The adventures of Elkie

Less is better.

The statement above applies to hunting a trophy buck. Screw that up and it is humble pie.

Less is better applies to a bad shot - bad hit on a deer with a bow. Give them time and mark the hit. I say track 50 - 75 yards to confirm blood volume and direction. At that point we know just about how bad it is.

To me a good hunter should generally know where the deer is headed immediately.

I bet all of the handlers of tracking dogs wish hunters understood "less is better."

cutman said:

But whoever makes a bad shot and immediately thinks they need to call in a tracker? I think the tracking calls y'all get are to be expected (ok, not the 4 day old one). Most hunters I know will search for hours before giving up...how will you know if you need a tracker if you don't get out there and try to find you own deer first?

You don't need to train hunters how to track deer....they need to be trained how to shoot better.

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Definitely better shooting helps, but bad stuff can happen during a shot. What happens after the shot is up to the Hunter largely and is within their control. It is well advised for a hunter to follow blood until it runs out. After it runs out doing a search of the immediate area for additional blood is a good idea. If that does not produce results then it is best to call in a tracker if one is available. If a tracker is not available then search with as many people as you can for as long as you can. However, don't expect much from a tracking dog if you reverse the last two steps.
In many states where trackers are utilized hunter's call early when the track tapers off knowing that a dog will significantly increase their odds. Here the main hindrance is expense. People are very reluctant to pay for the recovery service until they have tried everything else at which point hiring a tracker is wasted money.

Doctorbrady said:

Definitely better shooting helps, but bad stuff can happen during a shot. What happens after the shot is up to the Hunter largely and is within their control. It is well advised for a hunter to follow blood until it runs out. After it runs out doing a search of the immediate area for additional blood is a good idea. If that does not produce results then it is best to call in a tracker if one is available. If a tracker is not available then search with as many people as you can for as long as you can. However, don't expect much from a tracking dog if you reverse the last two steps.
In many states where trackers are utilized hunter's call early when the track tapers off knowing that a dog will significantly increase their odds. Here the main hindrance is expense. People are very reluctant to pay for the recovery service until they have tried everything else at which point hiring a tracker is wasted money.

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Yup, that 300+ bean and corn fed buck went to waste except for the cape and head.

Doctorbrady said:

Aggression on deer is pretty commonplace among Most of the European teckels I have seen. As long as that is the only place the dog shows aggression, and the dog is able to be safely placed at "sit" so that the deer can be handled I advise giving them a pass. Aggression in any other venue should not be tolerated.

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Luna definitely shows aggression towards the deer or bear she finds. Last year she one time showed aggression toward a hunter and I scolded her. She hasn't done it since.

Brush,

Has warm weather slowed down the tracking calls. It has been record setting warm here and turned the deer activity off at least in the day time. I have a weather map that shows a hot week ahead.

wbpdeer said:

Brush,

Has warm weather slowed down the tracking calls. It has been record setting warm here and turned the deer activity off at least in the day time. I have a weather map that shows a hot week ahead.

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Bucks were moving today!!!

The rut is on! This buck was shot by Elkie's Vet Tech, so Elkie has now recovered bucks for both her Vet Techs. The hunter and her family saw several bucks moving today!

This hunter knows Elkie, made a near perfect double lung shot, backed out and called for her little furry friend, making Elkie very happy. Since the deer was center punched, it went less than 100 yards. Most of Elkie's tracks result from hunters aiming for the heart, and are more challenging than today's track.

That's awesome. How many people close to you call for every deer they shoot?

Those easy tracks have to be a big confidence boost although I don't think Elkie needs one.

Nice SW MO buck too!

good job again to Team Brushpile!

Elkie's latest track was exhausting and exasperating. A hunter called saying he shot a big buck at first light, and thought he heard a solid hit. Initially he said he used a Rage, but then showed me a Swhacker, which makes a huge wound. The arrow passed through and was coated with liver blood, so the hunter waited two hours before searching for the buck. After two hours the hunter walked in the direction the buck ran, and it jumped from a bed 40 yards from where it was hit, so the hunter backed out.

The buck was shot on the edge of a conservation area, and the buck ran into the worst jungle I've tracked in to date. The field the deer ran into had not been maintained and had nearly every invasive plant in Missouri to list a few: Devil's Walking Stick thickets, Bi-color Lespedeza, Johnson Grass, Autumn Olive thickets, Multiflower Rose, and then there were natives with thorns to include Honey Locust, Orange, blackberry canes, blackberry vines, and then there were weeds to thick to penetrate very far without staying on a deer trail, and those weeds were loaded with burs and stick tights.. From the start I thought it was impossible to track in that mess!

The hunter showed me where the deer bedded for two hours and there was almost no blood!!! From the bed there was one drop of blood and one smear. It was full Sun, 80 degrees, with a hot wind out of the South and the ground was powder dry. From the start Elkie's leash hung up on everything, so she couldn't proceed and she fought the leash, quickly over heating, but not quitting. We fought and busted through 3/4 of a mile of that mess, flagging the trail as we went. Elkie was exhausted, I rested and watered her. At no point did we see blood, so I carried Elkie back and restarted her at the bed. Three more times Elkie ran that 3/4 mile track, hitting every flag! When darkness fell we continued with fashlights and a few hours after dark I called the track for Elkie's sake... she had tracked for 6 hours! In places I crawled on hands and knees, and Elkie had worn the skin raw under both eyes!

It bothered me that we didn't recover the buck, because a liver hit is fatal, so the next morning I was pondering the track when the hunter called saying that he found blood! Elkie and I were back on the track while there was still dew on the ground. The blood turned out to be Autumn Olive Berry bird poop, which looked identical to dried blood. However tracking conditions had improved with the morning dew, so I took Elkie to the hit sight and she immediately took the track, but this time Elkie was tired and moving slowly and methodically as she hit every flag, but then she took a 90 degree turn into a wooded thicket and at long last recovered the buck! Elkie is so tired that she spent the day sleeping and has no play left in her... she gave it all she had!

This was a big bodied buck with small antlers.

Did it turn out to be a liver hit , as you suspected?

boots said:

Did it turn out to be a liver hit , as you suspected?

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Yes, but there still was hardly any blood where the buck died. The buck died in 80 degree heat, so it smelled so bad that the hunter spent his tag but left the deer whole, so we don't know why there was no blood. We even back tracked from where it died and there was no visible blood. Very strange that there was no blood with a 2-3 inch hole in both sides of the deer! Something plugged both sides of the wound.

This was a big 200+ pound buck with an undersized rack... not the big buck the hunter was after.

I expected the rut to be busy and had several tracks that were not recoverable. Eklie and I were run ragged on wild goose chases where the deer were not recoverable!!! I have learned that when a hunter has a long story to tell that Elkie and I are being incorporated in a fantasy. I am very specific in asking if the shot hit the spine or above the spine, but I tracked two spine shots and a brisket shot! We have been in Northern Missouri, way out in Kansas, and round and round resulting in no recoveries this week! Elkie did recover the buck I shot in under 60 seconds, so I know Elkie works!

I also believe that we were used to track a deer that was never hit, and the hunter knew it. From the start the track was 40 yards through brush and branches that a 30-30 could not penetrate, and there was no blood, hair, arrow or any sign of a hit. Elkie will unravel the truth!

Yester day we went 0-3 in Kansas, but all three hunters were impressed with Elkie's work, and asked where they could get a dog like Elkie. A liver shot deer is a dead deer, but the liver shot buck didn't leave one drop of blood anywhere, to include where the hunter observed it bed for 20 minutes! Without blood to confirm Elkie was the right track, we followed Elkie down several trails and found a two day old dead buck that wasn't the buck the hunter shot! I got home from tracking at 2:30 AM and was in my stand for Missouri Gun Opener at 5:00; no luck. When I arrived home I had our first call for a gun shot deer. Elkie worked the track to where a trespasser finished off the buck and hauled it away.

Following that track we had a track where a hunter shot a buck forward in the chest with a 7MM, taking out one front leg. Ironically, the buck only left blood in to spots at the beginning of the track. Tracking conditions were dry and Elkie struggled to track the deer, which appeared to drop into a creek, according to the two spots of blood leading to the creek. Elkie was restarted 8-10 times, when she insisted that the track didn't go into the creek, but instead doubled back and went up a long steep slope, so steep that I was holding onto trees to pull myself up, as Elkie rooted through leaves like a hog, to find scent. Then suddenly there was a live 9 point buck! Missouri law doesn't permit weapons to be carried on tracks, so the hunter had to go back to his truck for his 7MM, as Elkie barked at the buck.

This buck had survived 10 hours after being shot through one shoulder, with the bullet exiting just behind the other shoulder!

Oh the joy of tracking... everyone was happy except Elkie, who claimed the deer for herself!

Brush,

Is it not amazing how tough an old whitetail deer actually is. I like Elkie's possessive attitude. To me that spells D R I V E which is what makes her a great tracking machine.

Congrats on the recovery. Thanks for sharing your stories.

Was Elkie different with the Vet Tech in the photo a few posts above? Did Elkie act like she knew her?

wbpdeer said:

Was Elkie different with the Vet Tech in the photo a few posts above? Did Elkie act like she knew her?

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No, Elkie growls at anyone who touches HER deer, but I don't think she would bite. I always tell hunters that the friendly little dog they see at the beginning of the track will be possessive once she finds HER deer!