Hoffman Deer Recovery & Training Kennel LLC

Hoffman Deer Recovery & Training Kennel LLC Instead of charging a set fee for our tracking services we operate using a tip/donation based system as to not be financially out of reach of anyone.

Our services include tracking wounded game with our own personal dogs, training dogs to track, shed hunting training, and training dogs for squirrel hunting as well.

We took 3 tracks today and have no deer to show for it but gave some hunters some piece of mind and one that we will fol...
10/16/2025

We took 3 tracks today and have no deer to show for it but gave some hunters some piece of mind and one that we will follow up on tomorrow morning.

Track one today we actually took this track last night and tracked him 200 yards to a property line and decided to back out. They had little blood and at the property line I found a chunk of meat. We got permisson to track through and resumed this track this morning and shortly after where we stopped the day before Freyja put us on some steady blood for about 40 yards and into a pine tree plantation where blood stopped once again and I found meat chunks after. We pushed this track out past 500 yards probably and decided to call it as the way Freyja was starting to track I just didn’t believe this was a dead deer. The hunter thought entrance was good but the deer was quartered away and with the meat chunks I’m guessing this arrow exited the brisket giving us a possible one lung at best hit deer here.

Track 2 the hunter shot and the deer fell to the ground instantly and then ran a little bit and fell over again telling me entrance was high back and we were dealing with a “spinal shock” deer here which I have yet to recover one of these. They have a little temporary paralysis in the back legs for anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes when hit up in that spine area. Then seem to walk away perfectly healthy. The arrow didn’t completely pass through and broke when the deer fell over. They actually caught a pic of the exit side on a trail cam the deer went in front of which didn’t look too bad maybe a little high clipping the top of the opposite side lung potentially. Freyja tracked this deer well over 600 yards with a drop here and there when she started telling us this deer wasn’t dead.

Track 3 the hunting party tracked this morning about the 15 hour mark and jumped the deer 150 yards from the stand and were within 20 yards of him when he got up. I felt like from the information I was given this could have been a potential liver or gut hit deer but they had no sign of gut material anywhere. We put Freyja on this deer at about 21 hours post shot and she marched us over 400 yards from where they jumped this deer in a few minutes. I thought from the way she was tracking this was a deer we were going to find no matter how far it went. She took us to the edge of a pretty big pond and just kept pacing back and forth along the edge not wanting to leave it. Telling me this deer surely went across the pond. Not knowing how deep this was and only having hip boots on and seeing that the backside of this pond opened up to a big open grass area I said why don’t we go back and fly the drone on the backside of this pond and as I was flying up to the pond I already spotted this deer sitting on the backside of that pond directly across from where Freyja kept pacing back and forth. You can see the entrance through the back leg and he was quartered too so I’m not sure if this was just a leg shot or if it went up into the intestine area but he looked very alert and was licking the wound but we will check up on him tomorrow morning again to make sure. Another great combo use of the dog and drone here.

Between finding 2 still alive with the drone this last week after Freyja lost interest and another one in an open marsh ...
10/15/2025

Between finding 2 still alive with the drone this last week after Freyja lost interest and another one in an open marsh that I flew the drone before putting Freyja on. We also had two visual sightings by the hunters themselves of the deer we tracked for them while sitting in the stand. And two others one bear one deer that trail cams picked up after we tracked for the hunter still alive and well. Bringing the total up to 8 proof of life’s so far after we tracked. I suspect this number will continue to climb quite a bit in the coming weeks.

Here’s the trail cam pics of the two. The first buck we tracked September 25th and he just now showed back up the other night. We tracked this deer over 1100 yards before calling it. This deer bled for the majority of this track with one bed around 350 yards and was unpushed and given ample time which led me to believe he was probably hit somewhere near a leg to bleed for that long of a distance being unpushed. This was a passthrough as well. We can’t really tell with the pic where this one was hit yet but they know this is the deer that they shot at. The second trail cam pic is of a bear we tracked October 5th and he showed up two days after being shot. We tracked this bear a long ways through 500 acres of woods and felt very confident this bear would live to see another day. We had a video of this shot and it looked to be forward and a little low. And knowing bears anatomy believed this bear to be shot too far forward when we left this track. As always if you see them after we track please reach back out. Whether its from the stand, trail cam, or you end up shooting the animal again. It may help confirm what we thought or fill in question marks we may have had on the track with the little information we are given sometimes. Following up only helps us become better at what we do.

Here is a buck we tracked this morning. The hunter called last night not completely sure of where he hit just that the d...
10/15/2025

Here is a buck we tracked this morning. The hunter called last night not completely sure of where he hit just that the deer was slightly quartered and he was limping on his opposite side leg after the shot and then a big rain storm rolled in. Knowing he wouldn’t have any blood to follow he opted to use us. We put Freyja at the hit site she took us 400 yards confidently with no visible sign to confirm but I told the hunter this is 100% where your deer went she’s tracking very confidently. Freyja is not a dog who’s going to take us for a walk if she can advance the track she will and when she can’t I know this deer is no longer stressed and isn’t a dead animal. She pushed us through a corn field through a pine tree plantation then through a hardwoods and got us right to the edge of a large bog and couldn’t push it out any further. This was the point I told the hunter she is telling me this isn’t a dead deer. This was a fairly large bog and knowing it would be very easy to see this deer in the bog with the drone and feeling pretty confident he would still be laying in this bog we put the drone up there so we could see exactly where he hit and get some more answers and about 80 yards from where Freyja was telling me this wasn’t a dead deer there he was. You can see the hole is through the front leg about halfway up. This is the exit side so we assumed it was either a straight leg shot or brisket entry and leg exit. We watched this deer for quite awhile and he showed no signs of being mortally hit. This was also 15 hours post shot. You can see the hole in the pics. I also put a pic of where Freyja took us too which was the white circle and where the deer was bedded the black circle.

Had a couple tracks this morning the first one here the call came in last night they jumped the deer last night about 80...
10/13/2025

Had a couple tracks this morning the first one here the call came in last night they jumped the deer last night about 80 yards in and watched him get up and walk away slowly. We agreed to meet this morning and they had shot a doe out of the same stand that also exited the foodplot in the same general area as this buck and Freyja went down that line right away. Took us a little while to reset her and she marched us 420 yards past their point of loss crossing a stream twice to this young hunter’s biggest buck to date. Rain overnight would have washed any visible sign away if there was any. No chance this deer is seen again without a dog. I did not stick around for the gut job as I had more tracks to get too but you can see entrance in the pic there was no exit assuming it hit oppsoite shoulder and if I had to guess I’d bet only stomach was hit here. Congrats Evan!

It will never get old hearing we would of never found it without you. This call came in last night and the arrow had gut...
10/12/2025

It will never get old hearing we would of never found it without you. This call came in last night and the arrow had gut material on it. They tracked last night worried about wolves they have had on camera beating them to it and pushed this deer. Freyja marched us over 700 yards in 12 minutes to this deer. Blood till about 250 yards then one spot of blood that we saw at about 550 yards other than that was a bloodless track after their point of loss. It looks like coyotes beat us to this deer by a little bit and lost a little meat on this deer but most of it is still salvageable. Entrance was liver and exit was low gut. This deer was still limp at 13-14 hours post shot.

Freyja found a good one this morning! The hunting party handled everything perfectly post shot and were rewarded because...
10/11/2025

Freyja found a good one this morning! The hunting party handled everything perfectly post shot and were rewarded because of it. Shot was videoed and was right behind the shoulder but at the very bottom of the deer. They had gut matter at the hit site and backed out. They looked this morning and tracked it to a bloody bed with no deer in it then backed out and gave us a shout. Freyja marched down this line and past the first bed right to this deer in a few minutes dead in his second bed. Unfortunately as you can see the coyotes had a party before we got there. Another female bow hunter laying the hammer down! Love to see it!

We tracked a shoulder shot this morning as well several hundred yards before we called it off. Then took a call for a buck hit high and back. They tracked this deer quite a ways prior to us showing up so we started at their last blood and a quick 150 yards past their last blood we jumped this buck 22 hours post shot. He looked to be perfectly fine and to be hit in the top of the back ham. Very little pe*******on on both of these deer. Recovery number 20 so far this year for us. I don’t count jumped deer with Freyja that we lay eyes on as recoveries like some dog trackers do and I don’t count deer I find alive for the hunter with the drone as recoveries like some drone operators. Unless the hunter has the deer physically in their hands I don’t count that as a recovery. It’s a succussful track or location of the deer but not a recovery in my eyes. Now to see what the night brings!

Goodluck to all the youth hunters out this weekend! Don’t hesitate to call or text
10/11/2025

Goodluck to all the youth hunters out this weekend! Don’t hesitate to call or text

Late night recovery on a buck tonight with the drone that was thought to be one lung liver hit and quartered too a bit
10/11/2025

Late night recovery on a buck tonight with the drone that was thought to be one lung liver hit and quartered too a bit

Got one for a hunter before he had to go to work this morning. He was worried about leaving it till after work. This cal...
10/09/2025

Got one for a hunter before he had to go to work this morning. He was worried about leaving it till after work. This call came in last night his lumenok never lit up. They sent me a pic of the blood and I knew it was guts immediately. He said the deer was quartered a bit. So we weren’t entirely sure where it was hit just that for sure was guts. So we went in at the 10 hour mark which if it was a straight gut shot this deer still would of been alive which is why we decided to fly the drone first in case the deer was still alive instead of possibly bumping him with the dog. The entrance was mid body gut and came out 4 inches behind the shoulder which means he also got liver potentially one lung as well meaning this deer was most likely dead in 6-8 hours if I had to guess for this time of the year. So wise choice to wait until morning but coyotes unfortunately beat us to the punch on this one. I always bring both the dog and drone this would of been quite an easy recovery with Freyja. What I would call a slam dunk track with the dog anything hit gut or liver usually is. Hard to beat a team that has both options. Weather won’t stop us with the dog thermals and foilage won’t stop us with the dog and property lines if you cannot get ahold of a neighbor while I’m out there with the dog won’t stop the drone as no one owns the navigable air space and we don’t have to worry about possibly going in too early with the drone. The drone also comes in handy on non fatal hits where I can assess the animals wound instead of with the dog on alive deer on lead we just won’t get close enough to the deer to see exactly where it is hit. Now that foilage is starting to drop you can probably start to expect a few more drone recoveries in the mix along with all the Freyja recoveries. Probably throw Raven on a few here soon as well. Freyja did get to walk out with us to see this one so she wasn’t too mad at me this time.

We got one today call came in last night we knew it was guts from their video they knew they wouldn’t have blood and bac...
10/09/2025

We got one today call came in last night we knew it was guts from their video they knew they wouldn’t have blood and backed out. We met after the hunter was done with work today at 22 hours post shot and Freyja had him in a few min. The tracking crew said they wouldnt of found him without her and they saw one drop of blood halfway through the track that was it. This deer was still limp when we got to him. We also had a wolf walk 40 yards in front of us only 60 yards from where this deer was shot at 4pm broad daylight. We thought for sure we weren’t going to have much of a deer left when we found it but the wolf never found it. A track handled perfectly by the hunter here!

We have been getting after it the last two days getting on 7 tracks but just not getting on dead animals. A 1100 yard track a 1800 yard track both with confirmed blood that Freyja marched us down. Two bear tracks one bloodless but Freyja took us 850 yards where we saw the bear track in the mud and called it off. The other bear we tracked through 520 acres of ground and he ended up back at the bait the next day. Another whitetail track that we showed up to that was hundreds of acres of marsh that I convinced the hunter to let me fly the drone on before putting the dog on it knowing I could make quick work of that marsh and I located the buck 550 yards from hit site alive and well bedded up with another buck. When in doubt back out and call earlier then later as my days have been pretty full here lately.

Another buck recovered without the use of a dog because of a simple few minute phone call last night. They reached out e...
10/04/2025

Another buck recovered without the use of a dog because of a simple few minute phone call last night. They reached out explaining the situation and shot. They knew the deer was quartering too and they hit a branch making them unsure of the shot but they thought they possibly hit inside of the shoulder/ base of neck area. Which with a hit in that area its usually a jugular or carotid hit or meat shot. Both leaving a fairly good blood trail. Which is why we didn’t just opt for a dog right away. They had no idea about the amount of pe*******on they had. Didn’t look at hit site just called asking for my thoughts on it. But with the quartering too angle and the hunter not knowing exactly where the arrow hit after the branch deflected it and knowing the arrow was still going to be in the deer I told them best case scenario this was going to be a one lung liver hit deer. The hunter wanted to look last night where he last saw the deer and I encouraged him to wait till morning knowing a one lung liver hit deer wasn’t going to be dead yet. I told them to look at hit site in the morning and if they didn’t have blood to back out and we would put the dog on it. They had a very hard time finding blood and ended up backing out and were walking back out to give us a shout and ended up crossing the blood trail on the field edge they were walking out on which took them 70 yards with good blood to the deer. This deer was indeed one lung liver hit and if it was tracked last night would have surely been pushed. As always advice is free and when in doubt back out. Don’t let these hot temps push your wait times or it will cost you your animal.

We really haven’t tracked a ton of alive deer yet this year. Plenty of alive bears and plenty of dead deer but not many ...
10/03/2025

We really haven’t tracked a ton of alive deer yet this year. Plenty of alive bears and plenty of dead deer but not many alive deer yet. But already have our first proof of life in. As always I strongly encourage hunters to share any information that comes in about the deer we track after we leave. I take very detailed notes of every track I take. The information shared afterwards really helps me put the pieces together and become a better tracking team. Most of the time I won’t have much or any visual sign and sometimes not even an arrow so I’m just going soley off of the deers reaction that the hunter shares with me and what my dog is telling me.

We took this track on 9/19 the arrow had tallow and meat chunks on it and there was no blood to be seen the entire track nothing at hit site no hair no blood. We pushed this track out about 400 yards before Freyja really just lost interest and I called it. I had no sign to confirm anything. Usually when I see tallow across the entirety of an arrow it’s telling me high back or brisket. Usually when I see meat chunks and tallow I assume it’s probably brisket. This isn’t always the case but from my experience this is usually the case. I assumed this deer was either hit high back or brisket and I was heavily leaning towards brisket. This deer showed up 10/2 on camera and it looks to be hit high back and he is alive and well. Hopefully the hunter can catch back up to him!

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