WorkinGround Game Recovery

11/04/2024

Team Radar went 3/3 on Saturday and 0/2 on Sunday tracking for both bow and Youth fi****ms. An absolutely great weekend of playing hide & seek!

11/02/2024

Remember hunters, as you're hitting the Missouri woods tomorrow morning with the kiddos, be safe, take plenty of snacks, and have fun, the memories will last a lifetime! If you're youngin has a marginal shot, and the deer runs outta site, give us a hollar before you go look.
A dead deer goes nowhere, but a jumped deer can go a long ways, and there's not much worse than having regret after a youth hunt!
We track NO CHARGE for youth all season long. We travel within 1½hrs from Elsberry MO when time allows.
Billy Crocker Jr. 314-660-9881 Call or txt works best, be patient, I will answer you back!

10/29/2024

Buck was shot 5:15pm Saturday, call came in today (Monday) asking if I'd bring Radar out to track. He backed out that night without tracking at all, went in yesterday morning and he & his dad tracked decent spotty blood for 200 yds and lost it. They looked in a straight line from there and found a standing bed with a circle spotted with blood and they backed out again. He was told by his friend that we had just run a track for a family member recently & he needed to give us a call. I told him that scenting conditions are terrible right now, but I'd come out after work and see what we could do. We showed up at 49½hrs post shot, Radar went to work and I just worked on trusting him. Through thick briars, tall crp, back into thick briars. We made it to his last blood, Radar searched around a bit, checking low areas, plowing through the thickness and out to a cut cornfield. The hunter was doubting the deer being dead because of no sign past his last blood. I pulled some tools outta the bag and we started wind checking a finger if trees and of course, more briars🤣 60yds later and at the 51hr mark, the hunter has his hands on his trophy and some slobber on his shoulder! We only found his deer because he treated this track perfectly allowing Radar to do his job! Congrats Dagan LaBrash on this stud! Team Radar needed this after a couple of non-recoveries this past week! Super proud of Radar and he got a 20pc nuggets on the way home instead of his normal 10pc 🤣

10/15/2024

Team Gracey,
Doe ran about 70yds and dropped in the field, this was the perfect opportunity to introduce Gracey to her 3rd real deer. She's starting to realize that there's this big brown thing that's kinda fun at the end of her track instead of just a hoof! This track had the added challenge of the cut cornfield that was super dry, and they nailed it! 😁😁

Team Radar,
We thought the hit was low shoulder, with a 300 win mag so we gave it a few hrs, then its time to "Release the Hound" Took a few min to get lined out in the cut bean field, but once we hit the tree line, it was Game On! Went across a couple drainages, through thick briars, across neighbors fence (pre approved), and into a thick crp type field. It turns out the shot wasn't close to what he thought it was and he is completely dumbfounded on why! The entry was at the front of the rump and exited low between the legs, right behind the t***s, missing any organs. Radar was definitely on point and didn't have any objections to this couple being reunited!
This is a perfect example that things aren't always what they seem and 💩 happens! Would have been a tough one to follow through this thick crap without a dog. Fun, fun, fun!!

10/11/2024

This was a fun night for sure! Thanks Mark & Damon for the opportunity at some good practice!! No time behind your dog is wasted time😁😁

10/11/2024

With illinois youth season being this weekend we are hoping to get some calls .we don't charge anything to come assist with your recovery.Dont feel bad calling if your worried about money. we wanna see a happy kid at the end of a track is all we are after .

10/11/2024

With Missouri's Firearm Antlerless Season starting today and the Illinois Youth Season this weekend, this is a reminder that we track both East Central Missouri & West Central Illinois.
Youth & Military Veterans are NO CHARGE throughout the entire season! For everyone else, we track for tips & donations. Willing to travel 1hr one way when time allows. Please don't hesitate to contact us after the shot for advice and if we can't get to ya, we most likely can get you in touch with another Tracker that can! Call or txt us and we'll get back to ya ASAP. 314 660 9881.

10/11/2024

Great tips to increase your recovery odds!

Missouri blood trackers association is here to help connect hunters with elite tracking teams across the state of missouri. Our dog tracking teams are here to help find wounded whitetail deer.

10/03/2024

09/30/2024

We ran our 1st track for the public Friday evening for a hunter on a possible liver/gut shot buck. Call came in Thursday evening and after the hunter interview, I recommended a 14-16hr wait time. I told him that I couldn't get there until after work on Friday (23hr mark) and offered to get another tracker for him, but he was willing to wait for us to arrive!
Elevated shot, quartered to and hit right behind the shoulder, compound bow, fixed G5 broadhead, private land with permission from neighbors to track, mule kicked and stayed in range for a 2nd shot but 2nd shot missed because of branch, watched buck trot off through his binoculars with tail tucked but flickering. Hunter waited 1hr then tracked for 100yd until they lost blood, then a 100yd x 100yd grid search with no other sign.
After consulting with some fellow trackers, we all had the same thoughts that this was a dead deer and should be a great track for us! But even though I was confident, I made sure not to be overly confident because that can humble a person real quick!!
Sublime Tracking offered to come along and I'm glad they did! The hunter's track ended up only 60yds long and the grid with 4 people was smaller than he was guessing so that was great, but it was pretty dry and the wind was swirling from every direction. The terrain was high ridges/ very deep draws so I knew it might be a little tough to read!
After 1.5mi of tracking (yellow line) for a little over 1hr with NO major signs of commited tracking behavior beyond last blood (even after restarts & water breaks), I decided to call it for Team Radar and opted to bring Team Ruca up to bat! Mark & Ruca tracked (blue line) for 2hrs covering almost 2mi of the rough terrain (some of that being our boot traffic) but Ruca never showed good sign of a commited line either! After doing several wind checks and directional searches as a last resort, Mark decided to call the track!
We came to the conclusion that the shot may have been further back than anticipated and hit intestines, or upper camber of stomach. In most cases with these shots, the deer won't really know that it's injured, therefore it won't be secreting the "wounded scent" pheromones through the interdigital that our dogs are trained to follow! My guess is the deer was still alive and on hoof somewhere at the time of track, and will die from infection! This is an unfortunate situation, and happens to the best of hunters and trackers alike! All we can do is learn from the experience and hope to get some kind of closure from it.
Even though we did not recover the hunters deer, I feel good about the track and the effort that was put into it! Thank you Mark Maniaci for running backup for us and for all the help you've been along our tracking journey so far!!
Sorry for the long post, and if you've stuck it out reading til the end, THANK YOU!!!!

**Edit**
Hunter contacted me today and said he got trailcam pics of the buck still alive 10/8/24, 12 days after the shot was taken!

09/15/2024

Great advice!

09/12/2024

We’re here when you need us. No more searching around on social media, calling deer trackers late at night or trying to remember which buddy may or may not know who to call. TRAKR is your all-in-one game tracking app.

09/09/2024

With just a week to go before the Missouri Deer Season kicks off, our last practice was on point! We joined up with Sublime Tracking & Rest Easy Tracking Deer Recovery and ran 4 dogs on 2 lines in very dry scenting conditions, and all the Teams crushed it! Thanks Mark Maniaci for laying these lines and continuing to guide us on our journey! Let the 2024 Hide & Seek games begin💪

08/29/2024