More Deer Recovery/ blood tracking

More notes from Diane, from a deer call 11/14/2008

We are now 0 for 2

I don't think this guy hit the deer where he says either. (the first track the hunter could not have been more wrong)

We only went (in the dark and light rain) because it sounded like a sure thing and was just 7 1/2 hours post shot, though it had been raining then steady and was said to be a monster deer.
Hunter said he shot the deer in the shoulder (missed the first shot hit it with the second)
However the deer went STRAIGHT up over some nasty rocks/boulders with no trouble and no blood sign.

The point of impact had some grey hair and ONE drop of blood. There was a small bone chip and light blood about 50 yards in (bone chips from shoulder exit wounds are typically at the shot site itself) for about 25 yards and then nothing until they did big circles and found a couple splotches and then a bloody bed 100 yards+/- from hit site along with what they claimed was a teeny hunk of lung (but based on the evidence we saw I'd bet it was fat and/or bone marrow) and no blood to speak of after the bed

Annie tracked fabulously from point of impact, up over the boulder etc straight up to where the 6 hunters had milled about at last blood. The area was so rucked up that instead of waiting for Annie to puzzle it out I had them take me to the bed.

She tracked off the bed great but this deer was NOT acting lung hit nor chest hit at all. NO blood on the bushes at all very very little on the ground and this deer went amazing places and up amazing inclines. He then waded/swam through a large pool and on the other side there was some blood on a hemlock but then no blood at all. The deer went in a large circle down hill then looped back uphill towards the bed area then another larger loop. He wanted to be on that high point of land. And he also kept going back to this pool. (Annie would have swum it if I'd let her- the guys did a light sweep of it and saw no floating deer. He did hesitate in one place that at first I thought he laid down but then decided he just stood still and Annie said there may have been some blood in the dirt there. probably the darn animal was watching the search!

After 2 1/2 hours of tracking, 2 falls by me resulting in a smashed knee and no sign of the deer, more blood nor that he ever bedded up again.

My husband and I think the deer acts like an elbow or leg hit MAYBE a brisket, the hunter thinks a square shoulder hit and we strongly doubt that

The hunters are going out again and I pray they find it but ya know what? I doubt it.

I KNOW we can do this. We have tested Annie with very very dilute and sparse blood and a crap for sign trail and she aced it each time. She is tracking the deer step for step according to the hunters (over trail they've already done) and working her heart out and does indeed find NEW undiscovered blood

I guess It's ME that's the discouraged one. Discouraged that we can't perform miracles

So I feel a bit better now.

In talking with two LONG time deer tracking people I have come to realize that what I have been seeing is typical. We are a last resort. Hunters always call us after mucking up the woods or making a crap shot that they thought at the time was perfect or something unexpected happens between shot and impact...

The average recovery ratio is 30% using a dog in these cases and far far lower when not using one (ie when the hunter looks with just human help)

So while I still want to be a miracle worker I guess I have to take what I get and KNOW my dog is still VERY good at her job (and it's a job she LOVES!)

Wildlife recovery/bloodtracking plus a Shed Hunting entry

Here is my Wife's (Diane) notes about our first trip on a deer call



I thought some of you might find this interesting.

Annie (3 years old) and I just got our license to be a Wildlife Recovery Team (leashed blood tracking dog). This is following wounded deer, or moose for hunters.

Annie's mom, Bea, was my great tracking girl that we lost this past February to bone cancer.

This track proved to me that with a dog that has proper talent and motivation, old tracks are not quite as big of a deal to dogs as we humans like to think.

The below is from 11/9 and 11/10, 2008
___________________________________
We got home this evening from doing a long list of errands and found a desperate voicemail from a guy that shot a deer and could not find it.

This is Annie's first call since she/we became licensed, though she is still actually in training

The man had called both myself and another licensed tracker in a near by town. The other guy had come out but the dog tracked just til blood was lost and could not get any further despite several restarts.

I told the hunter that Annie is still in training and that I made no guarantees, BUT we were willing to come out if he wanted us to. He most surely did!

We got out to the site and started tracking (not at site of the shot but several yards down the trail at a bloody spot) at about 7:45. TWELVE hours after the deer had been shot. Annie tracked very well to the end of blood and then spent several minutes casting about. She then locked on a track followed it, lost it, found it, lost it. This repeated for awhile and then she found more blood!
At this point we were farther by quite a lot than the other dog team. She found a teensy bit more blood a bit farther on and then lost the track again. Found it again and followed it to a mud puddle where she dug up some more blood and then we lost the track entirely.

We circled about and eventually a ways farther on Annie locked on a track and dragged me about 300 yards to the edge of a field.

It was late, Annie was pooped and so we came home and will go back out tomorrow and restart the track again

The man was quite impressed with Annie as was my husband, Rob. I was happy with her performance but sad we did not get the deer. A first track AND in the pitch dark though she did very well and worked her darn heart out! Annie NEVER quit

Went out again this am at 6:30 (almost 24 hours post shot) and got to see the point of impact. The shot and subsequent events were not exactly how initially described and we could tell the deer was likely not mortally wounded (appeared to be an above the spine shot which stuns them but is not fatal)

We restarted the track from the beginning and Annie tracked very very well and exactly as last night, but got lots farther. We followed the deer to where it crossed a road with no sign of stopping to lay down. We quit after 2 hours and feel confident that the deer will live to see many more days

Annie was upset at not finding the deer so we stopped at the taxidermists and got a hide for her and we will lay her a track later so she can "find" her deer

She did VERY VERY well and was an excellent ambassador for the breed (Rottweiler) and the hunter was grateful for her efforts, patting and hugging her in thanks for trying!

Shed hunting and more

Shed Finds 11/12/ and 11/13

Found a single moose shed 11/12

11/13 Rob found the match to the antler he found yesterday. Just 30 yards from the first. Rob had actually walked right by it and today when he went back a bear had come along and dug it up from the leaves and chomped the crap out of it.....

Here's a picture of the set.

Rob says he hates bear! LOL

Then a sad find

Rob found a MASSIVE (and really gross/smelly) buck (estimated weight was over 220 lbs, 8" from eye corner to tip of nose, 19 3/8" inside green spread) dead in the woods being fed on by Coyotes.

The condition of the surrounding terrain suggest that he was killed while fighting another buck! This is an old buck, about 7 years old.

Rob has a set of sheds from this buck from last year (The ones his brother found "shed hunting by tractor" shown on the little girl's head) and this was ONE of the specific bucks Rob was hunting for this year

Rob is very saddened