When In Doubt Send The Plott Out

01/08/2025

I did not purchase my tag this year, honestly because I was just too busy tracking and spearing isn't high on my list. In lieu of this i offered up my shack to my lifelong friend Capt. Brett Walser. Just like calling me for a track, booking a guided fishing trip or spearing shack with Walser's Eyes To The Sky Guide Service LLC you will be with one of the best WI has to offer for guides. If you are into ice fishing, open water fishing (especially giant walleyes), or sturgeon spearing give his page a like and a follow.

12/16/2024

Excuse the cursing in the pic

If you know me at all, you know that I tend to do things the hard way. I love to watch my ol Diamond dog work and this year she has stepped herself up once again from what I believed to be her best year last year. I love watching her take on new challenges. So keep em coming.

Friday night: 16°, crispy frosty little wind weather. Not ideal for scenting. We received a call about a doe hit with solid blood in the beginning but slowly went down hill. Hunters elected to back out and give us a call. I still don't know if I made the right calls but the call was made to give that deer a few hours and investigate. Diamond locked into that trail and we were off to the races. We blew thru where the hunters had stopped and continued to find sign we had our deer. About 200 yards in I caught her eyes. She left the scene and crossed a property line. At that point per wi law we have to stop. We offered to return the following day but ultimately it was decided not to have us return. I suspect the deer was hit low and forward based on what the track was telling me.

Saturday night: dusting of snow on the ground, decent wind, light sleet mix sporadically. The hunters shot 3 doe that night. 2 of which didn't go 5' and piled up. He removed those deer and field dressed far away from our starting point. We got on site and again Diamond was on a rail and again we found this deer alive. This deer appeared to be hit low and back based on what the track was telling me. We offered to come back Sunday evening.

We returned Sunday evening and the camp had again shot another deer. Since deer 1 had traveled a decent distance I thought better to finish up on her first and then go after the newest hurt animal. After quickly relocating where we had stopped the night prior again off to the races. This time down thru frozen cat tails. If you've seen Diamond work you know that when she's on she bheyjng and pulling, it was a slip and slide for me luckily never breaking thru or falling. Again, I saw the eyes and along with some impressive handheld thermal equipment we were able to see it was our deer and it had met up with 2 fawns already. This deer was hit low and forward as well and is likely to survive it's wounds.

Reset and go after Sundays fresh hit. Once she locked in we were standing over the deer minutes later. Although this deer had taken some of the same exact trail as the deer the night before Diamond stuck with her newer target. In her excitement she overshot the deer by about 10' but quickly realized her mistake, did a 180 corrected herself and located our deer.

As a handler there is nothing better than when a hunter says to you, watching her do what she did tonight being able to leave a deer she had tracked last night and again tonight and stick with the profile she was locked to tonight showed him that she fully knows the difference between the target I lock her to and every other deer hurt or not. I've seen things like this myself in the past but when a hunter who we have worked with in the past, who has worked with hunting dogs before acknowledges a trait he may or may not have questioned with her in the past points it out that's a special moment to me. We always hear how many deer are in your woods or how a deer maybe walked there earlier that day but I know once she is locked to her target she doesn't care about anything but that target.

2024 is almost wrapped up but we welcome late season tracking and more challenges. As long as I feel it's safe for us to be out here looking for deer we will be ready and waiting for calls. This was our 72nd track of the season and I do believe her 30th full recovery and 2 more proof of life animals while tracking.

We got alot of great calls this season, successfully recovered an animal 1.96 miles away and followed many more unseen but alive while on site animals upwards of 3 miles this year. I said 2024 was gonna be going back to the old days. Take calls, grind and find. Thank you to all the hunters we gave us an opportunity, we got redemption with quite a few clients, as always made new friends, remained close with many of the friends I've made over the years and once again and most importantly in my book Ol Diamond dog continued to show me things I didn't know she was capable of and give the hunters and myself every bit of herself she had on every track.

Miley dog will be seeing much of the burden next year, although Diamond will be along she now deserves to take some time off and enjoy her elder years. She isn't just a hunting dog to me, and I want her to be with me as long as she can. She has given me so much over the years, I owe her a big fat pension and a cushy easy going rest of her days. It's time i find out if I ever had a clue or that dog is just that damn good.

12/13/2024

I can't say for sure we would have located this deer but we were only 10 minutes away from this track when I heard a buck of this caliber was gut shot and left alone for 24 hours. (These kind of tracks are ones we love and they have a very high success rate). I tried my best to get in touch with the hunter, I was told by some locals that the guy had hired a guy with " a really good bird dog" . Again I cannot say we would have for surely recovered this deer but to me this is a prime example of why not all scenting dogs are the same. My dogs are trained to do 1 thing and it's recover deer.

I'm glad the hunter was able to recover his trophy rack but it's sad that an animal of that caliber ultimately rotted away in the woods and was found so much later. These animals are worth more than just their head gear to me. I've always said I don't care if it's a fawn or a 200" class buck I'm gonna work just as hard to recover either. This amazing animal was intelligent enough to elude hunters for at least 4+ years and, then one day this November he made a mistake.

Please remember before you hire just anyone to track your trophy ask some questions, and then call another well known tracker and ask the same questions. Those of us worth a pinch of salt in the recovery industry will almost always give you the same answer or extremely similar answers.

As with any industry there is politics in tracking and I know there are plenty of handlers out there that dont care for me and vice versa there are handlers I don't care for on a personal level but if I think them and their animal has any business being in the woods tracking deer I've never let my personal opinions get in the way of helping hunters.

Rant over; wish I would have had a chance to go after this buck.

11/27/2024

The first couple days of the 9 day gun season has been tough on us. Opening night we were able to recover young Ashton's PB buck. Sadly some other critters beat us to it first. Ashton and his dad were very grateful that we found this deer, and for more than just the head. They planned to try and salvage all of the meat they could from his harvest. And I truly have the utmost respect for hunters like this. I can't say I would have taken the whole animal in the way they did but I respect them very much.

I was able to stop by a few different camps this year during the weekend opener. Some I know well another I have apparently been to. But one thing remained the same, many people who I had never met before told me how much they like reading the things I wrote on this page. I try to just write the things that I see and feel on these tracks. 95% of the people I meet in the woods are awesome people and I like to tell their stories. I hope you all enjoy the future of this page and my story.

Monday was rough, anyone who has met me or that I have tracked for knows I love tracking for youth hunters. Our first track was for a 9 yr old young lady. We ended up jumping this deer unlike a drone if we do that with the dog and it's still legal hours you are allowed to go get a weapon and try to help put this animal down, and that's exactly what we did. We got the dog off site, the hunters father, neighbor and myself all raced back home to get weapons and come back to hopefully either find an expired animal or jump it and put it down. Like many deer this year we returned and this thing had vanished. We searched by men with weapons until legal shooting time was over and after coming up empty we put the weapons away and brought Diamond back out. Sadly it seems like other deer this year it just got up and vanished. We pushed Diamond all over thr exits and never came up with the animal. After we finished there i received another call from a hunter and was told all they had was some white hair at hit site. Diamond immediately got to work from the hit site and led us thru 3 wound beds very close to hit site. We continued about about 150 yards where I caught the eyes of our deer. As we watched it hobble across a property line our hunter knew we wouldn't be able to cross the line if it went that way.

With these very cold temps it will make tracking a little more difficult. Remember when it comes to fi****ms if there is time where the season is still open I suggest tracking when you can and take shotguns with you if you can and attempt to got a follow up shot into that animal.

Stay safe. Shoot straight and don't stop until the animal is down.

11/20/2024

Friends and hunters, it's guys like Jamie Dahm that I truly idolized when I first got into this industry. As I started taking more tracks i finally was able to break thru and talk to him. He has become a friend, a mentor and is still someone I look to today as one of the "elders" of this industry. He is another person I consider a true titan in this industry and it would be a huge loss to lose someone like him as a tracker

If you all want this operation to survive, the best thing you can do is share this page, share past posts and share my phone number. The exposure keeps the feeds going and expanding.

11/20/2024

I mentioned big news was coming and here it is. I wasn't sure how this would go or how long we would get but I am pleased with the outcome. Sadly the one day we had to fill wasn't a recovery but I'd like to thank Jon for making a professional video and working with what we had.

Graham Brunet and his Plott Hound, Diamond, have tracked deer for hunters for eight years.

11/19/2024

I get asked about drones alot.

The comments in the screen shots below were made by a tracker that most of us trackers look up to. If you know Mr. Special and Party Girl you know who wrote this. Knowing the tracker I will say that the drone he is using is of the highest quality drones out there.

I watched a drone fly a week or so ago. My understanding is that the operator is new to it and although his equipment is expensive, my understanding is that it is on the beginner side of what some of the drone guys use. I was impressed by the ability to find rabbits and a crystal clear pheasant but was very surprised when we put the dog on it the next day to find a wound bed and blood after that. Especially since it had rained pretty heavily that night after the drone flew. Occasionally we will find blood that looks like that after rain. Which leads me to believe this deer was likely bedded in that bed the night before while the drone searched and due to some condition were not able to locate it while searching.

I do believe this tracker to be correct a drone in the hands of a tracker will be far more successful than say a hunter who buys a drone. And I've always said I couldn't ever imagine asking a hunter for that kind of compensation to track a deer. I do believe drones have a place in the deer recovery world but I agree with everything this tracker/drone operator states below. Until you have put down the kind of miles us trackers do each year you won't have that same understanding of tracking wounded game like we do.

More and more each year since I started tracking with Diamond we are seeing hunters go after there deer far to early after the shot. And then they contact us and we give you a realistic wait time for the animal. Then hours before the hunters get impatient and decide they are going to go search for the deer even though they already have us booked. We will always tell you that once you book us to stay away from that deer and that track. Sometimes the hunters get lucky and find the deer. I am happy that the animal is found but frustrated that the hunters don't listen to the things we have discussed and on the ones they don't recover the animal on typically they try to lie and never bring up that they had went out and searched. When you do the amount of miles we do behind our dogs you know just by watching your dog this track has been messed with.

Hunters please respect our time and knowledge of our craft. Remember we are out here to help you. Many of you are great trackers but I assure you no matter how good you are you aren't better than a well trained dog. You haven't been on the amount of tracks in your life vs what I do in a single season. The lack of respect for my time or my dogs ability will only make your bill higher.

11/18/2024

Huge shout out to a great friend @ Head of the for this beautiful Euro mount of my rifle buck from last year. As he and I discussed last night he is limited to the amount of mounts he can do a year but like me he likes a good story. Reach out to him with the story of your animal and hopefully it's one he likes and chooses to fill one of his limited spots with.

I also stopped by another great friend and supporter Robert with Big Sky Wild Game Processing who does an amazing job processing your harvest. As we chatted and swapped a few stories from the season he made the comment how whether you are the tracker, butcher, or taxidermist we are essentially similar to what a registration station used to be like. Where the hunter had a place to tell the story of the hunt. I know I've had quite a few people reach out to me and tell me just how much they enjoy reading the story of our recoveries.

There will be some big news coming from my page this week. If you aren't already please like and follow to not miss any updates or stories of our season.

Also a big thanks to pages like Hunting Wisconsin , Wisconsin Bowhunters , Wisconsin Deer Trackers , Midwest Deer Hunters for allowing me to share my stories to their pages. Please like and follow these pages as well.

11/15/2024

#1 on our night was a redemption track for us.
Rod contacted me i believe last week and i accidentally double booked myself. Even told him I was on my way at one point. Needless to say the moment I knew I made that mistake I apologized to Rod up and down. My professionalism means very much to me and the quality of service I expect from myself. I told Rod no matter when if he ever felt he needed the assistance of a dog again I would love a shot and at no charge to him whatsoever. He shot this buck and touch back and knew the waiting time but also with the rain last night knew a blood trail would be all but non existent. He called i gladly accepted the chance to redeem myself with him and we met around 4 pm tonight. Within an hour we had his buck.

#2 good friend and neighbor to my lease shot a doe. He was at another property he owns and we had trouble putting him in touch with another team that I trust and work with. I offered to take the track but had to wait until done with Rod. We got on site found 1 wound bed very close to the hit site and about 250 yards later encountered this. It sucks when this happens. From the way Diamond acted I believe the coyotes had this deer running early last night.

11/12/2024

# unsure: jumping past a few recoveries to get this one out there.

Got a call from Tim on Monday, his gf had shot this buck the night before. I said I was already booked for 1 Monday night but he would have #2 spot on my evening.

Monday nights track came up short, the deer most likely was a high back possible single lung hit deer and from what I saw on site I dont believe it will be a fatal deer.

As we were getting done I reached out to Tim about getting on his track last night but I was already seeing frost setting in on track 1, and looking at the temps they were going to hold close to freezing all night and into the am. We made the decision for me to come out this am. I was so happy to be going home "early" for once. I think I got home at 11. Once I get home it's probably a solid hour more of work cleaning out my truck reorganizing my gear, getting Miley out for a walk and then I finally get to go in the house and wind down to go to bed. Last night I got all my work done walked into the house basically fell into my bed still clothed and passed out. I never set an alarm this am for meeting Tim. He called me once and at that point I was already a half hour late. I said I'll brush my teeth, load the dog up and be on the road. He said OK. We met and I immediately apologized about my lack of professionalism and not being up. Tim was nothing but nice to me about over sleeping. As we walked to the hit site we chatted about how the dog works and what to expect. Knowing this track was 36+ hours old i told him a few things I expected to see from the dog on an aged track. Diamond immediately locked down on this deer. We hit one little scent trap at the hunters point of loss but got thru that quickly. It felt like she was searching a little more than tracking. All of a sudden I noticed Diamond was nose high and almost appeared to be prancing. She was way to happy with her nose very high in the wind. I knew what that meant, she had winded this deer and we weren't far from letting the WOOOOO out in the woods.

I want to thank Tim for not giving up on me or his persistence to attempt to recover this animal. At the moment we are unsure if this animal is spoiled or not. He is going to check with his butcher to see if it is good or bad. He wanted to put forth every effort to try and find this animal and I truly do respect hunters like him. Finding big bucks is great, but any hunter who I have ever worked with and recovered for knows I don't care if you shot a fawn or a 200" buck I'm gonna WOOOO just the same.

11/11/2024

#16 coyotes are evil critters

They did this is to a buck that was liver hit the night before. They were my 2nd track of the day and I believe our #1 was quick that day. This buck did exactly what we would think a liver hit deer should do, go about 250, bed and if left alone expire in it's first bed. The hunter did everything right, and he just got screwed over. This rarely happens to unpushed deer that only go that short of a distance.

11/11/2024

#15 Evyn VandeBerg 1.96 mile long track. By far the highest level of tracking I have ever seen my dog work. Recovered 10/28

Got a call about a buck shot, steep angle, believed to be liver. We hadn't gotten any rain yet up to this point and the start of the track was actually pure raw dry dusty dirt, that changed to run down cat tail marsh that 10' tall crap where it's just folded on top. We got to a T kinda 3 way cross. Hunters last blood said this deer picked one of the 2 paths right. I said to the hunter this is way too dry and we needed to wait for it to get dark to get any moisture for the dog to really be able to work.

So we left and then came back. Again hunters said right was the way. We basically did a loop but this time the dog went left. About 200 yards down the path a found something that looked like guts. Another 50 yards and a spec of blood. The hunters never went this way and the wind was blowing in our face. Maybe 15 yards later the blood opened up and i was able to start seeing it at Diamonds pace which averages 2.5-3 mph. As the positive commands are flying out of me she is now really turning on the gas. We take this to some form of green hay like crop. It takes her a few more minutes and we are across that and headed into a woods.

Everything in this woods was as dry as sand. Diamond meticulously sniffed and picked her way thru this woods finding any bit of gland and each speck of blood in it. She hit a marsh exit once but didn't like it very far in. I started to lose hope and was trying to touch anything that had a speck of moisture on the outside of the woods to see if she could find out where he left the woods. She wanted to return to her last hot hit in the woods and I let her.

I started to tell Evyn that I felt we had a non fatal and it was time to stop. She then picked the same marsh exit, this time 1 turn further than the last time and KA-Boom she went off and away we went. Everything is telling me we just jumped this deer i let her continue and I see more blood. As Evyn is calling for the last blood guy i asked him to check to see if it was wet and I saw some more. A few hundred yards of smashing thru this marsh and holy $& #= we are standing over this deer. 1.96 miles unbumped, not a single wound bed, and this deer appears to have expired as it was walking.

This kind of recovery isnt possible without having faith in your animal, watching the difference between a dog who is frustrated and a dog who thinks it's not dead can be hard. She just never really gave me the sign this deer isn't fatal let's go. The fact she could keep getting scent in the driest piece of woods we have ever been in was purely amazing to watch. And then the boys were in for one heck of a drag. I couldn't have been prouder of ol Diamond Dog. 1.96 miles from hit site to where this deer expired.

11/11/2024

# 14or15 Mr. Kenny's wife

Believed liver shot, called the night before. I tracked until almost 330 am the night before. I was supposed to be on site at 730. I think I finally got there at 9 after over sleeping. We had a pretty short track to this tank of a buck. Later that night Mr. Kenny filled his tank on a stud buck on same land. Just goes to show how little the dog bothers the land. Just amazing the bucks they get.

11/09/2024

# Ghost face; Hunting is about the time spent with family not killing things.

After getting done getting our butt's kicked on a 24 hr old track that had been rained on, I was changing from my tracking clothes to driving jammies and I noticed a cardinal beating on my passenger side window and landing on the weather strip and just kinda sitting there watching me. My godfather Rich "Gilly" Walser who i grew up hunting with sadly passed away 3 yrs ago now said he would be come back as a cardinal. Upon seeing the cardinal and pointing it out to the hunter and a good friend who came along with I said I need to spend some time with family. Although yes this is our busiest time of the year nothing means more to me than my family. So I contacted his son, captain Brett Walser of "Walsers Eyes to the Sky" guide services and stopped over by him and his family to hang out. His young son Easton told me "Mr. Brunet you gotta get ghost face" . His father Brett had already filled his tag this season on a great buck and Brett has offered me to hunt at his house the last few years many times which I have, but I've always said it's more about coming over and hanging out with family than it is about the hunting.

3 yrs ago my god father before he passed had taken a shot at this buck and clean missed. Sadly we lost him shortly after. Brett had been able to build a pattern on this buck and when he was visiting his property and where he was bedding. Brett noticed ghost face was back in the neighborhood and let me know hey you gotta get over here. I tracked last night and stayed at Brett's for the evening. This morning ghost face showed up and i was able to harvest him.

Yea he's a great 7yr old buck, but the few days spent hunting at his house, spending time with him and his children, and tracking the deer with Easton, Brett, & Gilly surely looking down on the 3 of us means more to me than any deer ever could. That's something I believe Easton won't ever forget and the stories I have to share with Brett's children about their grandfather Rich are stories I dont ever want to forget.

Gilly was an amazing father figure to both of his sons, and to me when my family life changed and I became a single dad. He among many others really helped me thru that time.

We all had our Eyes to the Sky thanking grandpa Rich for telling me I needed to take the time out of what is the busiest time of my season to spend time with my family and it paid off with my biggest buck ever. I cannot thank Brett enough for allowing me to hunt his land, take me fishing, or just be a person that no matter what he's always had my back like I will always have his. Hunting isn't about Big bucks to me it's about moments like these where I will never forget Easton saying "that's a big F!%". He of course over heard either Brett or I say that, but the chuckle we had after telling him that's only woods talk and that language shouldn't be used anywhere else is priceless.

I have said it many times this year I am truly blessed not only with the dog I have but the family and friends I choose to surround myself with, and the people who care about me. We may not be everyone else's cup of tea but we are damn sure our brand of rum.

11/08/2024

Hunters: wait times are being pushed to a minimum of 8 hours. The dog and I are averaging 2 miles a track this season and not finding animals that should be recovered. None of us would think this is an animal that needs an excessive wait time. This animal was not recovered. Please don't push these deer.

11/08/2024

^My PB buck I didn't want.

After 8 yrs of driving around in BFE tracking deer I have dodged a ton of deer. We were on our way home tonight from our last track and sadly even after locking up the brakes I still punched this guy with the old battle horse Ford. I have to say I'm actually shocked with how little damage it took. It took out half my light bar and broke the plastic by the license plate holder and a little piece behind it. I registered this as a vehicle hit, field dressed him and was surprised with just how little damage actually happened to him. Have to see what the butcher thinks but at a minimum the dogs will be eating a little better this winter.

11/07/2024

GRIND AND FIND DEER. Are you in it for the ethics or the $$?

We are literally coming up on 5 days without a dead deer. To be fair I take my tracks in the order they come. I do ask enough questions to try and determine the accurate wait time we should apply to the deer but I don't just cherry pick what I will track and what I won't. Far too many trackers are worried about whether or not this deer will hurt their average or not. There is only a couple things that could be said during a call that won't make me take a track as I feel if you don't go you don't know. I've never worried about what my recovery rate is because I feel confident in Diamonds ability to determine either they are expired or not.

All that being said I constantly tell people if you like being mentally and physically abused for 8-12 weeks a year. Get yourself a hound teach it to find deer and become a tracker. The lows like we are in now suck so bad.. The dogs mad as hell, I'm wondering what does it take to actually harvest one of these animals, and my average still isn't terrible. 17 or 18 out of 42. Every year we find deer that no one felt should be and we don't find deer that everyone is should be layups.

What I do know is this; rarely is my hound dog wrong, she makes even less mistakes. We cannot find what isn't dead. I do not control what happens prior to Diamond and I getting on site. Once we get there we are already at 50% chance we will recover this animal. Multiple other factors make this lower prior to our arrival but regardless if it isn't dead we can follow this animal a long ways and never find it.

Its clearly the busiest time of the year for us trackers. The best thing you guys can do is try to call me first and then text me if you need us. After that please know I will get back to you NO MATTER WHAT once I am done with the current track I'm on. If you hire another tracker prior to me getting back to you please let me know that. This way I can move forward to the next person In line.

Pfa.

11/06/2024

Michelle and the team at Minuteman Press - Fond du Lac do it again. Love the quality of these cards, the ease of ordering, the friendly talks I have either when I call or go in by them, and how quickly I get them after placing my order. I truly don't care what some company online could've cost me, you cannot replace high quality customer service and that's what I get here. This team worked with me the the last couple changes to the cards knew the correct stock to use based on my specific client base. I will always support local business when it comes to what I use for mine.