimated 800 to 1000 yards and Ollie and I both were exhausted. We got the buck back to the hunter's truck, and I don't think he could have been happier. Ollie and I headed home, her asleep in my lap and me thinking "what could be any better than this!"

 

Happy Tracking,

Samantha Allen
TimberRidge Tracker

Fred Zoeller and his Bavarian Mountain Bloodhound recover a huge buck shot by a young hunter

Alfred Zoeller, a Deer Search handler from Cooperstown, NY,  and his Bavarian Rommel, found 9 point buck shot by 14-year-old Frank Cowan with his dad on youth day in Jordanville NY on October 7th 2012. Deer green scored 143 and weighed 255 undressed. Congratulations!

Axel, a blood tracking dachshund from Louisiana

Greg Accardo from St. Francisville, LA, reported that "this 12 pt was gut shot yesterday morning, Saturday, around 9 am. The hunter knew the deer was gut shot and he determined it was best to back out and leave the deer alone. He called me around 4 pm Saturday while I was out of town. We both agreed to meet about 12 noon today, Sunday, and pick up the track from the hit spot, which put this track at about 30 hours old. The buck traveled roughly 300 yards where Axel found him lying dead flat on his stomach. As a side note, this it probably the biggest buck I've tracked with my dogs in 6 years of tracking, and good trophy."

Congratulations to Greg and Axel!

Ohio bucks recovered by blood tracking dachshunds

Both handlers, Ben Byington and David Bell, are United Blood Trackers members and live in Ohio. They also own litter mates Quella and Quint (Buford), who are now 18 months old.

 

Ben, who lives in Sandusky wrote:

 

I got a call from an Ashland hunter (hour and 20 minutes away) to track a deer he shot the night before. We started the track at 11:30 the following day and Buford struggled some but he managed to take us up over a hill a couple hundred yards and there the buck was laying. The track lasted only about 20 minutes until Buford found the buck.

Just wanted to touch base and let you know how well he is doing.Thanks!

A nice buck recovered by Ben and Buford

 

David Bell who lives in Hamilton, Ohio reported on his blog:

 

This buck my dog found was for a man and good friend who took me out several times to hunt on some real nice whitetail property, in which I was fortunate enough to take two nice ten pointers in just a handful of times going. In return, when I got his text about his unfortunate shot that was too far back, it was a no brainer on what to do. I left my deer stand to track up his lost buck, something I will only do for my very close friends and family.

 

My buddy was nervous about finding the deer on the phone, but I told him," If your buck is down, Quella will find him". The blood trail was non existent after 30 yards until we got several hundred yards or so, into it the track. My dog only made one error on the track, but that was because the dog was following blood from the hunters shoe, but it was easy for me to read her and know that she was off the track. Once I restarted her on last blood, Quella dropped down real low and started to dig into the ground with her over sized paws, but as usual I slowed her down, so she wouldn't overshoot any missed scent. I knew from here that she was locked on this buck from her soft whining that she always does. 500 yards into the track and through a lot of thick honeysuckle, we walked up on another monster buck. I was short on time on this track also, because I had to work in less than two hours, but we ended up having the buck tracked, field dressed, and back at his house sitting on ice in less than 1.5 hours. I even had time to squeeze a meal in before I went to work.

 

Quella with her buck.

 

Another monster buck for David Bell and Quella from Ohio

Congratulations to David who wrote:

Another monster Quella found today. I watched the video the hunter had recorded and saw that this was a bad shot, too far back, so we gave the buck time to expire (24 hours). The buck was gut shot and Quella tracked it 900 yards to a pond. When we got there the buck was still alive so the hunter stuck another arrow in the buck, but this time he was down within 30 yards. Quella was happy to find this buck and quickly started chewing on the rump, something she does every time she finds one.

 

 

Tracking with a Lab in Missouri

John received this super nice e-mail from Vince Crawford. Thank you Vince for writing!

 

John,

I wanted to leave you this message and thank you SO much for writing your blood tracking books (your dog book and Dead On). Both my pup and I have really enjoyed them. 

 

Here in Missouri, we are dealing with drought conditions, and it has made for some tough tracking! We made out first call today where we went to help someone we did not know. I am a Conservation Agent in Missouri and Hunting Incident Investigator by trade, so using my learned investigative skills teamed up with your book's suggestions really prepared me well for asking the right questions of the hunter. 

 

My 11 month old lab, Goose made pretty short work of the track job. I could not be happier for her! She is 4 for 6 this year, and I am not convinced the two she did not find died within a reasonable time frame, or at all.

 

Here is a picture of Goose with her new friend Matt, the hunter. He had a one lung and liver shot as was expected by the sign we found on the trail and the arrow. This was a 24 hour old trail.

 

I can't believe how much fun Goose and I are having tracking John. I really wonder how this will all change my own archery deer hunting in the next couple years.

 

Again, thank you very much for sharing your experiences with others through your books.

Eleven-month-old Lab Goose with the beautiful buck she recovered for Matt

"Von Moosbach-Zuzelek" blood tracking dachshunds are real working dogs

Well, I ended up not going to the dachshund field trials in New Jersey. Yesterday afternoon, completely packed, I was ready to go; crates were loaded in the car. And then I decided to check our weather forecast for the last time. It sounded so bad that I decided to stay home. We were supposed to get a foot of snow, and the snow storm was going to be wide spread. As it turned out it was a right decision not to go as the conditions in new Jersey have been absolutely miserable. At the field trial they managed to run only 12 dachshunds in open stake today, and they will try to finish today's trial tomorrow. The trial actually scheduled for tomorrow has been already cancelled.

Now I have a chance to catch up with posts that have been e-mailed to me in the last week or so. Kudos to all the handlers of "von Moosbach-Zuzelek" dachshunds, who work hard recovering deer for hunters.

David Bell from Ohio who tracks with 18-month-old Quella (Joeri/Keena) reported a recovery of a monster buck:

The monster buck recovered by David Bell and Quella

Quella found this nice buck on a cool night, with a rising barometer, in a wind swept field with lots of deer in it for distraction. We started off in a bad way, with me forgetting my tracking supplies in my car and me hitching a ride to the buck paradise in the back seat of the hunter's truck with just my tracking light and Quella in hand. I was so pumped up to get another call that I didn't even realize my pack was gone until I was there. 

The landowner gave me a big strap that I used as a make shift leash because going back wasn't an option, considering we could here coyotes off in the distance howling, which were ready to make a quick meal of this buck and destroy his cape, something a hunter doesn't want, if he is going to mount his deer. I wasn't sure how this was going to work out since the industrial grade strap was very heavy, but I knew that Quella was in great shape from her daily walks, so we proceeded on. We started out on first blood, with Quella making easy work of the line up to around ten feet from where the hunter lost blood (75 yards). 

Quella wanted to go after a hot line instead of sticking to the track, so I gently scolded her, by telling her no and started her over again. I had to do this 3 times with her wanting to go in the same direction, but I knew what she was up to, so I was persistent on correcting her, so she would stick to the right line. Finally Quella realized that I wasn't happy with her decision, so she took it upon herself to do what we came for, which is to track this man's trophy . From here, Quella locked in on the monster 8 pointer and took me across the huge cut bean field to a big woodlot and down a giant ravine where I've seen multiple rubs, scrapes and hoof prints. I knew this was the buck's bed room from all the sign and that he would bed down and expire in this safe core area that he called home. 

After we hit the bottom of the ravine Quella took me straight to the deer which was all together around a 300 yard track. I called the hunter's cell phone and told him that Quella found the buck down in the ravine. From there we loaded up the buck and off we went to my car, with the hunter letting me know how pleased he was in my dogs performance. He gave me a nice tip for tracking his wall hanger. I didn't have my camera on me at the time, since it was in my pack, but once I got to my car, I quickly got it out and had the hunter's buddy (the land owner) snap some pics of me, Quella and the proud hunter.

Joe Walters from Indiana whose tracking partner Doc is a four-year-old son of Buster and Keena wrote:

Doc and I went on a track on October 22and  I thought would be easy.

We started at last blood marked with toilet paper on limb. Doc started to the south and we got into a huge mass of blown down trees from the same storm that damaged my house. We went up, over and around through this mess and nothing. We finally circled around to the downwind side of blow down and Doc threw his head up and started tracking and opening. We tracked all the way back through this mess and ran the track right by the toilet paper marker with no blood. After the two mile track and no blood, we called it off. Two tired puppies.

Then two days later we received this e-mail:

This doe track was about 200 yards long.  We started at last blood and he went south along side of hedge row and then west through it and turned back north along side of bean field.  Doc went about 30 yards and turned around and headed back south past where the doe had come through and then made a 90 into beans for about 50 yds and then back north.  I thought, "Oh no, rabbit."  I was about to call him off when I raised my light and there she lay.

Trust your dog.  Dope on a rope.

Joe and Doc 

Doc (Magnum v Moosbach-Zuzelek) with the doe he recovered

It was a treat to receive e-mail from Ben Byington who tracks with Buford (Quint v on Moosbach-Zuzelek), Quella's brother. Ben lives in Sandusky, Ohio:


I wanted to send an updated picture of a recent blood track he did. He was able to track this doe after following a blood trail for 500 yards! He took the lead and didn't stop, right to the doe. We were very pleased with his performance and ability to track for such a long distance.

Buford and his doe.

The next report came from Chris Barr from Indiana, who tracks with Gerti, a daughter of Billy and Gilda:

Friday we took a track of a deer where the hunter said that the deer was quartering away. Upon release, he said that the deer turned further away from him and that his arrow had entered in front of the rear leg, and exited behind the shoulder of the same side of the deer. I’m not sure if you’ve ever encountered this. We did not find the arrow, believed to still be in the deer, and there was almost no blood. This was the first time that we’d tracked in a area that had been stirred up by turkeys. In fact, the hunter said he killed a turkey that morning. We advanced the blood a little, but not much. There was turkey sign everywhere, not sure if this made it difficult for Gerti or not, but we sure couldn’t do much for him.

The second came Saturday night. Liver shot buck took off through standing corn. Hunters tracked to a chisel plowed field and decided to back out. We arrived 4 hours later and Gerti took the line to the chisel plowed field w/o much problem. When we hit the field, she took off to the northwest. After she began searching I decided to take her back to known blood at the fence crossing at the edge of the corn. As we were crossing the field, Gerti yanked on the end of the rope like a bass on a jig. I didn’t see anything but decided to let her go with it for a while. After 100 or so yards going southeast I was just about to pull the plug on her when I found some blood in the bare dirt of the field. I called the hunters over and exited the field down a steep embankment into a nasty thicket. Gerti tracked across that with one correction to the buck that had bailed off a three foot bank and was under water except for one side of his antlers and his rump. The 15 year old boy couldn’t help but give me a hug. Gerti had some liver and was good to go too.

Before we could get back to the truck for some hero photos, I got a call from a landowner of a farm that I hunt. A hunter had shot a doe at 5 yards, quartering to. He thought he hit her high. I was not too encouraged, but we gave it a college try. Gerti did pretty well, but I believe that if the deer dies, it won’t be for some time. The track went for several hundred yards w/o a bed. We were on blood when we decided to end the track as there was nothing to indicate that the deer was slowing down.

Chris

A Big Thank You to all who give their dogs a chance to do what they were bred for - track.

An Ohio monster buck recovered by two dachshunds, Quella and Radar

This report came from David Bell from Ohio who owns Quella, a 2010 puppy out of Joeri and Keena. The track was 27 hours old and as it turned out the hunter's arrow hit buck's one lung. Two dogs were involved in this recovery and they are half-siblings as Radar (Oak v Moosbach-Zuzelek) owned by Rex Marshall is a son of Joeri and Emma.

David writes:
I received a call yesterday (November 19)  for a blood track on a 170-180 class buck which usually turns out to be a little on the smaller side, but this call didn't disapoint on size or find.  I called Rex Marshall up, a  friend and fellow United Blood Trackers member as Rex's calls have dried up over the last two weeks. We decided we would run the dogs together. 

The blood trail started off pretty well but Quella was drifting off the massive amounts of blood, 4-5 feet off the track, so I decided to let Rex and his dog Radar run the line and we would follow.    Radar started to open up on the track, which my dog does when she is on a hot line, so I decided to go back to the start of the line with Quella and try it again by herself.  I got lost after trying to find the start of the blood line, but luck was on my side when the hunter came back to tell me that he didn't remember tracking the deer the way Radar was going.  My dog gets on a hot line occasionally also being a young dog like Radar and opens up the same way. 

When we restarted her at the hit site she started on the sloppy side drifting down wind of the heavy blood trail, but when the blood started to get sparse she started to dig down and lock in on the track with drops of blood here and there for confirmation.  Around two hundred yards later we hit a fence row and a big field of overgrown grass and weeds.  At this point of the track there was very little sign whatsoever with me really depending on  the dog's nose to be on the right line.  After  a couple hundred yards I rested Quella for around 10 minutes because she was moving on with a little less concentration then I like to see. I took her back to the last orange tape and decided I would let her cool down and give her nose a rest and wait, while Ralph who is the hunter met up with Rex and Radar.  Radar picked up the track and worked very well and true with confirmation from the orange tape that I and Ralph placed on the tall grass up to the point where I came back to  the last orange marker holding Quella. From there  Rex and Radar moved on around 30 yards or so to the big monster buck on the ground with Quella right on his heels.  The funny thing is Quella took me within  feet of the buck, but I thought she was tired so I picked her up and decided to go back to the last orange tape and  let the more experienced dog finish the track.

Radar and Quella both did an exceptional job on tracking this monster buck for this excited hunter. Both Quella and Radar are excellent tracking dogs which I and Rex are proud to own.

A bit later today I also received an e-mail from Rex Marshall, Radar's owner and handler.

Dave Bell and I hooked up Saturday morning to track a buck in Preble County. It was a good opportunity to meet after talking on the phone several times in the past. We tagged-teamed on the buck with Quella and Radar, together but separate. We kept the dogs separated so they wouldn't get distracted. It worked well. When Radar went off on a false track, Quella stepped in and followed the correct track. Later when Quella was having difficulties, Radar stepped in and picked up the track. This good teamwork resulted in finding the 14 point, 170 class buck. It was a shame that the coyotes got to the buck before we did though.

After we said our goodbyes, I travelled 3 hours east to track another buck in Muskingum County (home of huge bucks). We didn't find this buck, but it was the best performance by Radar for sure. He tracked this buck over a mile. Whenever I started to doubt Radar's ability, we would find a drop of blood. We found a drop of blood about every 100-200 yards. One time we even found a piece of meat in the track. Radar was right on! The buck crossed a road; we followed and the frequency of blood drops increased, but they were still small. When we got to the fence line, we had to call and get permission from the landowner to proceed. About 150 yards further we jumped the buck. You could smell his musky stink all over...it was overwhelming actually. We tracked for another quarter mile, and then I turned to the hunter and said "we could do this all night long but I don't think we'll catch up to this buck". He agreed as the buck did not appear to be mortally wounded. It was still a successful tracking job by Radar, and he made me very proud of him again. The hunter showed me videos of this buck later; it was huge...body size at least 300 pounds with a rack to match his huge body size. Maybe this buck will appear again, and the hunter will make a better shot.

David Bell with Quella and Rex Marshall with Radar

Ralph, the hunter, with his tropy buck and Quella

Huge congratulations to Quella and Radar and their owners! It is great to see trackers working together.

Two more bucks recovered by Pete Martin and Lisa!

It has been only 12 days from the opening of bow season in our zone of NY, but Pete Martin, a member of Deer Search, has already recovered 6 deer with his wirehaired dachshund Lisa (a 2005 Billy/Gela daughter). Obviously, there is a tremendous need for services of blood tracking dogs.

October 24, 2010

Hello Jola & John,

There seems to be an abundance of 8 pointers in my area this year. Either that or the hunters are being more selective. On October 23 at7:20 am this deer took an arrow from a fellow I succesfully tracked for last year. There was good blood for 220 yds. through hardwoods into an open grassy field. He made a hard left towards a large shallow pond surrounded by thick brush, swamp grass and saplings. He bedded down for who knows how long before leaving and making a dash to the edge of the pond where Lisa found him. A pretty easy track for her even after 27 hr. old trail. Completed in about 1/2 hr. Scenting conditions were good.

October 25, 2010

 

This is by far the largest racked big bodied deer Lisa and I had the pleasure to find. Interesting story. On October 24 at 5:15 pm the hunter shot this deer from his tree stand, broadside at 36 yds. in open field.

 

Deer trotted off into a very thick old moist swamp 75 yds. away. the hunter knew he had a front shoulder hit and  didn't like the deer's nonchalant reaction as he watched him meander through the thick stuff. Hunter fiound 19" of back half of arrow 5 yds away. First smear of blood was found 25 yards in. From there blood was hard to come by but hunter marked it for another 30-40 yards and that was it. He thought that the crashes ahead of him were coming from his deer and he backed off for the night.

 

Next day at  noon we took up the track. And track we did in balmy 72 degree weather for 3 1/2 hrs. Nothing. With hope fading and making our way back towards our vehicles Lisa nearly yanked the lead out of my hand when she took a quick sharp left into an overgrowth of mixed weeds and grasses; 30 yards. away lay one of the biggest 8 pointers I ever saw.

 

The buck ended up about 700 yds from hit site. We walked right past him on the way out. If it wasn't for Lisa's nose we would have kept right on going. The deer was indeed hit right in the shoulder bones but the broadhead clipped arteries and front part of one lung before logding into far side shoulder.

 

Of special notice was that this deer was shot 2 days prior by the hunter's buddy right through the "dead area" between the spine and top of ribs midway along the length of his body.When we found him, he wasn't stiffened up.

 

Congratulations to Pete and Lisa! What a great job you have been doing.

Texas trophy bucks found by Roy and Cuatro Hindes and their blood trailing dogs

It was great to hear recently from Roy Hindes from Texas! Thank you Roy for sharing great pictures with us. Roy wrote: "John, Here are some shots of some of the deer we have recovered this season. Heavy rains this year have made for some terrific trail conditions in south Texas this fall. The hunters can't trail them as well because of the grass and weeds, but because of the ground cover, scent will hold better and it will be easier for the dogs. We anticipate a busy deer season."

We wrote about Roy and his strain of blood trailing dogs before and for information about this legendary tracking team click here. Or you can read about them in John's book.

The Hindes "Blue Dogs" - Gus, Shep and Otis



Cuatro Hindes and Kyle Cunningham, Atascosa County



Dimmit county, 24 pts 50'mass. Roy and his son Cuatro in the picture.

Cuatro Hindes and Mark Westbrook, Guadelupe County

A gut-shot deer found four days after the shot

When John referred this call to Mike Garrity from Deer Search, he thought that it was very likely that the deer was dead. Mike and his wirehaired dachshund Wolfie found the buck four days after the shot. This is what Mike wrote:

Mike Garrity with Wolfie who air scented the four-day-old decomposing buck.

It took all of 10 minutes for Wolfie to air scent this large 9 point buck, shot on Saturday, October 2, the second day of the Long Island bow season. Unfortunately, they had to call in the dogs 4 days later due to a gut shot. The hunter Howie Habberstad, and partner Kate are seen pictured with Mike Garrity and his dachshund Wolfie.  Expectations were low for a blood line search due to a substantial rain storm the day before. Apparently the deer made his way back, close to where he was shot near a corn field some time after the initial search. The horns were salvaged and a cape will be provided by taxidermist Dave at Fish and Wildlife Unlimited in Bohemia. It will be another in a long line of impressive trophies for Howie. Also present was Louie Dibiase and his terrier Hunter.

Mike with Wolfie and Louis Dibiase with Hunter.

PS. Wolfie was bred by Dale Clifford; he is out of Jessie v Moosbach-Zuzelek "Sabrina" and Henri Anons.

Blood tracking dogs in the press

Today I have come across two articles on the use of blood tracking dogs.

The first one is Dogs on the Trail by P.J. Reilly, Woods and Waters was posted today click here. It covers recent developments regarding possible legalization of blood tracking in Pennsylvania. Andy Bensing, a good friend of ours and a driving force behind Deer Recovery of Pennsylvania,  is featured in the article.

And Bensing and his wirehaired dachshund Eibe

The second article comes from the current issue of North American Whitetail and was written by Tracy Breen - The Scent of a Whitetail. It can be viewed click here. I am glad to see that John Engelken featured in the article has a book coming up soon "Tracking Monsters". It can be preordered from his website http://www.bloodtrackingdogs.com/. The picture comes from the article and shows John's bloodhound Jesse.

A nice buck recovered by A.J. Niette and his tracking dog Jake

The picture shows A.J. Niette from Alabama, his tracking dog Jake and the buck they have recovered. Jake is a Kemmer Cur/Treeing Walker cross. We wrote about A.J. Niette before, and you can learn more about this highly successful bloodtracker on his website.

A.J. wrote:

"This is an Alabama buck that we found yesterday afternoon. The deer was shot Monday at 7:30 a.m. and we got there around 3pm. It took Jake 45 mins. to find and bay him. This is a nice deer for Alabama. Don`t know how old this deer was but it had to be 5 years old...it was a big deer."

James and Aspen, a blood tracking team from Montague, Texas

When Carl Eisenhard, DVM, from Springville, NY bred his wirehaired dachshund Blue Hill Alice to our Billy, one of the puppies Blue Hill Aspen went to a blood tracking home in Texas. James Willard from Montague, just a short distance north of Dallas, has been tracking with Aspen for the last two years.

Recently we received two pictures of the deer Aspen recovered.



In James' words: The doe was bow shot, the arrow hit the opposite shoulder so there was not an exit hole, despite the large hole in the top of her back there was almost no blood. The track was about 3.5 hours old. I had to let Aspen find a starting point herself and then she went straight to it. The doe had traveled about 100 yards.

The buck was shot by a 10 year old boy on youth weekend. His dad called and told me the story. I thought we should wait a while so we started tracking about 3:30 that evening. The buck had been rifle shot that morning about 7:30 am. The dad was 100% sure the buck had gone to the South across a large opening. Aspen found the buck in the worst brier patch I have ever been in. The buck had gone a short ways to the South and circled back to the North. The track was just a couple hundred yards long but this buck would have definitely not have been found with out Aspen

James can be reached at jwill.bowhunter@yahoo.com