Coopers 2024 Deer Recovery Thread

bowhuntingrook

bowhuntingrook

Old Mossy Horns
We are ready for 2024, details about what we do and why we do it are below. Video below is most of our 2023 recoveries. Goodluck to all hunters this season, we serve Granville, Franklin and surrounding counties 919-482-3002.
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This thread is about Cooper. Cooper is a wirehaired dachshund from proven European hunting lines. He is special not because he tracks wounded deer, but because he can go into the most difficult tracking situations and find deer. When you are tracking for the public, you have no control of anything that happens before your arrival, yet what happens before you arrive is what determines how difficult a track will be. Pushing the deer, contaminating the trail with multiple people, not marking it, circling, grid searching and calling us 16+ hours after the shot are all examples of that. At this point, we have not backed down from these challenges and have recovered deer against these odds on many occasions. Cooper is an exceptional tracker because of these challenges. Although I seek advice from the best trackers in the country, Cooper has shown me more about deer and wounded deer behavior than any person could. That being said, we request that you call us early for advice. If you know a tracking dog is a possibility, its best you go about your tracking in a more intelligent way, you can grid search later. Liver shot deer need 6+ hours, we've found them alive at 7 hours, gut shot deer need to lay 10+ hours, these are just examples.

I am just a guy with a great dog, we don't claim to be the best, there are great teams out there tracking at a high level, some we've never heard of. You may ask, why is my face in every picture, it's easier this way, since Cooper is very protective of his finds, it's not safe for him to be near the hunter and kill. He will not pose with his finds. Also, I like to pick up the rack so y'all can see it and later down the line, since the hunter isn't in photo, I will not need permission to post it. I like a good photo that gives the animal the respect it deserves. I also journalize each track, and the stories are just a way to remember them and something I learn from.

We do this because we are passionate about it, it's like hunting, I like the dog work, I like helping others and I respect these animals. The people I've tracked for can attest to our motivations. We don't do it for publicity, we market the service a lot not just so we can help more hunters each year, but so more hunters can learn and reach out to other trackers in their area.
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bowhuntingrook

bowhuntingrook

Old Mossy Horns
1st track of the year, the deer was shot in the gut last night and the hunter could not find any blood to track. The arrow confirmed gut and we started the track this morning, about 13 hours later. Deer ran about 100 yards and then took a left in the bedding on a power line and went a lil further before expiring. Took Cooper about 5 minutes to find the deer, something he's been thinking about for 8 months now. IMG_20240908_085221.jpg
 
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bowhuntingrook

bowhuntingrook

Old Mossy Horns
We got a message late Saturday night, this bow shot deer was shot Saturday evening and jumped at 300 yards from the hit site. The blood was dark and suggested liver. The hunters marked the jump location and backed out. We started the track the next morning, approximately 15 hours after the shot. We started just off of a field edge in the hardwoods, Cooper took to the track quickly and accurately, showing us from the start to 300 yards in about 5 minutes. At the jump spot the deer took a left turn and Cooper was continuing it confidently, Cooper knew 5 minutes prior that he was going to recover this buck. The terrain was now steep, and much easier for the deer then us to travel, gained elevation for the 1st 80 yards or so crossing multiple dry creek crossings, eventually back down and into some bedding area, it was here we found this large buck, 150 yards from the jump site. Some antler injuries during velvet make it a very unique buck as well, congrats to the hunter.
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bowhuntingrook

bowhuntingrook

Old Mossy Horns
Went on 4 tracks over the weekend
1st. Gut recovery
2nd. Liver recovery
3rd. 2 dogs tracked before us at 14 hours after the shot, the 2 dogs could not advance the track out of the food plot, we showed up 16 hours after the shot, Cooper found blood 200 yards into the woods in 15 minutes. We tracked another 200 and I'm confident it was non-fatal.
4th. After a drone attempt the night before, Cooper worked track multiple times on same line across cutover yesterday, 18 hours after the shot in the heat. Cooper showed me he believed it was also non-fatal, deer was confirmed on camera last night, feeding just fine.
 

whitty

Six Pointer
Let me ask you something since you see a lot of these. My son shot a deer the other day and the deer was almost perfectly broadsided to a slightly quartering to shot. Arrow had gut on it so we never looked until 3-4 hours later. Had watery gut looking blood and then 50-75 yards later deer was pouring blood and didn’t go much further to find it dead maybe 100 yards from shot. Shot went in just behind front shoulder and exited maybe 3 inches behind shoulder on opposite side. For the life of me I have killed and cleaned a ton of deer and I can’t figure out how he hit gut.
 

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bowhuntingrook

bowhuntingrook

Old Mossy Horns
whitty, The stomach "paunch" isn't very far from the lungs. Best indicator on your deer would be to take a look at the diaphragm that separates the lungs from the guts, to see if it had a hole in it or a blade cut through it. The blood on your arrow does look brownish red and gritty.
 
QBD2

QBD2

Old Mossy Horns
bowhuntingrook said:
whitty, The stomach "paunch" isn't very far from the lungs. Best indicator on your deer would be to take a look at the diaphragm that separates the lungs from the guts, to see if it had a hole in it or a blade cut through it. The blood on your arrow does look brownish red and gritty.
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This, the top of the lung is longer(farther back) than the bottom side. It’s very easy to hit gut on a quartered to shot. Quartered to, with a bow, is an expert level shot both in arrow placement and anatomy imo.
 
bowhuntingrook

bowhuntingrook

Old Mossy Horns
Homebrewale said:
You've mentioned Cooper knows when he is going to recover a deer and knows when it's a non-fatal shot. Can you explain what Cooper does to indicate that? I'm curious.
Click to expand...
To explain, I'd first clarify how he knows. Dogs track for many reasons, I prefer a high prey drive dog that loves deer, I can harness the drive and specify his job through reward, fortunately for me he enjoys the deer as reward. A young dog will be interested in all smells and animals, but 50+ tracks with multiple recoveries in the first couple years of a dogs life, they begin to learn what smells = reward. The smells that bring reward are smells associated with fatally hit deer, deer cannot live from liver or gut shots, recovery rates are really high for these because they are dead or close to it. Also, fatally hit deer excrete hormones through their bloodstream and through the interdigital glands in the hoof, hormones necessary to activate compensatory mechanisms like increasing your heart rate or constricting your blood vessels in the case of suffering from ventilation issues, oxygenation issues or sepsis infection.

So a dog goes on 50 tracks, he gets his reward on 90+% of deer that have liver blood, have gut smells and have interdigital gland scents and blood with hormones in it released from the bodies responses to the above. But every muscle only hit he goes on, that doesn't have these smells, he rarely jumps the deer and when he does he rarely gets to chew on it. He knows quickly after the hit site what he's in for, fortunately, even though he knows he's not getting reward, he's still willing to show me more blood and beds ahead of us, he just does it differently and this helps the hunter learn more about the deers condition and survivability of the hit. The dog learns that how much blood there is has no correlation to recovery chances, muscles shots bleed a lot. So Cooper doesn't care how much blood there is, he cares what types of smells are in it.

You go on enough tracks, you notice the difference in his enthusiasm, how locked in he is, his focus, his speed, his accuracy, how easily is he distracted, does he wait for me, does he forget I exist, does he stop and drink from the creek or plow through it, does he jump large fallen trees to stay on the line, is he climbing walls and refusing to look for easy paths, refusing to come off the line, if I slow him with lead, is he pulling, is he whining. I also say "is that it?" When I question a line, if he pulls and keeps going it's right, if he comes back to me, it's not.

How long a dog will work for his reward without encouragement, is built through experience. Same as if you trained a dog to sit with treats. The dog starts to sit and stay for a short time, 10 seconds, 1 minute, 3 minutes, but through multiple training sessions, he now sits for 5 minutes because he knows and is confident he will still get a reward. Cooper is at the point, that when he knows it's fatal, he will work with zero encouragement, through the hardest lines (24 hours old post grid search) for over an hour, sometimes only going 200 yards, he's at that point because he knows his reward is still possible, he's been successful each year at harder and harder tracks, older and older tracks. His limitations now are more from the physical capabilities of his nose, not from his discipline to his job or drive to do it. He doesn't have the capabilities of a bloodhounds nose, but he is reaching his best potential (within 24 hours depending on scent conditions). At this point, I'm just there to water him and not let him get over heated or hurt. I'm there to read him, restart him when necessary and educate hunters on what he's showing me.
 
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bowhuntingrook

bowhuntingrook

Old Mossy Horns
The hunter contacted us last night, he got complete pass through and described his arrow as being covered in blood. Unfortunately, the arrow was left in the woods to mark blood so I did not get a chance to look at it. After an hour of waiting the hunter began tracking and jumped the deer at 80 yards, about the same spot he had found 2 drops of blood. The hunter was 20 foot up a tree, and the deer was less then 20 yards, this made it a pretty high angle shot. Based on the hunters aimpoint, the crease behind the shoulder, and the deer being alive 1 hour after the shot we were leaning towards a 1 lung hit deer and the high probability of tracking a live deer in the morning. The steeper the angle, the harder it is to get both lungs, you have to get under the spine but be high enough you enter high in the nearside lung to exit low on the backside lung. We arrived the next morning, 15 hours after the shot. Cooper figured out direction and took to the line fairly quickly, we were passing the arrow within 2 minutes and eventually into the bed the deer jumped from. Cooper picked a line out of the bed and we were tracking again, it wasn't very long after that, Cooper began winding the deer. A deer that sits overnight with no consistent wind creates a large cloud of scent, thermals take that scent multiple directions over the course of 15 hours. Cooper knows this, that air scent is just that, air scent. With no consistent wind, Cooper circles back to the ground scent and finishes the track to the deer, ground scent never lies. The deer had been chewed on some and covered up with leaves, only the head showing, guessing a bobcat got to him last night. The shot ended up being liver. Congrats to the hunter.
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bowhuntingrook

bowhuntingrook

Old Mossy Horns
I got a message this morning about a buck shot last night, the hunter was shooting from an elevated position, deer slightly quartering away. The hunter was confident he got the lung area, but only found the back half of his arrow, this suggested that some bone, hopefully the OPPOSITE shoulder, may have stopped the arrow from passing through. The front 10 or so inches was missing. The hunter was only able to find a little blood around the hit site, and had another tracker attempt the track last night. 2 dogs worked an area within 100 yards or so from the hit site but were unable to advance the track. We arrived the next morning, 16 hours or so after the track. Cooper was able to acquire the line reasonably quickly and worked through the only blood I knew of, marked by the hunters arrow. Cooper then worked in the general direction the deer ran. With the contamination from dogs and footprints from the night before, this 100 yard area took 10 minutes for Cooper to decipher. Once Cooper worked that out, his pace increased, his was more accurate and his confidence was building. We tracked another 150 yards and found the buck in a dry creek bed. It was a high lung shot that bled very little. Congrats to the hunter on this unique deer he had history with.
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bowhuntingrook

bowhuntingrook

Old Mossy Horns
Deer shot last night, quartering towards hunter pretty hard. Video showed the lighted nock low behind the shoulder, what I thought may be back of nearside lung, diaphragm, possible liver exit gut. We were able to find the deer quickly in the thick cutover within 10 minutes. Broadhead entry was higher and actually in through the shoulder, a much better shot then anticipated which goes to show how much an arrow can turn that nock at impact. Great job by the hunter.
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bowhuntingrook

bowhuntingrook

Old Mossy Horns
I spoke to this hunter last night, he had shot the deer from an elevated position, tracked the deer 70 yards and ran out of blood. He did find his arrow but the broadhead and 6 inches of arrow was missing. This is not a good sign at all as there is a high likelihood that it is a deer with 1 lung injury. This was a fixed blade, my guess was bone slowed the arrow, and with the high entry and no exit, made tracking very difficult for the hunter. Me and Cooper couldn't arrive until 18 hours after the shot, it was warm and the ground dry. I started Cooper at the hit site and even the first 70 yards was tough. The deer circled left, after 10 minutes we reached last blood and Cooper took a line, slowly, checking himself multiple times. As we reached 100 yards past last blood, I started to pay a little more attention because now we are getting to distances double lung shot deer just don't get to. At that time Cooper takes a hard left and nearly back tracks but eventually veers right again moving out to 250 yards. In order to move even short distances Cooper is checking everything methodically, every blade of grass, every stick or branch above his head. This is suggesting that since there is such small amount of scent coming off of this deer, that he is tracking what the deers body and legs are rubbing against. When Cooper begins to circle for over 10 minutes again, I water him and go back to last blood. After restart Cooper takes the same line but appears to either take a short cut on the backtrack or corrects the overrun of the left turn. We are again in the thicker area and Cooper is checking every leaf slowly, we eventually work directly to the edge of this pond, 300 yards from the shot, where I see the buck. Very high entry with the smaller diameter fixed blade and no exit, very difficult track but Cooper was able to work it out. Congrats to the hunter.
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bowhuntingrook

bowhuntingrook

Old Mossy Horns
This hunter also spoke to me last night, 30 yard shot at a broadside deer from a ground blind, the hunter got full pass through with his arrow. The hunter states they were able to track 150 yards last night, but unable to advance any further, the hunter was confused and believed it was possible lung. He stated the last of the blood looked like the deer was standing around. Had this been lung, broadside from a ground blind with full pass through, it would have been 2 lungs, the deer would be right there, dead where he stood around. So, I was worried, I asked for a picture of the arrow to determine why the deer wasn't dead at 150 yards. The arrow didn't have much blood at all but definitely wasn't liver. Hunter states it had no smell. When I arrived, I immediately smelled the arrow and it was paunch (gut), what little "blood" there was on the vanes, was green/brown/red. Cooper started through the creek bottom and it was slow going for him, at 21 hours in the heat, we got to last blood at 150 yards in 10 minutes, I enjoy forcing Cooper to work through contaminated areas, always learning. Cooper crossed multiple creeks as the tracked veer left from last blood, I believe the deer was actually jumped from this area. There was a lot of scent in the area from the dead deer, Cooper was able to stay disciplined and finish the line, 150 yards past last blood we were at this unique buck. This was a 6.5 year old deer that the hunter had a history with, congrats to the hunter.
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