CnM Big Game Tracking and Recovery

08/19/2024

It was scorching hot 🔥today!! I’ll dang sure be glad when it’s over. 🥵🥵🥵
Even in the evenings it’s still 90-100 degrees. Wont be workin the dogs at all in this fire.

08/13/2024

Trackin shoes are on the way……. Been waitin 1 1/2 years for these. Gonna be soooooo worth it. Thank you Raymond Holohan!!!
Best part is, they’re made in the good ol USA…. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

08/08/2024

What are numbers and what do they mean? Does it define a great dog by the way they track? Do they mean anything at all??? Most all hunters who ask a tracker what their recovery rate is, are ALWAYS second guessing their decision in the back of their minds. Little do they actually know the math involved in coming up with numbers and how they play a big part in it. If they took the time to solve it, they would know so much more and might be a bit more encouraged when selecting a tracking team. If a tracking team is at 25% does that make them a bad team??? Not at all once you do the math. I’ll get into this at a later time. Even though we’ve done extremely well in 2 full seasons and our recovery rates are very good, and others aren’t doesn’t make us a better tracking team. It just means that a lot of hunters are making GOOD bad shots. Again for another time. As for now, we’re just ready to see what this season holds. We’re hoping for more tracks again this year. We are only 13 tracks away from reaching our 100th career track in just a couple of seasons and i’m pretty excited. With a bit of will and determination it’ll be a great season.

08/06/2024

That’s right…… mind ya business!! 🏹🦌🦮

08/05/2024

Beautiful mountain buck shot by Justin Smith last October, and tracked by CnM Big Game Tracking and Recovery. Congrats again Justin!! 🏹🦌🦮

08/04/2024

For anyone that we did tracks for last season; if you had your deer mounted, or even a euro mount. could you please send us a good pic so that we can post it on our page. If your mount isn’t finished yet, please send us a good pic of it upon completion. We greatly appreciate each and every hunter that we track for, and we hope that you can always trust us with your tracking needs. Thank y’all so much for past calls and we’ll be more than ready to take on as many tracks as we can possibly handle this Fall and Winter. Thanks again, y’all are awesome!! 🏹🦌🦮

08/03/2024

Here’s the full video of our 50th and last track of the 2023-2024 tracking/deer season. No voiceover or anything extra, just the track and the recovery.

08/03/2024

Quick video of our 50th and last track from the 2023-2024 season.

08/03/2024

Just wanted everyone that follows our tracking page to know, we have changed the name from Oak Hills Bois d’ Arc to our tracking name, CnM Big Game Tracking and Recovery. Thank you all that follow and like our tracking page. This Fall I hope to do much more video to post on our page and on Youtube, if I can figure everything out. Thanks again so much to all who follow and like our page. If anyone is interested in following just go to the search bar and type in CnM Big Game Tracking and Recovery.

08/03/2024

I want to congratulate our friend Matthew Burger and his beautiful Bloodhound Bahroo on passing their UBT 2 test at the MDTN event in Grayling, Michigan this morning. This right here is what dedication and determination look like. All the blood, sweat, tears, anxiety, stress, etc etc.., all make this so worth while. Matt, we had no doubt that you’d get it done, great job to you and Bahroo. 🦌🦮🥈

08/01/2024

I’m beyond excited…

07/27/2024

Leg shot buck turned into gut shot buck. Upon impact at hind leg joint the arrow deflected upward and into the gut/intestine area. Coyotes bumped this buck from his bed and Bois d’ Arc was able to pinpoint a big loop in the line where they tried to finish him off by tearing pieces of intestine out. He managed to pull free and go another 150 yds or so before they finally brought him down. We had no choice but to leave this buck overnight. By the time we found him he was still slightly warm. Timing is everything when it comes to tracking.

07/26/2024

This is exactly spot on. While yes, drones do have their place in game recovery, they tend to think that they can and will recover your game absolutely anywhere. This in itself is not true. Where we live in the SE corner of Oklahoma, it’s just beyond thick, nasty, overgrown, swamps, briar thickets, pine thickets, etc.. As far as a drone being somewhat capable of penetrating all of this thick cover, I don’t see it. In the states that are used for producing paper and such where there is literally 100’s of 1000’s of nothing but acres of woods, this isn’t possible. Yeah, they may get lucky once in a great while, but i’d put my money on a great dog any day over a drone. The more northern/open ground states are more suited for drone recovery for the simple fact that they can view a much much larger picture of what’s down below. Now that doesn’t always mean that they’ll recover ALL big game that they’re after. Animals are not stupid and will seek heavy dense cover to hide and get out of sight. Seen it many times. Even if we lived in a state that was more accessible for drones, we’d never part ways with the great workings of a great tracking dog. As the saying goes, watching a great tracking dog is a thing of beauty. 👍🏻🦌🏹🦮

Drone vs Dog

This buck was jumped 3 miles from the hit site! Once jumped the track was hot and the deer couldn't shake the dog as it was jumped repeatedly, until the buck was dispatched.

When the deer was jumped, the hunter thought it was game over, while a tracker with a good dog knows that it's game on! A tracker knows deer behavior and is on the ground to see sign, and knows the dog is hot on it!

Conversely, would a drone fly 3 miles in the right direction?

Once a drone locates a deer, will it be game over if the wounded deer is jumped?

Don't believe claims that drone recovery rates are 95%. Any experienced tracker knows that approximately 60% of wounded deer are not fatally shot, and that exaggerated claims are simply not true.

Lastly, if a drone fails to find your deer, call a tracker. Dogs recover deer that drones don't, though dogs aren't totally infallible, but watching a good dog track is a thing of beauty.

07/22/2024

Deer from this past season. It just gets better and better. 🏹🦌🦮

07/17/2024

🤔🤔🤔 Guess we gotta buy more gear. 🤣😂

06/30/2024

Possibly going to look into two pair of these for this Fall and Winter for protecting the girls eyes. To many things could go wrong when constantly tracking in briars and thick brush. 🤔🦌🦮

06/30/2024

🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻

06/30/2024

If you’ve ever trained a tracking dog, this right here is exact. 🦌🦮

06/04/2024

Well we finally got home late last night from Illinois. It was a great weekend with great friends, great new friends, great food, and another awesome experience. However, Bois d’ Arc and Cypress both did not pass their UBT testing, but, lots of gained knowledge for the next time. We are fixin to change up a bit on the way we train our pups, and I promise there will be a big difference in both. Not as much in Bois d’ Arc as in Cypress, but there will be a difference. The (New) work begins. Bois d’ Arc will be focusing more on the tougher challenges, as well as myself reading her body language better. Cypress will be receiving an overhaul on everything just to be on the safe side. From obedience, all the way to the tougher challenges. We should see lots of changes by the season opener this year. Thanks to the IDTN for putting on a great event and we wish y’all the best on many more events. And thank you to Katie Sanderson and all who put in the time and effort to lay down and prepare for mine and Bois d’ Arc’s UBT III. On a plus note……… We’ll be back!!! 🦌🦮

05/20/2024

11 days from now, we’ll be on our way to Illinois to the Illinois Deer Trackers Network Symposium in Claremont, Ill.. We are hoping and praying for a great outcome for our two girls. Bois d’ Arc on her UBT 3, and Cypress, on her UBT 2. Like I always say, if we don’t succeed, we’ll just work even harder for the next time. I strongly believe that they are both very capable of getting it done. We’ll do our very very best and i’m sure the girls will do theirs as well. SO EXCITED to finally try a UBT 3. 🦌🦮

05/15/2024

Got this in the mail the other day. Congrats to my better half and her pup, Quest’s Scent of Cypress. This wound up ball of hair is gonna be a good one. 🦌🦮

05/10/2024

This comes from the Missouri Blood Trackers Page: people seem to think that we track just blood, and that’s not the case at all. 🦌🦮

Why are we called Missouri Blood Trackers after all?
Probably because Missouri Interdigital Gland Trackers sounds a bit weird.
But seriously, did you know that a well trained tracking dog does not need any blood to find your deer?
Each deer has an interdigital gland between their toes that secretes a specific scent from that deer. It is their own personal perfume(although we would not recommend smelling it).
So when a tracking dog is put on that scent, typically at the hit sight, this is how they are able to follow your deer, even though many other deer and animals have trampled through the same area.
In some cases, a deer will not bleed for the first several hundred yards. More often though, a deer will bleed and then stop. In some cases there is no blood at all.
There is however, the interdigital gland scent at every track, for the whole track. So when the hunter decides to pursue his/her deer, they are contaminating the track. Why? Because you cannot see this scent, so every time you take a step, you are risking spreading that scent in many different directions.
This is why trackers hate to hear the phrase, "we grid searched". It's because it is going to be difficult to impossible to follow the gland scent after it has been spread 100 yards in every direction.
So, if you shoot a deer and do not see it fall OR if you are having to search 50 yards or more to find “next blood”, or cannot see next blood from last blood, it is time to call a tracker. Especially if you know that your shot was off the mark. Be sure to stay to the side of the blood trail, to help minimize the chance of spreading the scent.
Good luck!

05/07/2024

It’s set in stone. The Illinois Deer Trackers Network Symposium, from May 31-June 2, will consist of Quest’s Scent of Cypress running a UBT 2, and Oak Hills Bois d’ Arc running a UBT 3. We’re very excited to see how both of these young ladies will handle the task at hand. This is what we’ve been waiting for ever since we started tracking 3 years ago. It was our goal to take and pass all 3 UBT tests to know that we as a team can handle anything a real life track throws at us. I know this isn’t a real life track, but I promise it’s just as good and challenging as one, if not more. Time to step up a bit on training, and make the lines comparable to what we’ll face at this event. It’s gonna be an epic event for sure. God willing, we’ll bring home two ribbons. 🦌🦮

04/26/2024

THE INTERDIGITAL GLAND.

The term, "Blood tracking", is a misnomer. Our dogs track scent from the INTERDIGITAL GLAND, that is on both front and rear hooves. Deer communicate by using the interdigital gland! For example, when a deer busts a hunter and stomps the ground as it snorts, it leaves a danger signal that will last for days!

When a deer is shot, the interdigital gland produces scent that signals declining health, which signals the dog to track the wounded deer, and not other healthy deer. If a deer's health stops declining, the interdigital gland will stop producing the signal and will become like that of other deer. Unless infection sets in, the deer will survive to be hunted again.

CAUTION.

When tracking a wounded deer, interdigital gland scent is transferred from the ground to footwear, and spread everywhere the tracker walks, so be careful to not contaminate the track.