Mosquito Creek 'Houlas

11/18/2025

‼️📢 Starting - Monday Dec. 1, 2025

🚨 NEWS: Deer Bag Limits Reduced in Athens, Meigs, Morgan, and Washington Counties
🦌 The Ohio Wildlife Council approved new white-tailed deer hunting limits in Athens, Meigs, Morgan, and Washington counties for the remainder of the 2025-26 season during its meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 12.

Beginning on Monday, Dec. 1, and coinciding with the opening day of the seven-day deer gun season, the bag limit for Athens, Meigs, and Washington counties is reduced to one deer. Also on Monday, Dec. 1, the bag limit in Morgan County is reduced to two deer. Deer bag limits are reduced in these counties in response to an outbreak of Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EHD).

The limit remains in place until the close of the 2025-26 deer hunting season on Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026. Athens, Meigs, Morgan, and Washington counties have a three-deer limit until Sunday, Nov. 30.

Deer bag limits in the rest of the state remain unchanged.
https://ow.ly/YaL950XrMRO

11/18/2025

Alright — honesty time.

What’s the shot you still think about to this day?
Bad angle? Rushed? Branch got in the way?

Drop it in the comments. 👇
𝑵𝒐 𝒋𝒖𝒅𝒈𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 — we’ve all been there.

11/18/2025

𝐎𝐤, 𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐤 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐭𝐬....

Are folks who take head or neck shots really being ethically responsible? 🤔

Because when you understand deer anatomy, movement, and real-world outcomes…
that shot shouldn’t even cross your mind.

So why does the idea even pop into someone’s mind?

Usually it’s one of three reasons:

𝟭. 𝗘𝗴𝗼 𝗳𝘂𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗼𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲.
“Drop ’em in their tracks” - "They don't walk away"
They want the dramatic effect — not the ethical outcome.

𝟮. 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘁𝗲 𝗠𝗶𝘀𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴
They’ve seen it work once and think it’s normal.
It’s not. It’s luck, not skill.

𝟯. 𝗟𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗼𝗳 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗶𝘁 𝗴𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗴.
Talk to any tracker, we've seen it all too often.

When you’ve seen that suffering firsthand,
you stop thinking that shot is an option.

If you respect the animal — if you care about a clean, ethical, fast, humane kill — then you choose the shot that gives the deer the highest chance of dying quickly, and not taking a gamble with the animal suffering. And that is never the head or the neck, the risk is just too high.

𝙃𝙚𝙧𝙚’𝙨 𝙬𝙝𝙮, 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙖𝙣 𝙚𝙙𝙪𝙘𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙥𝙤𝙞𝙣𝙩:

𝟭. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘃𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝘂𝗽 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗶𝗻𝘆.

People say “aim small, miss small,” but in the head/neck?
Miss by one inch and you hit nothing vital.

• The brain is the size of a raquetball.
• The spine is narrower than your fingers.
• The jugular?
It’s a thin, low-lying vein buried deep in muscle, about the width of a pencil. Missing it by even an inch means you hit nothing vital.

Everything else up there — jaw, nose, tongue, throat — is non-fatal but devastating.

That’s not respect.
That’s gambling with an animal’s suffering.

𝟮. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗻𝗲𝗰𝗸 𝗡𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝗺𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴.

A deer’s head is the busiest part of its body. Every few seconds it’s:

• Lifting
• Dropping
• Chewing
• Sniffing
• Flicking
• Turning

By the time your bullet or arrow gets there, the target is already somewhere else.
Respect means knowing the animal’s behavior — and choosing the ethical shot based on that reality.

𝟯. 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘀𝗲𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗴𝗮𝗺𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗳𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘀.

If you ever watched what happens after a bad head/neck shot, you’d never aim there again.

We’ve seen:

• Deer with their jaw blown off
• Arrows lodged in their skull
• Tongues hanging out
• Nose and face shattered
• Windpipes destroyed
• Deer alive but unable to eat or drink
• Slow, painful death over days or weeks

These aren’t clean kills.
They’re slow deaths.

Respect/ethics means not putting an animal in that situation.

𝟰. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝘂𝗻𝗴𝘀/𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗴𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁, 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗲 𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝘇𝗼𝗻𝗲.

If your goal is a quick, clean death — the true mark of a respectful/ethical hunter — the vitals behind the shoulder are where it's at:

• Large target
• Stationary compared to the neck
• Full of arteries and vessels
• High lethality
• Predictable recovery

Ethical hunters choose the shot that ends the animal’s suffering fastest — not the one that “looks cool” if it happens to work.

𝟱. 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗽𝘂𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝗿.

Respect isn’t what you say after the hunt.
It’s the decision you make before you take the shot.

A respectful/ethical hunter:

• Understands anatomy
• Understands movement
• Understands the consequences
• Chooses the ethical shot with the highest percentage of a clean kill.

Stop and think - Am I taking the high-percentage, humane shot…
or am i taking a gamble that could ultimately cause this animal to suffer?

A neck or head shot is a gamble — and the deer pays the price when it goes wrong.

11/18/2025

Got another confirmation of life from one of our tracks we took while we were up in Michigan.

11/17/2025

We got a call from Jonathan W. while we were up in Michigan this weekend. He had made what he thought was a great shot on a buck, had got a passthrough with his arrow. Upon taking up the trail he had some decent blood till it just came to a stop. He backed out and reached out for some help.

We started Luna at the hit site, and she took off on the blood trail, got to the area the deer turned left and went towards the fence line and kept trucking forward until we came out to a grassy opening out of the thicket. She then made a hard right about 75 yards around a few pike trees working back and forth around them but not able to pinpoint what she was smelling there.

She then restarted herself back to where we came out, then went across the grassy area to the other side and worked up to a couple pine trees. She slowly worked over to the other side of them then came to a stop. I stood there watching waiting for her to continue, but she never moved again. I then proceeded to walk around to where she was, and there laid his buck. Unfortunately the coyotes had tore him to pieces. Big thank you to Rob with Miller Deer Tracking. for the referral.

Congratulations Jonathan!

11/16/2025

First one from our trip up to Michigan for their gun opener on Saturday.

Ryan was referred to us from Rob of Miller Deer Tracking. Ryan had shot his deer at the top of the ridge, and the deer turned and ran down the back side away from him. Upon looking for blood he only found a couple spots, then nothing.

We started Archer off at the hit site and he quickly made his way down the ridge to a well used path, then started working his circles trying to reconnect. As I approached the trail Archer cut off to our right and started making his way along the trail till we got to the edge of the next finger about the time I hear Ryan say "There he is!" At this point I hadn't seen him yet, but as I rounded the trees there he laid.

Congratulations Ryan!

11/15/2025

Got a text from Clint that he shot a buck but as soon as he shot the deer had turned just a bit, and pretty sure it hit back and was thinking liver. After looking around where he thought he shot the deer and not finding any blood, he backed out.

We showed up at around the 9 hour mark and picked up the trail, we found some blood shortly after the hit site, and only had a couple drops of blood for the next 15 yards. From there Luna followed a trail through a wooded thicket, then started a big circle around this one section of woods.

We stopped and was discussing a little more of the shot, and Luna come walking over to me and sat at my feet looking at me like, c'mon let's go. From there she took off along a pretty worn down trail into this little pocket, then I look up and a buck jumps up not 10 yards from me, and Luna dang near standing on him. I made my way over to Luna at the bed and sure enough it was his deer. We decided to back out and come and pick it up in the morning.

We started the next morning at the bed and she made her way up and over the next ridge and headed down towards the creek. We hit a main trail in the bottom, and ended up walking past an EHD deer that had been there for a while, Luna then cut over to her right and I look over and there laid his deer right on the edge of the creek bank. He ended up having multiple beds in the area, and we surely would have kept bumping him had we continued the night before.

Congratulations Clint!

11/15/2025

Got the call from Ed L. that he had shot a buck and thought it was a little back. Upon taking up the trail they had decent blood, but upon finding 3 beds close together he wisely backed out and gave us a call.

We started Archer at the last bed he found and he started his checks, backtracked a little, then cut back through some heavy underbrush and walked us right to his buck. The buck had started to double back from the direction he came.

Congratulations Ed!

11/14/2025

11/13/2025

Just a friendly reminder...... 😉

11/13/2025

There’s a moment — right after the truth is finally found — where everything goes quiet.

The tension leaves your chest.
Your mind finally stops replaying the shot.
Your stomach finally unclenches.

And you just... breathe again.

You realize this chapter is closed — not left to rot in the unknown.
You don’t have to wonder anymore.
You don’t have to torture yourself over “what if.”

And that’s why these dogs matter.
That’s why this work matters.

Because sometimes, our job isn’t just finding deer.
It’s helping a hunter find peace with what happened.

Some deer end with glory and celebration.
Some end with quiet acceptance in the sunset.
Both deserve respect.

We don’t just recover deer.
We help hunters close the book — and start the next one with a clear heart.

11/12/2025

When we say “trackers talk to each other,” we’re not just talking about messages online — we mean out in the field, every day, across counties, across the state(s).

Most of us are connected through networks like Ohio Deer Trackers, United Blood Trackers, American Blood Trackers Association, Facebook, and WhatsApp groups that all work together with one common goal: recovering your deer.

We Communicate — Because It Matters

If you reach out to one of us, there’s a good chance another tracker nearby already knows about it.
We share information because we don’t want to waste your time or the dog’s nose — and we don’t want to accidentally cross over someone else’s active track.
That’s why it’s important not to contact multiple trackers at once.

We will know if you’ve reached out to more than one, and it’s not about ego — it’s about respect and coordination.
Every tracker and every dog deserves the chance to finish the story they started without confusion or interference.
When you pick a tracker, trust them to guide you.

We Help Each Other

If one of us can’t make it, we often recommend another tracker who can.
It’s not competition — it’s cooperation.
We share information about current conditions, track patterns, and even local deer behavior to give each handler and dog the best possible odds of success.

It’s a team effort that goes beyond individual calls — a network built on shared experience and respect for the process.

Why It’s Important

When multiple trackers are contacted for the same deer:

Dogs may end up reworking a contaminated track.

Time gets wasted coordinating who’s actually responding.

Hunters may unintentionally create confusion or frustration for everyone involved.

Instead, make one call, trust your tracker, and let them work the case.
If they can’t get there, they’ll help connect you to the next best option — we all want the same ending: a recovered deer and closure for you.

Bottom Line

Trackers aren’t in competition — we’re in cooperation.
We communicate, coordinate, and collaborate for the same mission:
to recover what matters most — your deer, your moment, your story.