2020 Deer Recoveries

[Oklahomabassin]

Jax is my chocolate lab and is a UBT Certified tracking dog. I do all of his training and frankly he makes me look like a professional. I tell a few people that it is pretty easy. I keep a pocket full of jerky treats. If Jax does good, he gets a treat. If he doesn't do good, I get a treat. Lol

One of Jax Fall/Winter duties is tracking wounded deer for hunters. 2020 season has been a busy season. So far, we have received at least 46 calls for assistance. Unfortunately, I am not able to assist everyone who calls. I work 10 hour work shifts on the road and rotate from days to nights. After a 200 mile work day, it isn't easy to hit the road for another 3 hour round trip drive and possibly 2 hours on a track. (Hunters usually call a tracker as a last resort) Opening weekend of rifle season yielded 11 calls. 2 of those calls were 94 miles apart. When I have to turn a request down, I will try and refer them to another tracker.

We have taken 22 tracks so far and recovered 10 deer. 2 of the deer we were called to track were confirmed to still be alive from trail cams or being seen again by the hunter. It would take me a few hours to type out every story out so I am not going to do that. I will share a few pictures to help tell the story.

 

[Oklahomabassin]

 

[Cowcatcher]

That’s awesome!

 

[thor447]

That dog is loving his life in those pics. Great job!

 

[bigred1]

I like like like this story!
Tell us more !

 

[AFVet]

I think you and other trackers provide an incredible service. I applaud you!! As a life long hunter (close to 50 years now in the field), I’ve lost 3 big game animals...a mule deer buck, cow elk and a black bear. Each still haunt me when I think of them, but I know it unfortunately happens. It was just last year that I mortally wounded a large bear in the mountains of Idaho. Extreme terrain prevented me from locating it. We searched for several days to no avail. No doubt in my mind if I had someone like you to call the end of my hunt would have had a different ending. Again, many thanks for what you do.

 

[Toothpick]

Jax and a bunch of happy hunters!
That’s going above and beyond Bassin

 

[BobbyV]

Very cool . . .

 

[dlbleak]

Nice work bassin. I’ll know who to call.
Is one of those pics Chris and Paul Weber?

 

[O4L]

Awesome dog!

I know nothing about tracking deer with dogs here in Oklahoma so this is an honest question. Is a 50/50 chance of recovery what one should expect using a tracking dog?

I don't know why but that kind of surprises me. I was thinking that the recovery rate average would be higher. If a dog only has a 50/50 chance what chance does a human have.