Luna and Kunox’s Tracking Journal 2019

[outdoorstom]

10/19/19

 

#1 & #2

 

Two hunters sharing an elevated blind shot two bucks simultaneously this morning. Both bucks ran off together, intermingling the blood trails. One appeared to be gut shot, the other looked like lung. I arrived 2 hours after the shooting stopped, and put Kunox to work. I wanted to track the lung shot first and give the gut shot 12 hours. We ended up accidentally jumping the gut shot buck, marked the location and backed out. Kunox figured out where the other buck went and we recovered it at 844 yards. He had been hit in one lung and the liver. We’re going back on the second buck this evening....to be continued.

 

#3

 

Luna and I tracked a buck shot this morning, and as is often the case with muzzleloader and rifle, the hunter didn’t know where he hit him. He had tracked sporadic light blood for 150 yards, done a small grid search and called me. Luna advanced the track significantly, but after 2.1 miles of walking, we never jumped it or saw it.

 

#4

 

Another track with Luna. The hunter shot a buck this morning and had very light blood. He lost the track after approximately 200 yards in a very thick swampy area. Luna took us to last blood, then started working the grid searched area. She picked a trail and we went a couple hundred yards, but then it became obvious she wasn’t on it so we went back for a restart. As we were heading back, the hunter realized he had lost his phone. I started calling him as we backtracked and were able to find it. Luna picked a different trail this time and we found the nice 8 pointer 50 yards away. It was so thick you couldn’t see him from 5 feet away.

 

Conclusion of #2 track: Kunox and I went back to pick up the track where we left off. I figured the buck probably went 100 yards or so after being bumped. Wrong answer....we went 285 yards with no blood to the buck laying dead in a swamp. His organs were still warm when field dressed. He had traveled a total of 660 yards.

 

 

[Zag]

Awesome job today and every day!!

[doebuck1234]

Now thats how to make it happen,u guys are awesome!!

[outdoorstom]

10/20/19

#1

Kunox and I tracked a buck this morning that was shot yesterday afternoon. The hunter had a misfire,  but the buck hung around long enough for him to put a new primer in and fire. After 15 minutes he started tracking and went 160 yards before losing the trail. Kunox took us to last blood and kept on going for a few hundred yards. We reached a property line and I took him back for a restart. This time he hung a hard left at last blood and we started seeing occasional drops. 100 yards later and we had a property line issue that took 20 minutes to resolve. Kunox did not take the delay very well, to say the least. After we got permission to continue, he took us 115 yards to the dead deer. He was going crazy because I’m sure he could smell the buck from where we stopped. The hunter had hit liver and did some minor damage to a lung as well.

 

#2

 

Our second track today was for a group of hunters from Vermont that lease 1000 acres. Great guys....very friendly. The hunter shot a buck last night and they had tracked for 600 yards and bumped the buck once before backing out. We started at the hit site and Kunox took us up the trail 200 yards before veering off to the right. Last night the buck had continued straight for another 400 yards, but Kunox was insisting on going this way, so I humored him and was rewarded for it. The buck had circled all the way back to where we were and was 50 yards off the original trail. The 8 pointer had been gut shot.

[NFA-ADK]

Amazing!  Keep up the great work!

[outdoorstom]

10/21/19

 

Kunox and I tracked a buck this afternoon that was shot early this morning. Last week a hunter watched a coyote go into the woods behind  his deer right after the shot. The same thing happened today. The hunter saw the coyote in the field after the shot and quickly tried to reload the muzzleloader, but it went into the woods before he could get a shot off. The hunter was worried about the coyote so he went into the woods shortly after and he ended up bumping the deer. He backed out immediately. We arrived 6 hours after the shot and began the track.This buck had been hit forward and the lungs had been nicked. Kunox took us 739 yards to the dead buck. I’m sure the coyote pushed him further than he wanted to go.The coyote had worked his rear end over pretty good.

[UpStateRedNeck]

Crazy weekend, awesome work!

[land 1]

nice job

[crappyice]

Well done! Have you ever been contacted, Tom, by a member of this forum for a track?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Lawdwaz]

Amazing the distances these deer travel and are found.  Congratulations Tom, you & the dogs are doing a fine job and wonderful service to help out.

By the way, do you take donations from hunters and if so, how are they made?

[nyslowhand]

Photo of Kunox is priceless and worthy of a caption, just can't decide what it should read.

Back off, this is mine!

Did I do good daddy?

[outdoorstom]

5 hours ago, crappyice said:

Well done! Have you ever been contacted, Tom, by a member of this forum for a track?

 

not yet!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[outdoorstom]

5 hours ago, Lawdwaz said:

Amazing the distances these deer travel and are found.  Congratulations Tom, you & the dogs are doing a fine job and wonderful service to help out.

By the way, do you take donations from hunters and if so, how are they made?

No, I only take some gas money from people I track for. Thanks for asking!

[DanielT]

Wow...what a team....amazing job.
I have to say your patience is amazing Tom....and your dogs are on it this year...
Thank you for your services and reporting back....so we can all learn too.
Keep up the great work!!
(Curious if you keep track of good track percentages...
Last year versus this year...etc)

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

[ApexerER]

Love this thread! Thanks for all the work you do....

[moog5050]

You guys are one great team!  Well done.  Love reading about the recoveries that surely would not have been made if not for you and the dogs!

[stubborn1VT]

It is hard to express what it feels like to hit a deer and not be able to find it.  You and your dogs give hunters a very good chance at finding the deer under challenging conditions.  Or to figure out that the deer is still running and not mortally wounded.  Thanks for all you do.  It is great to see the hero pics and to know that folks are doing all they can do to make a recovery.  

Feel good thread of the season! (Every season.)

[Culvercreek hunt club]

This is the first thread I open every day. Thanks for what you do Tom.  I wish you were closer to us so I could just see them work one time. 

[outdoorstom]

10/25/19

 

I was contacted by a hunter last night who told me he believed he had gutshot a buck. He had tracked for 75 yards and pushed it out of it’s bed. He wisely backed out and called me at that point. Kunox and I arrived at first light, 13.5 hours after the shot. Kunox quickly took us to the bed, then continued on. We had an occasional drop of blood here and there for the first 300 yards, then nothing for the last 370 yards. We had a property line issue toward the end of the track and the hunter had to walk out and go to the owners house. Kunox was not happy and it was obvious as we waited that he was winding it. After permission was granted, Kunox took us the final 117 yards to the buck. The buck was still warm.

[outdoorstom]

10/25/19

 

Swing and a miss

 

I was called by a hunter who shot at a buck this evening but couldn’t find any blood. He wasn’t sure of the direction the deer ran due to the muzzleloader’s smoke. Kunox and I headed out there, and upon arriving the hunter informed me the deer had run by a game camera a few seconds after the shot. The side he had aimed at was facing the camera as it ran away and there is no evidence of a hit. We worked the area for a while anyway, and never found any sign the deer was hit.

[outdoorstom]

10/26/19

 

#1

 

I woke up this morning to a text that was sent late last night. It was from a hunter that shot a 12 pointer in the front shoulder with his muzzleloader. He tracked it until bumping it out of a bed after 150 yards, then backed out. As he was leaving, he found more blood but resisted the urge to follow it.  We discovered today that the deer had, unknown to the hunter, ran the same way the hunter left the woods and he had been pushing it. Kunox and I arrived at sunrise, met the hunter, and drove back onto the State land he was hunting. The area had been logged within the last year, and the buck had been shot in a clearcut. The hunter has hunted this buck exclusively the last two seasons, so you can imagine he was a little stressed over the turn of events. Kunox got locked on and we got to the hunters point of loss pretty quickly. The bloodtrail was adequate to follow without too much difficulty for a while, then stopped except for an occasional drop every now and then. Kunox went hot a few hundred yards after last blood and the hunter caught a glimpse of a body and a tail. He thought the deer looked smaller than his buck, but we followed until we could confirm that yes, the track was too small. We went back to last blood and Kunox took us in a different direction this time. We went 200 yards with no blood, then we started to see fresh blood and knew we had the buck on its feet. Rifle season started today, so I had told the hunter to bring his. When we started seeing fresh blood I told him to stay close in case he gets a shot, and I also shortened Kunox’s lead to a couple feet. We continued and Kunox eventually took us to a trail that had blood right at the waters edge of the Deer River. Kunox quickly jumped in and acted like he wanted to swim across, but after 20’ (he was on a 30’ leash) he turned around and came out of the river onto the next trail over, shook off, and proceeded away from the river. When we had gotten to the river, I told the hunter to walk the bank downstream to see if he could spot the buck either in the water or near the bank, so the hunter was at least 50 yards from me when I spotted the buck bedded down in some thick stuff.  I hollered to him to come back toward us and see if he could get a shot. As he came back, the buck jumped up and crashed through the brush out of sight, and it was obvious he was hurting. From this point on the buck opened up good and the bloodtrail was extremely easy to see. Kunox was super excited as we hustled after the buck, and I was thankful I wasn’t being pulled by a bloodhound. We jumped him 2 more times before the hunter was able to shoot him. The track was 2.1 miles long, and the initial shot was in the left front leg.

 

#2

 

The second track today was the opposite of the first. The hunter couldn’t find blood, so he called us. Kunox’s investigation showed us a couple drops of blood 75 yards from the hit site, and the dead doe 20 yards away.

[Fletch]

Wow you guys are shining this season! Well done that beautiful 12 would have never been recovered without help.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Moho81]

Well done! Your on a roll this year


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mlammerhirt]

Awesome work......what feeling that must have been for the Hunter to wrap his hands around that 12!

Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk

[outdoorstom]

32 minutes ago, mlammerhirt said:

Awesome work......what feeling that must have been for the Hunter to wrap his hands around that 12!

Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk
 

Two grown men hugging deep in the woods :-)