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Dang. It seems like shooting 2 doe's a day is more legal than tracking deer nowadays.

I am a dog guy - had selma guy help me about 4 times. The worst shot we went back next day - deer very alive but could not get up - dispatched
Dogs awesome
Got good friend that tracks by drone

After legal shooting light the dog should be required to be on a lead.

Yep and yep

OR you can spend time at the range and practice shooting and learning the capabilities of your weapon. Calling in dogs seems like the cool thing to do nowadays. I don't see how they get permission to cross all those properties in the middle of the night no less. I

And don't take unethical shots hoping to slow the deer down enough so dogs can bay it up.

I suspect that a regulation will be implemented that tracking cannot be done at night, the dog will have to be on a lead and only under those circumstances can any one in the party be armed with a weapon that's legal for that particular season.

ALABAMA WMA LAW:

Rule 220-2-.55 Conservation
UNLAWFUL:
(c) To use dogs for stalk hunting of deer or for turkey
hunting. (Leashed dogs may be used for the expressed purpose
of retrieving wounded deer, limited to two (2) dogs for each
tracking event).

Sometime it could work against the shooter to run the dog a mile away and not recover it. Where as if it stayed nearby and still was alive there may be a chance for a second shot nearby. I have seen dogs get a deer up and run almost into the next county. In a lot of cases nobody would see the deer.

And many, many times that deer is on camera back where it was shot in the next day or 2.

Yep, the old way of thinking that you are gonna run a deer into the next county isnt true……although ironically my last track was literally on the Barbour/Russell line and I came within just a couple hundred yards of actually doing so…..

Deer are actually very loyal to a home range and typically just return right back to wherever they were jumped……I had a bow shot several years ago hit way back in the intestines…..We jumped it up still alive the next day and chased him ½ mile trying to get him to woah up before hitting a property line……The hunter found him dead 5 days later in the same spot where we jumped him

Yep. Correct. Deer like being where they like being, and even high amounts of pressure don’t run them out of town. They just hunker down and stay in thick cover undetected.

If y’all want something for real to debate about on the topic it’s the use of both dogs and drones in combination together…….That’s where we are now and the next big thing……Another year or two every dog guy will have a drone just to keep up with the competition… I’ll have to adapt if I want to keep up….….. The market to pay for the investment just isn’t really there though…..Alabama is currently in the process of tanking a lot of our quality and the demand……Some trackers are already traveling 1-2 hours just to get tracks and now everybody and his brother is getting a drone….. My problem is its really not worth dropping $15K on a drone just to be Facebook famous but……

I have a serious question. Most trackers track for tips or donations I guess we should call it. Thermal drones are expensive. Probably not near as expensive as the long term investment in a good tracking dog or heck any dog for that matter. Do drone operators work off of donations or do they charge a fee? Minimum just to get them there and a finders fee? I know there is some good ole boys out there but there has to be some type of return on investment for a drone. Am I correct or way over thinking it?

Join the Alabama Deer Trackers Association and help us clear up the gray areas and do our utmost to recover deer that might otherwise feed coyotes.
Alabamadeertrackers.com

That guy i use from selma is awesome

Art Powers - very legit

Ok, if we are going to discuss it… educate me on what type of drone and operator you would look for? Just any old thermal drone or specific technology?

Also, I’ve tipped no less than $200 if a dog guy came out (found or not). Is that amount going to get me a drone guy out? And if he tells me he’s bringing his drone AND his dog, I’m probably assuming he’s not very competent with either.

The thermal drone tech is interesting to me. I would imagine you could spend as much as you wanted to on one.

They’re super cool but just have their limitations when it comes to taking real world tracking calls…….They’re going to work great on the routine finds that are 100-300 yards from the hit site in some fairly open woods…..Its all of the “chit happens” scenarios that comes into play with tracking where they are going to struggle……There’s a LOT of deer that are still alive that have to be dispatched……there’s some that are 1000 yards or more from the hit site……there’s some that end up floating in ponds and creeks on cold nights…….there’s a bunch that get eat up by coyotes and dont throw off a heat signature…… I had a guy with a drone follow me last year on one where that came into play…..He couldn’t see it because coyotes had eaten the back end off of the deer and the body cavity had already cooled off over night……Theres really just not enough scenarios where the drone is going to outperform dogs to make it worth spending the money to have both other than the perception of just being the guy who has dogs and a drone…..

I’ve talked to some of the drone guys and they seemed frustrated with the saturation that’s occurring…..I understand …..Just is what it is though….. I think many folks who are jumping in buying them are underestimating the total number of bucks being shot at in Alabama that folks are willing to pay $300-$500 to search for……That’s what not there……Heck, there’s only a small pool of “donation” deer out there in many places ……Keep in mind, we’re not just talking about the few number of good bucks produced…..we’re talking about the few that are produced and then wounded or lost……That’s a pretty scant commodity in a lot of areas of Alabama right now