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Big buck tonight- bad shot

I've never used a dog/tracker, so I'm genuinely asking out of curiosity — but do you hire the guy to bring his dog to find your deer? Or do they just do it for the fun of running a tracking dog?

Anybody who has ever worked with or trained a dog knows they can have bad days, so I'm not bashing, but the performance sounds almost comical except for the missing dog.
 
Southern Sportsman said:
I've never used a dog/tracker, so I'm genuinely asking out of curiosity — but do you hire the guy to bring his dog to find your deer? Or do they just do it for the fun of running a tracking dog?

Anybody who has ever worked with or trained a dog knows they can have bad days, so I'm not bashing, but the performance sounds almost comical except for the missing dog.
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This is my one and only experience so not sure how others do it. Jared basically said we could figure out a donation based on how long everything took and if the results were good etc. I know the dog was young but she has had successful tracks based on other TNDeer members experiences. Just a really really bad day for her.
 
Most of these trackers (so im told) have a standard fee or do it for donations. Generally not for free.
Jared's dog very successfully tracked a deer for me last year. Found the deer in 5 mins on a training run.
 
Gas money and dog food is about all they get. The one time I called one in he drove nearly an hour after he got off work, then helped me drag and load the deer. He asked for $100 to cover gas. I gave him $200. His time is worth something and training a dog to track deer takes time. He'd have to track an awful lot of deer to get ahead at $100/ea. They do it because they have a passion for it. Working with a dog, helping people, and seeing big bucks. I can see why they love it.
 
Glad you found him.
The male Brittany in my profile pic is a wonderful tracker. He wears me down quick though, pulling on the leash and basically dragging me along. I've been training a Redtick Bloodhound mix female and a Polish hound that is the most intense tracker I've ever seen. If I can dial her in to deer, she would track one to the end of the earth. She wears the hide off her nose. I showed a bear hunting buddy a video of her climbing a tree and he instantly wanted her. There arent many pure bred Polish hounds in the country. I'm on the east side. I keep the Garmin Alpha and collars charged.
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philsanchez76 said:
K so I just got home. I've been up since 4:45 am and am exhausted. But have never felt better. I've probably got 10-12 miles on my boots today. So me and a friend did a full thicket perimeter search early this morning just walking the whole outside of the thicket and pushing in here and there when we saw deer trails going in. No blood or anything. Dog tracker called me and said he could get there by 1 pm so we decided to back out cuz he said the less human scent in there the easier his dog could find it. Gotta hike all the way back to the parking lot. My buddy had to head out. Jared and His dog Bella meet me and we have to hike another mile back out. As soon as we got to the thicket Bella goes all in basically dragging Jared through the stickers. I say hold on I'm gonna throw my carhartt coveralls on and I'll be right behind you. Takes me about 90 seconds to suit up and I look up and they're nowhere to be seen. I call out and nothing. You can only see about 5-10 feet in front of you in this thing so I had no clue where they went. I just started barreling through hoping to catch up with them. Then suddenly about 30 yards in I literally stumble on the buck. He was right next to one of his rubs so I set him up on it for the pic. Jared and Bella no where to be found. Drag the buck out of the thicket (which about killed me) and called Jared. He answers and asks "have you seen bella?" No I say. Apparently Bella got on a bedded deer and started chasing it across the thicket and Jared lost hold of the leash. Buck is dragged out to the main trail already but we then spend the next 2 hours combing this piece of public calling out for Bella. We can't find her. Jared goes off separately while I go and take care of the buck. I decided to just go with the gutless method and removed the 4 quarters, backstraps and the head in the field. Left his swolen torso for the birds and yotes unfortunately. Still had to pack out the head and quarters a mile to my truck. Jared stopped at all the neighbors houses and left his number with them. He didn't have a radio collar and didn't have his phone number on her collar either!!! Cmon man! He was a young guy so he's learning. I sure hope he finds her but as of now nothing. So very bitter sweet there at the end. I'm ready for a cold Miller lite and shower and a warm bed. Y'all have been absolutely awesome during this process. Thanks for sticking with me!! All this and the rut hasn't even started yet!!!!!
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Man that was fun keeping up with this. Congrats. Great bunch of guys on this thread.
 
jlanecr500 said:
Glad you found him.
The male Brittany in my profile pic is a wonderful tracker. He wears me down quick though, pulling on the leash and basically dragging me along. I've been training a Redtick Bloodhound mix female and a Polish hound that is the most intense tracker I've ever seen. If I can dial her in to deer, she would track one to the end of the earth. She wears the hide off her nose. I showed a bear hunting buddy a video of her climbing a tree and he instantly wanted her. There arent many pure bred Polish hounds in the country. I'm on the east side. I keep the Garmin Alpha and collars charged.
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You've got to be kidding me! I had no idea dogs were capable of that. She able to get down herself or you call the local Fire dept?
 
UTGrad said:
Can we just have more gut shot big buck suspense threads every season? Forget the stupid Seek One/Catman threads.

More gut shot bucks please.
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That's funny. I know there are outfitters that instruct their clients to aim for guts cuz their dogs can track the deer easier. It's like a 99% success recovery rate that way. A little too much drama for my blood!
 

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