I’m decent at it but I wouldn’t call myself a great tracker by any means. I don’t have stellar 20/20 vision….I’m “far sided” and I think that’s what hinders me the most. People tend to spot blood before I do. I’ve killed somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 ish deer though so I’ve had a good amount of practice doing it on my own without a dog. I've lost a few over the years but not too too many. One of the reasons I got a tracking dog to begin with was because I lost a really nice one that I straight up gut shot and couldn't find. There just wasn't anything to follow...only a big wad of hair.

Now as far as “finding deer” is concerned…..I consider myself to be far more than just a dog handler. After you’ve tracked for a few seasons you start learning that there’s far more to it than just turning the dog loose and following him. It’s a team effort and you learn to use all the tools that are available at your disposal. I use my GPS, my phone for aerials, the dogs, the hunter and friends…..and most importantly I use my experience of having tracked four or five hundred deer now. I have a good idea of where they typically like to go and how they typically react to certain shot. I can tell you with pretty good accuracy where most folks have hit a deer just by what they tell me they found at the hit site and how the deer reacted, etc. I'm using a whole different approach to finding them than getting down on your hands and knees looking for broke sticks. I feel like I’m getting pretty dang good at it now but I still have room for improvement definitely.