Whats with all the tracking dogs?

[Gunsmoke]

for me a tracking dog is not part of the equation and used only as the absolute last resort.  They are far from a sure thing.  It's all about remaining cool and waiting for the proper shot selection.  I hate the thought of spending all that time and effort tracking/search for an animal, returning the next day and everything else associated with not hitting either the heart, both lungs or a combo of the two.   

[Lunatic]

1 hour ago, mattg1500 said:

Thats not what I said at all. What I said was its every day multiple times of people needing them. Read some posts. Some say it was low light or far shot but he was big. Since I started hunting Ive used a dog once for tracking. I have also had to mark last blood and return with a friend the next day and I have not recovered 3 deer. Its a shitty feeling but every year if Im taking my bow out Im shooting it a few times a week. I would never just poke and hope and say well the dog will find him. 

I am just busting your balls.
However, it may not be any worse than what it was before internet and dogs. Back then we knew few hunting friends and this was the extend of what you knew about deer hunting in NJ, including misses and unrecovered deer. Now, just on this site you have over 4,000 members and how many more on other media you go to? So now the door opened and maybe nothing has changed, guys miss like they did 10, 20. 30 and 40 years ago and the only difference is you read about the misses now and you did not back then.  If you had 10 hunting friends and between 10 of them you had 2 misses/ year that's 20% of hunters with misses. Lets say out of the 4000 members on this site 2,000 are hunters. 20% of 2,000 is 400 misses in one singe season. 400 wow!! more misses than hunting days and this is just one single internet site. Maybe the only change is the availability of information. 

Edited October 9, 2021 by Lunatic

[Lunatic]

42 minutes ago, Gunsmoke said:

for me a tracking dog is not part of the equation and used only as the absolute last resort.  They are far from a sure thing.  It's all about remaining cool and waiting for the proper shot selection.  I hate the thought of spending all that time and effort tracking/search for an animal, returning the next day and everything else associated with not hitting either the heart, both lungs or a combo of the two.   

Yes yes, of course but there are hunters who miss every now and there and hunter who lie about never missing. 

 

[archer36]

I have called for a tracking dog once. Last year I shot at a buck and shot low. I recovered the arrow and could see it was not a pass thru and blood only on one vane. I tracked a very sparse blood trail for about 150 yds till I got to a dense cedar thicket and completely lost the blood. I felt it was not a kill shot but the deer deserved my best effort. 

When the dog arrived I brought him to the spot where my arrow was. The dog took up the trail. I had to continuously redirect the Handler to get on the blood trail. The dog was not following the trail I already knew existed. After tracking into the cedar thicket I left off, the dog continued for about a half hour with no apparent direction to his movements. I asked the Handler what was up and he said we were "tracking a live deer". So my suspicion was right. 

Can't say that the deer eventually died because the area is heavily driven during the gun season and no one in the Club found a big rack. 

If a tracking dog finds a deer, chances are an experienced human tracker could have found it also. Tracking is something that is taught and learned. Not everyone gets the training. Maybe a dog has an advantage. If a deer is not found by a dog, then chances are he will live on until he gets killed at a later date. 

Just ask any deer Butcher how many deer are found to have buckshot, birdshot, and arrow heads in them. More deer survive than you think. Tracking dogs cannot find live deer. Just my opinion and you can disagree. 

Edited October 9, 2021 by archer36