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Saturday, December 29, 2012

Tracking dogs of Michigan. (Brighton Michigan)

Went out last night to try and bag a big doe, had some come by close to dark ended up hitting a nice big doe too far back knew it so I backed out till this morning. Got out today ended up getting 1" fresh snow so my brother and I grid searched the area I saw it last found nothing. Decided to give Rob a call and give it a shot , didn't know what to expect with snow on top of the scent but after showing his dog the shot location he began on a trail found blood under the snow in 3 places along the way deer went .30 of a mile found it in 17 min. I couldn't believe it , I stopped my search about 50yds. Shy of finding the myself so it paid off for me. Thanks again
Frank Bombe

http://youtu.be/xPn4j9ICE-w



Friday, December 28, 2012

Deer tracking dogs of Michigan. (Ann Arbor)

Not to many times as a tracker you get feed back after you track a deer for your clients. In this case I was informed after tracking this buck back in October that he was seen on a trail camera.
The 1st track
Butch shot this buck with a quartering away shot with a hit entry and he could see his illuminated knock sticking out of the buck side as he ran off. Butch called me that night with several concerns.
1st concern was he was not sure how much penetration the arrow got!!!
2nd the weather was looking like rain.!!!
3rd was can a hound track after it has rained.
So I answered all his questions and we agreed the buck needed time to
expire so we would meet up a day break (still raining out) Sypris quickly locked on and off we went. 100-200-300 yards in to the track I found some blood. From here she started tracking in to a subdivision and I know she is correct because I could see the giant hoof prints. I told butch that he must have single lunged him and you will see him again!! Two weeks later he showed up on his trail camera. Butch was extremely happy.
The 2nd track
Second to the last day of Michigan bow season and the last night Butch could hunt the buck showed up just before dark. Butch could not believe he was going to get a second chance at this giant 9 point. Butch comes to full draw and takes the shot!! The buck blasted away!!! He calls me and says Rob I got him I got him I can't believe I got him!!!!
Butch says I'm going to wait until the morning because I do not want to push him. I asked him to send me a pic in the AM once you find him. 11:00 pm that night Butch calls me back and said I think I might need Sypris. (I'm thinking there is 5-6" of snow on the ground why in the world would you need a dog) He says my arrow has very little blood on it and it looks like bloody dirt. I knew right then he liver/gut shot the buck:(
I showed up at day break and we went to his treestand and we found hair and extremely dark blood. Butch points in the direction the buck went and there was 3 doe heading our way. (I'm thinking great live deer walking over the bucks wounded path) so we started tracking and the three doe ran off(Sypris was so focused the live deer had no affect on her) Sypris indicated on some hair and chunk of meat to confirm she knew which deer to track. Take in mind it is 7 degrees out!!!
She tracked this buck 400-500 yards and I only found two very small blood drops. The buck ran through 4 yards and died in between two houses. Butch told me He would have never looked over there and he would have never found this buck.
The first shot was stopped by a rib bone.
Second shot was 1 lung/liver/gut.





Sunday, December 23, 2012

Late Season Bucks




Merry Christmas to this hunter. He shot the buck yesterday evening with his Xbow, only found a few drops of blood, searched a short distance and backed out. I arrived at 9 am and began tracking, Cash followed where they had searched and than became confused and began searching trails. I brought him back to last blood, and the deer had in fact went a different direction from where they had though. A few drops of blood gave us some hope. We found a wound bed roughly 250 to 300 yards into this track. Cash led me down to a river, and again became confused and began testing trails. After a brief search I realized we had lost the track, and returned to the wound bed. After a short break to calm him down,  Cash quickly found the exit route, another few drops of blood confirmed this, about 50 yards from the wound bed the blood became highly visible and consistent on the cattails. another 300 yards or so and we find the hunters buck. A very respectable 8 point with an interesting bulb on the G2. 700+ yard track 16.5 hours old. took about an hour to work out. Great late season find.
Congratulations to the hunter on his late season whitetail.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Michigan big buck tracking hounds

Mr DaSantis used MDTH earlier this year during bow season. Rage broad head failure prevented his bolt from passing through the buck and we tracked him over 1 mile.. Later the buck was harvested on opening day of gun season. Fast forward to this recovery. He made a 50 yard shot with a muzzle loader and as the smoke cleared the buck was out of site. after inspecting the shot sight he found blood and hair. Waited 1/2 or so and started tracking and the blood trail was not what he was hoping for. Thirty yards up the trail and only seeing a couple drops of blood he decided to get some tracking insurance. DaSantis Sr. called me and we discussed his options and around 8 P.M. I arrived and we took Sypris to the shot sight. I inspected the shot sight like a C.S.I. agent and determined by the hair it was a center body hit and by the blood spatter it was for sure a double lung hit.. I told Mr. DaSantis its dead and its only matter of time before he would be holding on to his bucks rack..  Sypris made quick work of the shot sight and off we went down the deer run and quickly passed the 30 yard mark and 50 yards I found some blood and 65 yards we were at his buck. (No dog was needed) however at night it was tough because "All the blood was inside" and Mr.DaSantis was worried about loosing the meat so he wanted tracking insurance. When in doubt back out and call in the professionals. It was a magical moment because this is his largest buck to date. Q.D.M.A. is applied to this property and let'em go so they can grow is there philosophy. It clearly is paying off. A late season Muzzle loader harvest and a 150" buck to go on his wall and meat in the freezer.







Southern michigan Deer tracking dogs





http://youtu.be/N9exvIJpblo
http://youtu.be/LrLAMbUbSW4
December 15th 2012

For the past few years I've been approaching my morning hunts a bit differently than I had in years past. In the past I would walk out to my stands well before legal shooting time. If you've done this before there's no doubt you've been busted by deer as you've walked in, some that made it quite obvious they were aware of your presence, and others that just slipped away without you knowing you'd been had. These deer are not just going to turn around 20 minutes later and head in the same direction where they smelled and or saw the danger and worse yet, if it was a mature buck that you busted he may never return to that area again.
With that in mind I decided a better strategy would be to walk in silently and stealthy at first light and be able to see what was around me, rather than be busted by deer and educate them to my presence without ever seeing them. Since I've been doing this there have been many mornings with close encounters, and on a few occasions my hunts ended before they even started. This would also be the case on this morning.

It was about 30 degrees with a slight South East wind as the sky just began to lighten, my intentions for the day were to add a doe or two to my freezer. I began my walk to my favorite stand site, paying close attention to every step that I took as I scanned the woods ahead. Off to my right at about 150 yards I caught some movement and immediately identified a doe walking parallel to the trail I was on with no idea I was there. I shouldered my 50 cal. Thompson Center Encore and dialed to scope out to 9x power, watching as one doe turned into several more. These deer were on a trail that would cross 30 yards in front of the stand that I was headed to, only problem was I was still 200 yards away from my tree. Even with my scope zoomed all the way out I was unable to clearly identify a mature doe vs. a button buck, so I decided to close the distance between me and my stand before attempting a shot. As I took a few more steps I caught some more movement to my right, when I looked to see what it was the first thing I saw was a big bodied deer with it's nose to the ground. Looking through my scope I was able to see once he lifted his head that my plans to shoot a doe would be put on hold for the day, I had one more buck tag who I just found a qualified recipient for! Only a few things stood in my way... First was a few hundred yards of woods. Any movement that I made now could cost me the hunt because there were 6 cautious does and a mature buck that I couldn't let see or hear me. The next problem I faced was the fact several of the does were already directly down wind of me and all the other deer were soon to be. They were all walking at a pretty steady pace so I decided to make a move. Carefully choosing each step I put about 50-75 yards behind me which put me at a range I felt more comfortable with. Somehow I had gotten past their eyes, ears, and noses (thank you Scent Lok), the rest was up to me. I tried to stop the buck with mouth grunts in several small openings but wasn't having any luck. I recalled something I read in the past about a sure way to stop a walking deer but this too came with risk. The article said that if you yell "HEY" 9 out of 10 times the deer will stop and look for a short moment before running away spooked. As the buck approached the last opening that I could see (30 yards in front of my stand), I gave it try...... With my weapon shouldered and my scope on the buck I yelled "HEY!" Sure enough he stopped quartering away at about 125 yards (only later would I find out how drastically quartering away he really was), standing up without a rest I put the cross hairs on his shoulder and squeezed. When the smoke cleared all I saw was tails.
I reloaded and walked the rest of the way to my stand which I climbed into to wait a while before I started looking for blood. After an hour I descended and began looking for blood. Initially I didn't find a thing, as I started a grid pattern search in the direction where the tails were headed I kicked up the 6 does but no buck. For the next 2 hours I searched without finding anything, but after seeing the buck wasn't bedded with the does I just couldn't give up looking. I went back to the place where I believed the deer was standing when I took the shot and got down on my hands and knees. Finally after a little more than 2 hours I found a few tufts of mid body hair on the ground but not a single drop of blood. I knew he didn't travel in the direction that I'd already been, so I looked in a less obvious direction. I saw some disturbed ground in the direction opposite the way he was facing when I shot so I looked around over there. After continuing in that direction for about 20 yards I noticed some big running tracks in the mud, as I followed them into the swamp all I had to go on was the areas of freshly broken ice and the smell of rutting buck. After about 20 more yards I finally found a very small amount of blood. Only able to follow fresh mud and broken ice I didn't have much hope that I made a fatal shot. In the next 50 yards I only found 3-4 more small drops of blood before I heard a commotion up ahead, I looked up in time to see the buck stand up and run deeper into the swamp. I went right to the spot where he was bedded and was surprised to find very little blood, what was there was dark red. At this point I decided to back out and call for re enforcements.
My first call was to Rob Miller with Michigan Deer Tracking Hounds . Rob felt the buck was mortally wounded since the buck had bedded within 100 yards of where he was shot and he didn't jump up off his bed until I was about 40 yards from him. He said he would pack up and be to my place within 2 hours. As I anxiously awaited his arrival we had a few good down pours of rain which made me nervous, Rob assured me that it would not be a problem for his dog Sypris. Rob and Sypris arrived about 6 hours post shot and asked me to take them to the spot where I shot the buck. Once there Rob prepared Sypris and she became a dog possessed! Rob and I were wearing knee high mud boots and struggled at points to get through the water and muck but not Sypris, I think she was so focused that she just walked on top of it! She pulled steady all the way to where I jumped the buck off its bed, at this point I was sold and any skepticism I had no longer existed. Up until this point (100 yards past initial contact) we were in some waist high marsh grass with ankle to mid-shin deep water, but what we were headed into was terrain in which I hadn't gone in several years. I use it as a sanctuary for the deer, in part because with the 6-7 foot cat tails, knee deep water in parts, and just down right nasty thickets, it would be impossible to hunt even if I wanted to. This didn't phase ol Sypris either, she just kept on truckin! Rob and I had not found a single drop of blood since the bed as we continued on behind Sypris. 1/4 mile and 20 some minutes into the track I hear Rob say, "dead deer, here he is!" This amazing dog took us right to my buck that was balled up in the middle of the 7 foot cat tails! There is no question that this buck would NOT have been recovered without the help of Sypris the wonder dog and her extremely professional handler Rob!
My shot had entered in the left hip and exited mid body on the opposite side, 1 lung, liver, and almost everything behind that. Not my proudest moment but the beast was dead and I had done my ethical duty as a sportsman to pursue this animal despite what I thought would be a grim outcome. Though I'm proud of myself for harvesting this big ol 9 point swamp donkey, my experience working with Rob and Sypris was a first and it will be something I don't soon forget!!

I've attached a picture of the largest spot of blood we found.

Best Regards,
Ben Oliverio
Michigan Food Plot Services
http://www.michiganfoodplotservices.com










Deer Tracking Dogs In Michigan

I apologize about the photo quality I forgot my good Camera

When everything is done right tracking dogs show amazing results.  The hunter shot this deer with a muzzle loader, And was unable to get a good view of where he hit because of the smoke.  After waiting a short time he went to inspect the shot sight and found nothing.  He felt he hit the deer he was just unsure of where.  So he decided that he owed it to the animal to give every effort to recover it.  It was not a trophy animal, it was simply an animal that he had taken a shot at and believed the right thing to do was to call in a tracking dog  to either find it or to give him some peace of mind that it would live.  I arrived quickly as it was a local track for me, we started in the approximate area that he had taken the shot, I pointed Cash in the direction that the deer had exited the clearing.  With no blood, no hair no sign at all that he had made a hit on this deer it was really a crap shoot.  As soon as we started though Cash was sure!!!  He followed exactly where the hunter had said the deer had ran,  still no blood.  We tracked about 100 yards with zero sign,  than I finally caught sight of a few drops of blood.  and IT WAS ON!!  The hunter and his friend quickly caught up to mark the blood as I continued.  another 20 yards or so and I saw a few more drops.  After that it was about 50 yards until I spotted more. The blood sign was sparse to say the least, but led to a successful recovery after 350 yards.   Relief and excitement came from the face of the hunter, and he was happy to have meat in the freezer.  Congratulations to the hunter on his 2012 harvest and I tip my hat to you for putting in every effort to recover your animal

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Michigan scent hounds(Team Whitetail Fix)

                                                  http://www.whitetailfix.com/

The morning of November 3rd we were in stand when a 6.5 year old buck who we named TJ HOOKER came in chasing a doe. It took me four attempts to stop the deer before my chance to shoot. However, at the moment of truth, he bolted as I released my arrow...the consequence was obvious, I clearly shot him in the intestines. Immediately I knew the deer needed 24 hours. Ernie, my filming partner, and I, had a plan. After waiting 3 hours we got down and backed out, but not before seeing the buck run passed us being chased from the neighbor's dogs. It was then we knew we needed the help of a true professional.
Without hesitation we placed a call to good friend, and master deer tracker, Rob Miller with Michigan Deer Tracking Hounds. 27 hours after the shot, and with little blood, there seemed to be little hope. However, when Rob, and his dog, Sypris, arrived and got on the scent trail, our confidence was renewed.
It was truly an amazing experience to witness the recovery of a buck after a 27 hour cold trial and a 1.5 mile track. This deer would have never been recovered without the help, and expertise, of Rob and his dogs.

I will never forget the excitement from Rob after recovering the deer. He was genuinely happy for us. This is a guy who loves the sport of hunting, yet sacrifices nearly his entire season to help others recover their otherwise would-be-lost trophies.
Satisfied Hunter,
Jose' Del Otero















Michigan deer Track'n hounds (Linden Mi.)

My client center punched this buck with a ML. He ran 1/2 mile before bedding. They tracked him the night of to find him still alive near the Shiawasee River. They backed out and came back in the morning. No buck in its bed and no more blood to follow. The searched over 1000 yards down and up stream. No luck. They called me to track and told me the woods was flooded and the buck may have crossed the 4" deep river and its 20 yards wide. Sypris tracked the buck 15 yards downstream and indicated the buck crossed. So we crossed. She searched for 20 min trying to connect the scent trail. No luck. So I brought her back to the other side and she worked the area and again she indicated the buck crossed. Right where she wanted to cross was a log jam spanning the entire width of the river. My client told me prior to my arrival they searched the log jam. It's now 30 hours after my client shot his deer and its 10pm at night. So I took my 300 lumen flashlight and I could see the buck lodged under the log jam under water. Sypris knew the buck was in the river or at least tried crossing the river. We were very lucky to recovery this buck under these conditions. If it was not for my tracking hound insisting on trying to cross at this particular spot we would have never found him.