Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Blood trailing dogs.

This subject came up in the Hunting Rifle section (talking about useing a .243 for deer.....which naturally led to a discussion of trailing woulded deer). Hadn't even thought about these stories in years and thought some here might like it......tell your stories too!!


Used to do a LOT of dog tracking of deer......back in the days when running deer with dogs was legal in Texas. Most used shotguns and buckshot for this type of drive hunting and no matter what you might have heard, buckshot may....or may not....leave a blood trail even though it is deadly at close range.

The best dog we ever trained was a crossbreed beagle / basset hound named "One-Eyed John" (lost an eye as a puppy in a dogpen dispute.) John wss totally useless as a deer dog. He'd go with the other dogs.....IF he felt like it.....but generally returned to the driver in a few minutes and stayed underfoot. However, as a very young pup it was discovered he had a unique ability.

John would NOT chase a deer at all if he was by himself. I believe one could have walked up and licked him and he'd never make a sound. All that changed when blood was spilled though. I men ANY amount of blood.....even if YOU couldn't find it. I honestly believe that dog would have taken the trail of a deer that had nicked himself on a barb-wire fense.

When ever a deer was hit......or even if a shot was fired and declared a clean miss......we'd take John to the scene. If he got out of the truck and sniffed around......then returned to you......there was no deer to be found (ever). However, if he sniffed and then let out his distinctive bellow, and then walked into the woods (John seldom ever ran anywhere except at feeding time).......you better get your gun and follow cause somebody had hit the deer.

I don't know how many "missed" deer we recovered with that dog. Many an inexperienced hunter would throw out a "prayer" shot as a deer crossed a narrow logging road and the not be able to find any sign of a hit. When others arrived, they'd search and come up empty too......an obvious miss. Then John would get there and bellow and we'd get ready to make meat.

He wasn't infallable and didn't recover 100% of the deer he trailed (some were just hit too lightly to be hurt much), but literally dozens of deer were recovered that otherwise would have been lost. Some were found dead within 75-100 yards and some were trailed for quite a ways before a finishing shot could be taken. It didn't matter to John.....he just wouldn't quit a trail once he smelled blood no matter how lightly wounded the deer might be. You'd have to physically pull him off the trail to make him stop.

When the trailing went more than a half-mile or so, we'd try to get standers ahead of John to cut off the escape. Wasn't too tough as the deer was never pushed very hard (remember.....John NEVER ran, just walked along and bellowed every few feet). Many lightly wounded deer were recoverd but the most amazing example was a "chase" that covered more than a mile. One of the standeres got ahead of the action and caught the buck sneaking along slowly.

This deer had been "wounded" by a 12 year old stander who got a bit excited. Even though the buck was moving toward him and was still in heavy thicket, he emptied his shotgun at the fleeing buck at some 90 yards. When we skinned the deer the only wound anyone could find (except the killing shot taken later) was a single OO buckshot pellet that had pierced the deer's ear. There was a small amount of blood on the ear and we guessed that a drop had fallen to the ground......that was enough for John. He was still on the trail more than a mile later when he finally caught up to the now dead deer.

Blood dogs (the really good ones) are simply amazing.
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I hate change, it's never for the better.... Grumpy Old Men The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know

When I bow hunted, I had one named RIP that was worth his weight in gold.

He was a pit/catahoula mix that came from a long line of hog hunting dogs. He found bucks that had crossed knee deep water. He never failed to find 'em.

JM.

In high school I had the pleasure to bowhunt with a group of older men that had a club on some family land of ours. Bowhunting only on this club.

One of the hunters had a young blood hound what was quite amazing.

A guy gut shot a buck one morning and we went out to track it a couple hours after the shot. The dog dragged his master through the woods and briars for 300 or 400 yard and we found the arrow covered in guts, no blood, 500 yards latter one drop of blood, 500 yard latter another drop, long story short the dog led us for about a mile and a half through the woods to the deer. There is no way that we would have found that deer with out the dog. Literally two or three drops of blood on the whole trail.

Looking back I am pretty sure that we pushed the deer some but it was still pretty cool to watch that dog work.

I think that the next dog that I get might be one that I can train to track deer. Some of the places I hunt are so thick that it can be very difficult to track in. I have made a shot or two on deer that I was quite confident was mortal and not found the deer even after days of looking.

Many years ago I was all dressed to go out for a Saturday night on the town with a very lovely young lady when a friend knocked on my door, said he'd wounded a deer and wanted me to bring a dog to find it. Hoping the task wouldn't take too long, I got my beagle and went with him, mostly because he was a guest on land I couldn't hunt, and I wanted to get the lay of the place. This beagle didn't play by the rules when hunting with other dogs, he'd let them run the trail, while he "winded" and cut on them, causing more than one friend to ask me how that short-legged beagle could outrun all the Walkers in the pack? Also was a bit of a clown. I figured he was the best bet I had to make quick work of finding a well-shot deer. My friend was shooting a brand new .25/06, and said he knocked the buck down, but it got up and ran. From what he told me and the sign I found, I think he leg shot it. Put the little dog on the trail, had to keep him on the leash because of all the fresh deer trails crossing the one we were on. After a long run through briars and brush, the beagle went "on point" and lunged into a thicket. Thinking he had the deer, I began pulling him back out, only to see a lively skunk in his mouth! He got dragged at the end of the leash, not really touching the ground, for a mile or so - after I kicked him to free the stink-kitty! Never found the wounded deer, went home and cleaned up and picked up my date. No more deer trailing on Saturday nights after that without an appointment.

I"ve always wished for a good blood dog... but the lab holds his own fairly well. Doesn't like to trail pigs though for some reason... he found his first pig for us and never would follow one again...

He walked away from a trail 2 years ago... and that deer had a fair amount of blood but was hit way to high grazing... and the deer was seen later just fine... like Cole knew it would be ok and not dead...

We never had one when we bowhunted a lot... I've even found deer bowhunting after dogs had given up... but they were not good dogs... actually got to where I loved the puzzle of the trail more than the hunt itself... and you learned a few things... like 4-5 hours is NOT long enough on a gut shot... gut shots are 8 hours wait pure and simple and if you never ever go look for the deer, they generally bed down within 100 yards and rarely move after that unless disturbed but can take 6-8 hours to die... Gut shots ended up being some of the most nerve racking deals, but easiest to find... need no blood trail, just grid search 100 yards, and as long as you can wait the amount of time needed, you'll usually be fine.

After watching them at work I would not be without one hunting the southern swamps. They, ( Boykins, labs, beagles, and deer dog crosses) were amazing for finding wounded game in the swamp, through standing water, across other deer trails, etc. One lab would range ahead and pin the deer down. The deer would try to get up and the lab would grab it by the nose and pull it back down. You would walk up and see the lab facing the deer looking at each other, the deer could not get away.
I have a German shorthair that I have been working with for sevral years with bloodtrailing. I have taken to letting her even follow well shot deer for the experience of following the trail. She can follow deer I would have no chance of finding. So far she is 7 for 8. The eighth one was a deer that a friend shot that made it to a posted property that the land owner would not let us retreive, not the dogs fault.

I always wanted a deer tracking dog, but here in Washington it's illegal to have a dog out in the woods with you when you're deer hunting. The way I interpret the laws here, I can't even take the family pet poodle puppy with me.

Those swamp trails are interesting... followed one once for about 6 hours before we caught up with the buck.. it was always there to follow across creeks and through brush etc.... but it would have been much quicker for a dog... you have to push em a ways when you make a bad shot to bleed em out...

They are old and retired now, but "Lady and Jill" (sisters, fiest and jack russel mix) have been my best blood trailing dogs to date. They do not bark on the track, they return to check with me and then allow me to follow up and they can be called off a trail even with a deer right in front of them. They've trailed through some of the worst conditions I have seen and come out on the winners.



The picture below was of a buck a friend shot. He shot it around 8am in the morning, I wasn't able to get off work until 5pm that afternoon. We started the trail on a mere two drops of blood found on a flat rock. The trail took us down into a swamp bottom, across a water filled ditch, up a steep hill, down open hardwoods, to the edge of a hayfield before we found it. It was a good 2 miles worth of trailing and turned every which way in the book.

Man, this post brings back some good memories.

I'll never forget my first blood trailing dog. Daddy took me to a place out in the sticks to buy me a beagle. When we arrived the man guided us to his kennel where we were greeted by a litter of playful pups and Dad told me to pick out the one I wanted. While I played with the pups I noticed another smaller pup peek out of the dog house, then disappear. I told dad there was another one in the dog house and the owner quickly spoke up and said you don't want that one, he's the runt and these are the best to choose from. Well, I just couldn't accept it, I had to go investigate. I peeked in the dog house and found a cute little bugger shyly hunkered down in the corner, so I reached in and drug the lil' guy out. I told Dad this is him, this is the one I want. The owner didn't want me to get him, but Dad said that's the one he wants, so he paid the man and off we went. I named him Spot and we turned out to be best buds. The funny thing was that ole Spot grew to be larger than both of his parents, heck, he was one of the tallest beagles I've ever seen. One day while we were up at the camp Papaw said we oughta take a deer hide, drag it around the pasture, and see if ole Spot would trail it. Man, he ate it up, nearly pulling the rope from our hands and following every inch of the trail from that hide. A while later one of the family wounded a deer, so we took Spot to the scene to see what he'd do. It didn't take long to realize that we had a jam up tracking dog. In the following years Spot accounted for many a wounded deer. It didn't matter if you shot a deer standing in a herd, Spot would trail the wounded deer every time. Even if there was no blood to be found, Spot could tell if they were hit. You always knew when you were getting close because ole Spot would let out a bellow when the trail was hot.

I'll never forget ole Spot.

Ya'll have a good one

loder