Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Tracking with a dog

I joined a new club this year and hunted it for the first time last week. We have 5 days of muzzleloader before rifle season opener. Another member shot a big doe at 80 yds. It was a clear shot on a powerline and he said it felt good, but couldn't see anything after the shot. We found 1 drop of blood where he shot, and then 3 more drops into the wood line. It was extremely thick, so we backed out an hour or so after dark. Went back the next morning, didn't find any more blood, did a grid search and nothing.

The shooter was confident on the shot, so he called a guy who put us in touch with a tracker. Guy shows up with what looks like a cur dog. Turned out she was a Texas Lacy (or Texas blue Lucy). At this point the deer had been shot 17 hrs ago. It was cold, in the 20's all night, and still in the low 30's.

The handler led his dog to the first blood leaving the powerline and let her go. She went to where we got stumped on the last drop of blood. She stayed in that area for quite some time, as if she was stumped too. Then she pointed and dove into the briars. There was no doubt she was on it. About 100 yards in we saw one more spot of blood. After a bit the handler said she has stopped, and would be at the deer. 250 yards in, we had a recovery.

The shot placement was almost perfect, behind the shoulder. The heart and both lungs were hit good, with a .50cal pass thru. It was hard to believe how little blood we had, with two big holes in the bread basket. It was so thick we would have never found that deer.

The handler didn't charge a dime to load up his dog, drive 30 minutes one way and bust thru briars for a couple hours. He does accept tips and the only requirement is a mandatory Mc Double dinner for Lucy the wonder dog!

Glad a recovery was made. A member of a club I'm in had help from someone with dogs to recover a deer last year. I wasn't involved in it but he was very thankful and spoke highly of the guy who helped him.

Sometimes I'm amazed at how deer handle a shot. Sometimes amazed at the amount of blood and sometimes amazed at the lack of blood.

Cool looking hounds. I wouldn't mind having a tracking dog. About the only way a guy could enjoy hunting with a dog around these parts anymore. No quail, very few rabbits and coon hunting access is hard to come by.

Glad a recovery was made too.

Ranch manager had a tracking dog the last three years. Then he moved 3 hours away. We take about 20 per year bow hunting and around 60 gun. Would say "Buddy" was instrumental in finding 1 or 2 bow shot deer and 1 or 2 gun shot each year, that we would not have found without him As with all working dogs, he was amazing to watch. If he lost the trail, he would start with small circles and move on to bigger ones, til he found it again.

A very real benefit of having him, was not having to call in others to help you search. Would usually find the deer but it could take 1 to 2 hours to organize the search and then finally find the deer. With Buddy, he would show up within 15 mins of the call and have you on the deer in a few more. After a long days hunt, that saved time and effort was worth a lot. Still see him from time to time and he is coming for our "big hunt" first week of December. Just know he will save us a bunch of time and maybe find that one big one that was going to be lost. And when not trailing deer, he is just a great little fellow to be around. Miss him every time I go hunting.

Good deal, man. I've never seen one tracking in person, but I've watched a bunch on YouTube.

This guy and his dog, Callie, are fun to watch.

The Callie Chronicles

It was a new experience for our group. We thought it was over when she appeared stumped. Then it was like flipping a switch when she pointed. I previously thought for whatever reason that a dog trailed blood. I was very wrong. I learned a severely (or mortally) wounded deer will lay down a unique scent (pheromones) thru interdigital glands in each hoof. These canals are visible when the hair is parted on the hoof. If the deer isn't severely wounded, it will stop 'dumping' the pheromones and the track will end. It was fun, educational and exciting. Cool stuff indeed.

There’s a group ( or several groups) in MS that offer trailing.

MS Blood Trail Network.

On Facebook.

Contact them, they’ll put you in touch with the closest guy.

It’s free, but least you could do is offer gas money for their time.

ESP if you got ol’ sad daddy down.

Had a Blue Lacy for couple of years, she makes tracking wounded critters look easy, when she finds them she barks till we get there. great dog to keep likes everyone, but knows when it's time to go to work. Rio7

Ingwedog tracked and recovered over 60 head of game for us over the years.You can see it doesn't have to be a hound....

Ingwe, Beautiful Dog, lost my great dog Smoke Last year, for 15 years she made me look like i knew what i was doing, don't know how many lost critters and birds she found when others had given up, can't explain how much i miss her. we have been lucky to have such Dogs in our lives. Rio7

I had the opportunity to witness a tracking dog do its thing last Saturday. I was hunting with a buddy of mine. I heard him shoot. I got a text from him saying he just shot a big doe. about 10 minutes later he texted me back, no blood. He said the shot looked and felt good. The Doe was almost broadside at 100yds. He said she mule kicked and took off. He was shooting a 30 06 150gr core-lokt. We are lucky to have a good tracking dog very close by. He could not find any blood within 30 yds of the shot. He told me he was gonna back out and call the dog. It was now dark. The dog owner put him on the ground and after a couple of minutes you could tell he was on the trail. The dog owner said he picked up the pheromones. after about 50yds we starting seeing some blood drops. Needless to say the dog went right to the deer. It was about 100yds from where it was shot. Pretty cool watching the dog work. It's nice to have a tracking dog available 15-20 minutes away.

I shot a small 6pt. buck a couple years ago with my .30-06 @ 30yds., the buck swapped ends and took off as if he hadn't been shot. The guide had a wire haired daschund that he'd trained to blood trail deer, the little fella didn't have any trouble at all locating the buck. He'd taken off down a hollow immediately behind the location where I'd shot him. This was the second deer that dog located for me.

Have owned Labrador retrievers for nearly 50 years now. Twice have used them as tracking dogs, once on a bow-killed whitetail, and the other on a buck shot with a slug. In both instances the Labs (my first and most recent one) led me directly to the deer within a few minutes--both after the deer had been left out overnight.

Hunted deer and boar with an outfit in South Carolina, and if I remember right that fella had a little wiener dog to compliment his boar running dogs. I asked why, and he said the little dog was the deer tracker and he was damn good at it! On the first day of the deer hunt, a buddy of mine ended up hitting a buck a little too far back with the shot, and it didn’t bleed much. The deer tracker dog caught up with the buck pretty quickly and led us right to him for a finishing shot. Amazing little tracker.

Doc_Holidude

My friend and fellow member of the hunting lease we are on has a Brittany that tracks deer. She has found 6 deer over the last 3 years that would have not been found it not for her. She also is a good quail hunting dog.

Still a hound to me as are my Yorkies and cross bred weiner.

I shot a deer 🦌 that ran into cut over with so much under brush that you couldn't see and barely walk in. My 10 month old German Shepherd took me strait to him.

My niece gut shot a 2.5 year old buck and her and my Sister in law looked for blood but only found some at the place where the hit was. I was hunting a different spot so it was a couple hours before I got home. We had an old beagle that just ran loose around here and in her day would run a rabbit. I carried that beagle to the spot where she shot it and it took off on it. We followed her for around 300 yards and she started wagging her tail fast like she was getting ready to jump a rabbit but I looked and the deer was laying under a cedar tree dead as a door nail. We would of never found that deer without a dog. Sadly that beagle died that winter from old age and I need another!!

Ah no! Smoke was a beauty. Godspeed boy.

This girl had an insanely good nose on her. I never put her on anything that she didn't find. From ducks in neck high marsh grass, to bullfrogs in the marsh, to doves in the field and deer in dense brush. She was a hunter.