Blood Tracking Log – 2015- 2016
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2016

Snow Tracking!
Got a call last night from a repeat client. He had arrowed a doe around 3:30 and went back to look for her around 7:30
Easily followable blood on the 5-6" of snow for a distance and one bloody hoof print, then a bed that he may or may not have bumped her from, then the blood stopped and the tracks mingled with other deer and were lost.
Shot was forward of center and a loud crack on impact.

Bella and Diane started at the shot site upon which a light dusting of snow had fallen. Bella had no problem following the correct doe even through heavy deer sign. There was one drop of blood about pea size on a sapling about thigh high and the rest was here and there small drops still visible with a couple larger patches including the right hoof print

The doe and her fawn headed uphill and passed through an area other deer had been acorn foraging and through an area with 6 beds but don't think any were hers. Up and up and up and up. No sign of any blood or beds.

She then semi circled and headed down through very thick Hemlock trees and down down down a steep hill. It was very slippery and very dangerous. Trying to avoid breaking a leg is at the top of my safety list.

The doe kept going down then got to a clear cut area and started traveling across the hill. She then got just above a town shed area and suddenly milled and then back tracked and then she and fawn headed straight back up the hill and I called the track.

At no point did we see more blood or any gait impairment beyond the first bed where she dragged a leg a little getting up. My feeling is the arrow is embedded in the shoulder blade perhaps forward and low on the bone. The hunter had recovered the back half of the arrow but we found none of the front but it could also have been covered in snow with the immense amount of deer traffic.

Not a recovery but it was interesting to be able to see what Bella smells and see her make right decisions all on her own, her first time tracking in snow

1.2 miles, 18 hours old

Two tracks one day, again

Track 1
Good sized buck shot slightly uphill quartering away Decent blood for a distance. Piece of bone found 100 yards into hunter tracking it. (looks like a piece of humerus bone to me), blood started getting sparser and smaller drops and finally they got to the last blood they could find and called us from the woods in the dark.
Bella and Diane got to the location and started tracking 15 hours later. Bella again struggled a bit with the search areas but then we got to the last blood and went over a stone wall into a field. Made a loop, came back to last blood and restarted and this time locked on and cleared the final search area.
The track went down through the field to an apple tree with a lot of tracks under it and milled a bit there, then into the woods edge where she went back and forth a little then straight through a swamp and came to a very watery thin puddle of dried blood on leaves on a hummock where it appeared the deer stood awhile.
We then waited for hunter and friends to arrive and we then restarted. Bella went to the road but was not convincing to me so I brought her back and searched out beyond the blood and she brought me back to road again not very convincing so I took one more loop to make sure the deer did not go straight and she went back to road so up we went. 
Straight across the road Bella hit no scent, checked down the road and nothing, started walking up the road a bit with Bella looking and at the most uphill portion on a sharp angle to the swamp exit she slammed into scent on a bluestone driveway and dragged me off at speed.
We went through some woods and then small saplings that were quite thick and I stopped trying to get the hunter to find us. Which he did pretty quick. He said one second we were on the side of the road and then poof we were gone. Ha!
Followed deer out into a field but cut back to woods. At this point he was still using all 4 feet but looked to be shuffling like bucks do so could not tell if lame or just being a buck
Through a heavy leaf litter section of woods and the tracks were getting more defined as he went uphill. Suddenly he turned right along a flat stretch and the scuffing got very pronounced and after each log he went over there was a deep stumble mark and a few drag marks here and there. We then hit a stretch of very soft soil and it was now a 3 legged deer, with 4 feet only showing as he went over logs etc..
At the 2.5 mile mark we hit a steep downhill section and the buck's tracks were very obvious and I decided the best bet was in a leg hit buck with no sign of bleeding it was going to be better if the hunter could still hunt behind him at this point and we parted ways.
Hunter followed the buck another mile during which time he made a scrape (how the hell?) and as he left the fresh scrape he dragged the bad leg through, and then he went onto posted land.

Track 2
This track was 21 hours old when we started it
Hunter had jumped a buck bedded in a pretty open area of scattered clumps of thorns and swale grass at 2pm the day before. It was a pretty odd spot for a deer that time of day
Hunter had shot at the departing deer and found only a hand size splotch of blood and then one drop beyond that and nothing else and no fur. He and friend had searched pretty extensively and found nothing
Bella hit the track fine but got down to bottom near stone wall and lost it. I took her across wall and did a quick search for scent but nothing. Restarted at the start and this time she made the turn and took us straight across. Missed another corner and got stuck a bit in a scent suck of logs but then found it and followed it to the edge of a small swamp and brook ravine and then declared no scent.
I took her in big loops all over trying to re acquire scent to no avail.Never saw any blood aside from what the hunter had found either.
This track totally made no sense, but in a high hunter high deer density area there is the possibility that the hunter had actually missed the deer and the splotch was from a different older injury that bled when he leapt from his bed... or maybe aliens abducted him, but we will never know the explanation on this one

Peace of Mind
Got a call from a man as a referral from a guy we tracked for 3 years ago (the infamous River track)
He had shot a buck at 4 pm last night. The bullet had deflected off a 2" tree close to the deer and he had no blood just some fur
The track was 23 hours old when we started it and there had been a heavy rain much of the night and a steady rain the rest of the night
The man was pretty sure the deer was fine but wanted confirmation. From his description I figured that this was a peace of mind call and it turned out to be just that

We parked at the bottom of a logging road and walked up a steep hill covered with slippery oak leaves. On arriving at the location where the man was standing at the shot we then went downhill about 50 yards to the shot site. 

I examined the tree the bullet hit and it was clear it had ricocheted to the left with no obvious sign of fragmentation.The fur in question looked like either brisket or the fur from the back of the rump. brisket was out of the question so rump was the winner of my guess. There was no visible blood and Bella indicated no blood sign.

We slithered off down the path the buck had taken with some casting for scent due to the aging and terrain but overall Bella tracked quite true. She got a bit hung up in a brook crossing and then in some scent suck of a blow down but mostly just kept going.
She tracked down to a major road crossing and we waited for a break in traffic to cross. 

The track went across and onto a golf course. The hunter was a member of the golf course so had no hesitation about us traipsing about on the greens.and Bella followed the track to the bank of a small river. I asked her to check up and down the bank and she came back to the same place. We walked along the edge of a brushy hell that looked ideal for a wounded deer to hide and the wind was blowing out from it. I just wanted to air scent check and she said "Nope". We went back to the green near the river and Bella reacquired the track and followed it back to the same location.

A bit of discussion with the hunter and we decided since we still had some light left we would walk up to the cart bridge and down the fairway to the green across the river. We would also be fringing some more of this brushy area for more scent check.

We got down to the green across the river and Bella instantly picked up the track and took off at a fast pace but it quickly went down another bank to a bend in the river for a crossing to a big farm. We checked up and down a bit but Bella came back to the second crossing spot and we called the track.

I believe the deflected bullet just gave the buck a bit of a shave across the back of his thigh, peace of mind is just as valuable as a deer recovery.

Two tracks one day zero luck

am track
This one was a buck arrowed on Thanksgiving am. Arrow deflected off a small twig
When we arrived to start the track was 49 hours old and there had been a day of light but steady rain in between time of shot and our arrival
The hunter and son had tracked the buck starting 2 hrs post shot and had bumped him out of a bed. They backed out and came back later and tracked the buck bumped him again, then came back and tracked til the blood was sparse but still trackable but had to break off due to Thanksgiving dinner and company. 
Rain then washed the blood and the hunter had to be out of state for most of day 2 so he called us to come at the start of day 3

Bella and I got there just after daybreak on a foggy morning with misting rain. The arrow had some dark grey fur and a sheen of grease. Almost all of the track blood was gone the spots on the map are all we saw.

Bella picked the track right up amazingly enough. She did drift a lot but that is no surprise. She had a little trouble in some areas due to terrain, previous searches and scent spread but over all did well. We got to a clear cut area and the scent seemed to come and go but we made it through and picked up the track again on the other side at the top of a steep hill.
At the hunter's last blood we searched a bit and then picked up the direction change and followed at a faster pace on uncontaminated track in a curve to a drive and then took a bit to get a solid direction on the other side but did and the track took a more meandering path til we came upon a place where it was obvious the buck was chasing does about in a small area behind houses. He had no luck it seemed and his tracks went off again turning uphill and back towards where he had come from.
At the top of the hill looking back downhill he bedded probably in the rain. No blood or impairment in the tracks when he got up and I was visually tracking him for most of this track with his mid size tracks doing the bad boy buck front feet scuffing
Buck then cruised through a small scrape but did not work it, Meandered up and over his previous path and continued on heading back to the section of woods he had started in at which point I called the track at 2.7 miles.
My best guess based on arrow, fur, blood type and behavior is the deer was hit high in the loin/backstrap just behind the ribs and is doing well

PM track aka "Flagging is your friend"
Got a call for a track for a monster buck. Also a bow hunter. 200+lb Buck was arrowed on the hunter's property just before dark the night before. He tracked it briefly and lost light never jumping it. Backed out and came back in am to track. LOTS of bright red blood on 1-2" of snow made for a pretty easy track, The buck then crossed a road and the blood came and went, a lot then sparse, then a lot til the hunter and his two friends lost it at the edge of a swamp and called me a couple hours later. 
By the time I arrived just 45 min before dark it had rained all day at 37F and all the snow was gone except a few patches. ALL the blood was totally gone but one spot the size of a dime
We cut off 3/4 mile of the track and started at the road crossing 24 hours post shot in a steady rain.
Bella acted like the blood scent was EVERYWHERE with all the snow melt and rain and the fact that hunter and friends had walked in the deer's track and blood and each time blood got sparse they spread out to search tracking that all over.
Apart from the first few feet of track Bella never acted like she was solid on a deer but instead had posture for "all I can find is tracked around scent mom" she took us down to a woods road where the hunter did not know where we were. We found boot tracks in a patch of snow so they had been there but nothing was familiar and he had not flagged the track. We looped back and picked up a different section and gained a couple of his friends but not those that had been on the track before. (interestingly we had tracked for the older man last year and he sang Bella's praises)
We followed Bella following drifted tracked about scent through woods the hunter did not recognize til we finally found the swamp
Hunter pointed to where he had lost blood but Bella said no. We walked up and down the edge a little and she and I wandered out a bit into the swamp where there was snow but found zero tracks at all
With no solid indicator that this was the right place I decided no way was I floundering about in a dark swamp with deep water having already gone over my boot once. 
At no point did Bella ever confirm we had found that buck's path into the swamp so I called the track

Lesson for hunters here is flag your track even if a blind man could follow the blood, flag it so you can see the next flag from the one you are at. This is double important if woods you are not familiar with. Use TP or small surveyor tape strips or whatever. If the material is not degradable do go back later and remove them. 
This REALLY nice and sincere hunter learned a really tough lesson. However my guess was that this was a shoulder hit, no beds and blood petered out just an occasional leg drag in the snow when they tracked him that am. Shoulder hits are tough to catch under the best of conditions, never mind a washed out walked over cold dark rainy water soaked night 

Totally cold and exhausted we hit the bed as soon as we got home and ate

Mind bending track
Got a call for a track today from a repeat client.
I arrive and we head to the tree stand. Small buck was about 30 yards and the arrow was covered with blood. I did not examine it just looked at it as we passed it stuck in the ground where the hunter found it (should have examined it)

This hunter is immaculate in marking blood sign and flight path so when Bella took off from the shot site it was obviously a parallel path and when she turned left and went past a log, I brought her back up and she followed the blood sign down, did a brief search at the end of the hunter's search area and went left again exactly the same path as before so we let her go.
Bella acted like it was a much older track than it was but followed steadily even though the temps were uncomfortably warm. She went out into a brushy, thorny area and hunter and I removed some layers of clothes and Bella took a drink.
Off we went again and suddenly Bella took off at a run. She went down and around and crossed our in path and kept going. We were finding zero blood but she was committed so on we went, and crossed the original area and kept going.On through the forest never slowing and finally I saw a single dried drop of blood about the size of a pencil eraser, which made no sense. She turned down towards a farm and we hit some barbed wire. There was some deer hair on the wire and as I untangled Bella from it I looked up and about 50 yards away was a line of posted signs
I told the hunter I thought this was the wrong deer and we needed to start again.

Off we went back to the tree stand again. Gave Bella a good drink and asked her nicely to PLEASE start again. This time I stoped and really examined the arrow. It was coated top to bottom in medium color blood AND the layer of fat the entire length. There was a handful of pale grey fur with black tips and a lesser amount of white fur. At this point I am convinced this has to be a brisket/low chest shot but not a slice a puncture through the outer fat layer which was likely plugging the hole to an extent. 
Bella slowly followed the track and this time I kept her on the exact path. We crossed over the other track and shortly therafter found new blood! Yeah
Bella still was tracking slow, tired and hot. She missed a turn and then found it and more blood and then one more spot on a woods road. We then had a search around the end of a woods road where a bajillion deer apparently come out onto a house's yard every night. We skirted the yard and on the other side did a brief search and picked the track again.
Bella followed the track to a brook ravine where she got stuck in the scent suck of terrain for a bit but then picked the track back up with another spot of blood.She followed this down into a section of tall weeds and pickers where I said if a deer will be dead this is it. But after a brief search she headed back out again and we found one tiny drop of blood and I called the track shortly after
We made the arduous uphill and out and around trek back to the tree stand and just before we got there the hunter found an arrow. NOT his. NOT labeled (ie: illegal) and the mechanical broadhead was covered with what looked like back fur.
Hunter had walked that way just a day or two before so it was somewhat recent. Poor Bella tracked one deer we had no idea existed about a mile, then tracked the proper buck also about a mile, in warmer than we would like temps
What a good girl even though no recovery

our last 4 tracks had to wait til computer had power to post these
11/11 track one about 16 hrs old
Shortly after hit site Bella pulled right. Hunter said no he saw deer up and to left which is where they searched night before. Took Bella up there she said " not the right deer" Did a big loop and found blood. There was two deer, one went left and hit buck went right. Became pretty obvious this had to be a high back (deer fell at shot got up and took off) and buck went straight up a steep tote road. At 1.2 miles we called track 1.2 miles

11/11 track 2 deer shot that am hunters followed it over mile
Started a few spots before last blood. Very strong wind blowing up from below, Bella air scented a lot and wanted to go downhill. Hunters would not follow us that way. Worked the track a bit longer found 3 more drops blood Bella still said deer curved back the way it originally came, hunters disagreed, we called track

11/13 24 hour old track hunters had tracked 1.5 miles before losing blood. I suspect this was a brisket and leg (shot was downhill, they found lots bone fragments and heavy blood, many beds at first)
Started at last two bits of hunter found blood. Found a couple more spots after working through the search site. Then the track went straight up a horrific mountain. Bella was very strong after the buck, I smashed my hand on a tree, we all nearly died ha! Called the track before someone had a heart attack. 1 mile 583 feet of elevation gain

11/14/16 11 hour old track. Most likely liver hit. This was a weird one. We intended to start at the point the buck had crossed a grassy road. Hunter had marked the crossing with a blue shop rag tied to a tree and then the blood trail was well marked with TP
No wind or rain
We got there and all the markers were gone. Someone had picked them all up. Very strange
So started at hit site. Bella struggled through the whole area where the hunter had searched for blood but we made slow but steady progress. At one point right after we found some blood a random guy appeared with flashlight. Hunter knew who he was but was not expecting him. 
We then struggled with this guy who kept wandering around while keeping up with us. Holy distraction
Got to hunter's point of loss and once past that Bella shifted into high gear finding some more blood
Track went down to a building and yard and then lost it.We circled about. Rob thought he could hear something but we could not get wander man to stop moving. We think it was the deer who then back tracked a bit.
Bella eventually cut the back track and the new direction and some more blood
Track went down a steep ditch to a road. Bella waded out into the pond indicating the deer swam. Hunter thought unlikely but the swim direction is the same direction it turned around at before it goes to a big mountain.
We could make no more progress so called track 2.6 miles

When your best is not good enough

Excitedly took an am track for a local hunter. I love early am tracks as you then have plenty of daylight

When we got to the hunting area the hunter showed me a bone fragment he had picked up. There are only 4 places on a deer to get such a fragment type- rib, thin edge of shoulder blade, flat edge of pelvis and leg. Dear God please do not let this be a leg I said to myself.

Hunter described the shot and where he was aiming and the possibilities seemed good for a recovery other than the limp the deer walked off with

The blood was bright red which did not buoy my hopes but there was LOTS of it.

We got to point of hunter track loss and Bella took a bit to sort out his search and then we were off with small blood drops.

The track went uphill and the blood trail ranged from zero blood for stretches to very tiny drops to decent drops to large splash areas where it looked like the deer had stood and back to zero blood again. Once in awhile we would get a rub on tree about 20" off ground

We crossed brooks, thickets, fields, a yard (what is it with yards this year???), more stone walls and a field. NO BEDS ever not a single one... 

The blood started getting wetter around the mile and half mark, and I told the hunter I was afraid this was a leg and that we were pushing him and that legs are very very hard to catch but if he wanted to keep on we would keep going. He did and so we continued on.

Now the track was gaining elevation. All told start to end we gained 231' of elevation. We popped out at the bottom of a field near a house and the deer walked down the driveway for a bit then cut through a small field. We took a break to catch our breath and continued up more hill

We popped back out on that same driveway and there was a decent splatter area where the buck had stood watching for us then one drop farther down road

Bella and I were standing there waiting for the hunter when suddenly there was a VERY close shot. Holy crap. Yelled to hunter to see if it had been him but no. I looked left and saw the buck crest a small hill and vanish.. Crap Start yelling for whomever shot and he materialized on the driveway. Real nice guy said he was sure he missed the deer but that he had a broke leg (I hate being right). This hunter had permission to hunt the land where the buck went and agreed since he shot at it we could continue. 

It took a bit to get Bella back on the track after all that excitement but she did it (had I listened to her she would have been back on it MUCH faster). ONE tiny drop of blood. Other hunter had split from us a bit before this to go up a tote road a bit but I took his number. We let him know we were back on and that we had flagged the spot for him.
On we went up yet another hill and stone wall and popped out on a tar road. At this point Bella had gone a bit over 4 miles and the deer track itself was 3.92 miles. 
We stood there deciding that no way could we catch the deer but that a lone quiet hunter might and we called the other hunter and gave him directions to the spot. At that moment two other hunters came out. They had seen buck cross road and had bailed to track him. One had seen him a second in his scope but had no shot. The leg is broke below the elbow. Turned out they were friends with the other hunter who appeared just then. We called the track off at that point- Bella was fatiguing and my hunter was fatiguing and I was not too perky anymore either, The new hunters went back to show our second hunter to the point they left off the track. Hoping he can still hunt/stalk quietly up and get the deer because we were just pushing him on with the noise of our passage and if he is successful he will call me.

Bella was outstanding but sometimes your best just is not quite enough

Three heartbreaking tracks in 24 hours

Track 1- Friend of ours had a buck chase a doe almost over top of him. he was sitting on ground with his muzzle loader. Doe came barreling by and then buck stepped out. FOURTEEN steps away. When hunter lifted gun all he could see was fur and shot. big blast in the tree that was behind the buck and lost of very short fur on the ground
Our initial thought was he gave the buck a leg shave. Bella tracked him out through evil briers and he looped back around to pick back up the exit trail of the does he was with. One single drop of blood very low (fetlock high) on a sapling in a brier thicket and that was it.
When the buck picked up the does path from the shot site we called the track

Track 2- young man from next town over shot a buck with his bow 24 hrs prior in the neck/front of shoulder area. Buck had taken a step, wavered, fell down, flailed and then got up and boogied off
We started at the site where the buck had fallen and there was decent blood which quickly petered out to periodic blotches. Tracked up to where hunter had lost blood and past, found a very small spot of blood and then buck had looped down through a yard, over a retaining wall, down a driveway and across a main road to a pair of yards.
Hunter went and asked permission to cross them and was denied, there was no other way to access the buck's possible flight path so had to call it

Track 3- Guy had shot a buck with his bow about 11 hours prior, right near his house . Buck was broadside at the shot but took a step towards hunter at last second making this a quartering to shot. No arrow recovered. He had tracked the buck with decent blood sign for about a mile before losing it.
He had marked his sign very very well, Bella picked the track right up and was tracking blazing fast. Looking at the GPS stats she was dragging my butt through the forest in the dark at between a low average of 1 mph up to the general average of 2 mph up to the fastest average of 4+ mph !!! She wanted this buck very badly and we blasted through a lot of brier patches at fast speed.
Right after he J hooked indicating possible bedding, we hit a line of posted signs of a person the hunter did not know.. What a huge disappointment as from Bella's behavior I was sure this one was dead somewhere ahead... but we had to call it because no permission to proceed

Backyards in Suburbia
Today I had to face one of my biggest tracking phobias- People's backyards. You never know how you will be received and I hate intruding on people and this track had backyards in spades ha!

Had a call at dark from a hunter who had made a good crossbow shot on a big doe but had lost blood and this was people's backyards so no doing it at night unless my desire was to be talking to the police so I scheduled the track for dawn the next day.

We parked a good distance away and walked in, a couple times on the walk in Bella went all snorty on me air scenting a deer and I'd lay money that she had caught a whiff of this doe on the very very light breeze.

The doe had been shot just before dusk and it had rained heavily over night and had been lightly raining since I left my house for the drive over. Most of the small blood was going to be gone for sure and I wondered how we would do.

Turned out to be a very challenging track scent wise for Bella and backyard phobia wise for me.

We started at the hit site and we did pass some blood but as I had feared all the light blood was gone.There was a giant smear of blood where the doe fell over a stone wall into a backyard and then some more blood on the protected leaves of a dense thicket of saplings where the hunter had found a bed the night before. All the blood in the bed was gone though. There was a small amount of blood where the doe had exited the thicket back into the same yard and then nothing.

Bella then picked up a track that lead to a fence which we had to walk around and through the woods and across a big yard. We worked this awhile but Bella was not presenting "wounded deer tracking" behavior. Some new deer tracks went everywhere Bella went but I finally decided this was the paths of the doe's two companions (yellow on the photo) and headed back to the stone wall crossing again.

I ended up restarting Bella at this area and the bed area several times. She was struggling but still willing to keep trying.Finally she picked up what I was sure was the track even though at first it followed the hunter's path out last night (orange on the photo). Bella was tracking way slower than her normal speed because of the wash out of scent so I was having trouble reading her. We got into another yard and there was several large blood clots and smears on the grass and hoof flail marks where the doe had fallen. Literally RIGHT behind a house.

We looked beyond that point to the next yard, came back and checked the driveway (at which point I sent the hunter to go door knocking as it looked like we'd be there awhile) and kept coming back to re start at the smears.

Bella was acting like the doe was right there she just could not locate it. FINALLY she found the about turn the doe had done when she got up off the ground and poof there was the doe just feet from the yard edge in some weeds. The shot was excellent and she was likely dead before the hunter left the area.

I sent hunter to again knock on the door to ask permission to drag the doe out through the man's yard and bless his heart even though he is not a fan of hunting he agreed.We did not gut the doe there naturally, but took it home to gut before check in.

Some of my backyard phobia I am sure influenced how trusting I was of Bella's tracking and likely without this I might have followed her to the doe faster but I was very proud of her for not quitting!

Ran into two of the local Game wardens and they wanted the run down on the track and all seemed great.

Bella is now 3 finds for 5 tracks

Youth hunt
Youth hunt track. Doe hit leg and possibly low low body. Track was 16 hours old when we started at the shot site. 
Bella tracked well to point of loss as the doe crossed some rocks entering a field, then this small field where the search for blood went on the night before was a huge struggle.

Bella then air scented up to a field edge, check a bit of edge said "nope" and went back into the woods. She sort of picked up a track across another field then up onto a bedding ridge and back to the field where I realized she must have had the injured doe's path before the shot and pulled her off.

Restarted again a few yards from last blood and again a mess, so took her along the beaver pond and Bella said "nope" circled back around the outer edge and this time Bella caught the deer's flight path.

She went up towards the field we had earlier checked but stayed in the woods edge. Bella was tracking strong now but zero blood sign, She went under a big downed log and I smacked my head hard enough to see stars, put both hands on the ground for a second to clear my head while Bella waited, and there was a small drop of blood! (doe blood not mine !!)

Track then turned down hill and you could clearly see a limping track with an occasional leg drag and we stopped to wait for the hunter and dad. Continued strongly through more tangled junk and multi brook crossings, the track continued to show limping and occasional leg drag. 

There was never any bedding and no more visible blood at all. The track went through heavy acorns and swampy area and just kept on going. Under other circumstances I might have followed the track another hour but I had an appointment and the youth had to get to school, so we made the difficult decision to call the track

Residential Buck
Diane and Bella went on a track today. The hunter had done an amazing job following a very very sparse blood trail and also backed out right away when he could no longer follow the trail

The shot was high and angled downward. At one point the 6 point buck had fallen on a rock and snapped off one of his antlers which the hunter had in his pocket (and we showed it to Bella before the start)

Bella and I started this 3 1/2 hour old track after a VERY long very steep walk in to the shot site

Bella did a very good job following almost exactly the deer's path to point of loss then followed the hunter's exit path down to a field edge where she indicated "not the deer" and I took her back up and restarted.

Bella went a different route and went right up and over/through a huge pile of cut saplings and we found large blood sign all the way through it as if the buck had bounded through but then zero blood again.

Bella two or three times went down to the edge of the field near the edge of a home yard. The owners pulled in just then and I sent the hunter to get permission for us to cross the lawn as a courtesy. Which the land owner very nicely gave

I took Bella back to the brush pile and restarted again because it seemed inconceivable that the buck would have waltzed through in broad daylight and again Bella took us back to the field/lawn edge so we let her go. She sorted through the deer tracks under the apple trees and went very close to the house actually on the mown lawn portion and up to another brush pile on the border between house lawn and field.

Amazingly enough the buck was hiding IN this brush pile! He jumped up and bounded off with great effort and vanished in the tree line. I held Bella at that spot and sent the hunter on ahead to see if he could get a shot as at this point I did not want to "hunt" the buck with the dog. At the woods edge the hunter called to me that the buck had gone down a steep bank and crossed a paved road

Bella and I moved up and we all slid down this very steep bank, me on my butt. Bella showed us where the buck crossed and again I sent the hunter ahead and he started down another VERY steep bank into a brook ravine and he saw the buck in the brook.

About 2-3 yards away from the buck on the opposite bank of the brook was a line of posted signs. Just beyond the buck but up at the top of the ravine was a house. I could not shoot the sidearm safely or legally there, so I asked the hunter if he could make the shot because he needed to anchor the buck there as if it set foot on the posted bank I could no longer help him unless we were able to get permission.

The hunter made an excellent shot (no danger to the house far above) and the buck wobbled then turned quartering away and laid down in the brook but still alive. I asked the hunter to send another arrow just to be safe and again another good shot then we sat in silence 20 min to make sure the buck was truly expired.

We then descended to the buck. I sent the hunter up to the house to get permission to drag the buck out across their lawn and again very nice people gave us permission

Then came the wait for help for the steep drag and a ride back to our vehicles

A picture perfect track and end and a successful recovery of a buck who would have otherwise not been found by the hunter
Track was 1 mile long through a large section of thorns as well as semi open woods 

A quick doe

Bella and Rob went on a track this am for a doe shot yesterday evening. Arrow was coated with blood but zero blood on the ground, hunter looked around for a bit in a small area but when found nothing backed out to avoid contaminating the track

Rob and Bella arrived about 15 hours later and Bella worked to sort through the hit site area with the hunter scent and then tracked to a grassy area in a direction the hunter did not think the deer went. When she stopped to eat grass Rob took her back to the start again and they searched down deer trails in the direction the hunter thought the deer had gone and bella was air scenting but acted like the scent was light/wind blown

So they headed back up into the wind and Bella took them directly to the same grass area she had originally gone and was tracking confidently within seconds

Within yards there was a drop of blood then another and then suddenly there was spray all over the trees and grass indicating a lung hit, then she was on the dead doe 
15 hours old

First track of the year

Rob had to work so I took Bella out on our first track of the year. This was a buck hit high but possible high rear lung.
We started the track 17 hours post shot and tried to start Bella at last blood to save some walking but she could not lock on, so we made the trek out and around to a point farther up the track with what had been good blood.

At this point Bella did lock on and was tracking well. I kept stopping to water her because at 67F it was just too hot for this time of year.

We passed the last blood sign and continued out to where the buck had to skirt a chainlink fence, it then went a few yards up  a logging/access road and checked herself saying she had missed a turn. She worked through the deer trails and then pulled me down one, through some thick pricker bushes to a very large bed. There was no blood in the bed and it was obvious the buck had lain there a long while as the scent pool here was huge. Bella got stuck here a bit and I pulled her out and around the prickers to pick up the exit.
Bella checked each trail and each one she dismissed with a toss of her head “not my deer”. She finally found the right trail and started pulling me along with increasing speed.  We came out onto the shore of the reservoir  and she was now running with me sailing along behind like a kite.

There was a ton of deer tracks going in all directions and one set of running tracks going our way. Bella kept veering into the woods then back to the beach and finally she dove up into the woods. I stopped her to give her a drink and catch my breath. At this point with no new blood I warned the hunter that I thought the buck was aliove and not too far ahead of us time wise. We set off again to see if we could get some good sign or a sighting but after we crossed a deep ditch and headed deeper into the woodss still pulling strong but was showing some serious signs of overheating and with no positive signs pointing to a possible recovery I called the track. Under normal fall temps I would have continued farther but Bella's health takes first consideration. After a dip in the reservoir and a slow walk  back to the car and Bella was all ready to go again
17 hours old  1.4 miles

2015

Last Minutes Rifle Buck

After a long day of hunting the backwoods I got home to not one but two deer tracking calls waiting on me. One of them Diane had already told them we would not be able to do if I was not home by 6 (it was a possible high abdomen or high back bow hit, 24+ hrs old), since that time had come and gone we went on the second call.

This was a small buck shot in the last hour of rifle season. Hunter feared the bullet may have deflected off small twigs. They had already tracked the buck through a wicked nasty swamp and then lost sign.

We started the track about 4 hours post shot at the point where the track exited the swamp and crossed a big brook/small river. The fog was pretty dense and the air moisture content was such that our breath would float in the lamp light making it impossible to see at times unless you held your breath.

Bella and I crossed the brook and she went upstream a bit and indicated a crossing but the opposite bank was steep and brier covered so we went back and she investigated the search area. Bella came back and indicated she wanted to cut over to the same trail she had indicated from the other side but there was just no way to get through the dense briers to get there so we went back up the way we had come down. 

Bella then made a quick circuit of following one of the searchers trail but came back and cut the deer's path proven with substantial blood sign. She went up a moderate hill and then her head came up in the breeze and she cut sharp right went out a way and then started to curve into the wind. Because we had no blood sign on a track that had been having periodic sign I brought her back. In looking at the track on Google Earth it is OBVIOUS that she had winded the deer and was cutting around to him. Poor dog, she was doing a good thing..

Back on track Bella crested the hill and I saw the buck in a bed just at the edge of my headlamp beam in the fog. Diane took Bella's line and I crept forward a couple yards, but the buck started to get up. I was about 25 yards from him, and I wanted to get closer but with him getting up and looking like he was going to bolt I got ready to take a shot. All I could clearly see of him was his head and neck and that is what I aimed for. The fog made sighting difficult and I had to hold my breath to be able to even see the gun sights. I fired at the buck but missed him clean, shockingly to me because I don't miss with the gun.  But as we crossed the area in pursuit of the rapidly running buck we could see all the branches hanging down that I could not see in the fog from that distance. There was no hair in the bed and no fresh blood splatter confirming the miss (I am sure I shot too high) and the blood sign in the bed indicated we were dealing with a likely hind quarter shot.

We followed the buck with ever decreasing blood sign right up to a line of posted signs. He then turned towards the brook which at this point was a small river. He slid down the bank and bounded across with ease but then hung out on the other side like he did not want to be there. The water was over Diane's boots here and we at first tried to find a shallow way across but there was none. The hunter, Bella and I went across and the water was at the top of my boots.

We followed the buck a short distance and he bounded back across the water and scaled a near vertical bank onto posted land. At this point I called the track with regret. We had tracked the buck about 1 mile from where we started to this point.

On our way home the hunter text us to say he found out the posted land is some that he can access so is going in tomorrow to try to see if he can catch up to the buck again. Will post an update if there is one

PS Hunter went back in the next day, found a single small spot of blood where it went up the bank and nothing more. he searched the entire area and nothing at all, so likely the non fatal haunch hit we assumed

The Legend of Rasputin

I have a buck I have been hunting for 3 years. In fact I shot him a couple years ago. The buck turned just as I pulled the trigger and the shot went through his brisket and broke his upper arm. Tracked him over 3 miles during which time he also got into a fight with another buck. He survived and I got him on trail cameras the next year doing just fine. Shot at him that year but the reload bullet was defective and was basically like tossing a rock at him. The bullet gently landed in the leaves under his feet, the gun froze up and he just walked off. We then named this buck Rasputin because he just refused to die.

A friend shot Rasputin today with a bow. The buck gushed blood and stood there acted like he was going to drop dead right there..and then he stopped bleeding and vanished.

We brought Bella up and started the track about 4 hours later. Bella started well but then had trouble in the super dense baby Christmas trees and ferns. Bella was air scenting more than tracking. Restarted her and the same thing happened. We ended up down in a ravine at the junction of two brooks and it was very clear that Bella COULD smell the buck, but we were certain he was actually upstream. We sent the hunter's son up one brook, and the hunter up another to look for sign of a crossing and we went back and re started Bella again.

This time Bella restarted and took the buck's actual track out just fine with no difficulty! We crossed the brook the hunter had gone up and a short distance after the crossing we found a large splotch of wet blood. Bella tracked up over a ridge where we met up with the hunter's son who had jumped the buck from a bed and  then he walked off. Had the son had a rifle with him, he could have killed him easily, but sadly he was unarmed. At this point we waited for the hunter to rejoin us and set off on the hot track.

The buck now knew we were after him and tried to get rid of us but Bella was on his track like glue. We found some more fresh blood but the last spot was very small. The buck then went up up up a steep incline and straight down over a sheer drop to a small pond where he got a drink.

The buck then turned and followed a deer trail along the pond edge and then over a smaller steep drop with deer trails going up through a saddle and along the pond. We lost time here as Bella got trapped in the scent hole of the hollow, saddle and the brook exiting the pond. Bella picked it back up again where the track crossed the brook and right up over another steep hill and down the other side into an area that had been logged.

At this point we had tracked 4 hours and over 3 miles and we called the track. The shot is guessed to be pretty low possibly the back rear of a single lung, maybe just a rearmost brisket. The hunter will continue to look for him, but we think the Legend of the unkillable Rasputin has just added another chapter and I hope to get a chance to hunt him again next year.

Vanishing buck

Finally a local track! Went out on a track here in town on land I know well. We don't often take shoulder hit calls because they don't often end well unless chest cavity involvement. This call though the description of the buck post shot sounded very promising. The down side was that there was ZERO blood. He was shot at about 35 yards with a .308 so you'd think there would be blood but no.

The hunter's gun had jammed after the first shot and as he looked down to get it unjammed the buck vanished into thin air. No blood, no scuff marks, no nothing. Hunter and Uncle had looked a bit  left, right and out, but knowing they should call us they tried to not make too much of a mess – thank you!

The place we needed to go to was on the side of a mountain and a 1 mile walk in. The wind had been very strong all day and was still whipping at a good rate out of the WSW. The deer had been shot about 10 hours prior.

On the walk in , in two places Bella had strongly indicated air scent. I had marked them on the GPS in case we needed them later. We all arrived at the shot site and wondered what would happen. Bella has only done one other track with zero blood to start/orient on and that one was fresher (we caught up to that buck and he was only lightly wounded). Bella checked the start and went out straight the direction the buck had gone but then got all silly. Took some time for her to settle (have not done a track in a while and she was beside herself) and then she went off searching, not strongly tracking. She went out again and this time looped up and around but she was following the hunter's search loop. 

Came back to the start and got going again and she searched about to the right this time and finally headed out. She went back and forth a bit but got to the point she had turned around before but this time turned right and she was tracking into the wind. She stopped and doubled back to a missed corner and was starting to pick up steam but the tracking was stop and go as the scent seemed light in the heavy oak and beech leaves. Bella made another right into the wind and really picked up steam head buried in the leaves like a bulldozer as I slipped along behind her on the slippery slope. Bella made one loop at another missed turn and then was really hauling me along. I fell once but got right back going and Bella was tracking with strong confidence now with nose under leaves and then just above them. She made another right turn and at the edge of my headlamp beam I could see white and then she was on top of the buck!

The shot had broken the shoulder and fragmented on impact with pieces taking out some of the lung, top of stomach, some of the intestines, the bladder and a lot of other damage. 

The scent indications Bella had given on the walk in were directly upwind. 

With the steep haul out we were pretty glad that the track itself was shorter than the mile walk in!

Again, more nice people who did everything right which made the buck recoverable even though the scent conditions were bad

More good people, more un dead deer

Another tracking call for the same piece of property we did one on (the “no chance, last hope” log entry) but opposite side. We almost did not take the call because it sounded like a high back hit, but we went.

By the time we arrived on site it was 9 + hours post hit. It was an uphill shot broadside just slightly quartering away. Buck had dropped to ground kicking, got up and took off tail down. Several bloody beds and then loss of blood sign. The family had searched about 5 hours and never found any more blood at all.

We started Bella at the last solid good blood sign and she headed off but not with a ton of commitment. It was quickly obvious she was sorting the searchers' paths. One big huge loop later and she was back at the blood spot. Got her restarted and she went off on the buck's track with just 1 short check up and back of the men's path out of the woods. The scenting conditions were obviously tough for her. THICK mountains of super dry leaves. Bella would track a ways then stuff her nose down through the leaves into the buck's track and then track farther etc.. It was like the scent ON the leaves was minimal but scent under the leaves was good.

Bella tracked the buck out of the area and he started downhill. He took the easiest routes he could. He then started up the other side and again he'd sidehill when he could. He did go up some steep bits but only short distances before sidehilling or taking an easier path.  At the top of the hill we found an area where Bella indicated the buck had spent some time. It was a good place to watch your back trail. We then came across a fresh bed under a blow down a perfect size area for the buck. No blood still.

From the bed he pretty much went as straight as he could. DOWN. Again he went down some terrible steep areas but sidehilled when he could and it was obvious he was having trouble with one leg. Not 3 legged but dragging it a bit on the ups/downs. Level ground he was fine.The track went down, down, down. 185 feet of elevation change in not a huge distance. We ended up in a narrow ravine with a wide brook running through it. I suspect the buck simply turned and followed the revive because the opposite side was horrifically steep, but here we stopped. We checked up and down a little bit and checked the deep pool well. But at just shy of 2 miles of tracking the hunters and I decided to call the track.

The father called up up the low side to a logging road and we did a big loop on the return to the start just to see if we could fine any other sign. The hunter's showed us a bloody bed they had found earlier in the tracking. But Bella picked up nothing except the original track right at that bloody bed back to where we started from. 

A frustrating end but not entirely unexpected given the description of the shot and buck behavior. Most likely either a shoulder blade hit and/or a high back hit. We did meet yet another great group of guys though. This has been a very good year for meeting some great people, not such a great year for recovering actual dead/dying deer. They have to be dead or impaired to catch them and while we have caught up to a few this year, most so far, have been darn lively! 

Durable deer

Went on a call at the far edge of our range for a really great guy. This was the first deer he had ever ever shot and he had shot a young buck in the shoulder at 6:30 am. The determination in this guy to get his deer was incredible for a first deer man. He and his nephew had dogged that buck all day long. They had jumped him multiple times and got another shot into him (muzzleloader in the haunch) and kept the track going. At 4 pm they jumped him again and missed him. That is when we got the call. Told him to go home and eat and we'd be out as soon as we could.

We arrived on site at around 7 pm and took up the track right near his back yard where he had last jumped the buck. Bella took right to the track and there was still bright red blood on the track. We came across a bed and it appeared we had jumped him up out of it. Bella was tracking at jet speed and we followed the trail and periodic blood sign out to a State highway (route 4). There were just a couple small drops of blood indicating the crossing and we waited for traffic to go by. Diane went across to try to see tracks or blood across the road but did not right away. We decided to let Bella cross and work the road edge. Diane watched for traffic and we got Bella across and she worked up the road a few yard and turned sharp right into the woods where we had blood sign.

Bella was still working at a fast pace and the track went up and skirted the edge of a sand pit before heading into the woods. It was getting considerably thicker now and harder to travel but Bella was still hot.  We crossed a brook and came out to a thick mossy area where Bella had to work a bit but took up the track again and kept going. We were still finding periodic blood, all bright red. No spray on bushes just blood on the ground and occasionally some fur wipe on branches.

We went up a hill to a plateau and it was obviously the buck had been there a while, perhaps standing/milling about listening to us come. This was the last area with any blood at all. Bella went to the sharp drop off and indicated down but I wanted to make sure before risking my legs. So we looped around a bunch on the plateau top, both sides of last blood, with Bella just indicating drifted scent not a track. We found a bed with urine in it but nothing to say it was the bed of this deer. We made a loop out to the left of last blood and when we came back the guys heard a crash, crash, splash just over the edge of the drop off. I thought it was just a beaver in the pond below, but we were to find out it was the buck in a bit. Bella back tracked a couple times and then I decided there was nothing left to do but go over the drop.

Myself, Bella and the hunter's nephew bailed over the edge and slithered down the almost vertical drop covered with slippery pine needles. Diane and the hunter were behind a few seconds. As soon as we made the decent Bella was tracking again hard. We got to the bottom and she led me to a beaver slide and there was a deer's tracks slithering down the slide into the large beaver pond. Bella tried to leap off after the deer and I almost had to have the hunter's nephew help me reel her back in!  I decided to follow the edge and see if she could find a way around and she was air scenting strongly. We got to a point of land with the large beaver pond to the right and a smaller one to the left and no way through to where the deer had swum.

Diane and the hunter caught up and I asked him if there was any way around and he said no. (On Google earth this was a big brook/small river that went through a large swamp above the beaver pond and a smaller swamp below it and all this fed into a real pond). Since we had had no blood at all I allowed Bella to air scent her way back up to the plateau a less dangerous way and we again did a cursory search sweep but no new sign or scent,  Bella was just searching/air scenting but not tracking and after a few loops we knew there was no error that the deer had indeed swam away. 

At this point we were 15+ hours post shot with a heavily pushed deer and it looked like he was certainly non fatally hit somewhere in the front and somewhere in the haunch. There had never been any sign of limping or favoring of a limb so the shoulder bone or rear end bones them self was unlikely. We had tracked him nearly 2 miles and gosh knows how far the hunter had tracked him over 9+ hours. Bella did an amazing job in varied terrain and her first paved road crossing, the hunter and nephew were great to work for, we just wished for a better outcome for the man's first ever deer.

No chance, last hope

We got a call super early am from a guy wanting us to track a “crazy big” buck. Could not go out til evening because of work, so told him to call us back if he wanted us to come out. In the mean time all kinds of searching went on, some rain, the bright hot sun and more searching. Additionally this was a heavily hunted area and a LOT of other hunters had been in the area.

He calls us in the evening and asks if we can come anyhow and we tell him it is a mess and make no guarantees but yes since he is a local short drive away.

We get there and it really does not sound any better then our initial impression. He had a decent trail of fair blood with some bigger splotches which petered right out after not really a very long way.

Bella spent some time sorting through the starting first few yards and then was doing well. It was an older track so she was tracking slower than her normal but steady. When we hit last blood she turned right and then looped way out, got to a cottage area and realized she was probably following a searchers blood scented tracks but she turned back on her own having come to the same thought apparently. 

Bella started search pattern on the way back and at one point she stopped dead. I went up the line and she had found a peanut butter and jelly sandwich abandoned by hunters. Took that right away from her as she has food allergies! And we made our way back to last blood to restart when we heard yelling from the property above us. A group of guys had come down from the house to see what all the flashlights and people were doing in the woods. We walked partway to them and Diane volunteered to run up and explain. That went off without any problems and all was well so we went back to last blood.

Restarted Bella at the last blood area and she took right off tracking harder in an almost straight line. She popped out into a grassy clearing and lost the scent. As we were standing there waiting for her to regroup and decide if we wanted to continue or not a guy drove up to see what we were doing. This time Diane held Bella and I went and explained. The guy was our “instant best friend” and volunteered the info that his neighbors had a big buck with a HUGE rack in the back of their truck earlier that afternoon. I had the hunter come to the truck and the man described the rack pretty well and the hunter was fairly sure it was his deer. The neighbor's property was in line with the direction Bella had been tracking.

That pretty much shut us down and we called the track. Just under 1 mile and 28 hours old

Night of the LIVING Dead

Went on a call at the end of our  travel range for a man whose family we have tracked for before. To be honest we almost did not go because it sounded like a high back hit, which are only rarely recoverable, but this was a ground level shot and a super experienced hunter from a family we knew were good hunters, so decided to take the plunge.

Arrived on site after a bit over 1 hour driving to find that it had rained after the buck was shot  with a muzzleloader (we had only light drizzle at our place). We got to the hit site where the buck had dropped on shot and laid there for an undetermined amount of time. (hunter left it for 1 hour to give it time to expire). There was a small pool of blood maybe 3 hands in length and 1 hand wide. A few feet away was another pool of blood but about ½ the size.

The night after Halloween and it was looking like a horror movie set. A bit of blood, a missing body, everything wet from the rain and incredibly dense fog making it hard to see more than 20' away.

Bella got right to work and with a little checking about went right to the only other known blood sign, a smear about 2 hands wide that was probably a small pool before the rain. ALL the rest of the blood sign was gone between the rain and the  fog. Bella then had to sort through the heavy search area which took a bit of time, she made her way through some thick stuff where we came across a large bed but no visible blood. With a bit more work we cleared the search area and Bella was off!

The thought process here is that the buck had staggered off the field and bedded, and when the search party had arrived he got bumped up and swung out around them. Bella tracked through some mega thick shrubs, trees and brush and popped back out onto the corn field a good bit above the shot site. She sorted through the area where the buck had milled about then crossed a field ditch, another field and then started the semi circle around where the shot site and search area was.

The ground here is heavy with clay so everything is slippery, every incline and ditch/brook crossing is risking a fall.

Bella was tracking hard into the harness and we went through another thick nightmare and more water crossings and out onto a green field. The buck was avoiding sheer vertical climbs and taking the lesser route when he could staying on deer trails for the most part. He almost crossed the highway but turned parallel instead back through more thick stuff and slimy ups and downs. The buck went through a thicket of Japanese Knotweed at the side of the highway and tried to go up the steep hill to cross the highway but turned away again. He continued through the thick growth and crosses a knee deep brook where Diane filled her boots being the shortest one of us. He went up the other side and came out onto another green field. 

Bella was really hot for the deer now  but not yet squeaking,which typically means 100 yards or so ahead. I could see the buck's tracks in the grass because he had walked through after dew fall, which meant we had not actually jumped him (not running), but we were pushing. He had to know we were there. The buck crossed the green field and went back into the tick woods only when he ran out of flat field. This even thicker yet woods, brush, tall weeds, buckthorn etc.. was on a hill side and the buck was following a deer path heading across the sidehill but heading down. We had seen his tracks off and on through the track and saw them more here. He finally got down to a brook/creek bottom and headed straight for the water. Bella was now pulling her hardest and crazy for the buck with some squeaking which for her means 100 yards or less to the deer.

Sadly we got to the brook and it was too deep to cross. Bella swam out but I pulled her back. The hunter and I checked up and down but there was no way to cross without going a long way downstream to a bridge. Poor Bella was losing her mind. The buck had to be in the gnarly thick stuff on the other side of the brook. We gave the hunter two options. 12:30 AM we could walk up to the bridge and back down the other side and see if we could catch the buck or we could leave him over night and the hunter could cross over in the daylight and try to get him. The hunter chose to come back in the am. We dragged poor Bella away from the brook crossing amid fighting and squeaking. Poor dog. Got up to the highway for a bit of a trek back and a couple cows came running to the fence line bellowing to see what we were up to. THAT took Bella's mind off the deer! Great Horned owl hooting most of our walk kept the Halloween feel going

On the drive home Bella was rolling around in the back seat drying off and got under her white blanket. She was being totally silly underneath it and in the rear view it looked like a Halloween ghost in the back seat!

Track was about 5 hours old when we started and 2.3 miles in length til we called it. Bella did a fantastic job

Halloween Doe

Local call for a muzzleloader hit doe from some men we had worked with before. We were glad to get a chance to try to help them again.

Started Bella at the hit site. She worked drifted scent along the side of a steep hill but made good progress. She got sucked down the path one of the searchers had walked but came right back to the doe's path. Everywhere we went there were turkeys flapping up in the trees and from time to time one would bail out surprised by us. It was a little unnerving to the people but Bella seemed undisturbed.

We went downhill and then up a steeper hill. Bella got a bit off on drift and ended up at the edge of a yard, but quickly came back and got back on the track again. The doe went up hill in a winding path and crested over the top. Bella was tracking a mostly bloodless track. We'd find a bit here and there but mostly none at all.

The doe headed downhill, at first straight down but then she went across the sidehill. She then took a sharp right turn which Bella missed. After a bit of work we got back on the track again and went almost straight down the hill going through several thick areas. We then came out to a tall over grown clearing and we jumped the doe up. Diane had fallen behind changing headlamp batteries so I had the hunter hold Bella and I was able to get within 10 feet of the doe and shoot her, she went to the other side of the clearing and died. Our  first night track that has ended at a reasonable hour!!

We started the track about 3.5 hours post shot and the track was a mile long

Wind and more wind

Got a call at 9:30 pm from a hunter the next town over about a doe he had arrowed around 6pm. We made the 15 mile drive and started on the walk to the hit site around 10. The doe was arrowed in a scrubby field filled with Multi-flora rose. Nasty dangerous stuff. We opted to begin tracking at the first good blood sign which was inside the tree line.

The wind was totally insane. Hands down the windiest track we have ever done. I looked up the wind speeds for the airport nearby and there were steady 10 MPH winds and sustained gusts of 20-39 MPH! Yeah that is windy for tracking.

Bella took right off on the track and there was large splashes of blood steady for awhile which subsided to big drops periodically and long stretches of zero blood. Bella however was tracking as if on a string to the track, super accurately in spite of the wind. She tracked the doe up and down and around in a ½ circle until she hit a long stretch of minimal to no blood and popped out in the field where the hunters had tracked blood scent to when they lost sign.

I worked Bella back up into the woods and she picked up the track again with blood confirming it. She tracked along well and then the blood stopped as the doe went over the edge of a downhill into a low spot near a stone wall. While waiting for Bella to work it out one of the hunters lit a cigarette and in hind site Diane should have asked him to not, but given the distance between us and them she did not because it has never been a problem before. Of course we have never tracked in this sort of wind before either.

Right at this point the wind really picked up again and Bella's head came up air scenting and she led me through the wall and to the right back towards the field. We did not see any blood and wondered several times out loud if she was simply getting the heavy blood scent drift from up there but decided to let her go see. Once back in the field she did the frantic pig noise sniffing that happens when she lands in a bunch of trapped scent. The winds were blowing the heavy blood scent from the track start into this tall heavy grass and trapping it there. Realizing we had allowed an error we made Bella restart on the trail we had taken before. She hates being made to start over and it showed.

We made our way back to the place near the stone wall and this time Bella went a different way and we got a drop of blood confirming the path. She continued on to more blood drops along a deer trail a few feet along a stone wall near a driveway and then continued up that trail towards a camp. With no more blood and Bella not acting 100% on track I stopped forward progress and worked her up and down the driveway looking for a crossing. Bella indicated a couple possible sites but nothing strong so I walked her back down and was going to call the track as it was nearly 1AM. As we walked down the driveway right directly in line with the last blood we hit a blood spot on a leaf at the edge of the drive. Bella took that directly across the driveway and into the woods where we found more blood but in decreasing size and frequency until there was none again.

The doe was looping up towards where Bella had indicated farther up the driveway and I was willing to give the track another ½ hour but at just past 1 AM the hunter and friend made the decision to call the track.

The doe went an approximate 1 mile or so, Bella went just over 2 miles

A Little Boy's Doe

For our second track of Youth Hunting Weekend, we went on a late night track to the same field we recovered a buck in earlier this season.

The hunter was a small 9 year old very excited boy who had shot a doe accompanied by his Grandfather. The shot was made from a bit over 100 yards with a .243 rifle. The doe had walked from the field into the section of woods between the road and field.

We walked into the bottom of the field and picked up the track where the doe had exited the woods back into the field after the searchers had pushed her out of her bed. There was good blood going up the knoll and then it turned patchy and the searchers had lost it just over the knoll crest. Bella followed this trail up and over the knoll crest and past last blood and hit the massive search area. Bella was working through this mess when the wind brought her the scent of the shot site, she went past this and did a short search and she drifted over and ended up on the wind drifted scent from the doe's original path. I decided to allow her to follow it and come back up starting fresh again.

Bella's was obviously following the wind driven scent from the large blood trail in the woods and was closer to the field than the original path but we popped back out onto the field right where we had started. Back at last blood and the contaminated search area we went up on the next knoll to get upwind of the doe trail. And over to a gully between the field sections. Bella worked down the gully to near where she had initially searched and then came back to the junction of the two field sections and got out of the hunter search area and locked right on to the doe's trail finding new blood right away.

There was good blood steady for a distance and then it stopped entirely.  Bella kept going and the track entered the woods and then crossed the power lines and entered a Hemlock sided mountain and headed UP and up and up. 

I had Diane, the hunter and his grandfather stay in the field mapping the blood sign and looking for more validating the direction Bella had taken because I knew the little guy would not be able to keep up in the woods. Based upon what happened next, that was the right choice. They found quite a bit of blood that I had not seen when Bella and I went through at “Bella speed”, but they finally hit the end of the blood sign, they were unable to find any more beyond the last spot in spite of extensive searching. We kept in contact via radios and Bella's GPS collar the whole time.

The doe went straight up for a long ways, then sidehilled a bit, then straight up again, followed by a little sidehilling and straight up yet again. As we neared the peak wandering a little more, she then turned left and went up a more gradual slope but still going and had not bedded. Bella was tracking very hot, indicating that the doe was probably less than 100 yards away but in the dark there was no way to see it. 

It was now 1AM and the young hunter was cold and very tired. His grandfather made the decision to call the track at this point.

The track was about 5 hours old when we started and the doe traveled 1.5 miles climbing from 450 feet at last blood sign to 910 feet at the point the track was called.

Hell or something like it

We had a call for a gut shot buck to start our youth hunting weekend off. I was off hunting with my nephew so by the time we got to the track it was 12+ hrs post shot. The youth hunter had actually shot the buck twice so we were thinking this would be a fast track. That would be a no.

All of the sign  was this odd watery fluid and minimal blood. The ONLY spot that had any smell was at the hit site, everything else was odorless. Weird Even this odd stuff was really minimal.

Bella tracked very well and the buck went out and made a loop back. He cut right over the trail we came in on. The terrain was horrific. No horrific is not a strong enough word. It was a logging site, maybe 2 years old and there was slash everywhere. On top of that the strong storm we had in the spring toppled a bunch of huge trees. Top this off with briers and rocks with hidden leg breaking holes and you get the picture. This was hands down THE worst terrain we have tracked in in a while.

Buck continued up and down and then went through some thick stuff where we found a bed with more of that odd liquid. It was obvious we had kicked him up with the sound of our coming (likely a long way off because we never heard him). Found some more watery stuff and then while cutting across a side hill found a good amount of the liquid and some red blood.

The buck then made a sharp about turn and started heading back uphill again. And then we hit Buck bomb hell zone. We came across some other hunters site. There were no exaggeration at least 15 “buck bombs” (the hanging scent bottles) all hung in a straight line, just a few feet apart. The reflectors on them looked like a line of lights marking a path. There was also a blind, game camera and some bait. But the worst part was the bombs. The air was seriously thick with buck lure. You could almost taste it and Bella got lost in it for a long time.

FINALLY Bella breaks free of the scent fog and gets hot on the buck's trail again going up and down hills. We then come to another bed with more clear fluid in it. He obviously had milled about in this area and Bella as tired as she was was having a hard time. We were on the verge of calling the track as it was very close to the tree stand where he'd been shot originally. We actually stopped Bella from working and walked back to the stand but as we took a few steps beyond it we actually jumped the buck up and he flew out of there with lots of crashing. Still very very much alive and now it was 15+ hours post shot. Bella indicated his direction and we then called the track for good. 

Hunter and his Dad and friends will be heading out tomorrow to try to find this big buck. One would think he'd have to be dead by then...

Just over 3 miles of tracking in this wicked terrain and 5 ½ bottles of water later and we were all tired from all the slash scrambling. The sure thing gut shot but out smarted us by staying way too alive. However Bella Tracked super well and that counts for much!

The Un-Dead Buck

Went out on a night call a couple towns over. By the time we got to the track site it was around 3+ hours post shot. The shot was suspected to be a liver hit but not sure.

There was substantial blood at the road crossing we started at and the track went up hill. The men had done a great job of marking the blood with toilet paper. Bella motored along with ease. The blood was both heavy and frequent. Then it started to slow and get smaller as well as farther apart. 

There was a big no blood gap then last blood. Bella milled a bit sorting out the hunter search area and motored off again. After a bit we found a small dot of blood showing the deer was moving at speed and still UP hill. The buck was staying on a deer trail and as Bella and I went over the crest of the hill the GPS collar lost contact with the handheld for 30 seconds. This allowed Diane and the men to miss the gradual right turn Bella and I did about 50 yards ahead of them so they overshot this corner by a lot before getting contact again.

As we made the sweeping turn Bella went “hot” and picked up speed putting more distance between us and Diane and the men til we were almost 150 yards or so apart and out of sight. All of a sudden Bella stopped dead staring and just at the very very edge of my head lamp beam was a pair of glowing eyes.  I was unsure if it was a deer or a bear at first or if the animal was lying or standing just over the edge of a dip. I was hoping the crew behind would catch up so I could hand off Bella and try to get closer but that did not happen. I edged forward a couple steps and Bella hit the end of the line. At this point I could tell it was a deer but could not tell if it had antlers or not. I took a chance and yelled back at the crew. They had at this point regained contact and struggling to catch up, straight up the hill they had gone down. I yelled again and the deer stood up and I could just barely see the antler beams but not the tines. He was about 15or so yards beyond my maximum night distance, too far for me to shoot while holding the dog and at this point I was assuming it had to be the buck we were tracking.

Now the lamps and sounds of Diane and the men were seen and heard as they labored up the hill now within 50 yards or less of us and that broke the spell, the buck turned it's head and at that point I thought I could see the glow of the Nocturnal nock high and back a bit and then he was gone.

Once we were all together again we sat down for a bit after first checking the bed which had some smeared dark and bright mixed blood in it. We discussed what to do and decided to sit in the dark except for 1 lamp and wait a while. Bella was frantic to keep going but we waited. Finally we restarted and Bella led us fast across the face of the hill and then down to a crossing of an old logging road. I thought I could hear him ahead of us and decided to call the track for the night and give him time. At this point we had gone 0.7 mile (1226+ yards) from our start point and the buck had gone farther than that in total from the hit site.

24 hours later we were back. The men had come in in the am and tried to find the buck but had no luck. Then we had a light to moderate rain along with wind, which washed the blood from the leaves. So time and water had dispersed the scent. Bella started fine at the place we had stopped last night. Then she hit the search area and circled a bit. She then set off. It was obvious by the amount of air scenting she was doing that she could smell the buck but was having trouble pin pointing. She led us through the woods and out on another logging road and up to a field near a house she checked the field and said no, she then came back down the road checking both sides on her own, then back to that field again. Again she said no and headed back down the road checking the sides as she went.

Bella cut into the woods where we had walked in but part way through the swamp crossing she cut right, less tracking then air scenting. The direction she was heading was “down stream” as the water direction went. We trudged through the swamp behind her and she finally came out on dry land and went up hill to a bed with no blood. Was it that deer's bed????? Bella spent no time on it so I had doubts.Bella headed back into the swamp and made a big mud sucking at boots loop and then back out and STRAIGHT up hill to pick up last night's path. 

Bella followed last night's path incredibly accurately and made it to where the bloody bed had been. She spent a long time on it and then led us off again very accurately. Just before the logging road she got stuck in scent pool hell of fallen logs, she was increasingly frantic which generally indicates heavy scent but little direction. She finally broke free and cut left at a high speed tracking attitude back. Bella led us back to the swamp and switched to frantic air scenting. She acted like the buck had to be right there, but he was not. Bella even jumped up on a huge downed tree and walked along it like a balance beam for 30 feet or so trying to get above the scent mess to get a direction. She then jumped down and led us through the swamp again. When we hit the logging road we were parked on I called the track.

The buck may or may not be dead but he was not where we were looking for sure. Bella could smell where he had been but was unable to get a direction to him. My guess is that he went up stream and his scent was washing down into the swamp. We've seen that before. We had traveled 1.5 miles in searching tonight and most of it tough going, it was almost midnight and temperature dropping fast. The buck had gone approx 2 miles for sure and obviously farther still. A tough call and no arrow with lighted nock was ever found making me think perhaps the hit was higher up and embedded in bone. We tried our hardest and saw the buck but sometimes even your hardest does not get you a recovery. Super nice guys, Wish we could have put a buck on the tailgate for them

Far Too Hot

After we returned home from yesterday's bear track we had gotten a call for a deer track. We put it off til the next am. Probably should have just gone last night instead.

We arrived at the meeting site around 11 am and drove out a logging type road til the car could go no farther. Hopped into the Hunters pickup and drove the rest of the bone jarring way in. THEN we hiked ½ mile uphill (mountains again).

We opted to try to start at last blood because it had been represented as a “pool” of blood. Well upon arrival it was a good bit less than a pool but should be an ok starting point. However it was now 73F and very dry and the sun was baking hot. The normal challenge of sorting through the hunter's search area (which included a search on hands and knees and some walking in circles) was a pretty huge wall for Bella.

I took her out a bit and she finally locked onto a track, headed straight out puling hard then did a sharp right turn still pulling hard but part way through a sun baked area she lost the scent and got distracted by the hunter's (now clean) bear bait site. In discussing with the hunter we discovered that one hunter had been at a stand in the direction the deer had been going and when the deer had been shot and that hunter called to come help track, he got down from his stand and headed to the trail, which made sense for the deer to abruptly change direction to avoid him. We looped down in the general direction the track had gone with no luck and then decided to head down to the tree stand and start over.

So we walked down the trail out and around to the tree stand (and a beautiful tree stand it was!). First Bella exited right on a bear track but we brought her back and set her on the deer and away she went. She tracked well and accurately but the dry heat was getting to us all. We had to keep stopping for water.

Bella tracked accurately straight towards the last blood but a few yards before that lifted head and air scented left around the search area and picked up an exit trail left (see the map image for a pale blue line indicating our suspected deer path). Bella was strongly pulling at this point, tongue dragging. She crossed the path down to the tree stand and headed into what the hunter called “hunter hell”. This was an incredibly thick region of hemlocks and briars and extended for many HUNDREDS of acres and included a swamp. We followed Bella as far as we could manage and called the track.

The hunter had felt this deer was hit in the high chest, but we suspect it was perhaps a bit higher even than that. There was no further blood from the not so hot blood trail we had followed from the stand to last blood and no beds
Another puzzle but one we will never puzzle out because there was no way we could keep going in that mess.

Track number ten for the year. 

The Dead Bear that Really, Really WASN'T

We set out on the drive an hour North to track a large bear that had been arrowed from a very close distance straight down from a tree stand. The very experienced young hunter and help had jumped the bear last night after following an excellent blood trail. They backed out for the night and went back this morning fully expecting to find a dead bear, but they followed the blood a good distance before it stopped. At which point they called us.

We followed a farm road out to a giant corn field and then a logging road out to the last few yards of the blood trail. Bella started right off good. She then took a sharp left and crossed the brook. I thought she was following the large buck track that had stepped in the blood so pulled her off and restarted at the blood trail. Bella then acted confused that I restarted her, tried to cross the brook and go up the mountain again and in retrospect she was correctly air scenting the trail and cutting the corner, but because we had blood a little farther down the trail we were on, we doubted her. So she finally did what we asked and followed the blood trail a little farther along, finding a few new spots of blood and indicated another crossing, but we brought her back again and this time she followed obvious drift down the brook valley before indicating no scent. 

We came back again to the blood and this time let her do her thing without interference and she crossed where she had indicated the second time and this time we saw faint bear tracks in the mud. Bella tracked across the brook valley and started up the mountain in the direction she had wanted to go right at the start. Bella was pulling hard and tracking strong.

Bella tracked STRAIGHT up the mountain and skirted a clear cut while still going up. She crossed an oak flat where there was a single quarter sized blob of blood on a leaf. She then scaled a steep rocky ridge where we stopped to give her water and take a breather. When we restarted Bella tracked to a huge hemlock tree on a near cliff face overlooking the way we had just come up. She milled about as if the bear had laid there, but we saw no blood. Bella asked to dive over the edge but I had her loop around checking for a different exit path. She brought me right back to this place again and we found a safer way down. 

Bella picked the track up again directly beneath this mini cliff and was tracking hard again. As I bent down to go under a fallen tree I spotted a very small FRESH drip of blood. We obviously had jumped the bear off of the mini cliff face area. This looked like maybe blood dripped off the nose. Bella was very eager to get going and tracked very hard out and around through some open forest, went downhill a bit and then a sharp right. At this right hand turn I saw where a very large bear had banked right kicking up leaves and leaving paw prints in the dirt. 

The bear track then ran along the edge of the steep hill and crossed it's original uphill track. I could see freshly turned leaves and scuffs. The track then turned sharply up a steep rocky section and as Bella and I crested over the top Bella's ears came up and her head snapped totally upright and she lunged forward in her harness I looked in the direction she was and saw a very large Black shape busting at top speed through a series of hemlock blow downs. Bella wanted to chase and catch the bear but I called the track as it was obviously not dying soon and the bear was very large and this was a potentially dangerous situation.

We did not recover a bear but seeing it run off seemingly unimpaired was a good end also.
Total track from where we started tracking to where we jumped the bear and called the track was 2.1 miles

The Bloody Mess

Had a call from a young local guy about a deer that had vanished. Doe was arrowed at a steep quartering away angle and had ran off leaving GIANT pools of blood every place it stood still and plenty of dripping blood between them.  The hunter was sure the deer would be dead at the bottom of the steep steep hill it went crashing down. He had walked down to make sure the deer was not lying dead in the middle of the road but it has crossed the road and a brook. 
On the other side of the brook, tracker hell occurred. The deer walked, dripping blood steadily, in hundreds and hundreds of circles in a couple hundred yard area between the base of a steep hill and a cold rushing brook. The fletching end of the arrow had been recovered (which we later examined) and then blood TOTALLY stopped. 
The hunter and some experienced friends had tracked the doe and grid searched for 8 hours or so and then walked 3 abreast the length of the brook flat. At the very end of their search they did see a doe get up from a fern area and walk off. Was it that deer? They had no idea could not see any blood just mud. At this point the hunter called us.

We started Bella where the doe had crossed the road 14 hours prior, and she tracked the deer just fine down the embankment and across the deep cold brook that was nearly over our boots in a few slippery spots.  Bella tracked right along but then got sucked uphill by thermals. At the top it was obvious she was on drift so we brought her back down to the flat. Bella picked up tracking again, but was saying “deer not terminal”. She tracked down to near where the deer was seen and we came across a set of running deer tracks in the mud. We never heard a deer so assume this was from earlier in day when hunter and friends were out. At this point Bella did turn and follow these tracks a bit faster. These tracks led us up a moderately steep slope, across the hill side and then kept going UP so I decided IF that was the shot deer no way was it impaired.

We took Bella again back to the massive blood area but this time started her on the closer to the brook side. She was totally air scenting, not tracking, but again brought us back down to the area where  the deer had been seen and we had found the tracks.

One last try we took her back to blood soaked woods again and this time took her beyond where the arrow fletching was found and let her air scent around and UP a massive steep hill and check the top just because. Then dropped back down right at the last section of bloody woods and again she led us back down to where the deer had been seen but the only thing beyond that of interest to her where the tracks that mountain climbed.

At this point we were surprised that with this amount of blood there was no dead deer, more blood or signs of a greatly impaired animal. We had also been being “ghosted” by some animal (probably coyote) for about 1 hour. It had followed us back and forth and when it got close enough (more often as time went on) Bella had indicated it's presence. Once we even found where it crossed our path and left a fresh steaming urine puddle. So both things combined we decided to hang it up.

Our best guess (and one we tested out with the guys at home with the archery target and confirmed as possible and repeatable with 2 different shooters) is that the arrow went in under the upper arm bone and either exited in front of it at chest or lodged in rib or forechest bone. Another possibility is haunch hit with/without also under hide/over rib cage involvement. Both of these would account for the massive amounts of red blood and also for the circles as the deer tried to rid itself of it, but not impairing function or gait. Of course without a deer it is just a possibility. At any rate the doe was not catchable this night

Bog Track

We went out on yet another after dark tracking call, this time just a couple towns over.

The doe had been arrowed at a steep angle from a tree stand and the arrow had deflected off a branch on the way down. There was copious blood for a good distance from the initial shot area but then started to slow way down. The hunter was one we had recovered a deer for last year, so he knew how we work, and assuming this was possibly a gut shot he backed out to call us.

We started the track a few yards from the last blood sign and Bella took right off on it, she overshot the corner but self corrected and took the turn down a steep hill with very light blood sign. The doe then entered a swamp with water up to our shins (and surprise deeper spots!), fallen trees and chest high grass. Shortly after entering this swamp the blood trail became double sided (blood coming from both sides) and fairly heavy. It was quite a slog getting through this without falling in and Bella had to work in deep water and brisk wind but we finally made it across to dry land.

The deer then went straight up a hill to a flat top. Good blood the whole way up but once on the flat it petered out to nothing fast. Bella showed us that the deer had done many large circles on this hill top and we finally found another drop of blood. Bella indicated left strongly but the wind picked up, a large tree crashed nearby and Bella tried another part of the circle.

In the process of working out these circles we did do some large outer loops trying to cut the exit path. Bella eventually brought us back to that last drop and again dragged me through this miserable blowdown, past a moosekull and eventually to the Luminock end of the arrow. Not knowing this was just a short bit of arrow I held Bella back and had Diane and the hunter go check to keep Bella safe from the broadhead, but it was just a short section of the arrow tail end.

Bella was figuring out the trail again with the wind, another crashing tree and the swamp sucking scent downhill. She did find another spot of watery blood and then followed the trail across the up hill portion and out through more blowdowns across the side of the hill (and past a Woodcock that Diane nearly stepped on the flew up her leg). The track dipped towards the swamp again but the right away came back uphill and continued diagonally uphill til it went down and crossed another boggy area and up a bigger hill on the other side. The doe was following established deer trails and at no point did we jump the deer. She finally started down a trail to the larger, much more dangerous part of this massive swamp and we called the track. At this point we were 7 hours post shot.

At this point the doe was not catchable and our initial thought was this was a through and through high back. At home we set up the 3D target and two of us shot the same distance and angle and indeed multiple times got exactly that, an arrow entering high and exiting the other side lower but not invading the abdominal cavity, so that gave us hope the doe will recover. The hunter went back out the next am and found no more sign at all

Human Error

We received a call at 9 am from the friend of the man we tracked for last week. He had been on the track with us and was familiar with our work.

He thought he had shot a deer in the abdomen, saw green on the fletching of the arrow and backed right out to call us. I was at work, so we set up a meet time for the evening. We got to the parking spot at 7pm and had a good walk to the stand and Bella immediately picked up the track. 

There was considerable dark dark blood in several spots including what was either a bed or where the deer had stood for awhile. No gut material at all. The terrain was all all on the side of a hill with a wet gully (likely a brook in wetter times) draining a small swamp above down to a large swamp at the bottom. There was also a brook with wet squashy terrain diagonally draining to the swamp.

Bella followed the track to the end of the blood, briefly followed the drifted scent down hill and came back and took the turn of the track out through the wet gully. She came out of the gully at an uphill angle and the hunter found a thumb sized blob of blood. Bella continued on then searched back and forth in a ferny area and I realized she had missed a corner. She continued to search as we looped back. We did a small loop then a larger loop above the blood spot to no avail so we went back to the last big pool of blood.  On the off chance that the lone spot of blood had been carried by our boots (even though it looked pristine and not stepped in) we did a brief loop below the pooled blood. Came back to the blood area again and Bella this time pulled me downhill strongly air scenting with head up.

We got down into a big swamp with no blood  on heavy deer trails so I knew she was following drifted scent and wrongly assumed it was sucking down to the swamp from way uphill above the last blood drop. So I made Bella go back again, to the blood pools and she took the track towards last blood and went a slightly different path but again lost scent so we looped downhill a little and when we re crossed the wet gully near the brook and she pulled a bit towards the swamp I wrongly assumed she was just following drifted scent again. Had I listened to Bella the night would have been much shorter!

We went back uphill and did some non productive loops above the last blood and shot area in case the deer had looped up and around. Bella's nose was working overtime trying to pick the scent up and she again tried to tell us to go down. Finally Bella got mad at us and started the grass and stick play she does when that happens.

We decided to drop back down, again,and look a little lower in the gully. We went over some areas we had been and then Bella started tracking again in the gully near the brook. I followed her on our “last try”. She went away from the swamp this time nose working like crazy and pulling very hard, she reached an area reversed direction and came up the right side of  a large depression with a downed tree and as we crested the rim of the depression I could see the rear end of the doe! 

We were all very excited to find her after all this work, and Bella seemed like she was saying “IF you had just listened to me......”

The doe was recovered 14 hours post shot, it was not a paunch shot at all but instead a haunch shot and the arrow had clipped the femoral artery which while bled heavily, was slow enough to allow the deer time to move a distance.

Bittersweet Recovery

We got a call from a man who had never known the leashed dog tracking program existed until today. He had shot a  suburban deer with his bow 2 days prior just at around 6-7 pm and the arrow had gone in just above the heart and exited the paunch area (Buck was quartering to). The man and son had left the buck for 12 hours before starting to search, they flagged off blood sign. They searched for many hours but could not find the buck. They did EVERYTHING right.

We drove up after work, parked the car and rode in the hunter's SUV out to the field where the buck was shot.  At this point we were 48 hours post shot. As we were walking in Bella pulled hard to the left but we really wanted to make sure she oriented to the correct deer, especially with such an old track so we continued on to where the buck had walked into a ravine. 

As we approached the ravine Bella locked right on to the track and took off at high speed. She dragged me down the ravine, checked left then bolted right, she drove past the first flagged blood, checked the second and continued on up the ravine. As she approached the exit back to the field she was mule deer bounding through the ferns that were over her head. She had to wait for me to scramble out of the ravine at field edge then she checked the area where the man and son had extensively grid searched very briefly. The scent was really overwhelming based on Bella's reaction and she kept her head up and ate some grass for a bit then took off again except now she was head up air scenting. Instead of going through the field edge bushes where the buck had, she turned and took us back up the field a bit then bolted through some very thick shrubs and bushes. 

Bella exited this mess at the power line road and then bolted into some incredibly dense 6+ foot high grass and bushes. I could not even see her ahead of me at all. Suddenly the line went slack and as I went up the line there was Bella with her front feet on the buck's chest. He was laying down front and rear feet  up under him as if asleep. The hunter and son had sadly walked past this buck more times than they could count but could not see him at all, not even when they walked just 2 feet from him.

This was a bittersweet recovery because after 2 days in the early season heat the buck was totally spoiled
271 yards, 48 hours old

Difficulties Abound

Took a 16+ hour old track that we thought was going to be a liver hit deer. Upon arriving at the site of the heaviest blood just before last blood our conversations with the teen hunter and his friend made us start to question that. We found that these super polite and very dedicated teens had tracked this deer for a night and a day already and the doe had gone a great distance. They had done a great job tracking, but there was a lot of scent contamination as well.

Bella tracked the doe beyond last blood and to an area where the ferns were totally beat down and acted like the deer should be “right there” but she was not. Did some circles and castings looking for better scent trails. 

Finally we sat at last blood resting Bella and decided that given the fact that we kept making the neighbors dogs bark and it was getting late, and further conversation between the boys combined by what we were seeing, made us think that perhaps the doe was actually hit in a rear quarter/haunch instead.

We called the track and headed home another late night/ early am with an un-dead beast.

Where O Where Has the Doe Gone?

It's been a busy couple days with a good many calls from people looking for a tracker. One of those was a man from the farthest distance we travel to. The call sounded good so we decided to go that distance even though we had been out til 1:30 am and then I worked a full day.

We got to the tracking location a bit after 10pm and rode in the hunter's truck the rest of the way and piled out to get started. It was a super muggy night and we were all in light clothes, strange for deer season.

There was ok blood at the start site and  a short ways into the track started seeing blood spray on the trees. Not a lot but some and NO blood on the ground except a small bit here and there. No beds, no running, no stumbling, nothing indicating a fatally injured deer had been through.

Bella is a super smart dog and when a deer is dead or going to die she is super committed and hard pulling on the track and when a deer has a non fatal wound she tracks it but has no strong commitment. We know this but don't always listen well to her because we always take a track hoping to bring the animal home for the hunter. This track Bella kept telling us that the deer was not dead OR dying.

The blood stopped and Bella continued along tracking but in the non committed “not dying” way. She took us down a trail to a brook and indicated across but not strong. So I pulled her off and circled back to last blood. She took us back to the same general area again, still with no blood or commitment so we decided to do some loops and circles trying to cut better scent. Bella worked her butt off but kept telling us “not dead or dying dad” We worked the entire brook valley and came back to the same general area again and we heard what sounded like a deer bounding off. Checked it out and no bed at all, no blood and no commitment from Bella.

It was pretty obvious by now that this was a high single lung hit, fully survivable, and that the doe was not bedding or acting enfeebled at all having navigated some steep terrain and obstacles with ease and no bleeding. It was now after Midnight and we decided to give it another big loop around “just in case” as we made it back to the truck. Just as we neared the vehicles it started to rain so good timing. 2 miles of tracking total

Thorns, barb wire and logging slash...in the dark
Left to take a nearby deer track for a 14 year old boy at around 9:30pm. The track start was just 1/10th mile from the truck. The arrowed doe had stopped bleeding well within a short distance of the shot site. We started the track about 3 ½ hours post hit and Bella had to work through the  previously searched area and the track went uphill. It had been hot during the day and the temperature was dropping rapidly. There was a light but steady wind and it appeared to have blown the scent a bit as Bella got stuck in a heavily ferned and blackberry bushed area for awhile, followed by an area of heavy ferns and dangerous, invisible logging slash. There were several barb wire fences to navigate as well.

One of the followers found some blood farther over and all went fairly well til Bella again got stuck in more heavy ferns and thorns.

FINALLY Bella made her way out of the scent maze and was solidly on the doe's track, still going uphill. More barb wire and woods before we came to a bed without blood. The doe then beelined down a narrow grass and sand strip and we could see she was heavily walking on one front leg and limping, lightly dragging the other front leg. At one point I found a small drop of blood next to the track. It appeared that the doe was going to continue straight and cross the road onto posted land but instead within sight of the road, took a sharp right turn still uphill. Finally she headed downhill and crossed a dirt road where we finally called the track because the young hunter's father told us that just a short distance on the other side the land was posted. He was going to come back in the morning and walk the brook near the posted line and look for the doe there as a last effort.

All told Bella went 1.9 miles

A Bear Track in the heat

70+F, partly cloudy and super humid. Not exactly ideal tracking conditions.
After setting tree stands for most of the morning, I received a call from C.O. Walsh at about 12:30 pm. He had been in contact with a hunter who had shot a bear around 7am and he had been to the site and checked out the situation. The bear had at that point been tracked about 500 yards with minimal blood and lost sign. C.O. Walsh asked if we'd go out given it was about 20 miles away and we said we would.

After getting details of the hunt we walked in to the bait site and Bella immediately picked up the track. We followed it along the same path the hunters had taken , finding only small spots of blood along the way. When I say small I mean small, pencil eraser sized and smaller.

At one point Bella overshot a turn due to the steep ravines and holes, sorted that out and got back on the track up through a STEEP ravine. Because of the terrain it was a hard track, with her losing and reacquiring scent often. She missed a second turn but after a big loop got back on and followed it more down hill through an area of ledge , caves and potential bear dens.

The bear avoided all the dens and went through a swampy area turning slightly again, from this point on Bella was 100% on the track all the time. The numerous bear tracks and freshly broken vegetation a sure sign the bear had in fact gone that way in spite of no more blood. 

At the top edge of a clear cut Bella's head shot up as if she caught fresh scent on the wind, upon further tracking we came upon a fresh bed with no blood that we had jumped the bear out of when we were about 200 yards away, he headed up hill and then down through the clearcut and crossed the road. We called the track as being non fatal after tracking 1.7 miles. We decided that given the extreme terrain the bear was easily navigating with no sign of dragging, limping or blood that the odds favor a high hit.

C.O. Walsh met us back at the truck to follow up.

In spite of the heat we did a good job of managing Bella's heat by frequent water stops and rubbing down with a wet cloth stored with an ice pack in the backpack and she was never distressed