Go Luna go!

[outdoorstom]

11/28/2015

We went on a track this morning that the hunter reported he had white hair and good dark blood on. At the hit site I found white and brown hair and a decent amount of bright red blood. Luna quickly advanced the track past the hunters point of loss, and we found a bone fragment early on. The blood varied from a tiny drop here and there to larger areas where the deer stopped. I believe we were tracking a leg shot deer and weren't too far behind it. All the blood we were finding was very fresh, and several times Luna's excitement level drastically increased. A good half of this mile and a half track was through thick prickly ash. I was definitely slowing Luna down as I tried to fight through it. We ended up in a swamp, and it got to the point the water was too deep for Luna. I'd carry her and when we came to an intersection I'd set her down long enough to show me which trail to take. It eventually got too deep for us humans too. We walked around the deep part and checked every trail coming out, but never got back on it. I believe it stayed in the swamp. I consider this a successful track for Luna and felt bad that she didn't get her reward at the end. I did share some venison jerky with her on the drive home.

[NFA-ADK]

Go Luna GO!!!  You two are awesome!  Love the stories of your adventures!

[outdoorstom]

11/29/2015

I have to admit to being frustrated tonight. We went on a track this afternoon that I feel we should have recovered the deer, but didn't. At the hit site we saw 4 small saplings the round had gone through after hitting the deer. I didn't measure, but the holes were at least 4' off the ground. About 10 yards away was bright red blood. I didn't see it, but the hunter reported blood with bubbles and what appeared to be lung tissue. We were initially on good blood, but that dried up considerably after a couple hundred yards. We were still seeing an occasional drop when we got to the hunter point of loss. He had waited 3 hours before tracking, then did a good job of marking blood, and they had not grid searched. The point of loss was right at the start of a clearcut area under overhead power transmission lines. I remembered reading how the lines cause dead areas as far as scent goes, and I believe that is what happened. Luna turned off the trail we were on and ran parallel with the lines for a few hundred yards, but was never acting confident and I never saw any blood. We went back to last blood and she went across the clearcut this time and down a trail. Again, she never acted confident and I never saw any sign. We worked circles around the whole area for an hour and a half but never found any more blood. Darkness was setting in and the track was called off.

[outdoorstom]

11/30/2015

I went on a track today that was an hour and a half from home. There was a dusting of snow on the ground, which was a first for Luna and I. The hunter reported shooting a buck in the brisket and finding tremendous amounts of blood. He bumped it out of a bed about 100 yards from the hit site and backed out. He and a friend went back in this morning and followed blood 1/2 a mile, then found four beds within yards of each other. This was the point of loss and where their grid search began. We started at the hit site and Luna made short work of the 1/2 mile. We then spent about 40 minutes getting beyond that point. After 4 restarts, we eventually found blood a couple hundred yards away. We were going long distances with no blood, then would see a drop. After awhile, we started finding blood more frequently and it it was fresh. We had started pushing it and now we were finding it almost every step, but it was running. Three different times we found bone fragments, one of them being very large. We found bone marrow near that one. It was obvious it was a leg shot, not brisket. We ended up in a swamp with a pond stretching out in front of us for 150-200 yards. We could see where the deer had broken through the ice every step of the way in the waist deep water, and had made it to the other side. It was dusk at this point, so the hunter marked it on his gps and is going back in the morning. I told him if you don't find him in a bed near where he came out of the pond, chances are he is going to live. We were on this track for 3.9 miles from the hit site to the pond, as per gps.

[outdoorstom]

This morning it was my turn????

[grampy]

Great buck! Congratulations! And no tracking!

[NFA-ADK]

Very NICE!  Congrats, nice to see you actually get to do some hunting!  Nice buck!

[Poppy]

Congrats,

A great buck for sure.  You certainly earned that one after all of the tracking you and Luna did.  Again, I enjoy your stories and pictures.  You know, maybe with Luna's fan club, autographed pictures of her are warranted.  You certainly are a hunter's hunter.

[wmig2]

Great buck! you deserve one for all your efforts on helping others.

[outdoorstom]

Thanks for the kind words....much appreciated.

[BizCT]

Great stories'

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Fletch]

Nice deer!!

Did Luna get to chew on it?

[outdoorstom]

Nice deer!!

Did Luna get to chew on it?

You tell me????

[Fletch]

NICE!

Sent from my SHIELD Tablet using Tapatalk

[New York Hillbilly]

That little dog is deer crazy. Now we all know what makes "Luna- tick"! Haha

[outdoorstom]

We ended up going on 31 tracks and recovered 11 deer and 2 bear. A number of the unrecovered animals were due to non fatal shots, a few others I believe we should have found but didn't due to lack of experience. Our success rate should get better the more we do. The national average is 35%. in March we're attending Trackfest in Georgia which will be 3 days of training and testing.

[Fletch]

Well done and thanks for sharing your adventures! I enjoyed reading them!

[grampy]

You and Luna as a team were awesome this year! Being only the first year, you both showed abilities way above what was expected. Only going to get better from here, you should be very proud of what you've accomplished. Thank you and congratulations for a great tracking season!

[Buckmaster7600]

That's 13 more animals that were found because of you and Luna, that's a huge success in my mind!

[nyslowhand]

Nothing but the highest praise for you & Luna!!!!!!!! AND, to do this for strictly donations in today's world is unbelievably awesome!! The Trackfest sounds like it'll be a very cool experience.

 

Almost forgot...Congrats on your buck harvest!