Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Al Dogs Tracking Dog Stories 2025-26

We recovered another nice 10 point this morning……It was hit just a little low and back and went around 300 yards……The hunter tracked it about 60-70 yards and backed out when the blood petered out…..They had a guy in their club with a drone that started looking for it before daylight this morning but was having no luck so they called us about daybreak…..The drone was still flying when I got there and got started…..We headed in the direction the deer ran and when we were about 100 yards from it he hollered he found it…..We’ll chalk it up to a team effort on this one…… ......Another solid 120-130” buck

We got called out on a second track about the time we left there…..Looked like a solid liver hit that we weren’t having any trouble tracking but unfortunately it crossed over onto some neighboring property that wouldn’t give us permission to go on…..He was headed right for a pond too that was just another 150 yards away….That one sucked to have to leave in the woods……

Got a call yesterday from a guy that had shot his first buck with a bow. He watched it run off about 40yds and stop. It then turned and walked off down the hill. He got down and found his arrow and could tell it was hit back. He found a little blood and went to where he saw the deer walk off and couldn't find anything else. We decided to give it time and I would go out after ball practice.

He gained permission for the adjoining property and we got there about 12 hours after the shot. It ended up being a pretty quick and easy track. The deer had made a slight loop going about 300 yds but ending up 125 yds or so from the stand it was shot from, but of course it was at the bottom of a very steep hill...

Pretty much straight gut shot with no blood along the way.

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We’ve gotten to go on 3 so far.. first was a 15 hour old straight liver shot. Deer went 400 ish and died in a creek. Simple track just took a while due to the conditions
#2 seemed like a backstrap shot. Nothing but fat on the arrow followed blood 500 ish yards and finally called it off
#3 stings. Liver/gut shot. Hunter for sure bumped it twice and I think he bumped it more on accident due to the way he had to access the area. We found a spot of blood about 250 from where he lost blood then another about 300 from there and finally had to just call it due to dogs overheating. They did good with what they were given I’m just very confident that the deer is dead. Last place we had blood was going into a 3 year old tornado damage area. Too thick to grid search and the dogs never found it so we finally had to just call it off

Im alittle late for the party. I've turned down a few tracks just being busy with my kids. Went on two today. Im trying to leave Muzz in the dog box as much as possible because he's getting old. Started with Ace and Cotton and over a quarter mile through a bean field I questioned everything. Went back and got Muzz ended up going the same way and jumping the deer over 1 mile into the track. Got on a few specks of wet blood after that and Muzz couldn't do anything else with it. It had been over 24hrs since the deer was shot so I figure he'll be fine and is more than likely clipped in the brisket. 2nd track was for a 16 year old boys first bow kill. Ace and Cotton went around 400 yards straight to him and it was pushing 24hrs old. Had plenty of cows in the way but they never distracted the dogs so I was proud of that.

Tracking between 10am - 5pm is rough early in the season.....I dont really enjoy tracking at night but its a heck of a lot better conditions for it.....Higher humidity and lower temps

Got one to go look for in the morning.......Got about half the arrow broke off in the deer with zero blood......The hunter thinks he hit the offside shoulder......I hope he's right and the deer didnt make it too far......These high entry hits with zero blood can be super tough to track sometimes.....We're gonna see what we can do with it

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

Ended up going 2 for 3 today…….The story on the first one changed a little when I pulled up this morning…..The hunter had decided that the broke arrow they found was more likely to be from a doe he had shot a couple days ago and not found….They thought the arrow was still in the buck…..Either way we took it over 700 yards with no bed or no blood before calling it off…..It reminded me of a shoulder shot…..The buck had all kinds of good places to bed down in some prime understory if he would have been hurt very bad.

The second and third tracks turned out much better……Both were very similar gut shots that both went around 150 yards with no blood on either track….The one still in velvet was for a young teenage bow hunter maybe 13 or 14 years old……Both were really nice bucks……..

Got one for in the morning……Hunter said shot looked really low…..Got the buck on video after the shot stopping and standing for 45 seconds or so before slowly walking off…..He said they tracked him a little ways before running out of blood and deciding to back out and bring in the dog in the morning instead of pushing it……He looked pretty hurt so hopefully he just beds up a few hundred yards out and we find him dead in the morning. Looks like a nice mature 8 pt with a good wide spread

1 ½ for 3 today…….First track was text book…..It was a super tough track for 250 yards….A lot tougher than I expected after watching the video….Zero blood….. Otis put on a clinic though and took us right to him…..It fun to watch an old dog work a hard track and be successful….

The second one was something we don’t have happen very often but I’ll own it when we do…..We left one in the woods and the fault was on me…..It was a shoulder shot that I was skeptical about being recoverable and I’ll called the track too soon…..The hunter sent me a pic of the deer an hour or two after we left…..I guess he was hesitant to tell me at the time that a drone operator had already been on the track and marked a couple spots to check….One of them was right on top of where I pulled the dogs off and sure enough it was the deer laying there when he went back to look….I gotta at least give the dogs ½ credit on that one lol…….Its all good though…..If you track long enough you’ll have to eat some crow eventually…….Some days you go from being a hero to a zero in the matter of a couple hours…..

The last track was kind of an odd one…..Still not 100% sure on how this deer was hit….Got a pass through on the arrow with decent blood on it…..It reminded me of a brisket hit with a gun though……The deer walked about 50 yards after the shot and just stood in one spot for 15 minutes before finally walking off…..For that 50 yards there was a pretty solid line of blood on the ground and then nothing after that….We took it over 500 yards until it petered out on the dogs and called it

Lu-lu loaded up an Ol’ Russell Co slick head tonight…..That comment I made in the serious deer forum about no one calling a dog on does must have conjured it up… ..I’ll take ‘em like this all day long though……Shot was just a little high……Pin drops of blood on the ground until it got to some really thick young pines where the hunter lost it…..I saw Lu-lu start bobbing her nose in the air as soon as she got the edge of them….Gotta love the sinking night air….Makes for great scenting conditions

Here's Otis's brother Sarg from Michigan with another stud they just recovered......

I watch ol’ boy just post up one toad after another from up there……I know everybody likes to just do as you please around here buuuuut……..

“I’m getting 20+ calls a day and can only take 1–3 on a good day.
I can’t help everyone — but I’ll do my best to help the ones who give me the best chance to succeed. This time of the year it’s not about offer hunters peace of mind it’s about finding the deer that are recoverable. This past weekend tons of hunters never got a tracking dog. More deer were wounded vs trackers availability.”

Michigan also has a 2 week rifle season and a 9 day muzzleloader season.

Correct……we were discussing that very thing in another thread in the serious deer forum……They also have a 2 buck limit and require them to be tagged……That's why he's getting 20 calls per day.....There's a lot more quality deer being shot at that people want tracked

Would you keep dogs if you could only use them twice a day for 3 weeks a year? I imagine people also take more marginal shots because the season is so short and limited.

That's just gun hunting......Their bow season runs from Oct-Jan......They also have several antlerless gun seasons......If I didnt have a wife and kids I'd probably pull an Idahomike and take off up there to track......I could get in on waaaaay more tracking opportunities than what we have here......Our quality has gone to chit for the most part

Here's there season structure.....Its actually a pretty good setup for producing a quality herd in my opinion

• Liberty (youth) hunt: Sept. 13-14
• Early antlerless firearm: Sept. 20-21
• Independence hunt: Oct. 16-19
• Archery: Oct. 1 to Nov. 14, and Dec. 1 to Jan. 1, 2026
• Extended Archery: Through Jan. 31, 2026, for select counties: Huron, Kent, Lapeer, Macomb, Oakland, Sanilac, St. Clair (except DMU 174), Tuscola, Washtenaw and Wayne.
• Regular firearm: Nov. 15-30
• Muzzleloading: Dec. 5-14
• Late antlerless firearm: Dec. 15 to Jan. 1, 2026, on private and public lands in Lower Peninsula DMUs (excluding 115, 145 and 245).
• Extended late antlerless firearm: Jan. 2-11, 2026

Throwback Thursday since its slow right now ……This was Otis’s first recovery at 6 months old…..…..

Got a call to track a doe close to the house last night. He said the shot looked good just lost blood. We started about 2.5 hours after the shot and the dogs were off tot he races. They worked out to about 450 yds and the Garmin showed Slate barking but I could not hear him). I thought the deer may still be alive, but he turned and started back to us. We finally caught up to them (through the thickest sapling patch and then honeysuckle/briar patch I have been in all season) and they took us straight to the dead doe. I noticed she had lots of hair pulled out and knew my dogs were not there that long. Got to looking and noticed a coyote had already been eating on the hindquarter. I'm guessing he was there we the dogs got to the deer.

Will the receiver show barking if they are just growling? Wasn't really sure.

At 450 yards out in a thicket it could be that you just didn’t hear them…..They may have been facing away from you….Otis doesn’t sound off like a coonhound or anything but he has a reasonably loud bark and I’ve had it alerting me to him barking before at 200-300 yards and wonder how on Earth I couldn’t hear him through the woods….Sound just travels funny sometimes