Coopers 2021 Deer Recovery Thread

RJ1

Ten Pointer
Hey mate I understand the process it comes from 40+ years of bear hunting, I hope the little hound finds everyone he gets turned out on I also hope that on one of those tracks little man doesn't get slapped by one. I was just pointing out that there are dangers inherent to hunting and tracking bear not found while doing the same to deer and having hunted bear in Maine many times you have Maine thick woods and then you have N.C. thick woods and even beyond that you have Eastern N.C. thick woods. It's like this when a young bear hunter talks to me about buying a high dollar bear hound I tell them if you can't afford to ride thru a Wal-mart parking lot on a Saturday afternoon roll down your window and throw out 5 or 6 thousand dollars you shouldn't buy it. or to be real blunt as an old bear hunter told me years ago " If you can't afford to have the hound killed the first time you turn it out on a bear you can't afford to own it and you need to find a new sandbox to play in", it may never happen but there is always a chance it might now that's just my opinion and everybody else has one too.
 
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nccatfisher

nccatfisher

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
RJ1 said:
Hey mate I understand the process it comes from 40+ years of bear hunting, I hope the little hound finds everyone he gets turned out on I also hope that on one of those tracks little man doesn't get slapped by one. I was just pointing out that there are dangers inherent to hunting and tracking bear not found while doing the same to deer and having hunted bear in Maine many times you have Maine thick woods and then you have N.C. thick woods and even beyond that you have Eastern N.C. thick woods. It's like this when a young bear hunter talks to me about buying a high dollar bear hound I tell them if you can't afford to ride thru a Wal-mart parking lot on a Saturday afternoon roll down your window and throw out 5 or 6 thousand dollars you shouldn't buy it. or to be real blunt as an old bear hunter told me years ago " If you can't afford to have the hound killed the first time you turn it out on a bear you can't afford to own it and you need to find a new sandbox to play in", it may never happen but there is always a chance it might now that's just my opinion and everybody else has one too.
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Exactly, and that 5 or 5 thousand dollars is multiplied by as many dogs you happen to turn out every time you open the door on the box. Many folks just don't understand that.
 

shotgunner

Ten Pointer
I heard of bear dogs going for over $10,000 20 years ago. I can't imagine what a real jump dog would go for these days!
 
bowhuntingrook

bowhuntingrook

Old Mossy Horns
RJ1 said:
Hey mate I understand the process it comes from 40+ years of bear hunting, I hope the little hound finds everyone he gets turned out on I also hope that on one of those tracks little man doesn't get slapped by one. I was just pointing out that there are dangers inherent to hunting and tracking bear not found while doing the same to deer and having hunted bear in Maine many times you have Maine thick woods and then you have N.C. thick woods and even beyond that you have Eastern N.C. thick woods. It's like this when a young bear hunter talks to me about buying a high dollar bear hound I tell them if you can't afford to ride thru a Wal-mart parking lot on a Saturday afternoon roll down your window and throw out 5 or 6 thousand dollars you shouldn't buy it. or to be real blunt as an old bear hunter told me years ago " If you can't afford to have the hound killed the first time you turn it out on a bear you can't afford to own it and you need to find a new sandbox to play in", it may never happen but there is always a chance it might now that's just my opinion and everybody else has one too.
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I appreciate someone with your experience taking the time to share your knowledge and views. I only get maybe 1 or 2 bear calls a year, I will probably go about it more cautiously in the future, I do know Cooper is nearly irreplaceable at this point, so I had him close thinking if anything I'd be just as at risk, and if I got worried enough I'd call it quits. I was fortunate enough to track this bear far enough that we got the answers I needed as a handler (the confirmation of puke/corn), then we were basically done.
 
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bowhuntingrook

bowhuntingrook

Old Mossy Horns
I like her speed and desire to take the correct line vs the easiest path. You can see she gets in the air scent of the trail at one point, head up and takes a trail quickly to the right of the actual line, but on her own decides she should get back left, to the correct but more difficult path. These are the qualities that will prevent mistakes in the future when I'm on the leash, being methodical not wreckless. My other male was let out accidentally by my wife and ran this in 5 seconds and I can gaurantee you he air scented the easy blood on trail and took that easy trail/line to the right at mach 3. She smelled his track and knew this but STILL came back left and did like she's supposed to, good stuff.

 
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bowhuntingrook

bowhuntingrook

Old Mossy Horns
Guy called me last night said deer was quartering to him at 15 yards, he was 20ft up a tree with his crossbow. He found the bolt and it had little blood but smelled like gut. He watched the deer run and crash, then run and crash again. Initially I was told he hit high and I thought maybe some damage to the spinal cord was causing this. After an hour of watching the deer laying down the hunter unfortunately spooked the deer. He then came back 3 hours later, tracked about 100 yards until he lost blood. I didn't see his call tell this morning and I met him at 9am, we started the track about 18 hours after the shot since he had shot the deer around 4pm the night prior. It had rained significantly last night but had stopped before I arrived. First blood was 40 yards after where the deer was shot, but I started Cooper at the scrape the deer was standing in and quickly we were through the hunters first blood spot. Cooper was in his own little world, making deliberate corrections and working at a pace that I would consider slow for a fatal hit but consistent with a track that had been rained on heavily. We worked through the hardwoods and eventually into a creek bottom where you would expect the buck to be, and he was. Yotes had eaten half the deer already. We were 200 yards past last blood. Only 1 out of 10 deer I track after letting them lay overnight are eaten up this bad, so you have to decide whether you want to risk pushing the deer off the property in the first couple hours, or let it die close with the risk of yotes. IMG_20211208_100217.jpgPXL_20211208_144013240.MP.jpg
 
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bowhuntingrook

bowhuntingrook

Old Mossy Horns
surveyor said:
Good, cause there's a big chunk taken off that guys thorax I want to know about...
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I was actually curious to see the hide on this deer because in the trail cam picture it had a long wound at a steep angle down it's side, looked like from a previous hunter but yotes demolished that.
 
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bowhuntingrook

bowhuntingrook

Old Mossy Horns
On the way home I got a text picture of a dead head from a track me and Cooper did October 20th. I called him immediately because I couldn't recall the track. It started to come back to me as we spoke and unfortunately we did not find his deer that night, and there is a good chance it was dead when we searched. I told them that night that it was a fatal hit and Cooper tracked 75 yards in the direction it was eventually found, then Cooper went right and was 100% he wanted to swim a river. I restarted the dog 2 x and ended up at this river. We were not allowed on the other side that night. The carcass was found today 50 yards past that initial 75 yard track we did, but not across the river. I cannot explain his right turn toward the river, but I gave him 2 restarts. We tracked 10 hours after a gut hit, they can live longer, especially intestinal. It could have crossed the river, and jumped back further down. Can't win them all I guess.

I talked about this track in post #108, how I felt bad about leaving that deer, I think that deer walked/swam that river then got out further down is why Cooper lost it there.
IMG_20211208_135222.jpg
 
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bowhuntingrook

bowhuntingrook

Old Mossy Horns
bowhuntingrook said:
Deer had drug itself tell just out of view, blood tracked 80 yards. I was hoping the shot permanently damaged the spinal cord and the hunter just needed some help in the thicket but no. At 150 yards we found blood where deer crossed creek and went up bank on other side, no drag marks, just buck prints, tracked another 90 after that and it's safe to it was a high shot only temporarily shocking the spinal cord. Non-fatal.
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This deer back on camera, I've got 5+ others who's deer are back on camera but this one actually shows the wound.FB_IMG_1639017769194.jpg
 
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bowhuntingrook

bowhuntingrook

Old Mossy Horns
Got a call yesterday morning about what the hunter believed was a gut shot buck, pictures confirmed it was. Hunter had only found blood for 20 yards then he walked in multiple directions with a friend trying to find more with no success. We wanted to track it today due to rain and my availability, we wanted to track while light out too, it's dark at 5 or so so we started tracking at the 8 hour mark. Leaving it overnight would have put it at 24 hours . I started Cooper, he does a 10 yard circle and off we go, 40 yards past last blood we eventually reach a dirt road, when I look to my left there's a couple and a child with a dog on the road. We have already obtained permission but the gentleman seems a little upset we are on this property tracking the deer, he says he knows we shot one cause he's been tracking it. I let Cooper cross the road and work that area, Cooper realizes it didn't cross the road and we go left on the road toward the quad, barking dog and family and we track right past them. We take a left 50 yards past them into the woods, I assist Cooper down and up the other side of a dry but deep creek. We zig and zag through pines and briars, it thick and dark and good bedding area, Cooper finds the deer 150 yards after crossing that creek and 250 yards past last blood. I'm glad the neighbors family member couldn't find the buck, it was clear to me he wanted part of it for himself. He drove his quad all over and was contaminating the trail with his family and dog as we were tracking. But it didn't phase Cooper. 10 yard rifle shot from a treestand, Cooper is biting the exit hole. Hunter rushed the shot.IMG_20211211_134338960.jpg
 
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pistolshooter77

Spike
I'm fascinated with this thread. I had another tracker look for a deer that I shot about 5 years ago. His dog was also a dachshund, though a short-haired one. At the moment, I do not have the time to properly devote to a dog like this. I would very much like to take up tracking in the future. Not that you are doing it for the money, but what do you charge to come out to track for someone?
 

Johnnie

Ten Pointer
pistolshooter77 said:
I'm fascinated with this thread. I had another tracker look for a deer that I shot about 5 years ago. His dog was also a dachshund, though a short-haired one. At the moment, I do not have the time to properly devote to a dog like this. I would very much like to take up tracking in the future. Not that you are doing it for the money, but what do you charge to come out to track for someone?
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That's an awfully cold trail, I'm betting he didn't find it.
 
bowhuntingrook

bowhuntingrook

Old Mossy Horns
I got a call last night, buck had been shot with a rifle, the hunter and friends attempted to track but bumped the deer just 50 yards into the woodline. They backed out, came back a couple hours later, tracked 100 yards or so past that bed and couldn't find anymore blood so they backed out again. They stated it was shot with a 270 at 225 yards and was broadside. They noted bubbles in the blood. Immediately I'm thinking a shoulder/ 1 lung hit, I think very high likelihood we jump the deer alive in the morning since it was uncomfortable enough to bed that soon. I know it's not double lung or heart since it lived until they tracked. So I tell them we will likely jump a 1 lung tomorrow and deer will live for awhile unless pack of coyotes get it.

So we start 16 hours later at the bed the deer jumped from since the field it was shot in had a ton of burrs. 100 yards later Cooper is figuring out the contamination at last blood, the hunter advises they walked through the area ahead of us all the way to a pond. Cooper circles and eventually finds the deers trail and heads straight through the contamination 80 yards to a food plot, the hunter finds blood behind me as we enter the field. 100 yards straight across the plot the hunter confirms blood behind us as we enter the woodline. The blood is still dry, so we keep moving up a hill and Cooper works around a junkpile 80 yards into the woods to the right now past the pond on the right another 80 yards and into another foodplot. 100 yards across this foodplot and we are in the woods again weaving through it but taking a similar trajectory. We haven't had blood in 250 yards but Cooper is tracking very confidently. 150 yards into those woods we drop down edge of a dry creek, and going up the other side we see white deer hair. Cooper finds a freshly eaten front shoulder/leg soon after. Now we know the deer is dead. In the past, I've had a similar situation with the dead deer being 75 yards from where the yotes carried it's leg. I hung the leg in a tree and went back to the white hair at the creek crossing and gave Cooper the track command, at that time Cooper realized we had unfinished business and he ignored the deer leg. It was clear there was a ton of scent in the area and Cooper eventually found the beds the deer was likely bumped from by the yotes. The 4 beds were 50 yards after that creek, the deer must have been uncomfortable and pulling hair out around the wound. I give Cooper a break, water him and we work from the beds down the hill into a bamboo bedding area. Cooper works deep into the bamboo but I suspect he is too far from where I believe the deer would be from his shoulder/leg. We loop back and head into the scent cone. We found the deer just on the edge of the bamboo, it was clear the deer put up a good fight against the coyotes. You can see where the deer backed up against a tree to fight and protect his backside, the dirt was tore up. It's bittersweet. The yotes we're quick last night, but without them, I believe we would have bumped this deer alive this morning and likely would not have been able to recover it at all with a leashed dog. In that case, it would have been caught by yotes later but too long after the shot for a tracking dog. Ended up being 600+ yards from initial hit.



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