2020 Deer Recoveries

[2busy]

sounds like there are some people that need to learn shot placement or work on their shooting skills.

 

[SnowCamo]

Nice work! Just curious, any idea which caliber keeps you the busiest?

 

[CHenry]

Do you follow up tracking wounded deer with shooting lessons? Lol
That's pretty kool!

 

[kirk1978]

That's good stuff!!

 

[Bowhunter]

That’s awesome!! Do you want calls for downed deer for training purposes? Or do you have plenty of that already?


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[Oklahomabassin]

That’s awesome!

Thank you sir!

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

Yes, he loves finding deer! Thank you!

I like like like this story!
Tell us more !

Thank You! I will try to pick a couple of the stories out to share. (When things slow down a little)

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.

Thank you! I lost one in 2015 and certainly wish I could have found him.

 

[Oklahomabassin]

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

Thank you! I don't think so... feel free to PM if you would like.

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

Thank you!

Very cool . . .

Thank you!

 

[dennishoddy]

Good job with you and jax going after lost deer. It has to be a rewarding experience when the hunter and dog connect with the downed animal.

 

[Oklahomabassin]

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.

Thank you!
Honestly recovery is closer to 33% for tracking dogs. In general people will walk all over, call in buddies to help search blindly before calling a dog. They will pick up the scent pheromones and displace/scatter that trail out everywhere. Even worse, they will bump a poorly shot deer off its bed and when they do that the deer is often no bleeding anymore so it will make blood trailing nearly impossible by sight.

I really like to give archery gut shot deer 12 hours to expire before tracking. I can confirm that some will still be alive even 12 hours later.

Oklahoma Blood Trackers Association has really tried to educate hunters that if you don't have a good blood trail or blood starts to get thin to contact a tracking team near you before stomping around searching blindly. Trained dogs don't need the blood to track. They are tracking the scent that a wounded deer gives off.

On a difficult track a humans odds are lot lower. I found a buck that 4 people searched for about an hour before calling. Zero blood everywhere they looked. They were within 60 yards of it at one point. Jax sniffed it out.
Another track Jax smelled the deer 132 yards away but wasn't in hyper excited mode but at 113 yards, he grabbed another gear and pulled like a sled dog to the deer.

 

[Oklahomabassin]

sounds like there are some people that need to learn shot placement or work on their shooting skills.

It is 2020 lol. ODWC says license sales are up around 40-45% (I can't remember the exact number) I feel that the meat shortage earlier this year and Covid giving people more time off has increased the number of hunters in the field. Some are inexperienced. Ammo shortages I believe had some hunting with whatever they could get. Some may not have shot the different ammo to see where it hits.