outdoorstom

Thanks man. Definitely!

10/29/18 #1 Kunox and I tracked for a young lady that had shot her first buck....a 6 or 8 pointer. We had several restarts along the way on this 300 yard night track, and eventually saw the buck walking away at 75 yards. I marked it with the gps and backed out. We went back this morning but didn’t find any sign of it. Heavy rain overnight washed away any blood, but the scent would still be there. When we arrived, a big buck ran off from in front of the stand. A family friend who’s stand it was, obviously was worried about scaring the big buck out of the area because he was ready to throw in the towel very quickly. #2 Kunox and I went this morning to track a bear that had been shot at last light last night. No blood had been found. Heavy rain last night definitely hurt our chances on this one, as bear scent believe it or not, washes away quicker than deer scent. When we arrived there were deer in the cut cornfield the bear had been coming to. Kunox had no clue he was tracking a bear, not a deer. We ended up doing a thorough grid search but found no sign of the bear. #3 Our third track today didn’t go any better than the first two. This 6 point buck was shot yesterday, several hours after the hunters son had shot a 4 pointer from the same stand. Both bucks had run down the same trail after being shot. Again, no sign was visible. Kunox locked onto the right trail and off we went....straight to the gut pile from the 4 pointer. He looked at me, all proud, and couldn’t understand when I picked him up and started working circles around the area. We mostly ended up back at the gut pile. We made larger circles to no avail, and followed some trails across the swamp, all with negative results. To make a bad day worse, Luna had surgery on her paw today. Part of a thorn was removed from the infected area and she is not able to track until the stitches come out in 2 weeks. Huge bummer....the A Team is sidelined. Kunox is going to be busy and Luna will not be happy!

Luna was pulled off injured reserve for a 300 yard track this morning of my deer:-) He ran by my camera after the shot.

They absolutely would go while hurt. Their prey drive is incredible!

You got that right!

Well, we’re out of the tracking business for a while. Just home from the vet with Luna. She’s been dealing with an infection in her paw. Warm water with Epson salts and an antibiotic didn’t do the trick. There’s something in there that will have to be surgically removed, so on Monday that will be done. 5 or 6 days recovery time. Kunox recently got his right rear paw hung up on a barb wire fence. His paw is ok, but we believe he strained his leg when it happened because he yelps when it’s manipulated. He’s on pain meds for a while and gets free rides up and down the stairs. When it rains, it pours. :-(

Well, we’re out of the tracking business for a while. Just home from the vet with Luna. She’s been dealing with an infection in her paw. Warm water with Epson salts and an antibiotic didn’t do the trick. There’s something in there that will have to be surgically removed, so on Monday that will be done. 5 or 6 days recovery time. Kunox recently got his right rear paw hung up on a barb wire fence. His paw is ok, but we believe he strained his leg when it happened because he yelps when it’s manipulated. He’s on pain meds for a while and gets free rides up and down the stairs. When it rains, it pours. :-(

It would be different if I was still working. Being retired, I have time to both track and hunt :-)

6A. I watched a spike chase a doe through the woods this morning. This evening a 4 pointer was chasing does at full speed in the bean field.

Thanks for posting the link, Joe!

It would be different if I was still working. Being retired, I have time to both track and hunt :-)

10/22/18 Luna and I arrived at 10:45 this morning to track a buck that was shot at 6:00 last night. The hunter and 2 friends had tracked for 200 yards until they lost the bloodtrail. They were smart....at that point they had marked last blood and backed out without grid searching. Luna locked on and quickly took us to the buck, a 433 yard track.

10/21/18 #1 Kunox and I headed out this morning to track an 8 pointer that had been shot with a 308 last night. It was an 80 yard shot from a stand, but lots of small saplings were between the hunter and deer. The hunter and his friend had tracked through a swampy area for approximately 100 yards and then lost blood and backed out. Kunox advanced the track a few hundred yards, then totally lost interest. I had Luna in the truck, so we headed out and swapped dogs. Luna took us a little further, and at one point began pursuing a live deer that we never saw. I don’t think that was our buck. The small amount of blood and no bed, despite not being pushed, makes me believe this deer is still alive. #2 I was called to track a buck that a 14 year had shot with a 12 gauge slug at 7:30 this morning. We arrived at 10:30. I got Kunox out of the truck and noticed him favoring the leg he got caught in barb wire a few days ago, so much to Luna’s delight, back into the truck he went. Luna locked onto the track and took us past the blood that had been marked. We had only gone 50 yards further when Luna went hot. We saw a couple small drops of blood of blood and we continued on about another 100 yards. I stopped and told the father I’d like to give the deer some more time. This worked out good since the son was at church preparing for Confirmation and this would allow him to join us later. We made plans to resume at 3:15. The hunters grandfather lives around the corner from where we were tracking, and had happened across the blood trail in his backyard a short while after we left. This was a couple hundred yards from where we had stopped. Luna picked up the track in his yard, and we entered a prickly ash thicket. We were maybe 75. yards in when we saw the buck take off, running strong. We found light blood, but no bed. I stopped the track and decided we’d give it one more try later, and we agreed to meet at 7:00. The third time, Luna picked up the track where we had left off, and again in a short distance she went hot and we saw a little blood. We went further this time, and moved quickly trying to catch up to the deer. We never even caught a glimpse of it, and I called the track. I believe they’ll see him again.

We’ve been on a couple tracks this morning(stories will be posted a little later) and unfortunately Kunox’s paw still has issues.

10/20/18 #2 I was called this morning by a friend who shot an 8 pointer with his muzzleloader yesterday evening. He was unable to locate any blood, but felt confident he hit it. He works midnights, so of course he worried all night about it. This morning after work and before going home, he went back to take another look. He found a couple spots of blood in the bean field, but couldn’t find any blood outside of the field to show him the correct trail to follow. He called me at 9:30, but I couldn’t get there until 2:00. Luna smelled the blood and the numerous tracks in this heavily browsed field, and picked a direction and we left the field. We went through a overgrown fallow field for 400 yards and entered the woods. As soon as we entered the woods she seemed unsure, so I picked her up and carried her back for a restart. We were walking along the edge of the bean field, very close to the hit site when Luna’s head whipped up and her nose went into overdrive. I stopped the hunter and told him we need to see what she’s smelling. I set her down and 75 yards later we were standing over a nice 8 pointer.

10/20/18 I received a call last night from a muzzleloader hunter that had shot a buck and needed some help. The buck had dropped at the shot and jumped up 5 minutes later and ran off. The hunter took a second shot, and a large piece of bone was found. I suspected leg hit when I heard bone fragment. I explained that I was not able to track until tomorrow, due to two dogs being out of commission. Luna was worn out from 3 long tracks and Kunox had a paw injury from barb wire. We met at daybreak and Luna took us by the ribbons that had marked blood last night. The hunter and his brother in law had tracked for 200 yards and had done very little grid searching at the point of loss. We had heavy rain overnight, but a little blood was still visible. 100 yards past the point of loss and the hunter spotted him 40 yards or so ahead, and he was dead. We were unable to find where he had been hit with the first shot, but the hunter will let me know when he skins him out. Sure acted like it must have been high.

10/19/18 #1 I went on a track this morning for a buck that was shot with a muzzleloader last night. They had followed blood for 200 yards, 30 minutes after the shot. After losing blood, 3 people grid searched. We arrived this morning and Luna quickly took us to the hunters point of loss, then spent a good 15-20 minutes unraveling the grid searched area. She eventually chose a trail in the swamp grass, and we saw a tiny spot of blood as we went along. That was the last blood we saw during this .79 mile track. We had only gone about 75 yards when we went by a trail to our right, but Luna put on the brakes and went back to it. As we started up it, the buck jumped up and took off. It happened so quickly the hunter could not get a shot off. We were only 10’ from the buck in the tall swamp grass, but were unable to see where he had been hit. We continued after it, and as I was ducking under some limbs, the hunter saw him take off up ahead of us. He said it was definitely moving slower, so off we went again. The next time I saw him, he was bedded down 40 yards ahead of us. I held Luna there and the hunter got into position and made a killing shot. This 9 pointer had been hit in 1 lung and the liver. He was still alive 15 hours later! The hunter’s 3 year old son had been with his Dad in the blind last night, and came outside to thank me for finding their deer. Very cute kid! #2 I took Kunox on the second track this morning. The hunter had shot a buck this morning with his muzzleloader, and found two drops of bright red blood 100 yards from the hit site. Kunox took a while to pick a direction, but eventually took us into a thick area where he alerted on a live deer. We followed for a long way, never seeing blood, and determined the track was too small to be our deer. We went back and did a restart. Kunox this time started to take me toward a standing corn field, when all of a sudden he started yelping in pain. I ran up to him and saw he got tangled in a broken down barb wire fence. One of the barbs we stuck in the side of his paw. Poor guy! I rinsed it out good and took him back to the truck. Luna took the same line Kunox had the first time, but we never found any sign of the buck. #3 I took Luna on our third track of the day. The hunter shot a buck this morning and he and his nephew had tracked it for 300 yards and found a bed with a very small amount of blood in it. The bed was cold and the blood was dry, so they had not pushed it, it left on its own. Luna nailed this track as we followed light, but fairly steady blood up and down a steep hill, through clear cuts, hard woods.....etc, for a long way. I forgot to start my tracking app, but we went at least a mile and a half and never saw the buck.

10/17/18 #3 Luna and I tracked a muzzleloader shot buck this evening, 3 hours after the shot. The blood trail started about 75 yards from the hit site, but was never heavy. A couple hundred yards further, Luna went hot but I was unsure if she was on our buck or not until I saw a little blood. I decided at that point to see if it was possible to catch up and dispatch the buck. After it ran across a field and entered another section of woods after .52 miles, I told the hunter to mark the spot and come back in the morning. Luna rocked this track. I was amazed at the speed she went across the windswept field and nailed the correct trail on the other side, confirmed by a small drop of blood. My wife has an appt in Burlington tomorrow, so I’m not going to be able to finish this one. I hope it isn’t found by coyotes tonight.

10/17/18 #1 Kunox and I tracked a buck this morning that was shot with a crossbow last night. The hunter and his father searched until 11:30 last night, grid searching after last blood. I observed brown hair and dark blood on the bolt, leading me to think it was liver shot. We started at the hit site and worked 550 yards to the hunters point of loss, then went another 100 yards into a swampy area. Kunox took a left and took me into a briar filled clearcut, where he went hot on a live deer that we never saw. I let him continue for awhile, but didn’t believe we were tracking a live deer so I went back to last blood. We started walking the trails into the swamp, looking for sign, with no luck. I began working circles around last blood, and a little over 100 yards in the clearcut, Kunox showed me some. We continued on and found the 4 pointer 50 yards further on. Unfortunately, coyotes had worked his rear end over pretty good. #2 We went on a second track this morning on a big doe that had been shot last night with a muzzleloader. She had been tracked and pushed out of a bed last night, and then tracked some more until the blood disappeared. Luna got the call on this one and made record time on the 369 yard track. This gutshot button buck had also been found by coyotes.

They saw bubbles, so naturally assumed they were tracking a dead deer. I really don’t know how many miles I track a year...never added them up. Let’s just say I’m in good shape at the end :-)

Not to argue, but 1 lung hit deer can go miles, and they sometimes survive the hit...especially if it’s high on the lung.

10/16/18 A husband and wife hunting team went out at 12:30 today to check game cameras. They decided to take the muzzleloader “because you never know”. As they approached some wild apple trees, they saw a deer under one of them. The husband put the scope on it and saw that it was a 7 or 8 point buck. He then handed the muzzleloader to his wife and she shot it, quartering away, at 30 yards. The buck went down for about 5 seconds, then got up and stumbled off. They waited 30 minutes, then started tracking him. They found good blood, some of it with bubbles. The blood stopped after 75 yards, so they grid searched a small area with negative results. They called me at this point. Luna and I arrived an hour later, and she quickly took us beyond last blood. 400 yards later as we approached a creek, I was hopeful we would find him there, but it wasn’t to be. Luna without hesitation splashed across the creek and continued on, showing us the occasional drop or smear of blood. 0.61 miles into the track, we had a property line issue. We were unable to reach the landowner by phone, so the husband walked out to go to the owner’s house. The whole time he was gone, Luna expressed her unhappiness with the delay by taking turns barking at me, then at the wife.....nonstop. We received a call from the husband saying we had a green light. so under the barbed wire we went. We went into a field that had been worked up. The fact it had been worked up, plus the strong wind blowing across it gave Luna a hard time for a few minutes. She ended up picking a trail and we went into some tall swamp grass where we found a bed with a little blood in it. We continued on and Luna took us to a stone wall next to a road. She spent several minutes here, then decided the deer had gone over the wall and crossed the road. We followed her into the woods on the other side of the road for a long way, not seeing any blood. I eventually decided to take her back for a restart. She again insisted on crossing the road, but took a different trail this time. Once again after not seeing any sign, I decided to do a third and final restart. Luna crossed the road again and took the trail she had taken the first time. I let her go a lot further this time, and she eventually lost interest. We called the track at 1.91 miles. A high 1 lung hit? Maybe.......

10/15/18 I was called by a hunter last night who shot a buck and said it hunched up when hit. He found 1 drop of blood 30 yards from the hit site. He and a friend grid searched but were unable to locate any further sign. Kunox and I met the hunter 30 minutes before daybreak and headed in as the sun came up. We started at the hit site, but Kunox went in a different direction than where the blood drop was marked. Looking at the trails, there are a lot of deer in this area and I’m sure he was picking up on one of them. I took him to the blood (which was no longer visible) and worked every trail through the area. Twice he took us to a nearby shallow pond, but after carefully working the area, we found no evidence of our buck. Eventually, this 3 hour track turned into a grid search. The hunter and I were a couple hundred yards apart when Kunox started his high pitched bark. I never saw the deer he was barking at, but a minute later my phone rang and the hunter told me a racked buck had run by in heavy cover. I headed over to him and a few minutes later he found what he thought was a drop of blood. He had touched it, so it was no longer on the root where he had seen it, but was on his finger and thumb. I pulled out my spray bottle of hydrogen peroxide and it bubbled, indicating it was indeed blood. This was 830 yards from the hit site. We followed the running tracks for a while and determined the deer was moving strong, and called the track after a total of 2.4 miles. Of course I have know way of knowing unless he gets shot or shows up on camera, but I suspect a low non fatal grazing shot since he had hunched, but was still alive 15 hours later.

10/14/18 Today we tracked 3 live deer and put 1 of them on the tailgate. #1 I was called this morning by a hunter that had shot a buck last night. The buck was walking straight at him at 60 yards, and it was thought he had been hit in the chest. No sign of a hit was found last night, but this morning a little white hair and a few drops of blood were located. I was called when the direction of travel couldn’t be determined. Kunox did not hesitate and quickly showed us which trail to take. We began seeing decent, bright red blood as we went into a thicket, and Kunox took us to a 5’ tall fence and wanted to get on the other side. I had the hunter and his friend stay there with Kunox while I took a quick look to see if it had been possible for the deer to go around it, but I didn’t see an opening. I went back and climbed the fence, then lifted up the bottom of it so Kunox could get through. We hadn’t gone 30 yards when I saw fresh blood and Kunox started barking, alerting me to the fact the deer was alive. I called the hunter up and told him to stick close, and off we went. We went about 100 yards and went around the fence, and at this point I could see ribbon where we had marked blood and realized we had circled back close to where we started. We were on a trail and just entering a thicket when I saw the 8 pointer, 15 yards in front of us. I pulled Kunox back and told the hunter to take a shot. His muzzleloader finished him there. It turns out the chest had not been hit. The leg front leg had been clipped but was still usable, but the back leg had been shattered. It’s amazing to me that the buck had been able to jump that fence. The hunter admitted to me later that he had serious doubts when I told him we needed to go over the fence. This track was 400 yards long. #2 A bowhunter called around noon and told me he had shot a doe this morning. He believed his shot had been high. He waited 2.5 hours before taking up the track with 2 friends, and they had tracked light blood for 300 yards, then lost the trail. At this point they backed out and called me. Kunox took up the track and made short work of the 300 yards. He continued past their point of loss, showing us occasional blood. We left the woods and started working some thickets under power lines, and here Kunox started barking. We found fresh blood and followed Kunox as he took us through extremely thick areas, but we never caught up to her. This track was 0.93 miles long. #3 Luna and I headed out for track number three this afternoon. A shot had been taken at a 6 pointer, and it was thought the shot was forward and low. Small amounts of blood were followed into a dry swamp, then the trail had been lost. We started at the hit site and slowly worked through this nasty, bur filled swamp. Some areas were too thick for Luna to get through and I had to carry her. We spent a couple hours walking through the swamp, thick, brier filled clear cuts, and back into the swamp. We had been going hundreds of yards between seeing blood, when Luna started barking. I called the hunter up and told him to put a primer on his muzzleloader and stay close. We picked up the pace and eventually saw a doe and a spike take off. It would be unusual for Luna to switch deer, especially after being locked on for so long, but was a possibility I had to consider. We continued on and she led us in the direction the deer had been. I decided to take her back to last blood and do a restart. We headed back, and part way there came across fresh blood. Luna got on it, but didn’t start barking so I knew we weren’t close. We ended up tracking over a mile, but never even caught a glimpse of the buck.

10/13/18 #3 I was called by a hunters’ son this evening, telling me his Dad had shot a buck, it fell over, thrashed around, got up and went into the woods. They found a few drops of blood in the field, then looked briefly in the woods and backed out after not finding any more. I told him this sounded like a high back hit with a low chance of a recovery, but I guess we wont know for sure unless we try. I should have listened to my inner voice....this one was a bust. Luna started at the blood in the field and picked a trail lead into the woods. Within 25 yards she started barking, indicating a live deer. We followed, but never saw any indication it was our buck. I did a restart and she picked the same trail heading into the woods, but took me in a different direction. Again, nothing after hundreds of yards. I decided to give it one more try. This time when I took her back to the field she looked at me like “really? It’s still alive!” To the same trail we go, with the same negative results. I called it after we got a little more free exercise.