River Runs To It

11/12/2023

Quick little story about a young man named Hunter.
Hunter shot a nice buck yesterday morning.
Hunter knew he hit back and over the next couple hours watched his buck bed 3 times.
While in the 3rd bed Hunter quietly got down and left his stand in the opposite direction the buck was bedded.
Then Hunter called for advice. We advised him to wait 24 hours then go get his buck. If he wasn't in the 3rd bed and didn't leave anything to track we would assist.
Guess what, that buck was laying dead in the third bed that Hunter saw him lay down in from the stand.
Hunter did everything right after an unfortunate shot and got to recover his trophy on his own.
Be like Hunter, he is wise beyond his years!
BE LIKE HUNTER! 🙂

11/12/2023

We haven't had much time to post lately but rest assured we are still traveling and tracking. Here are a couple liver shots that left poor blood trails this weekend.
One we think died pretty quick but left no blood trail the other one clearly took several hours and bedded several times before expiring.

10/15/2023

Happy gotcha day to River! 2 years ago today I went and picked River up to come live at her forever home. It's been a fun 2 years and we are just getting started! :)

10/08/2023

Don't mind us we're just trackin n stackin.........

10/08/2023

Finding deer and taking names.....😁😁😁

10/03/2023

So yesterday I got a chance to watch a veteran team work. Got a call from Diesel the Deer Track’n Dog saying he was gonna be tracking about 45 minutes from my house and offered to let me come and observe/learn.
River stayed home and napped because she had just finished a track and 2 dogs in the area of one track would just be asking for trouble.
What a fun and challenging team to be with! The pace Diesel works at was something I am not used to with River, I don't know how Gary does it! My watch was recording heart rates higher than I have seen in a long time.
Diesel is a machine in overdrive, he worked awesome and was pretty clear in his clues to us along the track as to what was going on. A couple times I really thought the buck would be up on the next ridge but it turns out it was not dead and was just staying far enough ahead of us to tease us but never let us see him nor find him. Gary has allready received proof of life this evening.
Even tho we never layed hands on the deer it was very fun and informative to tag along on this track. Time behind your own dog is invaluable but time behind a veteran team is also invaluable. Not being "in charge" and just being able to sit back and watch everything happen was such a great educational tool!
Thanks for having me out Gary and Diesel, it was my pleasure to be a guest. I look forward to the next one. 🙂

10/01/2023

It feels sooo good for both of us to be back out doing what we love to do. River ran fantastic today on her 600 yd warm up track ( was supposed to be 150 but this one went alot farther than the hunter thought). This one ended up having a backtrack she had to work out, very fun to watch her figure that out then continue on to the deer.
We are here and ready if you need us just give us a shout!
(217) 377-6164

08/01/2023

Happy birthday River!
This picture about sums up a 2 year olds off season shenanigans. 🤣🤣🤣

04/07/2023

Off season relaxing, sunning on the porch watching traffic pass by.

03/27/2023

03/12/2023

Our neighbor and bestest playmate turned 2 Friday, so naturally river had to go have a party with her!
Happy birthday Ms. Vega

02/19/2023

Nary a hike in the woods without her bringing me dead deer parts..

02/18/2023

Queen of the mountain...

01/23/2023

We enjoyed being a member of the IDTN this year and are looking forward to next season!

12/28/2022

"Neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor hail shall keep the hound from their appointed tracks." (Modified trackers creed)
Fun little late season track today. 😁

11/17/2022

As much as we love tracking we also love hanging out at deer camp with family and friends, eating too much food, telling tall tales around the campfire, and putting a doe in the freezer.
So under the cover of darkness we drove over 3 hours south late last night to our beloved deer camp.
That said we will not be tracking during the gun season. Instead we be will doing all the things above and enjoying the 3 days of gun season with my sons and friends (and 3 vislas🙃)
Be safe out there, enjoy the people and camps you spend these 3 fun days with every year, and as the man who got me into hunting in the first place always tells me, head down and shoot straight!

11/17/2022

We just got a text from Breven.
Breven shot a buck the afternoon of Nov 5. He thought he hit high and possibly forward.
We arrived the morning of the 6th to track. River ran thru the known blood trail but then just never picked a line or showed any interest much passed the point of loss. Usually when she does this she is telling me the deer did not die. A dieing deer will leave a different scent behind than one that will survive the shot.
In the process of restarts we kicked a bedded buck but could never definitively prove if it was the one we were looking for or not.
I told Breven based on what River is telling me I thought his buck was not dead and would survive. We begrudgingly agreed to call off the track and Breven agreed to let me know if he ever saw this buck again.
Well he did today!
Not every shot kills the deer, not every track ends in rivers teeth on a deer. But those that don't it always nice to find out we did what we were asked and River was right in what she told me.
This is the 7th confirmation of life for River and I this season.

11/16/2022

After we left Cole midday Monday we head east to meet up with Ron.
Ron called us seconds after Cole did telling us he was sure he hit liver, he had advanced the track 2 hours post shot over 300 yds with multiple beds. He was sure the buck was headed to tall thorny crp to bed a final time and expire. He knew the trail was getting thin so he asked for Rivers assistance.
We told him we were on the way to help Cole first and we would head to him after that, which was beneficial because it would give Ron's deer more time.
We pulled in Ron's driveway around the 7 hour mark. Ron led us to the hit site and off river went. She followed his known blood trail almost to a t right up to the last bed and POL for Ron.
At this point we were expecting her to leave the hedge row into the crp and lead us to the buck. Instead she stayed in the thin hedgerow and marched us right down it straight to the buck.
Without river Ron would have likely spent hours grid searching the crp before crawling thru the hedge row to hopefully find him. We definitely saved Ron a ton of time and thorn pricks on this track!
Congratulations Ron on your 2022 buck!

11/16/2022

We got a call Monday from Cole, a young man in his first season of hunting. Cole made a shot on a buck and had blood but was struggling to find the deer. So River and I saddled up to help.
River worked her tail off but kept giving me signals we were after a live deer. In the end we came to the conclusion that the buck was able to duck and twist on the shot turning impact point high forward and a hard quartering away angle and high probability was this buck would live thru the shot.
Once back at the truck we spent some time with Cole going over pictures of deer anatomy, shot placement, and distance of ethical shots. We did our best to educate and hope for a better outcome for him next time.
Fast forward to this morning and I got another call from Cole. I could tell from his voice he had just shot again. He said Mark you were right, I took all your advice and had the deer at half the distance. I put my pin right where you said and shot. I could see the blood pouring out of him as he ran off.
I said then what happened. Cole said he went 20 yds and crossed the river, as he was climbing the bank he fell over and slid back to the river.
I said young man you have a dead deer congratulations!
I asked when did this happen and he replied with 30 seconds ago, you were the first person I called.
He then informed me he was gonna watch some YouTube videos on how to field dress.
I told him sit tight I'll be there in 15 minutes and will teach you myself.
So in the end River logged an unrecovered deer in her books but as a team we are calling this an exciting success as we were able to give post track advice to a novice hunter who listened and did better on his next hunt.
Every trip to the woods does not always yield the perfect outcome we dream of but there is always something to learn on each trip to make yourself a better hunter next time.
Congratulations Cole on your first ever bow deer and 2nd ever arrow launched at a deer!

11/14/2022

Don't mind us we're just finding deer, chewing butts, and taking names.

11/12/2022

Got a call for a doe shot that the hunter knew he hit and possibly liver hit but he couldn't find the arrow or any blood.
River and I talked it over and we decided even during rut and we took the track.
Took river to the hit site and she was off. About 100 yds in she started showing us blood.
Somewhere at the 500 mark I knew something was up because River stopped cold in her tracks doubled back 5 yards and started exploring options because straight wasn't doing it for her.
She checked 2 trails then on the third acted like we might be back on. After a 150 or so bloodless yards and her lifting her head off the ground too much I decided to try a restart at last blood and where she searched for a correct line.
On the restart she doubled back on the original line 10 yds or so then started to veer off to the right, bam new blood. This tricky doe doubled back and then headed to the creek. River pushed on and led us right to the one lung,liver,gut shot doe. She was just as happy to find this one as any booner buck she has found.
Good girl River!

11/11/2022

River literally ran right to this gut shot buck, what a fun track.
The young hunter knew he shot back so he snuck out, called river, and 26 hours later he was holding his prize.

11/03/2022

After Adam gut shot yesterday morning he made the wise decision to mark the shot and first blood which was only about 40yds then back out and call a dog.
This buck was shot yds from very tall and very thorn filled CRP patch, It took a couple of resets but River advanced the track from the point of loss 80 yds to where we found the first bed. From there she tracked a bloodless trail another 60 yds to Adam's second ever buck in his hunting career.
Note that is a gut shot that wasn't pushed and only went 180 yds from the shot site to his last bed, gut shots will die and will die close if you give them time!
Congrats on a beautiful buck Adam, River and I enjoyed working with you.

11/03/2022

Good thing Mark drives cause this is Rivers post track ritual.
PS gut shot deer don't go far when they aren't pushed!
Pics to follow soon of this mornings successful track!

11/03/2022

1.5 miles of perseverance and several resets at the Point of Loss where some grid searching was done and River is snacking on fresh deer heart. 😁
This was a high forward shoulder shot that hit no vitals but luckily caused the deer to bleed enough to die.

10/15/2022

This is Rivers "its Saturday morning and there is a dead buck to find what's taking you so long" face.

09/29/2022