Best Effort Recovery and Bloodhounds

01/07/2025

Story time.

We almost missed him.
This deer was shot at close range and hit at the ideal spot. The blood trail was moderate and the deer bedded at 250 yards. I started Pixie at the hit sight and she tracked the deer loosely and without much enthusiasm. Before we got to the bed we jumped some does and Pixie thought she had jumped her target. After calming her a bit and restarting she slowly got us to the bed but would stop occasionally and stare down the woods in the direction the deer had run. About 100 yards after the bed we jumped another deer that had to be laying directly on the scent trail. Again we had to calm her down and restart. It was starting to snow and what little blood we had was being covered with the white stuff. We soon found new blood and advanced the confirmed track by a couple hundred yards. At this point Pixie snapped her nose into the air and did a 90 cutting crosswind till she came to the top of a ditch bank by an old road way. Here she froze and stood testing the wind. I assumed she was again being tempted by live deer and hoping she would get to pursue them. Instead of letting her wait on the wind to swirl and bring her the scent she had recognized i told her to get busy. On her own she went back to last blood then continued toward the bucks known bedding area. She was soon tracking like she was once again on a live deer track. The signs I was getting from Pixie and the fact that the deer wasn't dead in his bed at 250 yards with the shot description I was given I hesitantly decided to call the track and head back to the truck. Now the hunter's Dad had been with us but after Pixie reset herself we hadn't seen him. We sent him a text telling him what we had decided to do. Back at the truck, when Dad showed up, he asked what the verdict was. We told him we concluded the deer wasn't recoverable with a leashed dog. His response, "What would you say if I found him?"
He had seen Pixie testing the wind and decided to follow that ridge and the scrape line down to the bottoms. As he slowly made his way down there he caught a whiff of a dead deer. He quickly checked the wind direction with a bit of paper towel he had in his pocket. Heading into the wind he soon caught a glimpse of antlers and realized he had just found the buck his son had been chasing for four years.
I don't know exactly why Pixie missed him. She got close but wasn't able to close the deal. I probably gave up too soon and should have restarted one more time. The terain was tricky and did funny things with the wind and the scent.
The shot was exactly where the hunter said it was the only problem I could find was the arrow came out infront of the opposite leg so it probably only got one lung and nicked the heart. We found him but I still left the track feeling like I had failed. It's these tracks that make us better.

12/31/2024

Dad, if we could bring in the new year with a deer track, it would be great.

12/28/2024

You can run and hide, but Pixie is pretty good at finding.

I started this track on a Friday evening on some private land next to public land. The shot was uncertain but I felt like it might involve liver and stomach when I examined the arrow. The blood was frozen so it I couldn't tell for sure. Pixie liked the track and soon had us past last blood and walking through the woods wondering if we were still on the right deer. Every time when I was about to call her bluff I would find just a drop of blood. One drop was the size of a pin head. We were fairly deep into the public land when Pixie suddenly indicated a hot track. Now I didn't know if we were still on the right deer or if she decided to chase something more exciting. I shone my spotlight around and saw two sets of eyes running in a loop around and back the way we had come. I decided to keep going and maybe since we got him running it might shake more blood out. Sure enough another 150 yards showed us blood. Normally at this point I would back out and come back in the morning. Since I was on public land and can only track on public at night i decided to push him till he went back on private or we catch up to him. The deer did a huge figure 8 crossing his track twice before we stopped tracking at 1.75 miles. The following morning about 9:00 we resumed the track. Pixie didn't waist any time locking back on and following the path the deer took the night before. He had parallel our walk out of the woods and passed by our vehicles by 50 yards. As we got closer to our vehicles I noticed a four wheeler setting ahead of us then out of the corner of my eye I saw a man in camo. I recognized him as one of the hunters from the night before and my heart rate returned to normal. He had come out to join us after his hunt, and wouldn't you know, he parked smack dab on top of the blood trail after he drove on it for 40 yards. This didn't bother Pixie too much because she had one thing on her mind. Pixie led us all the way to the river and showed us blood headed out onto the sand bar. For some reason she hit a wall and went into search mode. Every path I expected him to have taken didn't pan out. I stood there observing Pixie as she worked the area sniffing in places where the scent would gather. The wind was such that I concluded the deer had crossed the river and was dead on the bluff on the opposite side. The water was clear and I could see it wasn't awfully deep so I decided to wade across. I made my way out into the river but instead of following me like she normally would she scrambled up the steep bank to the right and up wind from where we had come down onto the sand bar. Instead of following I insisted on crossing the river. Once on the opposite side Pixie got the zoomies because of the cold water she had to wade through. Finally after several minutes of shaking and rolling and acting a fool I got her back to the task at hand. I started searching the bank trying to cut the track. Suddenly Pixie stopped perked her head up and made a belive back the the waters edge. Here she froze and stared across the river. I know that look, he is not on our side of the river afterall. Another trip through the fridge water. Up over that steep bank and just twenty yards along the top there was the buck we were after. Good job Pixie. Sorry for the cold bath. Total track length 2.75 miles.

12/23/2024

This video is intended for educational purposes.

I rarely have the opportunity to showcase this scenario, as we typically do not recover deer hit in this manner. The reason for this is that we usually do not initiate tracking within a two-hour timeframe, and our primary focus is on tracking bucks that exhibit more substantial blood loss and stamina. Furthermore, bucks may possess increased clotting factors in their circulatory system. I must admit that I am not sufficiently knowledgeable to confirm this with certainty. Nevertheless, in this instance, the deer was not struck in the lungs and ultimately succumbed due to inadequate oxygen supply to its muscles, which prevented it from continuing to flee from us. I surmised that if I did not recover the deer, coyotes would likely do so.

12/23/2024

It happened so fast!

This buck moved as the arrow was released. This young man told his dad he is certain he hit guts because of the sound he heard as the arrow hit. The deer bolted to the top of a nearby ridge then back down the the bottom were everything went quiet. I got the call the evening of the shot because these guys have seen Pixie work before and knew the best thing to do would be to do nothing except schedule Pixie. The following morning I harnessed Pixie at the shot sight and she headed straight up the bottom where everything had gone quiet. I was somewhat puzzled as to why she didn't go up the hill like the deer reportedly had. I let her work and she soon showed us some blood. After several puzzles, small backtracks, and 10 beds we found him still limp close to the 500 yard mark. Good call Mark, most of us can't walk away from a hunt without doing at least some investigation. Job well done.

12/23/2024

After several unsuccessful tracks on firearm weekend we had the opportunity to track a doe for a young girl who opted to fill her firearm tag with a crossbow. It was her first deer and her dad was unable to track it past her first bed. It had taken a while to obtain permission to track on the property next door so it was a whole day later before I got the call. Fortunately I was caught up on tracks and was there within 45 minutes of the call. I was starting to be concerned about Pixie's tracking skills because she didn't show much interest in a lot of the gun shot deer we tracked. On this one however she put her nose down and followed the track like a pro. About 450 yards into the track the father asked if I thought we would find her deer. I told him, "I really think so" because at that moment I noticed Pixie giving her "I found it" tail wag. Unfortunately the coyotes had a meal but the young hunter and her dad were really glad to have some closure.

12/21/2024

First firearm season. This deer had been shot at 4 times on Friday evening with a 350 legend. One shot had knocked him to the ground. The rest of them didn't help much either. The deer got up and hobbled off into a sappling forest. When the hunter and his sons started tracking they soon jumped him and decided to back out and come back in the morning. When I got the call I decided to do it right away so we could make a follow up shot if needed. Once I had Pixie harnessed and started she didn't waist much time in getting us to a live deer. He jumped up and disappeared down the woods before Abby action could be taken. We followed and a short distance later Pixie indicated we were close again. I sent the hunter and one son out and around to the spot I expected the deer to go through. Once they were in position, the other son and I followed Pixie as she led us down the path the deer had taken. Suddenly Pixie again indicated we were close and I saw the deer 30 yards ahead laying on the trail. As we backed away he got up and slowly moved off. We watched and noted his path as the other two came back to us. I told them to carefully follow the path he had taken and put a bullet through his lungs. That plan worked and we were soon celebrating another successful hunt. The first several bullets had hit the shoulder blade and were either too high or didn't go deeper than a single lung. I didn't stay for a full autopsy.

12/05/2024

Here is a hunter that I've tracked for before and have given advice on post shot procedures. On this hunt the first shot was way back by the hips. Fortunately Eli was able to get a second arrow into the deer before he got out of range. Although it only got back straps it left us a bit of a blood trail to follow. It was windy this night and Pixie started out really slow. As she got deeper into the woods she got more into the track but still required a restart after she took the wrong trail out of a problem spot. About 100 yards from the deer I could tell she smelled the deer and tried to cut the distance. Back on track she found 3 beds as worked down the ridge we were on. I was expecting to see the deer at any moment when one of the guys behind me spotted the lighted knock of the arrow still in the deer. Another tag filled and a happy Hunter to go with it.
Two things that helped make this recovery possible was the second shot and the appropriate wait time before starting the track. Sometimes deer hit that far back don't leave much scent for the dog to follow for reason we can only guess at. The second arrow drew blood and left us some more scent to follow.

12/05/2024

I got this track through a friend of a friend of a friend. Freinds are good, what can I say? I had a lengthy drive to get to this track, and I had scheduled to start it at 5:30 in the morning. Rather than getting up at 3:30 to make the drive in my sleep, I opted to get close then sleep in the car, again. The hunter and his buddy told me they tracked for 500 yards before the blood stopped. At the shot sight I harnessed Pixie and set her to work as I started my OnX tracker. Pixie's nose went down and her tail went up as the trail grew by the yard. About twenty minutes later we got to the ladder stand that marked last blood. At this point OnX showed 1000 yards. I don't remember if the deer had bedded or not. Pixie was still tracking and we still had real-estate so we kept going. A slight turn to the left took us to a small river and Pixie indicated a crossing by walking out into the water belly-deep. Once we were both on the other side she checked the bank to the left then to the right till she dropped down into a tributary and reconnected to the line. Once again it was a fast walk through the typical river bottom sappling forests. Blood was no where to be seen and doubt was starting to creep into my being when Pixie suddenly stalled like she hit a scent pool, and a quick glance around revealed the reason. One point one miles from the shot sight I was able to capture the biggest smile on my hunters face as he reached for his deer. It was one of those ideal tracks that just worked like it's supposed to.

12/04/2024

On Nov. 17 i got the call to see if I could locate a liver hit deer that had moved out of his bed from the night before. He had been spotted on the marshy side of a beaver pond laying under a bunch of Russian olive bushes next to the water's edge. When the hunter and his freinds came back in the morning he wasn't there and couldn't be found in the marshy bottoms. When I finally arrived at the designated spot, I walked Pixie in to the bed, harnessed her and set her to work. The soft dirt showed boot prints and bever tracks everywhere. Pixie spent a lot of time trying to figure out an exit by seemed to be unsuccessful. On the way to the bed I noticed Pixie showed interest in something to the north of us. I tucked that info in the back of my mind and after she was unsuccessful in finding an exit I acted on it and walked her to the north. As the bootprints got less I noticed she was starting to work a scent. I watched her closely and my excitement started to build as it became more obvious that she was indeed smelling a dead deer. Her final tell was when she started trying to get through a dense brush pile but then opted to go around. A glance down the tunnel she found revealed some white deer hair laying on the ground followed by Pixie's tell-tale tail wag. This magnificent deer was laying just beyond my line of sight. My hunter and his dad couldn't get there fast enough when I hollered back to them that Pixie had found the deer. OnX said the deer had moved 110 yards from the night before.

11/26/2024

Mr. Judson hit his deer too far back while rifle hunting in Indiana. He found corn in the blood so he left his deer over night. The following morning he was able to track him to a bed and determined the deer might have done a back track. He couldn't find blood leaving the area so he had Pixie and I come help. The back track ended up being about 80 yards long and between our eyes and Pixie's nose we got it sorted out. A short time later Pixie showed us the deer and stripped another tail.

11/25/2024

If the deer is quartered away send the arrow in behind the ribs or don't shoot at all. One fourth of the tracks we take are simular situations to this one.

3207 likes, 59 comments. “This photo haunts me to this day…”

11/25/2024

Story time. We got a call on a Saturday morning from a friend of a friend. He had shot a doe and was finding some bones along the trail. Since bones on a blood trail usually come from a leg I didn't really expect to find the deer. Pixie got onto the track and found new blood without much problem she then hit a bit of a snag but figured it out and showed us the deer. Apparently by the time the arrow got to the deer she was quartered toward the hunter and took the arrow through a lung and everything inline with that back leg. Sure enough the leg was broken and that was the source of the bone chips.

11/21/2024

Pixie demonstrated her skills to this gentleman last year so when he arrowed this fine buck Quartering to, he cautiously investigated the shot sight and part of the blood trail. He wisely decided to back out and schedule me for an early morning track. We found him dead in a bed facing the path he had come from close to the 300 yard mark, I believe. Giving the deer time to expire paid off for this one. The coyotes didn't have a very long track to come across and the deer remained untouched by them.

11/21/2024

To all the people headed out with a firearm this weekend.

If the deer drops like a rock at the first shot, shoot it again. Spine shock will drop the deer but won't necessarily kill the deer.

If you get a chance for a second shot, take it. Two holes are better than one.

Remember that the vitals don't go to the top. The deer in the picture below was not fatally wounded.

I plan to track at night if my services are needed. My dog isn't a big fan of gun shots and I had her shut down on a track the other day when someone nearby was sighting in his gun. Tracking at night will be safer for us and we won't push any deer over to the neighbors to be shot infront of us.

Above all be sure of your target and be safe. Good luck.