Here we go!!.......About to start our 10th season tomorrow…..This is gonna be a little bit of a bitter sweet one because I know Otis’s tracking days are getting more and more numbered. For now though other than some aging eyes he’s still doing great physically and ready for another year. He’s like that Toby Keith song that says….”I aint as good as I once was but I’m as good once as I ever was.”

I’m also really excited about this season because this will be the year when I finally recover from losing my lab Shelby several years ago……Her replacement Ruby, also a lab, is three years old now…..She’s really matured over the last year and she’s ready to become a “finished” tracking dog this season. We’ve been tuning up running practice tracks every other day since August 1 and she’s running them like you dragged a T-bone steak through the woods. What really impresses me, and seems to be a characteristic of labs, is how much she uses her nose to check the wind while she’s tracking. I leave a hot dog and piece of deer leg at the end of each practice track and I’ve watched her wind them from 70+ yards on multiple occasions…….I’m not sure exactly how far she can wind a whole deer but under the right conditions I’d think 100 yards is not out of the question and it could be farther than that.

My third dog Lu-lu will also be getting in on more tracks this season as she’s progressed a lot over the summer as well. She’s a two year old black mouth cur…. She isnt quite as far along as Ruby at this point but she’s really showing a lot more patience on training tracks and running them very cleanly now…. She’ll definitely be getting in on the live deer situations this season and hopefully getting to run some easier gut hits and such.



Well, the preparation is over and the truck is loaded……Nothing to do now but wait on that first call to come in……Good luck to everyone……..Get your popcorn ready!!

All three look serious. Good luck this season.

Good luck to y'all too.....

Excited to keep up with the pups this season.

Great looking crew. Thanks for sharing the stories.

Best of luck. You and the pups be safe out there.

Thanks fellas!......

........and so it begins. First call of the year just came in. Good buck shot at 7:30 this morning. Hit was high and back.....complete pass through.....zero blood on the ground. Gonna give it a couple more hours and then see what we can do with it.

To be continued............

Got him! Beautiful velvet 10 pt

Congrats on the recovery!

Thanks!....Couldn’t have asked for a better track to start off the season…..The buck was actually shot too far back and low instead of high like the hunter had thought. Everything worked out great though……Found him dead about 350-400 yards from the hit site. Didn’t find any blood for the first couple hundred yards until we ran across a puddle where the deer had stopped. A couple of buzzards had already gotten on him before we got there. That’s about the quickest I’ve ever seen them get on one…..

Heck Yeah CNC Pretty work....

Is that corn flowing out the exit? If so, he’s been spending a bunch of time at a feeder.

Nice buck to start off with.

I'm not sure what that is......There was a big field planted in something I didnt recognize that the buck was coming off of back into the bedding when the hunter shot it.....I'm thinking its whatever was in that field. It was about knee high, kinda reminded me of millet. I just saw it from a distance riding in

I texted the hunter and he said it was sesame..... Apparently the deer must like it

Nice job! Muzz got a 10pt earlier for the 1st track of the season. Glad we both had a good start

Nice!!.....What's the story on that one?

Congrats on the tracks, great job.

Well we got started and worked our way off a steep mountain. Muzz started under a big white oak that had blown down. I was only 50 yards or so behind him and noticed when he started to duck under the tree he jumped back and I was thinking it was probably a snake. Muzz looked at me with this confused look and started barking and about the second bark the deer came charging out. Muzz and the deer went a few rounds together and the deer finally had enough and broke away. Ended up on some different property and had to get permission and what not. We got permission and ended up baying the deer again. He was weak enough at that point to call Muzz off and let the hunter finish it. Ended up being grazed in the guts with the entrance and exit on the same side. Gave him 8hrs to die before we started about 8hrs after the shot

That’s wild!!…..I don’t know that I’ve ever seen an entry and exit like that