Well, I figure I'll get caught up on some tracks. Got a call last Friday night for a guy that I had tracked for a week earlier. He had shot a buck he'd been after all season. Buck came into a food plot 75 yards broadside. Ballistic tip bullet. No blood at hit site but he was sure he hit him. He had found 2 kernels of corn where the buck was standing and he said the deer was holding it's front leg as it ran off. I was hesitant to take the track so soon after the shot because of the corn being there but we wanted to see how it went with the way he was favoring his leg.

I got there 2 hours after the shot and Spark had the buck found in about 3 minutes. He didn't go 50 yards into a thicket along a creek. Once he got in the thicket, he bled a little but not much.

Went on 2 tracks yesterday evening. First was a doe, shot at 8 am. I got there at 430 pm. Spark took the deer around the mtn and then off. I was staying real close and I seen the deer get up. Spark ran it thru a flock of turkeys and she went bat shucks crazy. I let her recollect herself and she ran the doe straight up the mtn side until I called her off.

The grand finale...

I get 5 calls yesterday while I'm at work. Each one from the same number and they leave 5 voice mails lol. 4 call were within 10 minutes of each other. I'm swamped at work right now and had to wait til I got off to call back. Hunter had shot a big deer Thursday at 445 and he said he'd been out there all day looking for him. He'd tracked it a few hundred yards and lost blood. Said while he was tracking, there was a hot doe being chased by 5 different bucks. I started thinking about this track. It was going to be a full 24 hours after thw shot at least before I could get to it. All the hot lines, all the hunters spreading the scent around. I got worried that Spark wouldn't be able to find it, so I called back up. The great Ammon Mckinney and Woodrow.

Ammon had prior plans and couldn't be there til 930 last night. We met up last night and took both dogs along. We started at the hit site and both dogs took off. You can tell Woodrow is way more experienced than Spark as he is gone. At one point he was a couple hundred yards ahead of her and she's granny walking this track. We get off the side of the mtn down in a bottom that's already flooded. It had been raining for an hour when we started this track.

We get to this big creek and I'm trying to figure out how to cross. Ammon happens to see the buck bedded down about 100 yards out and we wait to see what the dogs do. Woodrow is on him in no time. At one point I'm pretty sure he had that buck by the ear lol. I found a beaver dam no cross and we hauled over there. Ammons filming and calls the dogs off while I sneak around the side. Bam! Bucks piles off in a creek and Woodrow is right back on top of him. It's high fives and pics then reality sets in. We've tracked this deer 1.59 miles. We're .71 miles from the truck. I knew a little about this area and knew of an old road that we could get the buck to and get a 4 wheeler to get him out. So we start the drag back across all the creeks and to the road.

This track was 31 hours old before we found the deer. It had rained about 2 or 3 hours. I'm pretty sure after seeing how Spark worked the track that she would have found this deer but I didn't want to take chances. I'm very proud of what she's become in our first year. I was proud to be apart of this track with Ammon. He, David Jones and I have all become good buddies thru this and I'm already looking forward to next year. Ammon is making a video of the track and as soon as he's done I'll link to it here.

I also got to see first hand how Woodrow turns into the Incredible Hulk when he finds a deer!!

That's a good way to end the season up....Nice find!



Are you coming to the tracking convention this year?

I'm planning to.

Bowtarist,

I have followed your thread since you started it this year.

I have really, really enjoyed reading it.

Your Spark reminds me so much of my Sadie.

She is a great looking dog and I really have enjoyed keeping up with how she has progressed this year.

You take real good care of that little girl and I'm looking forward already to your thread for next year.

Thanks buddy! I've got all summer to get her camera gear sorted out. My goal is to do semi live tracks next season.

Thought I'd do a closing post of our stats. I've tried my best to keep up with how many we've went on this year and I know I've forgot to write down one or 2. We ended the season putting 17 deer on the tailgate. 17 of 43 is what I have wrote down. 8 more we found and had to pull off because they ran on property we didn't have permission to go on. I've got pics from 2 hunters of deer I didn't find that showed back up on camera with clear bullet wounds visible. I had to turn down probably 20 more tracks all season due to time restraints and injurys.

For our first year tracking, I've learned alot about my dog, tracking in general and countless other lessons. I'm looking forward to next year already and my plan is to get a male mtn cur and have him ready to go next year. That way injuries won't stop me from going out, maybe.

Spark will be going thru obedience boot camp again as well. Dang she's hard headed and strong willed at times.

I'd like to thank all the guys that helped with advice and whatever else. Ammon, David Jones and CNC were all very helpful to me.

That’s a great first year! If Jackson County hillbillies could shoot worth a damn, you would’ve found more of them. Can’t wait to see Spark work next year!

I call them illiterates

Here's the video of the track as promised. Told by Ammon himself.

Last find of season 2017 18: http://youtu.be/qu7mKs0xiI8

Awesome video and have enjoyed your posts as well.
Did you get Uncle Si to sign your vest??

I thought he looked more like popcorn Sutton. And he said, "you know it, huh?" After EVERY sentence.

I've got the collar charged and Spark tuned up for the GA opener this weekend. Maybe, just maybe, we'll be able to have a story!

Awesome video of ole Woodrow riding that buck like a bull!! Great recovery

Enjoyed watching that

I got a call last night around 8. The hunter had shot his target buck at 5 yards. He watched the buck run off into a clover patch with his arrow still in him. The buck stood in the clover patch for around 10 minutes and tore off out of sight up the mtn.

He makes a few calls and gets referred to me. He explains the situation and tell him to give me some time to get everything together and I'll be on my way. Spark knows what were headed to do as she's sitting in her spot in the back seat, whining and looking intently out the windshield.

We get to the hit site around 9:15. The hunter is showing me roughly where the buck was standing as I'm putting her tracking collar on. We cross a fence to get to the last place he seen the buck. The hunter asks me how she knows the difference in a live deer and a dead deer because she just left a different way than he saw the buck go. As I explain how she knows, my Alpha buzzes to let me know she's found him already. I look up the hill and can see this massive main beam sticking off the ground about 80 yards away. I tell the hunter "there's your deer!" and it's all high fives from there.

I love being a small part of these recoveries. I have been on the losing end of not finding a buck you've been after. When you've lost all hope and one of our dogs is the only hope you have left. Seeing the faces of the hunters is what drives us to keep going. Watching our dogs do what they love so much is in there as well. I got to share this track with my favorite tracking partner, my son Easton. He will be quite the tracker when he gains another 100 pounds and doesn't let Spark drag him around like a Budweiser Clydesdale!

how do i print screen

Congrats way to start the season off.