Go Luna go!

[jmg343]

Great stories. I'd love to have a dog with Luna's capabilities.  Any links to, or instructions of your own, on training a dog to be a good tracker?  Ive got a walker treeing coonhound who is dumber than a box of rocks, but has a great nose.  Ive never given him a chance to go out an track a deer, maybe the next time I shoot one I will see if he can find it.

[outdoorstom]

Great stories. I'd love to have a dog with Luna's capabilities. Any links to, or instructions of your own, on training a dog to be a good tracker? Ive got a walker treeing coonhound who is dumber than a box of rocks, but has a great nose. Ive never given him a chance to go out an track a deer, maybe the next time I shoot one I will see if he can find it.

h

This is the best training guide you can get. John has been breeding tracking dogs and tracking for 40 years. He's a world renowned expert in this field.

http://www.born-to-track.com/book/order-info.htm

[LET EM GROW]

I must say, for being a volunteer service, you guys bust your butts off. I hired finger lakes deer search sunday 11/8/15 and they were great guys driving all over surrounding counties to help us in need. They recovered my buck in a very short time. 

I hope for the service you guys perform, people are kind enough to give donations. I know i sure gave a decent donation for the effort put in and the gas consumed. Either Way I am very thankful! 

 

I really enjoy reading these stories now, after witnessing this first hand yesterday. I did as they asked us, to keep behind them and to not worry where or what the dog does.. stating the dog (which was a golden retriever) will not follow blood trails... He did a darn good job

[outdoorstom]

11/10/2015

I received a call last night from a hunter that thought he had gutshot a deer. He went and found blood, then backed out. We went In this morning and Luna went right to work. This was a very short track, maybe 100 yards. About 60 or 70 yards in we found an area with lots of white hair and immediately thought coyotes got to it overnight. 30 yards beyond that point we found the buck. They had just started to work its shoulder, but I believe we chased them off without even realizing it.

[outdoorstom]

11/10/2015 track #2

While on our track this morning I received a call from a hunter looking for assistance with a buck he shot a couple hours earlier. He wasn't sure where he hit it, but did find some white hair. Due to health reasons, the hunter could not accompany me, so his son in law came along. The SIL had already tracked a few hundred yards before losing blood. The buck had crossed over a beaver dam, so we started on the other side. Luna was all over it, right from the start. We left the hardwoods and into tall swale grass, where we were seeing occasional blood. About 75 yards down the swale grass trail we found the 4 pointer laying there, still alive. I quickly dispatched him.

[Fletch]

_{You and Luna are on a roll and keeping very busy!! Not only are you putting down some suffering deer and making some hunters happy. I bet these hunters you are helping are learning a lot on what happens after the shot. What to look for and the decisions to make.}

 

_{Well done you two!!}

[outdoorstom]

Thanks everyone.....we're having a blast doing it!

[outdoorstom]

11/12/2015

At 7:15 this morning I had a call from a woman looking for help in finding her husband's deer. He shot it this morning but lost the blood trail after a short distance. I was happy to hear he hadn't grid searched, and shortly thereafter Luna and I were on our way. The hunter took us to the hit site where we observed white hair, a small amount of blood, and a small piece of meat with fat attached. The area is very brushy, and extremely thick. Luna took off and didn't slow down until we recovered this very nice 8 pointer, only 75 yards away. This easy track was nice after the long unsuccessful one yesterday. The video shows Luna getting her reward ????

http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb49/outdoorstom/th_IMG_0088_zpsvdaqltke.mp4

[monkeyman2269]

Wow bet he was happy

[grampy]

Another nice find! Way to go!

[wmig2]

Great job! I'm sure he was thrilled to find that.

[stoneam2006]

Awsome....I don't know if been asked but what area of the state for you service

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

[outdoorstom]

Awsome....I don't know if been asked but what area of the state for you service

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

I live between Waddington and Ogdensburg and will drive an hour and a half each way. There has to be a pretty good possibility of recovery for me to drive that far though.

[stoneam2006]

O wow...great stories good luck for the rest of season

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[Marion]

That Luna is a savage! I love it! Awesome tracker and great buck you found! Keep it up!

You Can't Beat My Meat!

[jmg343]

I live between Waddington and Ogdensburg and will drive an hour and a half each way. There has to be a pretty good possibility of recovery for me to drive that far though.

I went to St. Lawrence University. Loved it up there. Only shot 3 deer up there over the course of my college career. 1 w the bow and two w the rifle. Outdoorsman's paradise up there.

[outdoorstom]

11/14/2015

We went on a tough track tonight. The hunter shot a monster buck at 7:30 this morning., it went 75 yards and laid down. He backed out and he and family members went back almost 4 hours later. He got out of his bed and went down a ridge. A piece of intestine was found in the bed, but no blood. Not one drop of blood was found on this track. We went down the ridge and Luna took us to the left where we followed a deer trail (they were everywhere), but after a distance with no sign, we went back to the bed area and restarted. To make a long story short, 2.5 hours later and we still hadn't picked up the track. The guys are going to walk through the area in the. daylight tomorrow. I told them if they find some blood/sign, call me and I'll come back. The scary thing is, a deep swamp 100's of acres in size borders the property and many deer have been lost in there. I'm disappointed we didn't do better on this one.

[The_Real_TCIII]

I went to St. Lawrence University. Loved it up there. Only shot 3 deer up there over the course of my college career. 1 w the bow and two w the rifle. Outdoorsman's paradise up there.

i go up and fish the St Refis every year, love the area

[outdoorstom]

Update on last night's u successful track:

The hunter and 10 other people went out this morning to search, and they found it in an area we didn't cover last night. The shot was way back and there was no exit hole. Not one drop of blood was found.

[outdoorstom]

Y

I got a call this morning from a hunter that knocked down a nice 8 point. When he walked over to it, much to his surprise it jumped up and ran away. After a little more discussion about the shot, I told him it sounded like he had hit near the spine. I wasn't very optimistic we'd find it, but said we'd try because Luna hadn't tracked in 3 days and I wanted to get her out.

We went to the hit site where I saw brown hair and bright red blood. Tracking conditions were poor....dry and windy. Luna had some trouble following the track across the field, but the hunter had marked the couple drops of blood he found in the woods. Luna missed the turn into the woods, so I took her to it. We had a hard time getting past the point of loss, but finally found some blood a hundred yards or so into the woods. We were finding an occasional drop, then started finding decent blood that was fresh. We never did find a bed, but we definitely pushed it. Luna advanced the track about 400 yards, but eventually lost it. After 5 or 6 restarts at last blood, she became more interested in tracking chipmunks and I called off the track. Hopefully he gets some pics or has a sighting of the buck.

[outdoorstom]

I got called by a hunter last night as he was still in the woods searching for his buck. Due to a commitment I had, we agreed he would back out and we'd start at first light. We started at the hit site where there was a piece of bone and bright red blood, which had no bubbles. I suspect a leg shot. We were able to occasionally find small drops of blood on this track, which ended 400 yards later when the deer crossed a highway and we were not able to get permission to enter the property. The blood had increased and was fresh toward the end of the track, there is no doubt we were pushing it. Luna did very well on this track. At one point the deer had had walked in circles and it took Luna a few minutes to figure it out, but she did.

I received a second call last night from a hunter that had shot an 8 pointer straight on in the chest from the ground at 20 yards. He was shot with a 30.30. The hunter and relatives had followed good blood, which had stopped after about a half mile. We met this morning and started at the hit site, and Luna with a few restarts took us to last blood. We had some trouble from that point on. We went a couple hundred yards without seeing blood, so we did a restart at last blood. We did this two more times. The third time Luna took me down a different runway. As we were working this one, 2 of the guys had gone to move the utv. They hollered to see where we were, then a few minutes later they hollered they had found the buck. It was about 50 yards further from where I had stopped Luna. I have so much to learn! I'm a little slow, but it'll sink in eventually.???? Field dressing revealed a one lung hit. Luna was given a small piece of liver, and allowed to chew on a leg as her reward.

[outdoorstom]

11/23/2015

Luna and I tracked a big mature buck this morning that was shot last night on public land. This area is bow hunting only. The arrow had both brown and white hair on it, plus blood and fecal matter. The hunters stand is about 30' high, and the shot was at 10 yards. It was hard to get a read on the color of the blood due to the fecal matter. The hunter followed blood for 20 yards, then backed out and called me. He also told me he was denied access to the bordering private property, where he believes the buck went. I told him we'd try it, to make sure that is in fact where it went. Starting at the hit site, Luna was on blood for 50 yards or so, then took a trail to the right. I didn't see any blood for a couple hundred yards, but remembering my recent mistake of taking her off track and restarting prematurely, we continued. After about another hundred yards with no sign, I picked her up and went back to last blood. Off we went in a different direction this time for a few hundred yards. Back we went for another try. This time I made a conscious effort to really slow Luna down because it appeared she was working too fast. We stayed on blood this time, which lasted around 150 yards and led right onto the private property. I had the hunter call the landowner again to tell him we've confirmed that's where it went and tell him if he gave us permission we'd be happy to wait for him to join us. He said he went out there a little while ago and followed the blood but it stopped after 100 feet into the woods, so again, no you can't enter. Very frustrating, but we had no choice but to call it quits.

[outdoorstom]

11/24/2015

I had a call from a DEC Officer this afternoon asking if I would be willing to track a buck that someone had poached. The guy had shot it at 11:30 in the morning from his vehicle on a fairly busy road, with houses very close. The landowner heard the shot and caught the guy.

Luna and I arrived and accompanied the landowner and Dec Officer to the hit site where I observed white hair and no blood. Luna got on blood a short distance away and made it to the point of loss. We advanced the track on pretty good blood approximately another 75 yards, then it got tricky. The deer had walked in circles in a thicket, but Luna figured it out. She then tracked to another thicket and started pulling hard and using her high pitched bark that is reserved for live deer. She took me for quite a run through the nastiest, thickest brush imaginable. I was on my hands and knees to get through some of it. We never did see the deer she was on, but I can't imagine a healthy deer would have stuck around with all the commotion we had made up to that point. After checking around a couple nearby ponds, we called it off.

[bubba]

HeyTom. When do you get time to hunt? Great job

[outdoorstom]

This is definitely cutting into my hunting time, but it's a blast to do. I have no good bucks on my cameras anyway, that makes it easier.