Killer_Primate

I did injure one, as I mentioned in my last post. It was on the hairy edge of dark when I took the shot (bad call on my part? Probably). I heard this buck making a very awkward hacking sound as if he were trying to vomit. I left and came back the following morning. After a few hours my dog found a pile of bile on the ground. As soon as I started rewarding him with positive attention “Good-boy’s” I heard the same vomiting sound again and my heart sunk.
Long story made short – the buck ended up on hunt club property and they would not allow me to look for it. They ended up doing a search, I have no idea if they found it, but I’m sure the buck wasn’t having a very good time.
I didn’t tag him, and I wouldn’t tag him today if it happened again.

You’ve asked for advice on this topic a few times, and I feel I’ve offered some good advice to you – get your dog out there. It will find the deer. In fact, one dog is probably better than fifty men, and it won’t tell anyone…

Good luck man,

KP

GMMAT

KP:

Problem with my dog is.....she's a retriever. She's great on scent....but ifshe saw all the deer tracks/sign/scat I did, yesterday.....she'd be really confused. I've tried using her, before. She don't know which "scent" to follow....and she's never been trained. I wish I had a tracking dog.

Killer_Primate

You don’t need a tracking dog. Any healthy semi-intelligent dog will work fine. All you need is a commitment form yourself. You need to bring the dog when you know where the dead deer is. If you see it crash, get down and go get the dog. Get her excited about being there. Tell her “go find the deer” and point towards where you think it is. Coax her to find it, or at least look. Once she does find it (even if you had to drag her over to it) reward the crap out of her. Give her lots of love. So much love that if anyone were to see you, you’d be embarrassed! And a treat is in order also.

When you do find the deer, make sure you act wary of the deer, and work the dog up and get her to bark at it like it is a threat. That way you’ll know in the future when she’s found it if you can’t see her.

I assure you, if you do this, just a few times, she will find them from now on. The dog will not grow tired of helping you work and it won’t want to call off the search or talk you into going and getting a beer because of its own agenda. And besides, it is fun to work with your dog, especially when your work pays off. Kind of like another form of hunting.

MC Bowhunter

Keep the tag in your pocket. You will probably need it next time you go hunting.

Darrall

GMMAT

I understand the training part, KP....having trained a MH Retriever (she passed in Dec.). I'm not saying your method won't work. It likely will. I'm just not comfortable waltzing a dog through my hunting area every time I shoot a deer on the chance that she'll become a deer tracker. Maybe setting up a scenario outside my areas is a good idea, though....and I'll try this next time (I have a 24 acre woodlot that I don;t hunt.....but I could place a deer in there and achieve the same thing.....if I drug her in....leaving blood).

It's worth a try.

BobCo19-65

Here is NY, you have to have a license and pass a test in order to use a dog for tracking. Even then, it must be leashed. Nice part is though, once you have everything you need, you can carry a weapon into the woods at night while tracking with the dog.

bawanajim

In this case all your dog would learn is to track your scent to the dead deer.

Just use a little more patients with your shots, keep them in close, broad side and you will not need a dog.

GMMAT

Here's a real-life situation.....

Does everyone agree that a pass-thru, gut-shot deer is a dead deer walking?

If you do this and know it.....do you feel an obligation to report/tag this deer? I fully understand that some states' regs say that it must be recovered.....but this is an ethical conundrum, isn't it? If this were to occur....would you still use the tag you didn't use on this deer?

SevenMag

no recovery, no tag from me...

Killer_Primate

I’m sorry man, but I’ve got to disagree with you on this one. To me, your statement then translates to “I’d rather not recover this one, so that I can shoot another one, that I may also not recover”. My opinion is, your first priority should be the deer that you’ve just shot. You did say once before that it isn’t about the killing. How does this add up? I’m confused.