I think the biggest thing with a dog is the amount of time you can/will spend in the woods with it. If I were younger I would have one of those wire hair daschunds for a blood tracking dog, they are just a interesting looking little dog.
We use to call it "winding" when a dog was hunting with it's nose in the wind trying to smell on the run.

Those are really good little tracking dogs. They’re a little pricey compared to other dogs but I believe if I was gonna get one just to track for family and friends it would be one of those versus a big dog. My biggest concern with them for someone like me going on lots of tracks for the public is that I’m afraid their little short legs would wear out going on track after track, day after day……

I agree with you about spending time in the woods with them. That's one of the biggest differences in calling in a good working dog versus just having your buddy bring down his dog that's "found a few". Things aren't always straight forward and simple when tracking deer.

Sent a guy your way off Facebook today.

Thanks man....I appreciate it.....Was it in Elmore Co??…..I just got home from recovering one over there this morning. I'll get a pic and short story posted up in a little while.

From watching two wirehaired's work over the years I don't believe they'd wear out but I do believe you have a huge advantage with the bigger dogs on running deer down and baying them up. I believe when the wirehaired's do bay them there are times the deer virtually laugh at them and take off again versus those bigger dogs are a little more intimidating to the deer.

Said lee/Macon county

Yeah, I agree…..there’s probably not a whole lot those little dogs could do on a real lively bay compared to a big dog. Baying live deer is where just about all of the danger of tracking comes in though so really its not a bad thing if they don’t get on the ones that still have a lot of life left in them. Another tracker in GA had his lab killed this year when it was gored by a gut shot buck after 7 hours.

I don't guess they ever called then. I had a guy call from Macon Co on Saturday but he had backslapped it and decided not to pursue it. He was mainly just calling to confirm what his buddies had told him about deer that lay there and then get up and run off.

Today’s track was a bowshot deer that the hunter perceived to have hit better than he actually did. It was right at dark and he thought the deer was broadside when it was actually quartered to him a little. He said he thought his shot was a little high but good otherwise. It turned out the entry was indeed high but about halfway back on the body and the exit was out the opposite hind quarter. They got after him last night after a couple hours and pretty much just pushed him. After about 500-600 yards they lost blood and had to call it off. We got on it this morning and took it a few hundred more yards past last blood where we found the deer still alive but too weak to run. The hole you see in the pic was from the finishing shot. The exit hole from the bow shot is just in front of Shelby's face but you can't really see it well in the pic.

I guess everyone is taking their time with their shot

It’s been a fairly slow week. I’ve had a couple calls that would have both likely been good tracks but one waited a day and a half before calling and the other one wanted to search more before having me come out. Never heard back from them. I did go out and track a bow shot buck in a high fence this morning but they had hit it extremely low in the brisket and the deer just wasn’t fatally hit. I figure with the rain coming in this weekend that it’ll likely continue to be slow for several more days. As the rut approaches things will really pick up.

Every day when I come in to work as soon as I get my morning verifications done this is the first place I come, to read these stories! Awesome posts!

Things slow around these parts CNC? I’m ready for some sort of update on the dogs..

I guess the rain kept everyone home this past weekend...…..Things will really pick up a lot after Christmas. Looks like we're gonna have some good hunting days this week until the rain comes back in.

Be glad, I tracked one Saturday night and it was raining sideways. My briar jacket and bibs weighed 50lbs a piece it felt like. We found him though. LOL

Yeah, I hear you…..I ain’t mad about it...

Thought I was going to need a tracker Sunday evening. Daughter blew both front legs out on a big bodied 9 pt. He bedded in the edge of the plot and I jumped him but could tell he only went 30-50 yards. Backed out and waited a little while and went back with some help. Found him laying with his head up and finished him.

We also had another 600+ yard track the previous Sunday on a 200 lb 9 pt with a double main beam on one side. This one was a low leg/brisket shot too. Seriously starting to consider a dog for trapping/tracking. We were lucky to recover both of these deer.

I sure wish I would have gotten a tracking dog a lot sooner....I'd likely have a few more deer on wall. One that I buried up an arrow down through its back when it ran in and stopped directly under my stand. I jumped him up 2 hours later just a couple hundred yards from my stand.....Another one that I gut shot from 200 yards on a midday gun hunt as he pushed a doe across a powerline while I was eating my lunch.....both really nice deer that I never saw again but could have very likely located with a tracking dog.

Well you never picked up the phone. You got my numbers and even my email LOL glad you found them though.

https://youtu.be/qNEAJd2_bxg


Skip to around the 13:50 mark. Textbook case of a back slap. They still end up killing the mule deer but it shows exactly what happens when someone backslaps a deer.

Would love to see pics