Let me explain from my perspective as the dog tracker why it makes it a lot easier if you flag your blood trail. We trackers typically start at the hit site in order to give the dog an opportunity to get accustomed to this deer’s smell and to build up some momentum before working the point of loss.
This is generally 100-300+ yards. This scent line is often times very tracked up by searchers and the dog can run very erratic on this part of the track due to all the different scent trails left by the searchers. I watch Otis and if he’s really having to work hard to progress through the known line section…..then I help him out a little by moving him forward through it.....helping him pick back up on the real line on further past the section he’s muddled down in. I don’t want to spend 30-45 minutes and ½ a jar of Otis’s piss and vinegar just to get us to the spot of loss.
Ideally, I’d like to slowly but steadily walk right down the known blood trail and to the point of loss without all the wandering around the woods thinking it was somewhere over here or maybe it was down there….I remember there was a big tree kind of stuff. I could work many tracks so much more efficiently if I could just look out through the woods and see orange flagging hanging down where you’ve trailed.
The rut is just around the corner and many folks are about to start slinging lead at some bucks. When you finally get that shot on the one you’ve been looking for and he runs off after the shot…..don’t just assume he’s gonna be laying just behind the next bush. Don’t rush in and make bad decisions. Slow down, take your time….and track with the same diligence that you’ve done with your scent control, your stand location, your entry and exit routes, etc…etc….We’re hunting like pros and then tracking like novices. Again, I don’t say that to be harsh on any one individual, but rather just to maybe open our eyes up to how much room for improvement we have in this area as a group.
Take some flagging with you and use it as you track!
