DC10
Well-Known Member
So, I shot my first deer/doe last year out of my saddle. I made a bad shot (gut shot) and waited to look for it until the following morning. It was an urban hunt and by the next morning, there wasn't one piece of meat left on it from the coyotes.
This year, on Oct 5 (my birthday), I shot another doe on an urban hunt. Arrow had good blood, but I couldn't find a blood trail. I walked in the direction the deer went looking for blood but to no avail. I was getting fairly down on myself. It felt like a really good shot.
After looking up blood tracking dogs in my area, I got in touch with a guy who had a young pup that had done phenomenal during her training but had not been on a live track yet. He didn't get off work until after 10pm and therefore couldn't make it out to me until shortly after midnight. He informed me that his tracking dog was young, inexperienced with live tracks, very scared/jumpy at night time, and it would therefore be a slow and tedious process. Boy was he right. It took us about 1 1/2 hrs to track the doe which had gone roughly 100-150 yds. We walked a lot more than that though.
I didn't have much confidence in the dog. She seemed to be walking around very aimlessly and didn't want to advance the line unless its owner made her move forward. She was VERY jumpy/skittish at night. After about 30-40 yds, Scott (the owner of the dog) spotted one speck of blood. The dog was moving super-slow and seemed to be aimless but she was obviously heading in the right direction!
At times, Scott would pull his dog off the trail she was pursuing because we thought she was getting off track. We would then find another drop or 2 of blood in the original direction the dog was tracking. We just needed to trust her.
We finally found my doe but unfortunately the coyotes found her first. I was able to salvage a good bit of the meat though (backstraps, tenderloins, and the far-side shoulder and hind-quarter).
From the time Scott got there with his dog, Georgia, the track was 6-7 hours old. Definitely wouldn't have found my doe without her! Just perplexed as to why there wasn't more blood considering I got a pass through and hit both lungs with a Rage Trypan, but I know strange things happen from time to time.
This was my first bow kill/saddle kill to recover.
One of the best parts was that one of my daughters got to come along with us and she had a blast. It was her first time tracking a deer and we got to do it with a blood dog.
So, that's the bright side from not recovering my deer initially. Got to make some awesome memories with my daughter tracking my doe with a blood dog through the early hours of the morning and made it back to our house around 2:30am. It was awesome.
This year, on Oct 5 (my birthday), I shot another doe on an urban hunt. Arrow had good blood, but I couldn't find a blood trail. I walked in the direction the deer went looking for blood but to no avail. I was getting fairly down on myself. It felt like a really good shot.
After looking up blood tracking dogs in my area, I got in touch with a guy who had a young pup that had done phenomenal during her training but had not been on a live track yet. He didn't get off work until after 10pm and therefore couldn't make it out to me until shortly after midnight. He informed me that his tracking dog was young, inexperienced with live tracks, very scared/jumpy at night time, and it would therefore be a slow and tedious process. Boy was he right. It took us about 1 1/2 hrs to track the doe which had gone roughly 100-150 yds. We walked a lot more than that though.
I didn't have much confidence in the dog. She seemed to be walking around very aimlessly and didn't want to advance the line unless its owner made her move forward. She was VERY jumpy/skittish at night. After about 30-40 yds, Scott (the owner of the dog) spotted one speck of blood. The dog was moving super-slow and seemed to be aimless but she was obviously heading in the right direction!
At times, Scott would pull his dog off the trail she was pursuing because we thought she was getting off track. We would then find another drop or 2 of blood in the original direction the dog was tracking. We just needed to trust her.
We finally found my doe but unfortunately the coyotes found her first. I was able to salvage a good bit of the meat though (backstraps, tenderloins, and the far-side shoulder and hind-quarter).
From the time Scott got there with his dog, Georgia, the track was 6-7 hours old. Definitely wouldn't have found my doe without her! Just perplexed as to why there wasn't more blood considering I got a pass through and hit both lungs with a Rage Trypan, but I know strange things happen from time to time.
This was my first bow kill/saddle kill to recover.
One of the best parts was that one of my daughters got to come along with us and she had a blast. It was her first time tracking a deer and we got to do it with a blood dog.
So, that's the bright side from not recovering my deer initially. Got to make some awesome memories with my daughter tracking my doe with a blood dog through the early hours of the morning and made it back to our house around 2:30am. It was awesome.
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