I got a call this morning from a local hunter who I have tracked for in the past. He stated that he has gut shot a doe around 7 AM. He had trailed the deer for about 75 yards an hour after the shot, but lost all blood. He searched with another hunter for about 30-45 minutes before he decided to call me. I don't get a lot of local calls, so I was pretty excited about the track. Also, gut shot deer are some of our highest recoveries. I was hopeful that he hadn't pushed the deer too far. I was working today, so told him that I could meet him in the afternoon once I had completed my hospital duties. He had to work the evening, so he arranged me to meet up with one of his hunting buddies.
His hunting partner was a young man who was color blind, and unable to see blood. He also didn't have any real idea where the deer had been shot or where the blood had been. He did know where the treestand was that the hunter was in, and about where the deer had been standing...not a great start. I brought both of my younger dogs along for the track. The conditions were 75 degrees and extremely dry.
I started the track with my youngest dog, Layla. I was hoping once again for a straight forward track for her first recovery. We walked a half mile into the hunting site, then located the stand. After a short look around for blood, I noticed that Layla was stopped on a spot licking the leaves. Sure enough...blood. She took the track about 75 yards without any struggles. The track then went past a small water hole, and she took the opportunity to get a long drink. There was no blood past this point, so it was difficult to know if the deer crossed the water hole or continued along the trail. I restarted her a few times, but she never seemed to take a solid line. She kept trailing "hot," and I noticed that there was turkey droppings, feathers, and scratching everywhere I looked. After letting her run the trail a bit we jumped up roughly 30 turkeys who seemed reluctant to leave. We were able to get within 10 yards of the birds several times, before they would run or fly a short distance. No matter how many times I tried to restart her, the turkeys proved too much of a distraction for me to trust her. Once I realized that this was not going to be a productive training track, I opted to take her back to the truck and grab Echo. I opted to start Echo at the beginning of the track as well. As we walked back into the area, I could see him winding the turkeys who were still all around us. I had to give him the "Leave it!" command a few times to get him to realize that turkey tracking was not going to be tolerated. Once I put him on the blood, he became interested, but was still sniffing the air that was no doubt filled with the scent of all those damnable birds. Once I got him to put his nose to the ground, though and start the track he became a new dog. He was flawless all the way to the point of the water hole. When he arrived at the water hole, he payed it no attention, but rather kept tracking down the line. Layla has tracked this direction as well prior to getting hung up in the turkeys. He continued on right through all the fresh turkey scratching and actually was picking up speed as he went. I really thought that he was following the birds as well, but trusted him enough to follow along for a while. After a couple of hundred yards, there was still not the slightest sign of blood. I had no other good options, so I continued to follow along. We reached a fence, and he crossed under it. Just on the other side was a deep raving with a small stream running in it. He crossed back to the near side of the fence, and began searching along the fence line. I could tell that he had lost the line, and was just calling him back when the young man with me said, "What is that?" Looking across the ravine I could make out the brown fur of a deer laying in the tall grass. Rather than running over to it, I opted to let Echo finish his track. He worked back to the crossing at the fence, and this time I followed him across the fence which encouraged him to cross the ravine. In just a few moments he had the deer located. Our first recovery of the season! The total trail was only about 400 yards, but it is clear that this deer would have gone to waste had we not recovered it with the dogs.
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