10/18/2026
This a relative Hofty?
We got on a couple tracks this morning. First one Freya took about 200 yards where she just couldn’t pick this track up telling us this wasn’t a fatal hit. I believe this deer will be seen again soon enough. No pass through I’m assuming shoulder or high shoulder. Second one Freya took over 600 yards to a bloody bed before a briar thicket where about another 75 yards in I heard a deer kick up 20 yards in front of us. I was pretty confident this was our buck. But it was too thick I couldn’t confirm so we went another 100 and we got eyes on him 50 yards in front of us bedded where he kicked up again. We tracked it down to the bed and confirmed blood in bed. He wasn’t too hurt at all. This blood trail the first 300 yards was quite absurd and straight foam you see with lung. Shot was from the ground I believe he just clipped the tops of the lungs and it wasn’t enough to do the job. When we jumped him it was already 18+ hours and close to 800 yards from shot site and this deer had a full tank left. Great dog work by Freya on this one to give us the answers we were looking for. Track 3 was a gut shot covered arrow who cancelled on me because they brought a buddies house dog on it and stumbled onto it before I could get there.
So my annual PSA here.
This happens way more times than it should every year and things are going to start getting very busy. And there’s been a huge rise in new drone guys trying to get into this business so I except a lot more of it. Where some buddy can get there before I can when I’m booked all day everyday. Think about what you want quickness or quality. If you schedule me to come out and track your deer and we confirm on both ends respect my time and hold to it. Don’t go walking around for hours the next morning before I get there hoping to stumble on it. Don’t put a buddies dog that’s tracked 10 deer in its life on it. You may get lucky and find one here or there that goes 200 yards. I can promise your buddies dog isn’t going to find the one that gets bumped by another buck or coyotes and goes a mile plus. Or the one that knows he’s being tracked and backtracks on its blood trail. Or doesn’t bleed a drop for 800+ yards. And when they don’t and you just trashed that track with another dog or your boot prints you just screwed yourself and you still want me to come save the day. I can promise you when I’m getting 20,30,40,50 calls a day during rut and you do this to me and your number pops up on my phone that you are not on the top of that list for me to schedule. I do this for a living if your animal is dead I will find it 99% of the time. Not the 20% your buddies house dog or friend who just bought a drone a few months ago is going to give you. And when I schedule a set amount usually around that 7 tracks a day I turn everyone else away. So backing out on me while I’m driving to you just screwed me out of money and another hunter out of getting a quality dog/drone team and either giving them closure or finding their animal. I do this 365 days a year. You might be able to count on one hand how many days a year of 365 I’m not tracking behind a dog or on my drone.
Pic of after we jumped the buck on track 2 today at about 800 yards. It looks like it will be a very busy weekend of tracks yet hopefully we get on some dead ones!
